50,000 Original Miles

Happy Friday to all of my listeners, fans, and random stumblers upon this site. Welcome to what I do. 

Today's tracks that I would like to share with you are both good end-of-the-week songs. 

The first comes from my latest album, Petrichor. It is called The Regular. It's a bar song. I conceptualized it as blaring out of a jukebox in a crowded pub, so feel free to turn it up.

The second comes from Embers, which is the album that I released in January. It's called Original Miles, and it's about how people are kind of like used cars. 

As of today, it just crossed the threshold of 50,000 streams on Spotify. That amazes me. 

Thank you to everyone who listens to and shares my music. I couldn't do this without you.

Barefoot Setlist

Before the pandemic, I typically performed about once a month, give or take, except when it was below 20°F. That is my unofficial cut-off temperature for riding my bike. Outside of that, unless it's pouring out or I'm getting groceries or something, I try not to drive anywhere that is less than three miles away. 

I am a man of principle, and these are some of the principles to which I abide. I also have not eaten at a McDonalds in over twenty years (excluding one in Ukraine about ten years ago, which was not by choice), nor have I ever owned a smart phone.

Incidentally, when we went to Ukraine, I was on the steps of Odessa with both a stroller and a video camera, and I did not recreate the famous scene from the Eisenstein movie that everybody has to watch in film school. This ranks among my only regrets in life.

Regarding performances, when I did play out, it was usually on a Wednesday, as that was when a local pub hosted an open mic night. On such occasions, I usually did a half hour set, which works out to roughly seven songs.

Minus the audience (and shoes), these are the songs that I practiced in my sunroom this evening. I played the first four on my semi-hollowbody guitar through a battery-powered amp that clips onto my belt, and then I played the other three on piano.  

    Dandelion Wine (If Only...)

    Welcome Back, Jack Kerouac

    The Regular

    Rat Race

    Haunted

    Original Miles

    Still Life (This one links to an unplugged version of it that I recorded a few years ago.)

Put these songs on a playlist on your streaming service of choice, and it will almost be like you were right there in my sunroom with me. You know, except for the part where I dropped my pick or the other part where I had to tune my guitar. Oh, and the recorded songs all have other instruments.

Other than that, it's pretty much the exact same thing. 

I might play an encore in a little bit on acoustic guitar. It's raining and the air is rich with the smell of petrichor (which happens to be the name of my latest album).

I hope to get back to playing actual live shows at some point, too. I kind of miss the sweet validation of applause. As a writer, a scholar, a parent, and a teacher, instant gratification can be rather hard to come by, which also no doubt factors into why I like to cook. 

Thank you for listening to my music and checking out my blog. If you like what I'm doing, please share it. 

Music is love. Love is music.

Happy Indie-pendence Day

I know. There's only one "I" in independence, which makes sense.

But what better way to celebrate our nation's independence than with some truly independent music that was created with zero corporate influence?  (For your added enjoyment and elucidation, the embedded links in this paragraph all go to articles that I wrote about four years ago.)

This is about as indie as you can get. No joke. (This one links to a video of me in my second ever attempt at stand-up comedy. It's not terrible.) 

Here are two songs from prior albums, both of which are meant to be played loudly. 

The first is called Be Civilized, from my 2019 album Better Days. This song is a friendly reminder that we're all in this together (so don't be a jerk). 

The other is called Modern Inconveniences, from my 2017 album Good Night, Fahrenheit. It is my only song to feature an allusion to the seminal work of a twentieth century French philosopher. You get five bonus points if you can spot it, which unfortunately does nothing to pay off your student loans. (Sorry. It's a shitty system.)

(I am acutely aware that this blog post has more parentheses than a compilation album of hair rock ballads from the 1980s.)

Thank you for celebrating independent rock.

Album Covers

In case you've ever wondered what the cover images are on each of my albums, here you go, coming to you directly from an inside source:

Petrichor (2021) - the inside of Jamie's pocket. This was an accidental photo that I digitally manipulated in an attempt to make it look like an abstract oil painting. Personally, I rather like it, plus it seemed to fit the vibe of the album. That's more or less my criteria when designing cover art. 

Embers (2021) - the image was taken by NASA, as I do not own a high-powered orbital telescope. I cropped it and adjusted the colors, thereby offering my artistic interpretation of the image. It's a nebula, which is kind of like embers in space. It denotes both a tumultuous ending and a beautiful beginning. 

You may have noticed that this is my only album that does not have my name or the title on the cover. This is because I am not so full of myself as to project these words upon a starlit sky. Not once have I ever looked up at the vast depths of space and said, "You know what this needs? My name in letters that extend for light years."

Better Days (2019) - the back of my son's head at the Chicago Art Institute. Jamie took this photo (on purpose). For a while, we both took credit, but I eventually conceded, as I think it just looked like a picture that I wished I had taken, and we shared a camera at the time. 

I've always thought that it looked like an album cover, even well before I was producing my own music. I love the composition and color balance. It's like if U2's Boy was made by the Beastie Boys.

Good Night, Fahrenheit (2017) - a sunrise in Micronesia, as seen from the top of a very steep hill. I know, based on the album title, you probably expected it to be a sunset. You can still pretend. That's what I do. 

Mechanical Bull (2017) - a ferris wheel at a fully operational amusement park in the Republic of Moldova. I did not ride it, but I found it to be aesthetically interesting, like stepping back in time to whenever this thing was most recently inspected by the proper authorities. I'm guessing 1982-ish.

Weather Patterns (2017) - the view from the ground looking up, witnessing a garden hose spray water over me and beneath a couple of trees. Now that I say that, it's probably obvious, but I'd be curious how many people would have guessed it.

...............................................................................

Part of the fun in being 100% responsible for an album is getting to design the cover art. Of course, I also play every instrument and wrote every track, each of which I also recorded and produced myself in the open room of our house that doubles as an office space and triples as a media room. As far as I'm concerned, that's about as indie and underground as a musician can get. Frankly, it's kind of amazing that you've even heard of me. Good for you. You probably didn't even know that you were that hip.

Please keep in mind that as a one-man-band, I am also a one-man publicity and marketing team (who rarely uses social media, choosing instead to communicate with listeners by way of this blog). I very much need your help in reaching a broader audience. To that end, please share my songs with anyone you know who is roughly as cool as you are and ask them to do the same. This is how it spreads, and I cannot do it without you.

Six Albums

Over the past four years, I have released six full-length (self-produced) studio albums. This puts me in the same company with The Doors, Dire Straits, and Credence Clearwater Revival, to name a few, as these bands have also released six studio albums. One more and I'll catch up with the Pixies and Oasis.

Now if I can just get more people to listen...

You can hear my latest album, Petrichor (2021), wherever you get your music. You can also stream it through the embedded link below:

If you like what I'm doing, please share it and add my songs to your playlists wherever you get your music. Thank you for supporting independent art.