I play other people's music for a living. Years and years of playing cover songs has given me a pretty good sense of melody. All of the songs you love and ask me to perform, like "Sweet Home Alabama", "Sweet Child of Mine"', "Don't Stop Believing" all have one thing in common.....A chorus you can sing along with! I wanted to make an original CD full of THAT type of music. Three years of writing, recording, throwing away, re-recording, and producing has resulted in songs I am super proud to call my own. I play all of the instruments on this CD with the exception of the guitar solos.....because I know "Tall" Tom Denk! Thanks buddy! Every track on my new CD was directly influenced by an artist or genre that influenced me as a musician and I hope you find at least one song that identifies with you. So here goes....

Track #1 "With You"

I Love the 80's! Guitar and synth driven pop music like Duran Duran, The Cure, and Flock of Seagulls had a good run in the late 80's. This song has a melody that you can sing to and harmony for days. The lyrics ask "Are we alone in the universe?" Totally Tubular!

Track #2 "Sleep Her Off Her Feet" 

I love a song with a story. This song is "Stacy's Mom" meets Green Day meets Bowling for Soup. The clever lyrics will make you smile and the hook will have you singing along. The "Whoa-oah" Chorus was recorded layering the voices of my musician friends -  Cal Toth, Shaun Degraff, Bonnie Mason, Kevin Krohn, and Colleen Flanagan. Thanks Guys!

Track #3 "How Do I Tell You" 

The 80's hair metal Ballad!! If Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, and REO Spedwagon had a baby.....it would be this song! I actually wrote the first version of this song in my 20's. I dug it up from my old lyrics folder and rewrote the chorus. This one should make you want to hold hands with your crush on the skating rink or do some fooling around in the back seat. 

Track #4 "We're in Love"

I wrote a straight-up "Feel good" pop song. When Hollywood makes another Shrek movie, I'm submitting this one for the soundtrack. I might be most proud of this song because it is completely out of my comfort zone. It took over three years to hone, produce and mix this song to sound like the sugary love pop song it has become. Colleen Flanagan lends her beautiful voice to this one and is the perfect sweet harmony to mine. This song is my "Hit" and my cross to bear. 

Track #5 "Just Like Layne"

One of my favorite albums of all-time is Alice in Chains' "Dirt". Lead singer Layne Staley's haunting vocals over dark trippy guitar riffs was groundbreaking. Sadly, Layne passed away in 2002 from a drug overdose. The idea of this song was to sound like it could be on a new Alice in Chains album. I wrote and rewrote the chorus about a dozen times before settling on a "Hooky" chorus that deviates from the Alice in Chains sound but makes the song uniquely my own. \m/ \m/

Track #6 "Lonely Guy"

90's era Aerosmith! The songs "Cryin'", "Crazy", and "Amazing" are all mid-tempo songs with mad harmonies and fantastic melodies. I wanted to write something like that...here it is! A little Paul McCartney influence never hurts either. :) This is essentially a song of hope. The world is filled with lonely people. Why can't they just find each other? 

Track #7 "Summer's Sunshine"

I was invited to go sailing on a friend's yacht. I didn't know the owner but soon got to know him as Stephen Clifford. Stephen told me he was a poet with no musical ability and would love for his words to be put to music. He gave me lyrics he had written about his granddaughter named Summer. They were simply amazing. I turned his lyrics into a piece of music that I liked so much I am including it on this album. Influenced by Elton John and James Taylor....this is the story of Stephen and his granddaughter Summer. 

 

 

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