Songs From Sand Lake Named Album of the Year!

My recently released album, "Songs From Sand Lake" has been named Florida CD/Album of the year by the Florida Times Union. Information from my amazing studio is here!

Concert Video - (1,000 Doors)

Video of the song "1,000 Doors" from my August 20th CD launch concert in Jacksonville, FL...Be patient with my chattiness, the song's pretty good!

Songs From Sand Lake -- Shameless Self-Promotion

Preview and purchase my new recording below... CD launch concert this coming Saturday evening (August 20th), European Street Listening Room (Beach Blvd. Location) - Jacksonville, Florida 8:00 p.m.

The Arrival and Concert #1

Well finally!

After two years of fitful starts and incubation, my first solo recording in 15 years has arrived. The kind man in the big brown truck stopped by Thursday evening, and after being terrorized by my Labrador Retriever, Jake (all bark and no bite), dropped two boxes of CDs on the porch. There really is something magical about cracking open that first box of discs -- reminds me of the scene in the original Back To The Future movie when George McFly opens that first box of books that he wrote. That's it! I'm the George McFly of contemporary folk music... okay, maybe not. But they're here, they're done and they sound great!

Within the next couple of weeks the album will be available for download on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and most anywhere else you can purchase music on-line. Physical CDs will be available on the web through CDBaby-dot-com.

So right on the heels of getting the album, I did my first solo performance last night at Olivia's Coffee House in Eustis, Florida -- a bit west of Orlando. I was joined on stage by three of my Ashley Gang bandmates (Bob, Michelle and Kay), which was a very comforting situation. We had a decent crown for a hot August central Florida night, and most stuck it out for the full three hours. I have to confess to a pretty heavy dose of nerves, which is actually pretty unusual for me. I think that it only really affect me on one tune... one not on any album that I played without any backup, and that is politically controversial. Otherwise we did a nice mix of my original music spanning the last 15 years, two solo albums, and two with the Ashley Gang. On the whole, it was great fun -- Fred and Olivia are the consummate hosts, as are Margie and Joel who put us up for the night and tolerated Bob's snoring...

The next concert is the August 20th "official" CD release concert at the European Street Listening Room in Jacksonville, Florida. Many special guests that night, not to mention excellent food and drink. If you are in the vicinity, drop by and say hey, and pick of a copy of "Songs From Sand Lake". Remember that this is music with a mission -- a decent portion of all sales proceeds for this CD will be donated to the St. Johns Riverkeeper, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Florida's historic Saint Johns River, and a cause near and dear to my heart. We actually made some money for SJRK last night...

Stay tuned, support live music wherever you live, and stand by....

Soon....

Creation and Transition

No, actually -- this is not about religion :)... It's about the current status of the new album, and a title change.

This has been an amazingly busy and creative month, and we are coming down to the final few weeks of production on the new album. Over the two weeks ending this Wednesday, we will have had some pretty talented folks in the studio putting down supporting tracks... Bob Bronar (Ashley Gang), doing lead guitar and mandolin tracks on several songs, Al Scortino (Ashley Gang) playing Dobro and Hawaiian Steel on a couple, Tuck Tucker on Dobro for a last minute track, and Joey Kerr (Band of Brothers) dropping in an great electric guitar track. Add these to the bass playing of Lon Williamson (Driftwoods, Gatorbone Trio) on all tracks, Lis Williamson (Driftwoods, Gatorbobe Trio) on harmony vocals, Gabe Valla (Driftwoods, Gatorbone Trio) on guitar, mandolin and mando-cello, and Jason Thomas (Claire Lynch Band) on fiddle and we are about to give birth to a pretty amazing product. That's the creation part... now about the transition...

While the song "1,000 Doors" is a key to the philosophy of yours truly, and an important thread in the recording, I've decided to rename the project to "Songs From Sand Lake". During 20 months of recording in the little studio in the remote and inspiring sand hills  of Florida, it is clear to me that the place is really the engine that drove the process. There on the banks of the ever shrinking lakes in the recharge zone for the Floridan Aquifer is where we found what I was looking for -- meaning in the music. I had no real idea of where this was headed when I first went down to Keystone in August of 2009, but over time -- with old songs fading away and new ones rising from the sand -- the project took on shape, substance and purpose. This is not a Florida songs album -- but the Florida sands is where it took root, and flourished. Hence the name change. The photos with post were shot there. That dock used  to reach hundreds of feet into the lake.... but more on that in a later post.

So it looks like we're pretty much on schedule for an early August release date... you can check in with me at Reverbnation or FaceBook (see the two banner links at the top right and click away). In the meanwhile, pray for rain. And common sense. Rain and Common Sense -- hmmmm. Maybe the next album.

1,000 Doors Project - Update

A quick note about the 1,000 Doors CD that I have been working on for, um.... 18 months now...

Had a great day in the studio on Monday and have some amazing musicians coming in to help add the finishing touches over the next month or so. Release date is August 1. This project is finally coming together -- music with a purpose. The details will be announced later, but a significant portion of the proceeds from this album and associated concerts will be donated to an important non-profit organization.

So among other on-going activities, this is a significant reason that I have not been able to post much lately.  To atone for my absence, I have posted a couple of previews of songs from the new album (and an old, already released song) here: MUSIC  They are unfinished, rough mixes, but you'll get the idea.

Please feel free to sign up for my email list while you're on the site, or click the link to the right of this post...

Thanks for your support -- more to come....