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....