My Album.

I just got back from taking Tristan down to SIU Edwardsville. It was a nice little trip. The little boys came with us and they were sad to see there brother go. Of course, he was gone most of last semester too, but for some reason this must have seemed more permanent to them. It’s tough when an older brother goes away.

I spent most of yesterday working on my album project. In fact, I’ve spent most of the last couple weeks working on it. I think I’m done demoing songs for it. I have quite a back catalog of tunes. But if I keep demoing them I’ll never get started on the album.

Having an office space makes all the difference. I just cannot do that kind of work at home. I can do some editing at home. But laying down tracks, even the very rough version that I do at the office requires uninterrupted work time and an environment conducive to work. Anyone with kids knows you can’t get 6 or 7 hours of uninterrupted time at a house without a dedicated office and you can’t leave music equipment setup for extended periods in the living room or kitchen.

Anyway these tunes are from various periods of my life, but most of my good ones date from the Dr. Wu period. I had a very strong idea of what a song should be and do during that period - and it is all summed up in James Brown, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Of course, I was also a big prog-rock fan in high school, so there are these operatic/orchestral things too. And I love psychedelic music (one of my favorite records is 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus by Spirit…oh, you knew that).

I don’t want to talk too much about what’s happening on it, other than to let you know its coming. You only get one chance to make a first impression, as they say. So only close musical friends will be in on the development stages. (OK, I let Kaitlyn’s friends listen to it. But I needed the opinions of someone under 17).

No official title yet. I’ll select the tunes from the 16 tunes I’ve demoed. Don’t know the final total number of songs yet.

Watch for it. In 3 - 6 months (I hope).