You might have noticed....

If you're one of the 7 or 8 people on the planet who have been following my music career, you may have noticed some drastic changes...but let me assure you, they are neither drastic nor much of a change.

Most of you are probably more accustomed to me writing and playing stuff like this:



Yep...that's me too. Loud, noisy rock and/or roll. I love that stuff! But...I like to think that there's more to me and my music than just that.

You might have noticed that I've been posting new song demos online as of late...stuff like this:




Yep...that's me too. In fact, it's probably closer to who I've always been. I'd just sort of gotten away from that part of me for a bunch of years.

I've always loved playing old blues and country kinda stuff. My auntie used to call it my "hog calling music". I always got a kick out of that. But as I look back at life, this is really more like how my songs usually start out. In the past 25 years or so, I'll write a song and then try to rock it up with the band. Even songs that I wrote back when I was still in The Rowdy Bovines usually started out like this. I dunno...maybe I didn't want to be seen as a "folky".

An old buddy of mine from college, Jeff Finn (bassist for the bands Mannequin Odd & Dink) used to brag up my acoustic stylings to people. For some reason or other, he thought it was special. It was just what I did, so I never thought much of it. I probably should've paid attention. We'd be at a party and guitars would be passed around, and among our friends, the music leaned more towards punk, hard rock, etc. I never figured anyone wanted to hear some dorky white kid, who was better known for playing bass in rockabilly bands, bang away at some old 1930s sounding music. Jeff would always push for it though...and usually just to shut him up, I'd play a little something, then go find the booze.

Playing bass was easy. Rockabilly, even easier. But to show off original music that sounded dated to me...well, that took more guts than I had at the time.

Luckily, I'm now at the "I don't really give a shit" age. This means not only can I comfortably go to the store wearing socks and sandals (or even my slippers...much to the young'un's chagrin) I can, will, and do often write exactly what I want...and leave it alone. I no longer feel the urge to "rock it up".

So, does this mean that I've left rock and roll behind me? No. I'll always play some rock and roll. I believe it was George Harrison who said, "It's good to boogie now and then". I've always seen myself as more of a blues player though...so maybe I'm just finally mixing it all up the way I hear it. Regardless, I'll always keep on writing. I do that purely for me. That anyone else has ever listened and paid attention is just the cherry on the sundae.

OK, I'll stop yammering on...and get back to playing music. I've been on a writing jag lately...and I'll keep writing the music as it works it's way through me.

Until my next song post....here's a couple more of the new ones. I hope you like them. If you do, just keep an eye on my Facebooger page...I usually post them there. If you don't like them...oh well!