2018 in Review
I want my second act to be about the creative process: more art, less commerce. Not that my “art” has ever generated much in the way of “commerce.” What I mean is, I want to spend my time creating vs. selling. The underlying assumption is that progress is what matters: I may be about to come up with something great, so I’d better get to work. Or, as Jack Hardy used to say, “you’re only as good as your next song.” That said, music is about connecting with listeners, and you have to put yourself out there. To that end, I’m active-ish on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus, YouTube, and SoundCloud. I update my website, communicate with my mailing list, solicit journalists, chase down gig opportunities, enter songwriting contests, attend conferences, and much more. Necessarily – in order to throw my hat into the various rings – my creative output takes many forms, all of which theoretically serve the songs: audio recordings but also live performances, videos, essays, newsletters, etc. Below is a survey of my 2018 activity along these lines, with emphasis on the highlights.
4 Essays
I only wrote four mini-essays in 2018, which represents -64% vs. 2017. I guess I didn’t have as much to say, or found different ways to express myself. Be that as it may, my most popular post – which just passed 200 page views, which is a solid achievement for me – surveys my music career from inception in the mid-late 90s through 2003, which I switched gears dramatically by going to business school and then spending ten years in “real jobs.”
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3 Singles
One of my projects starting at the end of 2017 has been recording and releasing “oddball” songs like Dystopian Hellscape (For Donald J. Trump), Canadian Border Fence, and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. I wrote the Magic song a long time ago, but could never figure out what to do with it beyond performing it occasionally. Finally, I recorded it at Rick King’s house in the East Bay and launched it along with an interview on a Los Angeles Lakers blog called Silver Screen and Roll.
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1 Podcast
Recording sessions start at around noon, but I get up at, like 6am. What does someone like me – who doesn’t lead a rock ‘n roll lifestyle – do with his free time? In August and again in October, when I was in L.A. working on my new album, I passed a few of those morning hours with the songwriter Peter Himmelman. In October, he proposed recording an episode of his Big Muse podcast, which sounded like a great idea to me.
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15 Gigs
This year, I only played in the San Francisco Bay Area. I probably need to get out more! Although, it should be noted, I had some pretty great local opportunities. For example, I opened for Stephen Kellogg in KC Turner’s summer cookout series at the HopMonk Novato, which is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. I played with Peter Case at my old haunt, the Hotel Utah. And, I played the Fillmore Poster Room twice, including a glorious night when The Zombies headlined. In May, I played the Fillmore main stage for the first time since 2003, opening for The Weepies; I also opened for them the next night in Sacramento. It’s a huge privilege to perform in venues like the legendary Fillmore and the sparkling new Sofia Center; it’s especially fun to do so in partnership with old friends like Steve Tannen and Deb Talan. And, of course, with Rick King on guitar!
1 New Album
Last but not least, I conceived, planned, recorded, mixed, and mastered a new album with bass player Jonny Flaugher producing. I met Jonny when he played on Lost Soul; it turned out that we had a bunch of friends in common, including The Weepies and Dan Bern. In fact, it was at the Weepies gigs in May – he played bass with them, and also sat in on a couple of songs with me – that we hatched the idea of working together. By mid-August, we were in the studio making a six-song EP that expanded into an eleven-song LP with horns and strings in addition to the guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards that you might expect. Stand by for much, more more on the new album in early 2019!
