Dead Little Towns

• Track Listing

This is my 5th CD, the first as a solo performer and songwriter. I didn't set out to make this CD for any other reason than to leave something to my grandkids I hope to have one day. It is a departure from the blues/blues rock format in which I have written and performed for the past 25 years. This CD is a songwriter's CD, with sparse arrangements featuring acoustic guitar, bass, hand percussion, minimal electric fill and slide guitar, mandolin and hand percussion, as well as a soprano saxophone on one track. It is Americana/singer-songwriter/neo folk/alt country with some acoustic blues thrown in for good measure. It is an intensely personal recording; some of the songs I had started writing when I was 21 years old, and some are just a few months old, with everything in between. I worked hard on these songs, rewriting them several times until they said just what I wanted to say the way I wanted to say it. Some of the lyrics I edited right up through the mixing process. Lyrics are everything in a song to me, the reason for it to exist, and everything else is recorded to support the story. I pray that this comes through here. After having completed it, I realize it is also a very western album, perhasps even rural, with locations in Wyoming, Nevada, Texas, Washington and themes of isolation, empty spaces, alienation, wandering, irony, and some humor. There are what I call 'boo hoo' songs and there are nonsense songs. It reflects where and how I grew up, and it is my life, pretty much. Some of the names, locales and descriptions have been changed to protect the guilty. I hope you like it.