Side Note

This is a side note to my new album as a solo project. Andy and I have been playing together as a duo for about 8 years or so (somewhere along that line) and this is our first full length as the duo so please check it out! Thanks for your support!

New Home with Band

Here is a pretty rough version with the live band..it sounds great though even this rough probably the 4th time we played through it. It may be a little fast but I don't know, I think it's still trying to find it's groove, maybe it's not up to me. How do ya like it? I welcome your comments!

Watch Your Money

Everyone's got money problems right? Well, sometimes when you feel like you are doing well something comes up and then you got money problems again..that's kinda what happened to me recently, though luckily I had some saved so I'm good. Anyway, I wanted to do a call and response type of chorus with back up singers where the main vocal kind of improvises over their refrain so in this case it's "Watch your money". Each verse will have kind of a different story that all comes back to that common phrase. These verses will be specific times where I should have been more careful. Going for an old school feel for this clearly, I'm liking it so far. Any suggestions?

New Cover

Here is me acting like a fool and if you will see thats me playing an F chord but not an F chord like I used to play. This is due to my lessons I do every Monday with Kraig Phillips. He is a great teacher and has really helped me along with my guitar skills. Playing F this way allows me to not jump so much around the guitar while learning this new cover song "Mama Hold My Hand" by Aloe Blacc. I stumbled across a youtube video of him playing with a string quintet, it's pretty bad ass. Check out the other tunes to..oh and his bad ass (crushed velvet?) suit!

Also if you want to learn the tune yourself, these chords seem to be accurate. I am learning it on guitar but the original is on piano, great melody great chords, simple yet just awesome. (when I pasted it in from Google Docs it did this weird highlight thing and now I can't get rid of it so excuse that)

Mama Hold My Hand
Aloe Blacc

MamaF   Am   Bb   Bb Am Gm (3x)
                   cross this road...
F                 Am
When I was just a little boyBb                          Bb Am Gm
Well I would go out to play
And I would wander so far from home
That I would lose my way
And I'd call on my momma to help me
and she'd come right away
To help me get back home where I wanna be
And here's what I say

CHORUS 1F             C
Momma hold my hand
Bb                  Bb    Am   Gm        F
I don't think I can cross this road by myself
Momma hold my hand
I don't think I can cross this road by myself
F                Am
And when I was a young manBb              Bb    Am   Gm
I would go astray
Didn't want nobody to hold my hand
Wanted to make my own wayDm                 Am       
And my momma would come out to help meDm                 Am
But I pushed her awayDm                     Am
Cause I just wanted to be on my ownBb                Bb    C
And here's what I say

CHORUS 2F              C
Momma leave my hand
Bb                   Bb    Am   Gm        F
I've been waiting to cross this road by myselfAm         Bb          Bb     Am    Gm
Cross this road by myself
F                   Am
Well now that I'm a grown man
   Bb           Bb    Am    Gm
And I've moved away
I got a house a 9  to 5
And my wife we got a kid on the way
Momma told me that life's gonna get rough
Take it day by day
But every once in awhile I get scared
And I wish I could say

CHORUS 3F             C
Momma hold my hand
Bb                  Bb    Am   Gm        F
I don't think I can cross this road by myself
Momma hold my hand
I don't think I can cross this road by myself
F               Am                     Bb
Now my momma is near the end of her years
                 Bb   Am   Gm

And her hair is grey
Sometimes I call her
To ask her if she would like to spend the dayDm               Am
Momma used to be strong but she aint nowDm                      Am
And she can't make her wayDm                           Am
That's why I'm always around when she needs helpBb                 Bb   C
And here's what I say

CHORUS 4F             C
Momma hold my hand
Bb                    Bb    Am   Gm          F
I don't think you can cross this road by yourself
Momma hold my hand
I don't think you can cross this road by yourself
F Am Bb Bb Am Gm F (2x)

First Practice Sesssion with Band

So I finally got some REAL people to get together to work on these songs I have been slaving over forever. This song is one I really wanted to go over because I really thought the feel was there from my demos and I wanted to see what flavor they brought, especially since I had not recorded a bass part. Chad Flanagan is playing drums, I met him at the church I play like every other Sunday, really nice guy and he's got a solid pocket. Really excited to get these tracks going! What do you think with the live band?

This Illusion

Just a short snippet of a chorus I am working on for this new song. The song was inspired when taking a walk in Gahanna where I am currently living. I was actually at a mall today and seeing all these crazy stores like Louis Vitton coming into the mall is just insane to me. I feel like it's this illusion of wealth that people feel they have to keep up and it's so false. Who can afford a Louis Vitton purse? Why would anyone spend that much money on a purse in the first person but what soccer mom can afford that from the suburbs? I also feel like these corporations flaunt this wealth and dangle the prize so everyone wants a piece of it. Ohh look how fancy you can be, look how important you are with that necklace..etc. I've been thinking a lot about the suburbs as I am living here now and how interesting and different the culture is. I hate to hate on the suburbs as I am from here. I just want something different with my life. I don't mind the quiet and the feeling of safety but it's just so vanilla. Annnyway..I digress.

This is the motown/pop feel and there will be at least one other version that has a more modern feel to it. I've been listening to a lot of Mayer Hawthorne so this song is definitely in the same vein. I love his stuff and I have been working on getting more 3 and 4 part vocal harmony stuff going like this one I think it turned out nice. I will expand on this idea. Any suggestions?

Three More Songs

This is a song I've been working on a while and I think the arrangement is there at least as far as order is concerned and such. I plan to record a lot of these songs incorporating background singers (hopefully not just me overdubbing) so you'll hear those in here.


Here is an old song actually I wrote this a long time ago and I still play it live but it's needed something for a while. I am working on a bridge and an outro that flips the heavily minor chorded song to major for a bit. It is mainly made up vocals so far but it will be an uplifting type bridge probably as the song leans toward the dark side in many ways. One time a man came up to me with his story about vietnam or that he was trying to get bus fair for his brother that was in the hospital or something..I can't remember. Anyway, he asked for change and I pulled out what I thought was a dollar and ended up being a 5, I couldn't put it back so I gave it to him. He then offered me the jacket off of his back to pay me back. I tend to write about topics that I am intrigued by and the issue of homelessness is one of them. Are they hustling you? Are they really trying to find bus fair to help their sick brother? If we really did all have more trust would we all be better off?

Excuse the vocals on this some of them are a bit "sick" sounding as I have had some throat trouble recently. I just wanted to capture the ideas that were flowing as they came. Let me know what ya think of these tunes!