Writing Music - My Albums (10 CDs)

My passion is writing and recording music. I started playing guitar in 1965. I took lessons for a bit, then put it down for a while, then picked it up again more seriously when my closest friend Neil Doherty (who visits here sometimes - hi Neil!) and I got into it together probably around 1969-70. We played and practiced ravenously for several years each learning every song we thought we could handle, and then one would teach the other. After high school and college, we both joined bands and played around professionally for a while. I played as a professional guitar player on the road with various bands for about 3 years.
I came to think of myself as a guitar player first and foremost. And that inner identity never quite left me, even though I went on to start my long career in the computer field.
Throughout the 1980's I had built a small 8 track analog recording studio and started writing and recording my original music. It was a hobby really. Well, perhaps a passion better describes it. The equipment was modest, and limited, but I did the best I could, and a few interesting pieces came out of that period.

Then in 1990, after my daughter was born, I decided to set aside the guitars and even music in general - not even to listen to music to any degree. In fact, even in the car, I listened to talk radio rather than music - so I really missed a lot of music that came out in that decade. I simply took a 10 year break from music. But, strangely, the inner core identity of being a musician never really left me. That seems burned in at a deep level of my soul.

Then in late 1999, a bad doctor's report made me realize that I was not going to last forever, in fact, it seemed at the time that I only had a few short years left. I realized then that working 14 to 16 hours per day 7 days per week was not the way to spend my most valuable and non-renewable resource. My time. I needed to leave some things behind when I went. I wanted to write a book of life's lessons for my daughter, and publish it (which I did - it comes out shortly, I'll write another blog entry here when it is officially released) and I wanted to create more music. I wanted to release a CD. The best work of my life. I wanted to record my thoughts in a book, and I wanted to record my soul in a collection of music.
So, after a 10 year hiatus from music, I began again. I took my old tapes of my music recorded in the 1980's and digitized them and made 3 CD's out of them. Then I bought some more modern recording equipment, a 16 track digital recorder, and a mic and a drum machine, and pulled out my old guitars, and began to write again.

Originally, my intention was to simply re-record my old songs on better equipment to get a cleaner, more accurate digital sound, and use the extra 8 tracks to embellish them a little. But instead, just fooling around learning the equipment, I ended up writing a new tune on the spot called, "The Road Not Taken" about the choises we take in life and wondering what might have happened had we taken the other path. Well, that led to another tune, and to another and another, and pretty soon a year had gone by and I had created another complete album entirely of new music. I called it Moonlight.

Well, I got more excited at how this turned out and I decided to up my equipment to alleviate the storage limitations and track limitations and went to a Pro Tools 32 track system like most pro studios use these days. Slight difference. My Pro Tools runs on the Mac itself, whereas, the high-end version the pro stuios use runs on special cards installed in the mac. That is the TDM version and that allows 196 tracks. But it's also $13,000! The 32 track version will do me fine for now, I think.
Well, I forged ahead and wrote song after song and before long, I had created another album of new music - Inner Light. And I continued on from there.
To date, I have recorded 107 songs, and I have put together 10 albums (some songs appear on more than one album), and I have more in the works. There seems to be no end in sight to the music I can produce, the music ideas just keep coming, so I will continue.
I have thought: Maybe no one will care. Maybe no one will listen. On the other hand, if even just ONE of my songs reaches someone somewhere, and it touches them and comes to mean something to them, then I will feel it has all been worthwhile.

A gift not shared is wasted.

Below is a listing on the 10 CDs and a brief description and listing of what they contain starting with the most recent first and working backward.


Soft Lights
Album 10: February, 2006, 14 songs,
This album is in the works, but almost finished. These days all my albums are themed works. This is in order to give a consistent sound to each album, so that a listener can decide the type of music they would like to listen to, and put on that appropriate album. This album is meant to have a soft, 'beautiful' sound. Something for a wistful, nostalgic, or a romantic mood.

1. Under a Texas Sky, 2. That Professional Touch, 3. We Will Be Alright, 4. You Just Can't Get There From Here, 5. I Can't Make You Love Me 6. The Boy With The Thousand Year Eyes, 7. The Sun Through The Trees, 8. The Visions of Nostradamus, 9. It Seems Like Only Yesterday, 10. The Plains of Nazca, 11. Diamonds In Her Soul, 12. Just Before The Storm, 13. You Make Me Feel Good, 14. Honeymoon Suite

Natural Light
Album 9: Released Apr. 2005, 14 songs
This album consists of mostly acoustic and light tunes written primarily for the Beanstock Acoustical Music Festival for April 3, 4, 2005. This is put on twice per year south of Sherman, Texas, on the Coyote Ridge Ranch near Tom Bean, Tx.. I played at that event, and had to have some material to play, so I ended up writing a whole set of solo acoustic tunes. I'm very glad I had a chance to really dip into this genre. I really enjoyed myself musically with the different tunings, and the textures and moods and intimacy of acoustic pieces. They get in closer to you. I also really enjoyed performing at Beanstock. They are the nicest, friendliest people, in the nicest environment. It was truly a peaceful, casual setting, a beautiful day, and the first of probably many cherished memories there - because I plan to keep going back. This album is a collection of those new pieces written especially for Beanstock, as well as a few others that fit this theme and feel from other albums.

1. Thinking of Home, 2. Redd Coffee, 3. The Torch Song, 4. Dance of the Shakti, 5. Brazil, 6. Fire In The Field, 7. A Moment of Clarity, 8. You Can See So Far From Up Here, 9. To The Rescue, 10. Little Angel, 11. Greensleeves, 12. Moonlight, 13. Yavanna Dreamed, 14. This Old Guitar

Light 'em UP!
Album 8: Released Feb. 2005, 17 songs
This album was specifically written and recorded for the forces fighting in Iraq. Particularly for the 101st Airborne Division. "The Screaming Eagles". This is a rock album in every respect. The idea for this started from a Christmas party held at a member of the Airborne's place in Dover, Tennessee, near the base. Paul and his friends decided they really liked "Touring Baghdad" and so they played it a lot that night. Some got out their guitars to play along, and some were slinging air-guitars. Then they went through a lot of my other songs and liked those too. Hearing how well these guys enjoyed it from Paul's sister, and my friend, Trish Napolitano, I committed to creating this CD especially for them. I thought this was the least I could do for our troops who are putting it on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not for the timid. This is intended to appeal to powerful, young, strong, brave people. This is a real rockin' album - meant to be played LOUD!!

1. Touring Baghdad, 2. In My Sights, 3. Light 'em UP!, 4. Anthem - Live, 5. Still Smokin' - Live, 6. Heart of an Angel, 7. Thinking of Home, 8. The Arrangement, 9. You Make Me Feel Good, 10. Best Day of Your Life, 11. Billy Goes For A Drive, 12 Gas It Up, 13. The Touch, 14. I'll Do the Best I Can Do, 15. Yavanna Smiled, 16. Walking On The Edge, 17. The Star Spangled Banner

The Light of Sun and Moon The Gifts of Yavanna
Album 7: Released 2004, 12 songs
In the universe created by J. R. R. Tolkien, Yavanna was the goddess of the earth and living things. Her greatest and most famous gifts were the original Two Trees of Valinor. These trees were named Telperion, and Laurelin. Until their creation, all the world was dark but for starlight. But when Yavanna created the two trees, suddenly there was light. One tree shone at a time. When one waxed the other waned. Laurelin gave the golden light of day, and Telperion gave the silver light of night. Every 12 hours one tree would dim as the other tree came into it's own brightness. Thus was born the measure of the days and the beginning of the counting of time. Later, when the trees were destroyed by evil, the Sun and Moon were created to replace them. In this album, there are songs of high energy of the sun, and songs of quiet reflection of the moon, and some of the twilight between. The sun and the moon share the responsibility of bringing light to the world. Each of them has it's own light. Similarly, each song in this collection has it's own light.

1. The Visions of Nostradamus, 2. You Make Me Feel Good, 3. To The Rescue, 4. Waiting For Perfect, 5. Yavanna Dreamed, 6. Dance of the Shakti, 7. The Long Afternoon of Mrs. Brown, 8. A Long Cold Summer, 9. Shiokaze, 10. Beyond Words, 11. Yavanna Smiled, 12. I'm Not Driving Too Fast, I'm Just Flying Too Low.

Inner Light
Album 6: Released 2003, 13 songs
This was the second album of the new century and new technology for me. I switched from the 16 track KORG D16 to a 32 track Pro Tools software based system running on a Mac computer. I found that both the quality of my writing as well as the quality of the recording increased for this album. Also, there is quite a range of styles here. From heavier rock to light jazz, from latin to a Christmas song, it's got a lot of variety

1. Walking On The Edge, 2. Billy Goes For A Drive, 3. The Best I Can Do, 4. Who's That Knocking On Our Door?, 5. Gas It Up, 6. Anthem - Live, 7. Still Smokin' - Live, 8. The Boy With The Thousand Year Eyes, 9. The Memories Come Rushing Back, 10. Just Before The Storm, 11. Brasil, 12. One More Christmas Before You Go, 13. This Old Guitar
Instrument Lights
Album 5: Released 2003, 14 songs
Some people have asked specifically for an album with only the instrumental pieces on it. This was made with tunes from Moonlight and Inner Light albums. But some that were originally written and recorded with vocals have been made into instrumental versions for this album.

1. Anthem - Live, 2. Just Before The Storm, 3. Brasil, 4. Moonlight, 5. The Prisoner Dreams, 6. Dance Like No One Is Watching, 7. Driving With The Top Down, 8. The Hero Tells His Tale, 9. Waking From A Dream, 10. Billy Goes For A Drive, 11. Gas It Up, 12. The Memories Come Rushing Back, 13. Little Angel, 14. Fire In The Field.

Moonlight
Album 4: Released 2002, 12 songs
Moonlight was the first album I wrote and recorded once I returned from a decade away from music during the 1990's. Technology had changed, and everything had gone digital, and everything digital had gone cheaper. I was afraid that after 10 years away from playing, I wouldn't be able to play guitar anymore. I was afraid I wouldn't have any musical ideas, that I wouldn't be able to sing anymore. Well, I found I had lots of unique ideas stored up and only needed to unlock them and let them out. As the French say, appetite increases with eating. I had only intended to make the one album, but I found that once I started to tap into the creative spirit again, it was hard to resist the temptation to keep going. The concept for this album is that you are waking up from a deep dream and then finding out that you had simply passed into another dream, and each successive "waking" was mere passing up through layers of dreams within dreams to the point that you never really know which is "reality" anymore.

1. Waking From A Dream, 2. The Road Not Taken, 3. Driving With The Top Down, 4. Just Like James Bond, 5. The Prisoner Dreams, 6. The Hero Tells His Tale, 7. Moonlight, 8. Dance Like No One Is Watching, 9. Little Angel, 10. Fire In The Field, 11. The Best Time Of The Year, 12. Was That All Just A Dream?

Morning Light
Album 3: Recorded 1990, 15 songs. Not available to the public.
This album is the "best of"' collection from the body of work written and recorded in the 1980's. The title "Morning Light" refers to the fact that it comes early in my recording career. All selections were recorded on analog 8 track equipment. This album is not offered for sale because of the lesser quality of the 8-track analog recordings. It appears here as a matter of record for those who may be interested in the earlier music. The songs themselves are available in full form on the 'Songs' tab of this website.

1. Yellow Moon, 2. You Don't Cheat Your Friends, 3. Never A Raving Beauty, 4. Grace Under Pressure, 5. That Professional Touch, 6. You Can Always Come To Me, 7. Your Should Know By Now, 8. No Excuses, 9. Do It Now, 10. The Plains Of Nasca, 11. The Arrangement, 12. Building Castles, 13. The Art of the Moment, 14. The Giant's Lullabye (Stone and Sea), 15. I'll Say Nothing

Early Light Volume Two
Album 2: Recorded from 1980 to 1990, 16 songs. Not available for sale.
This album is a collection from the body of work written and recorded in the 1980's. Early Light refers to the fact that it comes very early in my recording career. Some of these were my first recordings. All selections were recorded on analog 8 track equipment. This album is not offered for sale because of the lesser quality of the 8-track analog recordings. It appears here as a matter of record for those who may be interested in the earlier music. The songs themselves are available in full form on the 'Songs' tab of this website.

1. Breathless, 2. Back On The Line, 3. Childhood's End, 4. Dance In Slow Motion, 5. Change My Life, 6. Hey Kid, 7. I Find It Amazing, 8. Living On The Edge Of Poverty, 9. On and On Forever, 10. Progressive 11. Boogie, Step Aside, 12. There's Nothing Worth Dying For, 13. White Line Boogie, 14. A Hero In Your Dreams, 15. A Quick Instrumental, 16. Longer Than

Early Light Volume One
Album 1: Recorded from 1980 to 1990, 15 songs. Not available for sale.
This album is a collection from the body of work written and recorded in the 1980's. Early Light refers to the fact that it comes very early in my recording career. Some of these were my first recordings. All selections were recorded on analog 8 track equipment. This album is not offered for sale because of the lesser quality of the 8-track analog recordings. It appears here as a matter of record for those who may be interested in the earlier music. The songs themselves are available in full form on the 'Songs' tab of this website.

1. Just Best Friends, 2. Fire In The Field, 3. I Used To Know You, 4. Little Girl In My Arms, 5. Living In The Past, 6. Quiet Night, Soft Breeze, 7. Echoes, 8. The Arrangement, 9. These Are The Memories, 10. To Know Your Better, 11. Twilight, 12. Two Of A Kind, 13. Without You, 14. Holiday, 15. Down A Fast River