Category: Actor/Musician

My new Emerald X20 carbon fiber acoustic guitar arrived on Saturday, and let me not bury the lede, I absolutely love it. The best acoustic I personally have ever played. Now for the longer version.

In 2009 I purchased a Rain Song carbon fiber acoustic which I did quite like and that I played until 2025. Though I loved a lot about it, something never really fully bonded with me. I always felt like I had to fight it a bit. It had a very flat 20″ radius fretboard which just wasn’t the best for my hands. Also, as a traditionally shaped acoustic, my right forearm would always be bruised after a gig from resting on the edge of the body and being a fairly energetic player. I felt like the action could have been lower, but a luthier had already taken the saddle down about as far as possible, and in fact had to file a slight slot in the bridge to accommodate even getting the high E that low. There was no truss rod to adjust because carbon fiber guitars are rigid enough that they don’t need one. Strangely enough, Rain Song later changed their neck design to incorporate one just because guitarists were so used to having one that they didn’t like a neck with no truss rod, even if it wasn’t needed.

At some point in 2025, I can’t even remember why, I started looking up information about it on the internet and found out that Rain Song had shut down. Lots of people were talking about Emerald acoustic guitars, an Irish company who I had never heard of, as now being the best carbon fiber guitars around, so I started researching out of pure curiosity. Eventually I decided that I really thought I needed one and that it very well might be a “forever” guitar for me. The company seemed to be a really great small company who put a lot of thought and care into their instruments and design.

Some things that caught my interest were that the bodies were designed very ergonomically. A nice forearm bevel for comfort. Contoured back so it was comfortable against your body. A contoured bottom edge so that it sat at a more natural angle on your leg when sitting. Stainless steel frets so you would never need a fret job done on it. A slightly less flat 16″ radius. Their neck do have a truss rod, though I suspect it’s for the same reason Rain Song added one, just because guitarists freak out at the idea of no truss rod. I believe I read somewhere that Emerald as said they don’t “need” one but put it there just as another adjustment option. There are many more options for customization as well. You could pick one from their stock or use the “guitar builder” on their site to build one totally customized to your liking, which of course means you’ll be waiting longer to get it. I chose the custom route. An absolute bare bones acoustic will run you about $2600 at the time of this post. Every option you add from there adds to the price. Various pickup options, many gorgeous wood veneer options purely for aesthetics, “vibrant” carbon weave colors, fretboard and inlay options, custom neck radius or width options, all available at a premium.

I kept it fairly simple. I added an adjustable bridge like an electric with individual saddles so you can adjust string height and intonation very easily. I also chose to have a dual pickup system where the saddles are Ghost Piezo saddles, and there are also K&K Mini transducers on the soundboard. This is a really great combo as the piezos (which sound as good as any piezo I’ve ever heard) give you great top end and cut through the mix, while the K&K transducers give you warmth and a more natural acoustic sound. I also chose a green carbon weave at no additional cost as I had no desire to hide the carbon weave under a wood veneer, for a total of $2845 but I got $100 discount for being a first time customer, so $2745.

I placed my order on October 9, 2025 and knew I was looking at about a 6 month wait most likely. I also sold my trusty Rain Song to a new happy home to help finance my new guitar. It showed up in one of Emerald’s shipping videos on January 16, 2026. I knew that to not have to deal with tariffs and such, the guitar would have to go by ocean from their Ireland factory to New Jersey (I think), then by truck to Emerald’s new Florida showroom, and then by truck to me. It cleared customs on March 1, shipped from Florida on March 11 and arrived to me on March 14.

I had a gig that night so I unboxed it, played a few chords on it, and headed out to the gig where I would be using it on the first song of the night. When I got it hooked up at sound check, I thought 1 of the 2 pickup systems wasn’t working which was a major bummer. Was I going to have to send it all the way back to Ireland or maybe get my local luthier to fix it at their cost hopefully? Luckily not. Turns out the problem was a very niche situation. The dual pickup system has a volume for each system. You can use a standard cable to send both mixed to one source or you can use a stereo TRS cable and a Y splitter to send each system to separate sources if you want. I was using my Line 6 G10 wireless unit, forgetting that the transmitter has a TRS tip but uses one side for audio and the other side for charging. So the guitar saw TRS and was trying to send the piezo pickup to part of the tip just meant for charging. When I tried it out with a regular cable at home, all was well. I did use it for 4 songs at the gig with just the K&K pickup and it sounded great.

Over the 3 days since the gig, I have played this guitar a lot, getting to know it and absolutely falling in love with it. I am constantly inspired to pick it up and play it just for fun even if I’m not specifically working on something for a gig. It is the most comfortable and playable acoustic I’ve ever played. Every Emerald goes through their “PLEK” process where a machine gets the frets and action set up with incredible precision, and then of course it gets hand finished to perfection. I got this guitar knowing that its main use would be live gigs plugged in and amplified, so while the actual acoustic sound wasn’t my highest priority, I did hope it wouldn’t fall short there, and personally I don’t think it does. I really like the acoustic sound as well. I was worried that I might have been a bit spoiled by my Rain Song which had a great acoustic and was the loudest acoustic I had ever heard. The Emerald has an offset sound hole on the upper bout that channels sound to the player as well as out front to any listeners so it definitely sounds loud to me when I’m playing it, though I’m not sure exactly how it compares when listening from the front. Obviously it’s all subjective and comparing two guitars can be very difficult, especially since I don’t have the Rain Song any more to directly compare side by side, but I definitely don’t think I could be happier with my Emerald. I used it plugged in for a rehearsal tonight and was ecstatic with the sound I got out of it.

It also came in a really nice TKL hard case that is fitted absolutely perfectly. And as a bonus “Thank you,” Emerald included a beautiful hand-made mug from Moville Pottery in Ireland. I love that I once again have the excitement and desire to grab this guitar and play it all the time. It has most definitely met or exceeded all expectations and I hope to be playing it a lot in the coming year as I want to get more solo acoustic gigs happening and actually start playing my long-neglected originals live.

I am well and truly SHOCKED (and I’m not just saying that to be “humble”) to not only again be nominated for “Best Multi-instrumentalist” (which I previously won thanks to all of you who voted) but ALSO “Best Male Vocalist” and “Best Performer” in the ATBC Awards. Tons of immensely talented folks in all the categories. I encourage you to go vote for your favorites and support local music and musicians!

FAB!, the Beatles tribute I’m in is also nominated for “Best New Artist”

Yacht Z, the yacht rock band I’m in is nominated for “Best Cover Band” (as well as Skyrocket who I have the pleasure of subbing with occasionally).

I was also in the “Band On The Run” and “Heat of the Moment – ASIA tribute” one-off special projects.

I’m also in several bands with Chris Nine and Matt Patterson who are both nominated as well!

If you’d like to support me, local music in general, or any other of your favorite Austin musicians who are nominated, you can vote here!

I’ve been playing bass for 40+ years. A Ric was never particularly on my “wish list” or anything though I knew they were great basses. Over the decades, the more I played and learned about various basses, I started to think a Ric might just be a good fit for me. I finally decided to take the plunge and I am completely sold. I could go on for days about all the things I love. I chose the 4003S because it has a more rounded and comfortable body since it has no binding. The models with binding I find uncomfortable on the right forearm. And also the dot inlays are what McCartney had and we all know I love me some McCartney.

First let’s talk sound. Anyone who says a Ric is a “one-trick pony” must not have ever spent any time with one. Between the 2 pickups, the pickup selector, the 2 volumes allowing any mix of the 2 pickups, the 2 tone controls, and the “Vintage/Modern” push/pull pot for the treble pickup there’s not a sound I can imagine that this bass wouldn’t cover. I found myself really liking the “vintage” voicing which makes the treble pickup have less bass in it so that you almost use the two pickups as EQ. You get you trebly bite from the bridge, and your meaty bass from the neck. In the “Modern” voicing the bridge pickup has a lot more bass, kind of equivalent to running both pickups in the Vintage voicing. So many tonal options.

It played great right out of the box. The newer ones now have only a single truss rod, as opposed to older Rics having a dual truss rod system that I had seen a lot of complaints about. The neck was wider, but thinner and flatter than I was used to, but I adapt easily and enjoy playing it. I found the neck pickup was way too low so I raised that and liked it much more. There are also roller saddles on the V2 bridge, which overall is a big upgrade addressing many of the problems I had read people complaining about on older Ric bridges such as ease of intonation. The rollers adjust side to side spacing so be careful when stringing as pulling a string across the roller can make it roll and end up adjusted to one side. I found my 2 outside strings to be adjusted too far outside and not quite over the pole pieces. An easy and quick fix to simply loosen the string and roll the saddle roller more toward the center.

My one tiny complaint is the built in mute, a signature of Ric basses. Firstly I find it pretty useless in a live situation as it is far too cumbersome to raise and lower with the thumbscrews to be able to use it live unless you just want to leave it on. The bigger problem for me is that even when mine is fully raised, it does not mute the low E at all and barely mutes the G, while REALLY muting the A and D. I’ve read ways to try and fix this but since I don’t see myself ever using it, I doubt I’ll bother. It’s just a little disappointing on a $2000+ bass. Beware also that the design of the bridge pretty much prevents palm muting and when I’ve tried to use other mutes like a piece of foam, since they have to be placed so far forward in front off the built in mute, they often end up making unpleasant pinging harmonics. I don’t do a lot of muting like that so I don’t see it being much of an issue for me personally.

HOWEVER, I do still think this bass is worth the price for it’s iconic sound, great quality, versatility, and feel. I watched a whole video on how they are made and it really gave me an appreciation for how every worker at every step is just a true artist with microscopic attention to detail.

Another thing that I didn’t see mentioned ANYWHERE is that the strap buttons on Rics are Schaller straplock buttons! That’s why they are so small and kind of non-standard. So they won’t hold a standard strap very well, but if you put some Schaller straplocks on your strap, you’re already set on the bass! I’ve always used the Dunlop Straploks (which are smaller than these Schallers so you would have to re-fill and re-drill the hole if you wanted to use those) but since these were already on the bass I bought some Schallers, threw them on a strap and now I’m set.

Also be aware that if you like Hipshot Xtenders to easily go to Drop D and back, they don’t have a direct replacement that works on Rics. They DO have one that WILL work but it requires drilling some new holes and two of your old holes will be showing as it is a completely different form factor than the default tuners.

I can totally understand how this bass wouldn’t be for everyone, but it has definitely become my personal #1 bass of choice now. I just find a certain effortlessness in playing it. I find I can play lighter but still get the sound I like to get, and then I can always dig in as well for some real growl. I can use a much easier right hand on this bass than I usually do on other basses. I also like that the tone controls go further than I would ever want. I can’t imagine ever turning the tone all the way down, but I’d always rather have it go too far than not far enough. I don’t imagine I’d ever go much below about 50% on the tone controls. I’ve also found myself just really digging the Fireglo and the overall look of the bass. None of the available colors are anything I would have normally chosen, but I liked the Fireglo best and also as a nod to McCartney. But every time I glance over at it on the rack I find myself thinking “That is a GOOD-looking bass!”

So I personally am 95% happy, and the 5% I find a little lacking luckily doesn’t really come into play for me much, if at all. I also was lucky enough to snag an “open box” model that had a “small discoloration” for $200 off. The tiny spot is barely perceptible if I’m looking for it from inches away. Any further and you can’t tell at all (picture included with a sticker pointing to the “defect”). So my long forming suspicions were right. It is indeed the bass for me.

Tis a long and twisty tale. First, some important background.

I have played guitar, keys, and bass for about 42 years. Shut up, I’m old. I played alto saxophone in 6th and 7th grade, I believe. Then I continued to play it on a few songs in bands where I played guitar. I played the solos in “Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS, “On The Dark Side” by John Cafferty and Beaver Brown Band from the “Eddie and the Cruisers” soundtrack, and “One More Night” by Phil Collins, among others. Again, yes I’m aware that I’m ancient.

At some point, I pawned my saxophone and didn’t play for decades. Maybe something like 30 years, I’m not sure. In 2021 I formed the yacht rock band, Yacht Z, and thought “There sure is some tasty saxophone in some of these songs, maybe I should pick it back up.” Apparently the universe agreed as two generous friends (shout out to Kathy Rose Center and Chris Wilson) gifted me a tenor and an alto saxophone over the years.

Also starting in 2021, the amazing band Skyrocket asked me to be a sub on guitar and keys occasionally when they needed one. My good friend Johnny Goudie from that group has a great podcast called “How Did I Get Here?” which I was honored to be a guest on at one point. Jack Hues from Wang Chung was also a guest, and he and Johnny became friends afterward.

So that’s how it came to be that my friend Darin, Skyrocket’s drummer, called me a few weeks ago and asked me if I would play sax on “Dance Hall Days” by Wang Chung because Jack Hues was going to sit in (he currently lives in the Austin area). Now keep in mind, I still feel like a total mediocre amateur on Saxophone having only picked it back up in 2021 and I still get really nervous and in my head about it. So a part of my brain thought “Are you sure you are up for this?” but my mouth was already saying “YEAH SURE!” They also wanted me to play on “Never Tear Us Apart” by INXS so that was an interesting full circle moment.

So I spend the next few weeks working on those songs. I’m not really an improvisor on saxophone, so I tend to just learn whatever parts are in the actual song. I had one rehearsal with the band (minus Jack) on Wednesday before the show, where I was quite in my head at first. It felt real shaky. But by the end of the night I was having fun, and at least by what I was told, everything was sounding good.

Saturday arrives. Show day. I show up to soundcheck my two songs, and Jack is there as well. Talented, nice, wonderful guy. Wang Chung. Come on. Who doesn’t like Wang Chung? What other band is a VERB? You can’t say “I Beatlesed tonight” but you can absolutely say “I Wang Chunged tonight.” Or would it be “I Wanged Chung” tonight? Hmm, I’m pretty sure it’s “Wang Chunged.” They are part of eternal music culture.

We run though the song once. It goes well and Jack and his wife seem happy and complimentary. Then Jack asks me, “Hey I think it would sound good if you played that up an octave.” Part of me panics. Wants to blurt out a disclaimer about how I’m not very good and I’m not sure if I can make that adjustment at the last moment because, again, I’m not very good…” but my mouth smartly just says “YEAH SURE!” once I clarify that he means just the main riff. The solo at the end I already had to alter because I’m not good enough to play up into the octave where that solo actually begins.

Then he says “Oh and in the third verse, I like to do this thing where between my lines you play something so we go back and forth.” Stage 2 brain panic. “I HAVE NOT REHEASED THAT. I CAN’T IMPROVISE. I’M NOT VERY GOOD.” Again, luckily my mouth is smart enough to simply say “YEAH SURE!”

We try it. It actually goes pretty well. Compliments all around. I feel…good about it! Several people give me specific compliments on how they liked the things I chose to play. They were tasty, soulful, and riffs that said something. In that moment, I realize that the limits of my abilities and my lack of confidence worked in my favor. Because they made me keep it simple but soulful. I knew enough to play something that fit without worrying about being “flashy” or trying to throw in “LOOK WHAT I CAN DO” riffs.

The band finished out the first set with my two songs, the last one being “Dance Hall Days” when they brought Jack out. The sold out place went wild. The energy was amazing. The band was amazing. I was far from perfect but I had a blast and played from the heart. Afterward as I walked back to my car, I had to take a moment to just sit down on a rock bench in downtown Austin and process what had just happened and the crazy life journey that led me there. The temperature was dropping and the brisk night air felt almost as good as the immense gratitude I had for it all. Sometimes, you can do more than you think or know. I say this to you all from the heart, because it’s a good motto. Everybody Wang Chung tonight.

Today John Burgess, founder of The Eggmen announced that November 16 at Backstage at El Mercado would be the last ever Eggmen gig after 32 years, so I thought I’d try to collect my thoughts on my journey to being a small part of that legendary legacy.

The Beatles are the deepest part of my musical being. The most foundational part of my musician DNA. My mother was a huge Beatles fan as a teenager and even got to see them in concert. Growing up, we had all her records in the house. Mostly the Capitol American releases. I wouldn’t learn until quite a few years later that those were kind of haphazard, Frankensteined releases and not the true UK releases as intended.

I had always been impressed with the incredible range of their catalog. Comparing their first album to their last is like two completely different bands. They defined and defied genres. They experimented with recording techniques thought to be outrageous and even taboo to the the studio engineers at the time. Techniques that would go on to become industry standards. They invented technologies that became standard tools in the toolbox. It is important that you realize that when I say “they,” that includes George Martin (the true fifth Beatle in my opinion), Geoff Emerick, Mal Evans, and everyone in their camp who helped them create that music.

They have been with me through so much of my life. Comforted me in difficult times and brought me joy in all times. To this day I somehow continue to discover more and more new things through their music. It’s a neverending source of knowledge and inspiration.

I had heard of The Eggmen, this legendary Austin Beatles tribute band, decades before I lived here. Yet somehow I never actually saw them until they just happened to be playing at Central Market when I was there one day in 2018. In 2021, my friend and bandmate in several bands, Matt Patterson, became their drummer. In 2022, he recommended our mutual friend and bandmate, David Houston when the bass slot opened up. Then later that year when they were doing some shows with some local orchestras and needed a keyboard player to play a lot of that stuff, both of them recommended me. Let me tell you, there is not much I have experienced that is as magical as playing Beatles songs while surrounded by a live orchestra playing those songs with you.

For the next year, they would call me in when they needed a keyboard player for those bigger gigs or when they’d be playing a lot of keyboard dependent stuff. I played alongside many former members as well for the 30th anniversary show which was the one time I got to meet and play with JB’s brother, Tommo who used to play keys with the band before he retired his position. In the Autumn of 2023, they asked me to be a full time member. I was elated and gave an enthusiastic “YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!” My first gig with them as a full time member was October 13, 2023. Which turned out to be quite interesting.

I was loading up my car at about 4pm to go load in for the gig when we all got a text than John Burgess had gone to the hospital with some kind of emergency. Quickly assessing our plan of action, the other lads brought up the prospect of me filling in for JB. I said that I absolutely felt up to the task and that, in fact, it felt like I had been training my whole life for this moment. I very quickly went back inside and loaded up lyrics for every song into Band Helper, the app I use for set lists and such. There was no time to rehearse. I drove straight to the gig, set up and quickly assessed our set list for the night, and what I would be doing on each song. Any song with a prominent keyboard part, I would play that, but anything else I would wing it on guitar and hope for the best. I would also sing everything that JB sang which was most of the list. I felt strangely calm about it. I knew these songs in my bones. The chords just found my fingers. The lyrics came out of the mental archive with ease. These songs had been etched into my neural pathways for most of my life.

The gig was amazing. I filled the same role for several other gigs while JB recuperated. When he rejoined the band, he was a little worried about his voice so usually I would still double any vocals, which worked out well as our voices blended well together and a lot of Beatles vocal lines were double-tracked because Lennon hated the sound of his own voice and thought doubling it made it sound better. And now it seems this (not) Long (enough) and Winding Road is coming to “The End.”

My tenure as an Eggman may have been short, but it was filled with life-changing magic. My late friend Val had a “Bucket List” of things she wanted to do in her remaining time here and seeing me perform with The Eggmen was one of them. I was so glad we made that happen. Right up to the end, she would text me about how we should be ending EVERY show with me singing “Hey Jude” because she thought it brought the house down.

And so with today’s announcement that November 16 at Backstage at El Mercado will be the last gig for The Eggmen, the remaining members contemplate our path ahead. Many of us know that we definitely want to continue playing the music of The Beatles in some form, and I’m sure we will. It will be sad to no longer be “The Eggmen” (which we all agree is the BEST name for a Beatles Tribute ever) and to see that legendary legacy set with the sun, but the music is bigger than all of us. People want to hear it, and we want to play it. I personally have some very mixed feelings about it all, and am just trying to take some time to process and contemplate the future. I do know that no words seem sufficient and that I am filled with gratitude and honored that I got to be a part of this amazing group, playing the best music with the best people, even if only for a short time.

I think the best parting words are the words of The Beatles themselves, from the appropriately titled, “The End.”

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

I am the Eggman. They are the Eggmen.

Goo goo g’joob.

To not bury the lede, today I was voted “Best Multi-Instrumentalist” in the first annual Austin Tribute Band Community awards.

As a member of the Beatles tribute group The Eggmen, we also won Best One-Off Show for our show where we played the entire albums of A Hard Day’s Night and Abbey Road, and we were also voted into the Hall Of Fame.

Amusingly, I was not visible in either photo because in one I was behind someone else, and the other was taken before I joined full-time. I say amusingly because there’s a joke among keyboard players that we are never in photos. We always end up getting cropped out, obscured, or otherwise forgotten. It doesn’t actually bother me but I do find it funny and weird how true it often is!

These awards were started because the hugely popular Austin Chronicle music awards made the bad decision (in my opinion) to remove cover and tribute bands from the categories. If you are one of those cover/tribute band snobs, don’t even bother commenting as it will be deleted. It just shows you know nothing. The most talented musicians I’ve ever known throughout my life all play covers as well in addition to whatever other projects they have going. Most make the bulk of their living from cover music and only a very tiny, lucky fraction get to a place where they can make a living from original music. Most big bands like The Beatles started playing mostly covers if not all covers.

First and foremost, let me say how immensely grateful I am to be recognized at all and for everyone who took the time and effort to go fill out the form and vote. It really does mean a lot to me and please don’t let any of what follows undermine that very important point. I say that because I have a very complicated relationship with awards “competitions.” I always have. Not just this one. The main reason being that for every one person who is ultimately lifted up, there are countless people who end up feeling kind of bummed, “less than,” not-enough, unappreciated, or unrecognized and that’s a bummer to me. Being an artist of any sort is a very difficult life and I know how it feels to feel unseen or underappreciated. It probably doesn’t help that a LOT of us (maybe even most of us) suffer from imposter syndrome quite a lot!

Competitions such as this one can be extra frustrating in that they are purely by popular vote. No panel of industry judges, or academy or anything, although the ATBC is looking to remedy that next year with a combination of popular vote and industry experts as well. So it mainly just ends up being who can get the most people to go vote. Who has the largest base? Who is going to campaign and hustle and try to rally them to go vote?

This is where it gets complicated on a more personal level as well for me. I’ve been lucky enough to have a handful of videos go viral on Instagram and Tik Tok. This led to an influx of followers, so unlike most people I had a potential audience of 90K people on IG and 144K on TT (though as most people will tell you, you generally only reach a very infinitesimal fraction of those people). I am also someone who is very active on social media. In a contest where it’s purely about hustling voters to the poll, these things give me an edge. Now, the other side of that is that hopefully these people don’t just go blindly vote for me because I said so, but because they’ve seen all my various videos playing various instruments and singing so it’s not necessarily unearned in any, I just have the luxury of more resources and greater reach. There were many other nominees who I know to be some of the most amazing musicians I’ve ever seen, much less played with. Some of them weren’t even aware of this competition at all. Some of them got nominations but don’t live online all the time of have a huge audience to tell to go vote. I’m bummed for my friends who didn’t win or weren’t even nominated because I’m their biggest fan and think they absolutely deserve the recognition but hey that’s just not possible in awards competitions.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always said that you absolutely should enjoy any kudos that come your way when they come. Enjoy that moment in the sun. Just don’t let it, or that lack of it define you or your validation. I can 100% guarantee you that there’s many folks out there you’ve never heard of (or maybe even you) who are light years beyond me on every instrument I play. My motto that I’ve repeated many times in life is “Keep your head down and do good work.” Do it for the journey, not the destination. Not the awards, not the praise. I will enjoy this moment in the spotlight, but I also enjoy it because I didn’t do it by myself. It took all of you as well, and I’d go so far as to say, your part in it was way more important than mine. I didn’t think I stood a chance. If you voted for me, I do not take that lightly and I do fully think about and appreciate each and every person who thought enough about me to do that. It’s not for me, it’s for us.

I dropped a new song tonight!

This year was the first year I watched The Oscars in as long as I can remember and I really enjoyed it. I was particularly happy that “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish won Best Song as I thought it was the most powerful. It made me want to write something like that. I took a walk that night and the words started coming to me immediately. I knew I wanted something simple with just piano, vocal, and a string quartet.

I was house/pet sitting for a friend so when I got back to the house, I sat down at the piano there which was a bit out of tune and had some dampers that didn’t work. At first “What Was I Made For” was stuck in my head and I was having a hard time getting away from it to write something original, but enough experimenting finally got me there. Interestingly, my last song, New Year was also written while house/pet sitting for a different friend on the keyboard they had at their house.

I knew I wanted to do something simple not only because of the inspiration of Billie’s song, but also because I knew I had a tendency to feel the need to make things more complicated to try and feel more “musically advanced” or original even though there’s plenty of very simpler songs that I love. So the song is largely one repeating motif with a few variations. Of course me being me, I could just keep it to simple regular chords but had to find interesting voicings and changes. Writing 4 parts for the string quartet (which I played using the BBC Symphony Orchestra plugin from Spitfire) keeps lots of motion and variety in it as well.

Another sort of exercise is that I generally write pretty autobiographically and have always admired songwriters who could write purely fictional “story” songs. So while there’s definitely plenty of elements from my life, I also decided to pay homage to a song written by Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney called “That Day Is Done” where it is eventually revealed that the singer is dead and watching his own funeral. So my bridge was written from the perspective of someone who lived a long happy life but ultimately died alone with no real friends or family. I think the last verse manages to finish on a positive note though.

While looking for some past info on my blog last, I stumbled upon this fun collaboration I did with the late Craig Davis. I had first met Craig as a kid when he was friends with my Aunt and Uncle, but then had crossed paths with him as an adult when my band served to be his backup band for a show playing his originals at The Palace Theater in Bryan, TX (I still lived in College Station at the time). WE stayed in touch and started doing some musical collaborations.

Craig actually came to College Station and helped me and my then wife move to Austin. He and I did a lot of really great collaborations where he would send me a demo, and I would add all my touches and fully produce it into a finished song. It is still some of the best work I think I ever did but sadly none of it ever saw the light of day and I’m not aware of any of it existing anywhere anymore. 

So I was thrilled when I stumbled upon an old blog entry where I had posted one such song and the story of how it came to be. And I’ve been earwormed by it all day today. Craig was a great and prolific songwriter. He and I did a duo performance ridiculously early on some news station locally here in Austin. We performed as a duo at the funeral of Tommy Smith, another great guitar player who was my neighbor and a major influence when I was just a kid learning guitar. Craig was a wonderful, eccentric, unique, and talented figure. I hadn’t really been in touch with him for many years when he died in 2021 but I still love so many of his songs.