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This month…
• free piece
• Remembering Croz
• New Record Update
• Recommendations
Free Piece
This month's free piece is short and simple. “The New Same Old” is a straight forward melody and bass line. The challenge is in the interpretation. Try to bring feeling to the phrases by playing around with dynamics and by having a slight ebb and flow to the tempo. I hope you enjoy playing it, or just listening.
We lost David Crosby three years ago on January 18th. Marie, Kian, and I think of him often. We still aren't sure how the universe allowed our paths to cross, but we are so grateful for having the opportunity to get to know him outside of his rockstar persona. He and his wife Jan were always so kind and generous.
During Covid, Croz had asked me if I would collaborate with him on transcribing about 50 of his songs for a guitar notation/TAB book. Since he didn't read or write music notation, I would figure out his guitar parts from the original recordings and numerous live performances, and then transcribe a distillation of them in Sibelius. We would get together regularly over Zoom where I would play my transcriptions for him, and he would show me how to play anything I didn't get exactly right.
I was looking through the hours of Zoom videos I have with him, and I put together some highlights…clips of us working things out, Croz playing tunes for me, and us picking on each other. I miss that laugh…
New Album Update
Tom Eaton, Anthony Saint James, & Me
Anthony Saint James and I recently drove up to Tom Eaton's Sound & Substance in East Kingston, New Hampshire. Tom and I finished recording my overdubs for our upcoming duo album and Anthony shot photos for the album art. We even had some time to enjoy some unexpected snow.
The music is about 99% finished, with only one overdub left for Tom to complete, then it's on to mixing and mastering. While that is being done, I will start on the layout for the CD.
Big shout out and thank you to Anthony, with whom I have been friends with since high school. Anthony has been a part of every one of my releases from the start. He has been a creative partner and a person I can always go to for artistic advice, encouragement, and inspiration. He also makes me laugh until can't breath.
The album, titled “Until the Light Was Gone”, will contain 14 tracks, most of which feature Tom and I together, but will also include a couple solos by each of us. The music is a little ambient, a little new age, a little popish, a little chill, and a little groovin'…but most of all, it sounds like like us.
We are extremely happy about how this record has come together, and we cannot wait to share it with you. My excitement for this music grows every time I listen to it. It's so close now! Stay tuned…
That's it for the first month of 2026. We are bracing for over a foot of snow for the coming weekend…although our weather people rarely get things right anymore. Maybe that will be my next career. I can be good at something 33.3% of the time.
I hope you are staying warm wherever you are. 18 days until pitchers and catchers report to camp. Maybe our off-season trades can help this season, so we can avoid this…
