Covid-19 and the Social Distancing Humans

Well this is weird. Since my last blog post we have found ourselves in the midst of a pandemic. Many of us are self-quarantining to help slow the pace of the virus so our hospitals can handle the incoming patients appropriately. What have I been doing with my time? Practicing, mixing, writing, going on hikes with my wife, exercising, cooking, reading books, and keeping a low profile. While this pandemic is horrible and extremely alarming, I gotta say it is nice to slow down a bit and reflect on the important things in life. Here are things I am excited about…

The 45 sounds so damn good on vinyl and you should absolutely scoop one. I am very happy with how this turned out! If you can’t afford one, holler at me directly and we’ll see what we can work out, otherwise listen to it on any streaming platform.

We are working on the Kenya Hall EP while everyone is quarantined. Since we are all essentially on lock-down, and have the wonderful tool ‘The Internet’, we can send each other things to work on and get the recordings sounding good. We are starting with a three song EP.

Jacob McCurdy of the Dapper Gents has finished the tracking for his EP and we are moving into the mixing/editing stage of that. I believe we are looking at four songs, barring he doesn’t throw an acoustic number on there. While none of us are playing live right now, we can hunker down and get all this new music out to be heard!

Finally, I’m working on my own stuff. When my ideas are solid, I send them around to friends to get their take and track ideas over the top to create something collaboratively. It’s weird not being in the same room as other people and the process takes a little longer, but its ok. It’s still super fun working with folks on new stuff!

I can’t stress the importance of keeping calm and healthy. Drink lots of fluids. Call your friends. Read books. Don’t spend all your money. Reading the news too much is detrimental to your mental health too, so watch out for that. Please email me any time if you have questions, comments, or just want to say hi. Let’s combat this pandemic together and celebrate full-on when this thing dies down! See you all very soon!!!

Chooglin'

I am fully embracing my new favorite headspace. Stuglin’ is Chooglin’! Yyyyyeah…

The 45’s have arrived!!! You can find them for purchase through my web-store on this website :). I also have them in various record shops around Maine, but it’s easier to just get them through my site if you’re from somewhere outside the 207. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this project done. It was a longer-than-expected-process, but I am very satisfied with the results. I look forward to you all hearing it!

Kenya Hall is on FIRE right now! We have been making major headway on her album, she’s put together a killer funk band for a bi-monthly residency at Big Babe’s in South Portland, Maine, and she had a write-up in Rolling Stone! I am so proud of her, she works her ASS off and its really starting to pay off. Let’s keep up the momentum sis!

My friend Evan Haines just asked me to produce his upcoming album, which I am very humbled by. Evan’s guitar playing is influenced by the country/jazz stylings of Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, among other greats. I have some great ideas for this album and look forward to diving into that genre to best compliment Evan’s vision.

I will be playing with the prolific Jason Spooner for a bunch of shows coming up. If you haven’t heard Jason’s music, take a listen. He’s a fantastic song-writer, guitar player, and all around nice guy.

Other than that, I am working on my own new music, which is a little slow going at the moment because I have a lot of other projects going, but it’s coming along. As always, please feel free to hit me up with any questions, comments, concerns, etc. I appreciate your ears!