After many years of hard work, I have finally finished another album, called NO STRAIGHT LINES. It was substantially written during my travels in Spain, Morocco and Portugal – inspired by the incredibly rich music and literature of the Western Mediterranean. All songs were written by me. I sang most of the vocals and played guitar, Portuguese guitarra, some cello and percussion on the project, which was produced, arranged, mixed and primarily engineered by me. It will take a few more months to get it out into the world, but it’s definitely on its way.
Many years ago an A&R friend of mine observed that rather than getting bogged down thinking about records as overly precious things, they should simply be seen merely as biographical records of particular periods in our lives, nothing more. There is a lot of wisdom in that observation, and a lot of promise inherent in it too – the promise of turning the page on the past, of new beginnings. But when it takes as long to make an album as it did mine, that statement takes on a different significance. And I knew then as I know now that I have always seen records, at least singer-songwriter ones, as precious.
As people who know me recognize, I have faced major distractions over the past 15 years – brought on by a sometimes demanding legal career separate and apart from music. So whatever else might be said about No Straight Lines, it represents a major accomplishment of dedication and focus. And yet I am not alone in this. Many musicians are struggling these days and it’s not unusual for artists’ albums to take years to complete in-between making ends meet.
While I am preparing “No Straight Lines” for release, I have been clearing my studio out in preparation for the next project. It’s amazing, the many piles of books, folders and notebooks filled with ideas, that still litter the place. The making of this record was a very personal journey, as they all are. As the collage of travel mementos at the top of this page illustrates, many things and many places went into its making, with many long and riding roads, to quote you-know-who.
This blog is going to explore many things, ranging from music to literature to travel to friendships to copyright law to mass media to food to politics to philosophy, all of which played a role in the making of this album. Even if they only tangentially apply to No Straight Lines, I like the idea of writing about things I have long been interested in. So here we go…
No Straight Lines 