Both Little Big C and Best That I Knew How were entered in the ROCK/INDIE category of the 2022 Australian Songwriting Contest. One of them has made it into the short list, but I haven't been told which one yet. The top 30 selection is expected to be announced by the end of June 2023. ================================ Little Big C was re-mixed and re-mastered June 2023....

If you've listened to The Best this song will be familiar. The Best was arranged and produced by John Vallins. John heard it as a ballad with a killer sax solo. He did a fabulous job that I can't hope to match. This version is closer to what I had in my head when I wrote the song. It's more folk-rock and includes the bridge that was left out of John's version. It's not an...

Too Many Words has been included in the shortlist for the CONTEMPORARY POP DANCE Category of the 2022 Australian Songwriting Contest. The top 30 selection is expected to be announced by the end of June 2023. ================================ Too Many Words was re-mixed and re-mastered 31 May 2023. ================================ I was thinking one day about how my songs are...

What to when there's nothing to do.  I suppose I could write a song. When people ask me if I write the lyrics first or the music I will answer "yes", but 'yes' doesn't really tell the story. Sometimes I write some lyrics and then find some chord progressions and work out a melody. Other times I've got a bit of melody and need to wait for some words to fit. And sometimes the...

5 March 2023.I've done a remix of this song.  While I haven't re-recorded the vocals I've worked on them in Logic Pro to make them clearer and more present.  Previously they sounded a bit like I was singing through a megaphone.  I think this mix is better balanced and the lyrics are easier to understand. ===================================================== The phrase...

Freely Flowing has been included in the shortlist for the Open Category of the 2022 Australian Songwriting Contest. The top 30 selection is expected to be announced by the end of June 2023. ================================ Freely Flowing was re-mixed and re-mastered 31 May 2023. ================================ This is the song referenced in "Blue Book", the story song I...

This song is simply a story, all of it true. It's about a another song called "Freely Flowing". The original music for "Freely Flowing" was written by Patrick Dietsch, a French guitarist I met at the end of 1972 somewhere in Mexico. He was travelling with another guitarist and they would pick up some travelling money by playing at whatever venues they could find. I only knew...

Last October I wrote on this blog for the first time in 8 years.  I had great plans. I was going to post multiple times a week and build up a large enthusiastic audience for this blog.  I couldn't have been more mistaken.  (Which is the longer title for the song that is linked below.) I was going to direct my blogging energies towards music.  As pretty much anyone who is...

I'm not a performer, a singer, a musician, an arranger, a producer. I'm just not. I do what I can but I dream about what it might be like to work with someone who could do the things I can't do, which is quite a lot. Wouldn't it be great to have a collaborator?  Collaborator Verse 1: Last night I had a dreamI dreamt about a beautiful songThe words were deeply movingAnd the...

The picture attached to this track is from my 1972 passport. I was heading towards South America via Mexico and other parts of Central America. I knew that certain hairstyles were frowned upon at various borders. Rather than doing anything drastic, like cutting my hair, I purchase a $15 dollar short hair wig and wore it for my passport photo. That's me in my wig hat. That wig...

Annette finished in 10th place in the Humour/Novelty category of the Australian Songwriting Contest 2024!  The goal had been for any of my songs (I entered 8 songs in the competition) to get on the board.  That has now been officially accomplished.  I can not take on a new goal for next year's competition: to get on the board with a song that is NOT about boobs.  Wish me...

=====Twenty-two was re-mastered in September 2022===== This song began as an anniversary present to my wife, Eve. I started it on the day of our 22nd anniversary and finished it by our next anniversary. We've recently celebrated our 28th anniversary. When i perform this song it often follows "Love Song Kind of Guy". I leave it to the listener to decide which of the...

I wrote this song in early 2017 while Eve and I were travelling around Australia with our camper trailer. It was intentionally ambiguous because I figured that its real subject would cease to be relevant after a while. I wish I'd been right about that. Once you know that the song is about my reaction, an an expatriate American, to the election of the last US president, the...

This song occurred to me on a morning in Byron Bay when I was going to a friend's 70th birthday in the evening. I didn't know how that particular friend was going to take the reality of a number that big. It's a "no shit" number. It's a number that makes it hard to keep the reality of mortality at bay. Byron Bay is full of young people who take no notice of their mortality...

When I'm asked what this song is about I'll probably say that it's about 5 minutes and 10 seconds. I didn't know it was going to be this long. I only found out when it was complete and ready to post on Bandcamp. Most of my songs have too many word and end up being long, but when I finally record them I notice and find a way to make them shorter. I like to keep everything...