The Rooster (Home Recording)
In the summer of 1985, when I was sixteen, I hiked the American Southwest with a group called Cottonwood Gulch Expeditions. We were led by a wise old mountain man named Bruce (he was probably 40 years old). He was nicknamed “Rooster” because of his red hair. Rooster’s wife and co-leader on the trip, Elaine, were memorable characters and for many years I thought there ought to be a song about them. The story in the song is fiction, but it was inspired by a real person. Rooster, if you are out there, I hope you found your “heaven on the range.”
Dishwasher Love - Live
25th anniversary song
Dishwasher love - Studio Recording
back to the yard
A few months before my 25th college in reunion in 2016 I received "The Red Book" in the mail. It's a dictionary-sized hardcover filled with my classmates' personal stories of triumph, tragedy and everything in between. There are reflections on professional success, loving families, pets, international adventures, prize-winning books, and global concert tours. There are also stories of illness, divorce, death, disappointment, mid-life crises and simple, ordinary lives being lived by a group of former high achievers.
In short, it contains the full range of what the world offers to a group of people that roam the earth for 25 years after graduation. Reading through the Red Book I was overwhelmed by a sense of longing, loss and nostalgia. I also yearned for renewed connections to the people whose names were printed in the book, most of whom I never knew back in college.
My sincere hope in writing and sharing this song was--and still is--to create an opening for deep connection and new friendships with my classmates. So far, it seems to be working.
Time Away
gone
the first song I ever wrote
"Gone" is a simple song about grief for my mother, who died of cancer on March 8, 2011, at age 74. We scattered her ashes in the ocean, not far from where this video was shot, on Eastern Long Island. As explained in My Story, this is the first song I ever wrote. It's also my first attempt at creating a music video. I had a lot of help from the Team. For the video, I was lucky enough to have assistance from my professional film-maker friends, Ben Cummings, Jennifer Lyon Bell and Allie Humenuk. Ben directed and shot most of the footage, and I received superb editing advice from Jennifer and Allie.
six train
for my son Simon's twelfth birthday in 2014
Twenty Years
My Anniversary Present to Sarah
Performed Live in Pocono Pines, PA
August 2, 2014
This song is not on the album, but it seems to be a favorite among my friends. The version shown here is the only recording. I wrote it for Sarah and sang it to her on our twentieth wedding anniversary, August 2, 2014. The album title, What I Couldn't Say, came from a conversation I had with my stepdad, Mort. After watching this video, he remarked that I managed to communicate things in the song that I couldn't have just said with words. When I thought about it, I realized that this was true of all of my songs.
The Making of "Alice"
The idea for the song "Alice" came to me when I was in Tulum, Mexico with Sarah in March, 2014. We were driving to the airport in Cancun, and I was thinking about going home to see my kids after a week of being away. I really missed them. I was thinking about how my daughter Alice has so many enviable qualities that I don't have. She is a natural ray of sunshine, a cheerful optimist. At that time, I was a cloudy day, at best, and I just felt so grateful to have her in my life. I wanted to give her a song that she could understand and appreciate on her tenth birthday, but that she might appreciate even more one day when she is grown up.
Her birthday was a couple of months away--a tight deadline to write and record a song for me, with all my other commitments. When we stopped for lunch in Playa Del Carmen, I jotted my lyric ideas into my iPhone notepad, and then started working on the chords a couple of days later.
When I was laying down the guitar tracks and vocals with Seth in Williamsburg a month or so later, he picked up on the childlike and playful tone of the song, and suggested I bring Alice down to the studio to improvise some piano during the instrumental break. I kept the whole thing a secret from Alice, but asked her to play along with my guitar at home, just to see how it sounded. When she came down to Williamsburg, she did a few takes, listening to the guitar with the lyrics muted, thinking she was just helping me with one of my songs. She crushed it.
Seth had the idea to use the practice session recording as a tag at the end of the song, which was a brilliant touch. I especially love how you can her her say "I like doing that" right at the end.
Here's a video with some photos and videos of Alice, including one of her recording the piano solo.
Do it all again
I wrote this song in July, 2017 while visiting my old summer camp, Cottonwood Gulch, in Thoreau, New Mexico. I was having such an amazing time there, reconnecting with my younger self, that I started thinking about how hard it would be go back home to New York. I had the idea that it would be easier to shut out the memories and just plan my next visit. Life doesn't work that way, but that's how I felt when I wrote the song. I have been back to the Gulch five or six times since 2017, and have had a number of opportunities to play the song for campers and staff. Everyone seems to like it, and a few people have even told me they want to learn how to play it. So I recorded this instruction video. I hope the song will make it into the next official Cottonwood Gulch songbook.