Hey, I just learned that my song Lite Brite won 2nd place (and $100) in this year’s Paul Loyd Just this Guy Songwriting Contest, which takes place each August.
You can listen to all 8 entries here.
The winner was Victoria Vox, with her song “My Window” (Anything can be a toy, really, when you’re a kid.)
This year’s theme was “write about a favorite toy”; you also had to compare it to another toy (and explain why it was better), and use the words “toy,” “child,” “play,” and “fun,” with bonus points for “monkey.” (yes, I got monkey in there twice.)
So, check out (& download) Lite Brite!
(FYI, the theme last year was “write about a venue you like to play,” and I wrote Java 13, which I also thought turned out nicely.)

Last Wednesday night (11/5/08), Jason and I “competed” in the finals of our 5th Three Rivers Productions “Acoustic Challenge.” This is a deal where there are 5 nights of 5 acts each, doing all-original material, and the winners of each night then compete in the finals for a grand prize of $1000. We had won once before (12/5/2006), so we are now “retired” from any future competitions.
We played the following set: Someone To Be Lonely With, Bitter Kid, Can’t Sleep (Jason on mandolin), Head Together, Hair Loss Blues (the latter two with sax). Other fine performers that night included the fabulous Joy Ike, (2nd place), Second Favorite’s Ben Alper and Eric Granata, Todd Jones, and Todd Edwards. It was great to hear so much excellent local music, and we were honored to play, & “win.” You can see some more pictures here. Big thanks to Nancy Lackner for organizing these fun musical happenings.

BIG THANKS to everyone who came out last Friday (11/7/08) to hear me and my kicking band at Your Inner Vagaond.
The Lost Sea opened, and were great (thanks, Sean!), and Your Inner Vagaond is such a great room (thanks, Andrew!): non-smoking, all-ages, BYOB, lots of couches, good sound, and easy to play not-too-loud. I hope we can play there again sometime soon .