Happy New Year!
My 11 new songs for 2008 were (in order): Harper Lee (our greatest 1-book author?), pity to waste it (Paul Tabachnek loves this song), secret (GLBT ally song #2), morning sickness (written at Bethel Park High School), bitter kid (Paris? Brittany?), j’ai vidé mon cœur (oui, that’s French… I had some help), Lite Brite (which won me $100-yay!), few and far between (written for a Rhode Island songwriters-in-the-round thing), headlights (love vs.3, still not sure about line #2), Eveline (I got the name from a sign for “Evaline St.”), & married a lawyer (a little Google is a dangerous thing—MP3 is now posted!).
For me, a song a month is pretty typical; my favorite new song of ‘08 is probably Lite Brite, though the French one is quite lovely; I like them all, really. (I actually do.)

My first song in 2008 was started in December of 2007. I was down in Harrisonburg VA, at my parents’ house for the holidays, and happened to see a brochure about Harper Lee, the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It turns out Harrisonburg was doing the “1 City, 1 Book” program, and that book was “TKaM.” I read in the pamphlet that this amazing book was, in fact, the only one Harper ever finished, and that, in the intervening 40+ years, she has only published a couple of essays.
So, I wrote a song called “Harper Lee.” I’m still not sure if the line “but the next one never took” quite works? But e-mails are running 2-1 in favor of it. :]

My 11 new songs for 2007 are: Icicles, Home Team, Sure, I Will Only Let You Down, ee cummings, Leave Like This, Java 13, When I’m Not Around, Thank You (When You Say Goodbye), Something Good, First Mistake.

You can download demos of some of the best of’em, featuring Jason Rafalak on mandolin/bass: Something Good, ee cummings (words by E.E.), Leave Like This (for Lee), When I’m Not Around, and Java 13 (a non-winning song contest entry :] .)