I’m excited to say that, after many delays, manufacturing of Excellent Trouble beings this week, with Oasis manufacturing the CDs and digipaks, and Knepper Press printing the booklets and inserts. (Knepper will then send them to Oasis for final assembly.)
You can check out Seth Clark’s terrific original art here.
The packaging will feature a 6-panel (3 “squares”) matte digipak, with a 24-page booklet glued into it.
There will also be a 6-panel lyric booklet, in the same pouch as the CD.
You can still pre-order this disc (just hit 30 pre-orders, and counting—I update the total on the graphic below). It’s not too make a small loan/grant to help support the record, but it is now too late to get your name in the credits, unfortunately.

This next CD has been mixed, by Lurch, and has now been mastered by Toronto’s Fedge (Jeff Elliott). After 3 rounds of minor tweaks and changes, a final version of the music should be done shortly.
Here are the songs featured, in the order they’ll appear:
1. Again, 2. How it Ends, 3. Some Strange Algorithm, 4. Keep it to Yourself, 5. Someone to be Lonely With, 6. I Will Only Let You Down, 7. Lovely Trap, 8. I’m So Glad You’re Over Me, 9. Horses, 10. Leave Like This, 11. Love is All I Have For You, 12. Excellent Trouble, 13. Card Tricks, and 14. At the Table. Four songs, Again, How it Ends, Keep it to Yourself and Horses even have strings, thanks to Roy Sonne and the Fauré String Trio (arrangements by Chris Massa).
On the art front, Seth Clark will be working to complete the design work in the first half of June. The design will resemble a sketch book, and will feature a 24-page glued-in booklet. Check out his website, in particular his sketchbooks, to get a sense of his work. You can also see my round draft of the credits’ page, which I think will be fun:

So, the good news is that I should finally have “new product” here, maybe by July sometime. Meanwhile, you can still pre-order Excellent Trouble, and help me cover the costs of mastering/duplication.

hi, friends--happy holidays, all!
When I run into folks, I'm often asked "how's the music going?" This is a question I'm never quite sure how to answer. My inner cynic/cranky old man likes to complain, if I let him ("I'm so broke! The album's still not done! The turnout at my last show was light...") You get the idea--the inner crank is unhelpful. :7
For me, success has always meant continuing to do things I love to do: write new songs I'm excited about, play them for people (mostly at small shows), play sax & harmonize with others, enjoy the great songs so many of my talented musician friends write, and getting excited about new music. The fact that I'm still doing all those things...

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Once again, I’m activating my “undercover” rock band, consisting of Ryan Socrates on drums, Jason Rafalak on bass, and Corey Congilio on electric guitar, for a show. We’re playing this Friday, Dec. 11th, at 8pm at Yoga Matrika, (6520 Wilkins Ave., in Point Breeze). Should be a fun show, and probably the last full band show till the next CD release!
Opening will be Maine’s Putnam Smith. I got a copy of his newest CD, Goldrush this year at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and really loved it.

I got to play the 2009, 4th Annual Apple Festival, including 2 of me & Ryan Socrates (on percussion) playing music there at the Union Project (on Sat., Oct. 24, 2009). The pictures were taken by Larry Rippel.
Needless to say, the Apple Fest was tons of fun, with a Pie-ku poetry contest, music by us and also the Unitarian Folk Orchestra, and we even got to taste the winning pie!

Last month I played at the terrific new Midtown Scholar Bookstore space in Harrisburg, PA. Karyn Albano of Discovering the Area’s Music & Entertainment or DAMES, came out to the show, and wrote a really nice review.