The music...

As I've said, for me its always been about the music. Very early on I got absorbed by music, and sort of became a conduit for songs to come into being. For this I am grateful, as that creative connection that happens at the birth of a song has been one of the greatest experiences I could hope for...
But it hasn't been all fun. Unlike many who pursue music because it looks like a "fun way to make a living" or to have people look up to them & give a boost to self-esteem that's lacking, for me it was different.

I often felt more like I've been handed some heavy stone tablets and sent out with a mission to find people who will listen. And I'm ill-suited and frankly reluctant to deal with such a task.

But that's only on bad days. The reason I feel that way, is because in many ways I never felt the songs were mine. Of course at the same time they are mine as they seem to take the shape of the opening thru which they came into being.

(More on this when I write other articles on creativity and/or inspiration.)

Anyway, I don't take any real credit for this music yet I value it highly, putting me in an odd position where I feel a strong desire to get it out there & yet don't really want to put myself too much in the spotlight. I guess I love the songs themselves and where they came from and out of that gratitude want to share them with anyone who can find value in them.

Now about the music itself...If you were to listen to a few songs from the Circular Flight album, you would probably come to the conclusion that I was mainly an acoustic/folk type of guy and that wouldn't be too far off. I am a product of the singer-songwriter generation and that had a big influence on me.

I developed a lot musically listening to James Taylor, John Denver, Cat Stevens, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot....etc.,etc.

But keep in mind that in choosing the tunes for the album, I searched my catalog of around 135 songs looking for those selections that 1)Were similar in theme and character and 2) were of sufficient quality that I felt they ought to be recorded somewhere rather than left behind and forgotten. Although my heart is certainly well-planted in these styles of music, they are by no means the extent of my catalog. I will use a similar formula to populate future albums, but the music will be quite different.

In fact, I have at least 2 more albums planned, including the one on which I am currently working. It will contain a number of my darker and heavier tunes and feature more electric guitar work. It would probably suprise "CFlight" listeners to find I spent most of my early years on guitar learning to play blues. That and jazz influences I picked up at Berklee finally come to light.

If this isn't a sharp enough break, the third album will contain a number of country songs. This mystifies even myself for I have never really been a country fan nor consider myself a country artist...But it should be noted that, as a lover of music, I spent several years immersing myself in country music to try and distill in my head what was good about country and what wasn't. Like most popular forms I found country to be more than 80% throwaway material, much of written "intentionally" based on clever concepts with little that's genuine.

(sort of like George Burns...the biggest thing in show business is sincerity...learn to fake that & you've got it made.....)

But somehow it got into me. And being an "inspired writer", I often have little control over what I write...being limited to the options of "accepting" or "rejecting" what comes my way. Usually when a song comes, it tells me itself what style it wants to be clothed in....Hence the eclectic nature of "my" music.

That's the overview. When I get around to it, I will put up some samples from the first album, and later some from the album yet to come. If you stumble on this page and like what you hear,great...If you don't...that's fine...keep looking for your own spaces.