Category: Songs for Beginners

  • Dirty ol’ tune

    Dirty ol’ tune

    In that same spirit of catching my breath toward the end of the year I find I never did share any of the rough mixes of the third song we recorded this year, which must have been back in April. This one benefited a lot from having John Hanes on drums, and I feel he…

  • Nobody called it that

    Nobody called it that

    At least in my day, nobody called our neighborhood on the upper east side “Carnegie Hill,” although that’s what they call it today and maybe some folks, like realtors, even called it that back then. A bunch of things converged in 2020. I was getting a bit more intentional about songwriting. I read the wonderful…

  • Why I use a chamois

    Why I use a chamois

    So a lot have been going on. Usually I rush over here breathless with excitement about my latest recording session but now I’m in catch-up mode again. Back in October I took off a long weekend for my birthday, and on that Friday went to Megasonic to record “Sham Song” (also known as “Chanson”). After…

  • Embiggening the fun

    Embiggening the fun

    Recording in the studio has been just an amazing experience so far, but this most recent session took it all up to the next level for me, personally! This time, we recorded live in the studio, as a quartet: Javier Navarette on percussion, Robert Wade on bass, David Gans on guitar, and myself on uke…

  • A fresh look at Moses

    A fresh look at Moses

    This song started off with one couplet and developed into something of its own. Having gotten the basic tracks down In the studio now, it has taken further shape, as hinted at in this rough mix (produced by David Gans and engineered by Jeremy Goody at Megasonic Sound, with David on guitar and Dan Brodnitz…

  • Never been to Narnia

    Never been to Narnia

    One sign of how busy I’ve been lately is it’s taken me weeks to share the latest rough mix from my “Pleasant Valley sessions,” something called “Finn’s Song” informally and “Stand Up, Mixer!” inexplicably: