Songwriting Demos

Truth be told, I think of all my recordings as songwriter demos.

When I first started writing songs I told people who called me a guitarist that I was not. I told them I was a guitarist in the same way Jack Kerouac was a typist. It was a tool for getting the words on paper, or in my case, locked in song. Until recently, I have taken the same attitude toward the production of my demos.

I have always been driven to finish the song and get it down for other, better, musicians and singers to take to the places I never could. Of course, personal pride and the pure pleasure of the process demand I make the recordings sound as good as I can, but I have almost always been willing to settle for “as good as I can” without sweating how good it could be, which I think accounts for both the high volume of songs I’ve recorded, as well as how few truly great tracks I have released. Dig the distinction between songs and tracks.

My own experience as a listener is one of coveting the warts-and-all songwriter demos of artists I let into my heart: Pete Townshend, Rickie Lee Jones, Prince, Elvis Costello, The Beatles, Jon Brion, They Might Be Giants. It is in this spirit I intend to be as generous as I can on this site without embarrassing myself, or taxing your attention, too much.

NOTE: I will be slowly populating this page with these demos and the stories about them. Thank you for your patience.