Our lives are comprised of many things including our genetic wiring, preferences, habits, relationships, ideas, achievements, failures. Throw them all into a pot with some broth, diced carrots, celery and a little hot sauce, set to boil and you’ll get the idea behind my music. It’s the expression of many interests and people I’ve played with, worked with and loved. A “strange coalition” if you will. I think it will take a strange coalition of people to right the ship in our divided nation. I can’t think of anything that bridges the divide better than music and the arts. What’s your Strange Coalition?

Click here to explore my musical world. In the meantime, here are a few new originals tunes to pique your interest.

Swift Accelerate

As a committed singer-songwriter, I try to stay current with new music. I listen to everything. When I am working I usually stream WERS, the best college radio station in America run by Emerson College students in Boston. They play a great mix of new music from your artists, and music from my generation. It’s great but I have never heard them play anything by the reigning Queen of Pop, who I was introduced to through my daughter’s playlist. She is immensely talented and successful and worthy of having a song written about her. So here it is.

We Are Not Alone

One of my guilty pleasures over the years has been watching the TV show, Ancient Aliens. It explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years as evidenced by early cave drawings, advanced ancient ruin that predate recorded history and continued mass sightings around the world. Over 20 seasons, Ancient Aliens has provided historic depth to the questions, provocative controversies, around this age old debate. Some friends and family are puzzled why someone who had a career in science and technology would watch such a show. They say that believing in the existence of other intelligent life is at odds coming with believing in a God-created universe. To that I say, it just makes God bigger, more complex and more beautiful. The Old Testament Book of Genesis speaks of the time before Noah and the great flood, where angels called the “The Watchers” who lived among humans and imparted great knowledge and technology. A few thousand years later, Ezekiel saw the celestial shining wheel within a wheel in the sky. A couple thousand years later, a tavern keeper from Baltimore sent Thomas Jefferson the earliest recorded observation of a UFO in the Virginia sky above Portsmouth. Now our Pentagon admits that it has had an ongoing program studying UFOs for more than 50 years. You decide whether We Are Not Alone.

Time Travel

This is a song I just had to get out of my head after watching the Nat Geo Series “Genius”. Geoffrey Rush plays Einstein. I recommend it highly. This is an attempt to fuse art and quantum mechanics. The future is the past in some form or another.

Frankenstein’s Love Song

This is a modern take on a gothic classic. Dr. Frankenstein creates a monster he thought would be the perfect human. Devoid of the vices that have plagued humanity that he could control. Instead he created a monster.This is a cautionary tale for today where politicians and their allies suppress our most basic rights in the name of creating a better society. We need to reject this totally and forcefully.

United We Stand

If you’ve listened to my Locally Grown podcast, you’ve heard snippets of this song in the beginning and the end. I wrote this tune a few years ago when I was also writing my book, Locally Grown: The Art of Sustainable Government. In these turbulent times, it is critical to remember that there is more that unites us than divides us in this great country. Many thanks to my friend and fellow musical conspirator Tommy Osuna for recording this with me.

Hurricane Allie

This one is just a boozy, semi-sloppy three-chord rocker that should be played in crowded smoky club. Like me, I think most people have run into some Hurricane Allie’s (or Billy’s) in their lives. Lots of laughs but watch out.

Giddyup (Hurricane Allie Pt. 2)

This is a second tune in the saga of Hurricane Allie who meets the love of her life and heads out for adventure shall we say. Bonny and Clyde got nothin on these two. Giddyup.

Cyrus

I go to Church semi-regularly. It's quiet time to contemplate bigger things than myself. Why are we here kind of stuff. Except for listening to sermon and a few parts of the service, I try to read the Bible quietly. Mostly the Old Testament because it is really an ancient history book. Cyrus the Great, King of Persia is mentioned in a few places as a "good conqueror" because he freed the Jews from their captivity in Babylon when he invaded. I guess its a cautionary tale for our time. Be careful of the warrior bearing gifts.

The Storm

This is a rallying cry for the people around the world who have been lied to and abused by their so-called "leaders." They tell us to be patriotic and loyal while they abuse that loyalty by diminishing our freedom to protect their power, all at the barrel of gun.

History has shown consistently that centralization of power eventually collapses under it’s own weight. This happens because centralization creates a single point of failure. Those kings, emperors, communist/socialist leaders better be right, or the whole society suffers. In contrast, American republican democracy distributes governance across 3 different tiers of authority: local, state and federal. That allows California to make different choices than Florida, while we still living harmoniously with the other states. Federal power only pre-empts the lower tiers for the really big stuff like the few enumerated powers in our Constitution. Similarly, we technologists discovered the power of distributed processing over a network to solve the bottlenecks of those old centralized mainframe systems.

Unfortunately, the United States has steadily centralized more power in the federal administrative tier which, by definition, decreases the power of the states and the people. Our founders warned about this. Our country was born by bloody revolution against tyranny. To think that can never happen again is whistling past the graveyard. There are powerful forces trying to divide us. When a critical mass of citizens see the truth, is when The Storm arrives.

Heaven is for Lovers

I don't write many loves songs mostly because that's what most everyone else does. New love, lost love, spurned love, lustful love, strange love (thanks Depeche Mode). To me, true love is about compromise. Putting others needs ahead of yours, and them doing the same for you. Selflessness. It's hard but worth it.

I wrote this one for my wife several years ago sitting on a Cape Cod beach. I played it for her that same evening for our 22nd anniverary. It's a rough demo that I would like to re-record with more polish. But hopefully you can feel the emotion.

Jesus’ Dog

Our 14 year old dog Rev, is a well-trained border collie that is so cool. He is a fanatical fetcher who will retrieve anything you throw. Loyal and smart. One beautiful day, I was throwing him the tennis ball and I wondered if he could talk, what story he would tell, Then I wondered if Jesus had a dog what story he would tell. Well, this song is THAT story.

Market Crash

This one is from my first album from Strange Coalition, Money, Politics and Old Lovers. Songs were written in the late 90's. Market Crash was written in 1998 in the wake of the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management L.P. a highly leveraged hedge fund that received a $3.6 billion bailout from the Federal Reserve. Big money back then. It’s cautionary tale that’s more relevant than ever for big centralized government creating incentives for risky behavior for their corrupt elite friends.

Come as You Are

I have recorded lots of cover songs. This is my favorite Nirvana song done my way.