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Not for Nothin’ Version 2 and the New year 2026

With the new year (2026) I’m going to continue with my monthly song releases and decided with it being the 4 year anniversary of “Not for Nothin'” original release, I wanted to put out an updated (V2) slightly faster version. This was a one take recording while playing guitar and singing. I wanted to get more of a feel of what a live performance of this song would be like. I used the same acoustic guitar (Skinny) for this recording, but did end up using my Jaguar and some different pedals through a Zen Dragon tweed baseman style amp. On the original “Not for Nothin'” I used a Gibson SG for the lead guitar parts.
I just really like the tempo of this one (V2) better, though I always liked the sound of the original performance on my (Skinny) acoustic guitar. The whole song was based on that sound and I could never get a better sounding recording after the first take.
So here we are. I do enjoy both for different reasons, but I think this one flows more like I hear it in my head. Especially since I’m the one who has to sing it.
2025 was an amazing year, but I have super high hopes going into 2026! So far it has been wonderful. I just need to keep whittling down my list of songs to put out and keep the momentum going. I hope you will all continue to follow along and hopefully you enjoy these songs as much as I enjoy creating them.
No matter what, if you’re really trying to do something good, even if it doesn’t work out, It’s Not for Nothin’!

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Spectacle!!!

My December 2025 release is a song I wrote many years ago, but I think it really applies to today. It may have been written from the perspective of an actor or performer, but it seems everyone is in some kind of performative state with social media. You never know what to believe. What is up and what is down. Is this really what this person is like or is this a made up persona they have created to get clicks and views. It can be exhausting. I do this for fun and to keep my creative juices flowing. When it stops being that, then maybe its just time to hang it all up. Music should be fun.
I hope Ya’ll get some kind of enjoyment out of this stuff.
I did set a goal to put out a song every month this year, and this has been the fulfilment of that goal. I am happy with what I have accomplished and and am still excited as ever to keep creating more original music, in spite of the ever present looming AI overlords that seek to destroy the humanity and struggle of making real music.
I will continue to struggle and wrangle my notes to my liking and use my mind to create these sonic Artscapes. Yes I have been using AI to help with my album covers as I don’t typically have the time to do that type of art in my own life right now. I focus on the music. That will always be my main focus and passion. Hopefully someday I will have the time and money to do both. We can all hope and dream.


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“My How Time Flies!”

Its been said many times through the ages. My how Time Flies… and the older I get the truer it seems. I wrote this song about 30 years ago…So yea, time has flown! It has always been one of my classic songs that I sing regularly. I think I was listening to a lot of Collective Soul back then and wanted to write something with a message. It was mainly a message to myself not to take for granted the little things that happen in life. I didn’t want to blow through life so fast and miss out on the bigger picture. I wanted to always remember to live the experience. You only get one shot!

The song has stayed the same over the years minus one little change in the bridge because I never did like the original lyric. It was always an arbitrary number I chose and never did feel like it sounded right. So I changed it a few years ago, mid performance. It’s now “I did the same things for too many years!” not “54 years”. I realized that whoever sings the song is saying that part out loud, and who knows how long they might have breezed through life without taking a look around and enjoying the beauty an blessings they have in their life.

I’m attaching the scans of my notebooks I had the song originally written out it. It was written between June and July of 1996, and I’m amazed at how well its held up. The images and words written into that song mean more to me now as a 50 year old then it did when I wrote it when I was 20. I hope it can mean something similar to others out there.

Time Flies has always had a special place in my heart. I felt it was one of the first really good songs I ever wrote and I always feel the emotion of the story when I sing it. It always reminds me to be mindful of my choices and to soak in life as it happens, the good and the bad. Take in all of life’s experiences, live them to the fullest while reflecting upon the good you have done in this world… because my, … How time Flies!

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September and October releases 2025

I haven’t been updating this very well so I will do a quick rundown of my last two song releases. The September release of “Subtraction” was a good one. I had been wanting to release that song for some time but wanted it to sound right and I got it as close as I could with what I had available. It is one of my favorites and I hope you like it too. That song went through a lot of revisions before it got to where it is now.

For October I chose to release “I’m a Spy”, which I wrote in the mid 90’s and recorded around 2003 with my friend Wes Filhart on drums. I was playing my American Strat through a Marshall Valvestate 8080 combo and he was playing on my brothers cheap drum set I had set up at my place. Wes is an amazing drummer and has been an amazing friend since High School. I didn’t want to lose that session to time so I decided to put it out the way we recorded it with minimal modifications. I always enjoyed his playing on that track and hope the fun of that session comes out in the song. It was a song I wrote about a fictional Spy who was having second thoughts about his occupation. I envisioned that maybe he had been in it too long and just wanted to retire. It was all written in fun and in hopes to maybe write a movie about a similar character but never came into fruition. I remember playing a little different it faster that I normally would and loved the way it turned out. I hope you can enjoy it as well.

My November release will also be a song I wrote in the mid 90’s but it was all recorded in the last month. It is also one of my personal favorite songs of mine. I have played it live on multiple occasions, so this may be my most known song of mine, …if you know me…. I have some very old recordings of me playing this song from the 90’s. More to come on that next month when the song drops.

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Bound on Earth

Last week I released my latest single Bound on Earth. It is a bit of a departure from some of my other songs but really, It’s what I like to do. It’s an all instrumental mixture of alternate tunings, acoustic and electric guitars synths and haunting background vocalizations. I know I was writing it back around the time I was working on Been there Done that. I know my buddy Jon enjoyed it and I wanted to put it out a while back but put it off after his death. The name for it just popped in my head one day after listening to it, so that’s what it became. I really do enjoy listening to this song and find it soothing and inspirational at times. I hope you enjoy it and it means something different to you.

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Simple Things

This song was written in 2003, so yea, It’s not a new song, but its been one I have loved and wanted to put out for years. I feel the imagery is powerful and the words have thought and meaning behind them. When we die, what do we leave behind? What do you want to be remembered for? Who have you touched emotionally in your life? Have you made a positive difference in someone else’s life? Will you be known for good or evil? These are questions we should ask ourselves frequently. If you are not going in the direction you want, its time to course correct.
This song was written after seeing the Space Shuttle Colombia disintegrate upon re-entry in 2003. I saw the impact those astronauts had on so many people who had never met them. People mourned their deaths around the world. We may not have as much of an audience to impact and touch so many lives, but we still have our local environments to make a difference. Think local. What can you do to make it a better world for the people around you, for your neighborhood, family or friends? Are you waiting around in hopes that someone else will do it? Why don’t you figure out how to make a positive change and lead the charge. That’s how lives are impacted for the better. When good people take charge and do something right. Don’t follow a crowd. Don’t participate in group think. Be a leader.

So are you just gonna sit there trolling people on the internet or will you get out there and do something truly meaningful?
Decide what you want to do and how you want to be remembered, then live your life based on that vision.
Remember, It’s the simple things we do in our lives, that manage to let people know who we are. Let those Simple things hold value and purpose in making the world a better place.

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Been There Done That…

I just call it BTDT. My latest release is dedicated to my best friend Jon Hardy who passed away in December of 2023. I didn’t write the song about him, it just became him after he passed. This was one of the last songs I had him listen to before he died, so I thought of this song a lot after his passing. BTDT was only going to be the working title of the song, but I figured since Jon had really lived his life in so many ways, He had truly “Been There and Done That”. It’s gone through quite a few different modifications of lyrics, no lyrics, to minimal lyrics. I think this song may still progress over time when playing live, but for now this is where it is, and this is its truest form. I’m glad I’m finally getting it out there.


The picture for the single was of Jon, while we were on a Birthday Vacation on April 14th of 2021. It was taken while he was looking out the window at the Hassayampa Inn (Room 319) in Prescott, Arizona. We were goofing around in the hotel room and thought we would take some silly pictures. For some reason this one struck a chord with me and thought it matched the mood of the song.


There were so many takes and different guitars I tried before just settling on a cheap Ibanez classical acoustic guitar for the lead guitar part. It was not my first choice by a long shot, but seemed to fit when I played it. I plugged it in as a joke, but I think it needed that nylon string sound for certain parts to sound right to my ears.


I always sent Jon my songs for feedback and suggestions before releasing them. I remember the conversations we had on this song. We played music as friends when we were younger and though he was not proficient at playing bass, he could really make it sound good. He had an awesome percussive sound to his playing when he had fun with it. We would write silly songs together or rewrite lyrics to existing songs. He did love to sing. Life has changed greatly since his passing, for better and worse, but life goes on… He will always be with me in some form.
As the song says,
“I don’t want you to go…”

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Highroad to Heaven

I guess the Highroad to Heaven can be a lonely road sometimes. I wrote this song back in the Mid 90’s, so it’s old, and I’m finally got around to getting it recorded and putting it out there. The imagery of me sitting next to a payphone (I envisioned this happening in an old diner along a desert road), is what I am describing in the song, so I think it’s funny that you almost never see pay phones anymore… But I guess It could also be by my own smartphone, waiting for that call too. Too bad the call will never come through in this story. Sometimes we have to do stuff on our own, for better or worse. It makes us stronger, even though we may not like it. The songs title is just a metaphor for getting to the next level and not remaining stagnant. Getting to where we are happy with ourselves. We can all just sit by that phone waiting for someone to come along, to “make” us happy, and waste away the rest of our lives doing nothing, or we can choose to make the best of our current situations. The song can mean whatever it means to you.

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St Pattie (Bare Bones) release

This might be a surprise to some, but this song has nothing to do with St Patrick’s day. It was written on St Patrick’s day in 2021. The “Saint” aspect to the title has more to do with the having a good friend in your life who acts as a Saint to get you through a tough time in your life. We all need those people in our lives. My Best Friend Jon Hardy was my “Saint” for a long time, and I was devastated by his sudden death in December 2023, just days before Christmas. I was grateful that I got to call and talk to him the day before he passed. I had no Idea he would be gone the next day, but I was prompted to say some pretty meaningful things to him that night, to let him know why I considered him my brother and not just a friend. I was glad I got to say that to him directly.
With that, I have found good friends since then and they have acted as “Saints” in my life, and I could not be more grateful to them. This song has lots of meaning to me and I hope this “bare bones”, “acoustic only”, “One Take” with warts and all, version speaks to someone out there.
I recorded it with no click tracks, no edits. Just me playing and singing at the same time into a Rode NT-1000 Mic for vocals and an SM57 for the Martin guitar. I added some reverb and a tad bit of EQ but that’s it. It was my 9th take that I decided to go with. I left any mistakes as is and I’m good with that. If you think anyone could benefit from listening to this, please pass it along to someone you love.

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Her

“Her” also known as “Lost Identity”, is a song I wrote almost 30 years ago in August of 1996. It has been modified a bit since then by adding a chorus and bridge and removing a few lines, but otherwise, it’s about the same…
I really never thought I would release this song, but as I recorded it the other day, I figured why not.
The song is not written about anyone in particular. It never was. It’s simple but means a lot to me, and I guess it can mean a lot to other people as well. It can be as deep as you want to go with it.
In a nutshell, its about forgetting who you are while being overcome with bad decisions and bad people in your life. Looking inward at who you are, where you are now, how did you get to this point, and how/when do you ask for help?
Pictured below is the original notebook I wrote the lyrics in, along with another notebook I wrote it in later.
I hope it can mean something to someone.