For those who are curious about what I’m working on, in essence I’ve decided to embark upon an ambitious (read: borderline insane) quest to record and produce an album almost entirely by myself.  The project, entitled “Seven Cities”, is a concept album consisting of an eclectic mix of folk/rock, country, and R&B with a decidedly late 70’s flavor, influenced by diverse artists such as Dire Straits, Steely Dan, Ronnie Milsap, George Benson, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Eddie from Ohio, Waylon Jennings, Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Hornsby, Alan Parsons, and Bruce Springsteen.  The plan is to mainly release the album on vinyl and on popular download services, with a possible limited CD run for local sales and promotion.

“Seven Cities” represents a sort of musical road trip across North America and back, exploring love and loss against the backdrop of urban skylines, small towns, and scenic western vistas. The name calls back the expedition of Coronado, who searched all over North America for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold but ended up finding only a rich and beautiful land, a treasure which was ultimately more valuable than gold. In the same way, the songs in “Seven Cities” tell stories of our own personal searches for gold and how we rarely find it but sometimes manage to find ourselves in the process.

Track list:

1. “The Way We Started” – a musician falls in love with an actor but discovers that the only way to her heart is through her ego.

2. “Dead to the World” – a pair of film directors burn so many bridges that one of them ends up unable to get any work other than directing porn with actors and crew whose egos far exceed their talents.

3. “Atlanta” – a man abandons a promising relationship, ostensibly because he’s homesick for Atlanta, but really because he’s afraid to commit.

4. “The American Dream” – a woman moves to a Midwest city to find love, but failing this, she ends up in a loveless marriage just so she can avoid living alone.

5. “Jennifer” – a man is afraid to tell a woman how he feels, for fear of losing her as a friend.

6. “The Blacksmith Shop” – during Jazzfest, a pianist partying at the oldest bar in North America is asked, out of the blue, to sit in for the legendary Johnny Gordon.

7. “Hill Country Rain” – a story about the epic flash floods along the Lower Guadalupe River and the people that continue to rebuild in the flood plain despite the danger.

8. “One-Way Line” – a musician ponders the breakup of his marriage as he rides the SkyTrain into Vancouver.

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