Around 1990, on weekends I'd drive home from college and hang around in the local watering hole in the basement of the Wells Inn in Sistersville WV. Every few weeks an ‘older’ gentlemen (I winced as I typed that, as he was likely my age) would sit at the end of the bar with a simple nylon string guitar and play songs. Any songs. Anything people yelled out. I had just recently acquired my first guitar and sought out every opportunity to sit and listen to him, scanning his hands and marveling at the simplistic beauty of his art. The crisp vulnerability of his 50+ year old voice. He could seemingly play songs out of thin air. In between songs we'd slide him shots of Baileys irish whiskey and marvel at his repertoire of songs. Well, I was hooked. I've always had the peculiar knack for finding myself surrounded by incredibly gifted, talented people. And that serendipity continues to this day.
I also believe it pays to have a hero. In whatever your area of passion is. Outside of Jim Croce & Maury Muehleisen which I can often yammer on and on about, one of my other primary songwriting heroes has always been John Prine. If you're not familiar with John and you love songwriters, you need to type him into your Spotify search and listen to his first 2 albums, then his last 2 albums. Then after you wonder how you ever survived without him, go listen the rest of his music. (trust me here).
You'll also hear the influence on my writing.
On 7/26 my first song recorded since before the pandemic will be released. A super big moment for me. For those that don’t know, after 2 back-to-back rounds of COVID in late ‘22, I lost my singing voice entirely. Struggled for 10 straight months to finish sentences without gasping for air, packed on 30lbs, stairs began to punish me. My body declared mutiny on me. Here's a wonderful picture of me during the giving up on life period in 2023. 😖
As John Cleese famously declared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “She turned me into a newt!" (awkward pause)
"I got better.”
But despite mostly recovering early this year, the timbre of my singing voice was still dramatically changed. Not unlike John Prine’s in ‘98 after his throat surgery. The one bulletproof thing I could always count on. But he kept writing and sang with the voice that remained. So, I was without excuse after I finished feeling sorry for myself for a year or so. I finally let it go. Let's bloody get on with it. After all, some of John’s finest songs & performances were with his post-surgery voice. It was really never about his voice anyway. It was how he made people feel. He still had his pen and so did I.
I've come out the other end of long-COVID, and I won't let the cat out of the bag prior to the release, but we've opted to strip everything down to the very essentials for these next recordings. It will have a very Rick Rubin-ish vibe, but it's 100% Bob McCutcheon's genius behind the glass and maybe a little of that row of Grammys that taunts me during each session.
There's no 5 piece band, no clever overdubs and session players this time. Just me & my guitar. The way you would hear me play in your living room or sitting on a sofa at a coffee shop. Not unlike my nimble-fingered friend down in the Wooden Derrick pub so many decades ago.
I also get to work with people who inspire and help me not to let fear or my insecure perfectionism get in my way. If I didn’t have Bob McCutcheon and so many others supporting me over the last couple years, I would have 100% hung it up. The inside voice constantly chattering, “Will anyone even want to hear me anymore? I don't sound like I used to." As I wrote in my book, I've learned to stomp on that voice and do the exact opposite of what it says. Just out of spite.
But what would John Prine do? I'll tell you - he had half his neck removed and part of a lung and still made some of the best folk-americana music ever written. He’d get his butt back in the studio and just do it.
So that's what I did. Thanks John. I can see him across the table from me eating his Tuesday meatloaf at Arnold's Country Kitchen and smiling at me with those ornery, kind eyes right now. “Mmm-hm.”
And here we are, just a few weeks away from brand new music with The Vault Records. A new story to share. A recording that exceeded even my wildest expectations.
Bob McCutcheon you too are my hero, for so many reasons there's simply not room here to articulate. But just so you know.
This single, and the subsequent album will be about the maddening art of writing and my spin on life through that medium. We're going to put the album out on vinyl when it's complete. I won’t be auditioning for The Voice again anytime soon, but now it’s my hope that - you’ll hear my heart instead.
