The end of summer has always been bittersweet for me.  On my latest CD, Jennifer Wilde helped flesh out my idea by writing great lyrics to our song “Summer’s End.”

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I wrote the chord progression and initial melody (which Jennifer greatly improved on) while on a camping trip at the end of summer, watching my daughter in a particularly joyful and innocent place.  I was struck by similarities of the end of summer, and the end of innocence that happens as a child grows.  Hopefully the song captures that… I think it does.  Growing up in the midwest, the end of summer meant not only the beginning of school, but the beginning of fall/winter, which brought snow and cold… and for me, as an outdoor child, melancholy.  I think it’s something people who grow up on the west coast haven’t experienced.

Today, it’s different.  With the end of summer comes the beginning of a new period of productivity for me.  The dormant entamoeba has been reborn, with a new cello player.  More on that as time goes by.  In the meantime, feel free to listen to this from the EP we put out earlier this year:

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Today, I had a conversation with Kevin Keller, an old friend and musician who I performed with in his Kevin Keller Trio.  He was waiting for the delivery today of his new CD, to be called “In Absentia.”  I’ve heard a bit of it, and it sounds really great!

Also today, I received a batch of files from my friend Rick Escobar that will comprise part of the next Aquamarines CD.  Rick has asked me to master them, so tomorrow I’m going to be in the studio getting one track ready for a pre-halloween release.  Again, I hate to repeat myself, but this stuff is VERY cool.  If you like surf music combined with old TV themes and classic Japanese pop blended with world music, you’re gonna like this CD.  I’ll see if they’ll let me post one here… if so, I will!

Cheers… and on to next time…