2020!

A Challenging Year

     Back in February I was looking forward to a busy year. As I began my third season as a performing songwriter in the Rogue Valley I had already booked out dates through December and was hosting a monthly open mic and Songwriter "In The Round" events at Roxyann winery. On the eve of the March open mic I had the realization that we were facing a dangerous epidemic and the first inkling of concern. At that time I wasn't sure how serious the situation was going to be, so just to be prudent I decided to cancel the event for the month. Shortly the Governor closed the state, and after that I canceled everything I had booked for the rest of the year.

     As March progressed the full impact of the epidemic became a reality, and we observed a strict quarantine, and I mean we didn't go out at all, even having groceries delivered. Lockdown. We watched as Europe struggled through its wave of infections, then New York. We only had a handful of cases locally and that was somewhat comforting, but we still were very anxious about what was happening. As we head into the end of the year, the situation is worsening and all signs point to many more months of waiting for the epidemic to come to an end. It's been a test of our patience and resilience, but also offered opportunities for growth. 

     What I soon realized was that over the last three years performing and practicing had taken up all my energy to the detriment of developing new material. I had a continuing writer's block that began when we moved to Oregon. I just didn't seem to be motivated, I think mainly because I was now distant from Nashville and the competitive environment, but for other reasons as well, like the distraction of exploring a new place and meeting new people. Not only that, but rekindling being a live performer necessitated mastering a new song list and many hours of rehearsal to prepare for gigs. All of that was put aside and as the time passed I fell into a more reflective state. My creative process returned. Ideas started trickling in.

    Also, I started working on some unfinished recordings that were left over from my last album, "Home For Good" (available on Spotify). What I discovered was that after two years of gigging, my singing had gotten better, and some of the melodies that were eluding me were now within reach. My guitar playing had evolved as well, and I enjoyed applying improvements to these tracks. The result is "Loveland", 10 songs that I will be releasing soon.

     If it hadn't been for the epidemic I wouldn't have taken the time to work on this project, and that's kind of a mixed blessing; I'm really happy with the tracks, but wish the circumstances weren't so tragic. This is the paradox of life, when events beyond our control take over and we are compelled to make the changes needed to adapt.

     2020 has been a retreat, where we have been obliged to take a step back from all our busy lives and hopefully used the downtime to meditate on and evaluate our paths for ourselves and for our society in the future.