To celebrate this, and to encourage the upward motion, I’m knocking $1 off from both CD and mp3s for a limited time. I’ll knock another $1 off when it reaches the top 3.

Please help me climb to the top!

That’s what I started doing in the last week or so, with my guitar.  Before and right after the move, I obviously couldn’t really play the guitar — so even though my music equipment is still stacked away, I thought my first order of business in my new home was to get reacquainted with my main tool.

I used to be more obsessed about being disciplined about improving my technique.  And my technique does need improving.  But right now I’m not too concerned about it.  Last year was the year I had the least time to play my guitar since I started at age 16.  Yet, guitar playing was one of the things I was happy with my last album.  Thanks to the wonder of technology, capturing and editing the best parts allows me to create a recording that is good enough to my ears.  Live, it’s a different story — and I’m sure I’ll be quite rough at first, when I get back into it — but I’m sure my chops will build up to meet the demands then.  I’m not worried about it.

Most the material for the next album are written, but there are still a few songs and details that are unfinished.  So I’m keeping that in the back of my mind — though I’m not really focusing on it too much.  I’m just jamming, and letting the ideas come out.  My MacBook has a build-in camera, so whenever I come up with cool material, I just shoot a quick video of it.  It’s perfect — I don’t have to write down chords or anything!

Brainstorming is just pure joy.  I enjoy all the possibilities of what these little parts can end up being.  Songwriting is a skill I feel very confident about.  I’m going to write some good songs.

I had a “vacation” of sorts for a month. Not working, or more importantly, not having any routines or structures to my days, was actually not enjoyable. Moving is very hard work, taking care of little kids consistently so, and when they’re sick it’s worse. I’m not afraid of hard work but I don’t do well with working hard without structures.

In my experience, the biggest challenge of self-employment or owning your business is in imposing that structure upon yourself, when nobody else demands it out of you. It’s easy when a job needs you to clock your time in between certain times. Most of us simply don’t possess the kind of self-control to do that without external forces, including yours truly. But I’m getting better and better as I get older.

Actually, with a day job I have less time to work on my music or my music business. But I am more productive when I have limits and structures. With a new job, and a new home, I am making up a new structure. One that keeps good parts of what I had, while improving on bits and pieces to make it better.

Habit is an act you do routinely without thinking about it. A good routine, a good habit can do wonders to our lives.

I’m trying to make the most of this change, this occasion to tweak and make up good routines. Once the machine’s oiled and rolling, then I simply ride it.

Because I’m moving there in December.

I’ve been living in Austin, Texas for the last 10 years.  It’s a great music town.

But it’s always been a bit of unrequited love for me.  Austin loves roots music — folk, country, blues, Latin.  There are rock bands here, but successful ones tend to be all quirky in one way or another — not very main stream.  Texas in general has a different taste in music for the rest of the country.

And I guess I just didn’t fit in.

I’m moving to Minnesota because we have families there.  But it’s also so that I can pursue my music.  You see, I am being very, very ambitious — I want to have a family AND I want to pursue music.  Those two don’t get along very well in general.  My family is very supportive, but obviously they don’t want to starve nor see their daddy go on the road for a few months at a time.

By moving and being closer to our extended family, we can receive more support and social time.  Which frees me up to do more music.

It’s better to live in a smaller music scene but have time to do music, than to live in a huge music scene with no time to do anything.

Plus, change is good.  I always enjoy a big change.  Change seems to open up the future — you don’t know what’s going to happen next.  I like that openness.  Anything can happen.

I’ve always had love/hate relationships with plans.  When you have plans, you worry whether things go according to plans.  When you don’t, you just optimistically wonder “I wonder what’s going to happen next?”  But yet, we do need plans, to remain focused and efficient.  I just tend to get bound to my plans, that’s why I sometimes like the spontaneity of having no plans.

Don’t get me wrong, we definitely have plans, and plans are good.  But there is a lot that we don’t have plans for, because we can’t predict everything in a new life.

This year I released my album, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a sense of direction.  It’s a terrific time to change and start anew.

At long last, I am releasing a 3-song single package.

Come and get it!!

It is my joy to be able to share my music freely. Download today!