Last year I toyed around with opening a youtube channel to publish a few songs I had written.

Looking back on them, some are okay, some make me cringe.

I suppose I could take them down, but I think overall the evolution of the ideas is a

thing worth preserving, even if at time it is embarrassing.

I am looking to do some more of this year, but I really didn’t like when I talked about a

song before playing it.

And yet, sometimes an explanation is warranted.

This is where the blog will come in. It will allow me to give a little bit of an explanation

without cluttering up the actual videos with my goofiness.

I do this because I have a better outlet right now for this stream of creativity.

Perhaps one day I will.

Maybe one day I could put a group together, but in truth I am busy and everybody

around me is busy, and I have no idea how to get something like that started.

It is something I want to achieve, but I am not ready yet.

The story begins with me turning 40 and a certain election which happened within 30

days of one another.

I went out and bought a mandolin, and have been steadily working at learning to play it ever sense.

I have been writing some songs, and some fragments of songs that I can’t quite finish.

It is sort of a midlife crisis thing I guess.

I am not a genius or some truly gifted person who has studied at this for years.

I am just someone who devotes a portion of their spare time to sitting on my couch

and playing.

My videos are completely low budget. A rhode mike and my ipad.

Some of the videos have a bit of air in them ( if you know what I mean) so it might

annoy you if you listen on good headphones with the volume up.

Sometimes my dog walks in while I record.

Sometimes the furnace comes to life beneath my feet.

Sometimes I fumble chords or lyrics ( did I mention I am of advanced age?).

I try to get a clean take. I try to sit on the videos before publishing.

I try to divorce myself from the heady rush of creating something.

But at the end of the day, theses are homespun videos and they sometimes make me

cringe. But looking back on them they collectively it makes me happy.

And art asks to be shared.