Transparent recording process reveals all. I’ve known John Fields a long time. It’s a friendship that veers between collaboration, BBQ, the camaraderie of our same-aged daughters, and our passion for the great music. With long-time relationships, comes funny stuff. Truth becomes unavoidable. Walls come down. And elephants in the room suddenly begin screaming. He and [...]

A Tribute Album: Well now isn’t this the height of revisionist hypocrisy! That we, some 30 years on, sit here creamin’ over Ambrosia, Climax Blues Band, Firefall, Andrew Gold, Little River Band, Rupert Holmes and all manner of 70′s and 80′s musical polyester. In their heyday, this crowd of artists felt like sonic grave stones [...]

Freaky gig, Freaky venue. Pay fealty to the the shrines of The California Institute of Abnormal Arts––the most absurdly wonderful music joint in Los Angeles. No, it’s not a front for Scientology! It’s just a great place to see my band play on Saturday, June 15th. We headline at 11:30pm with an artist I dig, [...]

Transparent recording process reveals all. After years of not playing the slide guitar, “Invisible” beckons to shake off the rust. It’s something I love to do, having learned how in the 90’s, playing along to “Love In Vain” on The Rolling Stones‘ “Let It Bleed”, and J. B. Hutto & Lightning Hopkins records. It got [...]

With friends like these…. On the day I finished writing this song it seemed that these were among the best lyrics I’d ever written. They were concise, narrative driven, and autobiographical––about an ill-fated recording session and record label meeting in London. That evening, I recorded an acoustic demo on a cassette, and threw it in [...]

Transparent recording process reveals all. Originally I’d shown up at John Field’s studio to talk him through my drum vision for “Invisible”, a new song by Cliff Hillis & myself. Instead, John picked up his trusty Harmony bass, and got to work laying it down. Without any thought or discussion we kept last week’s rough [...]

Transparent recording process reveals invisible warts and extracts an Autotune confession. I emailed him, “play the drums like on Matthew Sweet’s ‘Girlfriend’ or ‘Rhiannon’ from ‘Rumours,’ or both simultaneously.” Then, night fell. The next morning John Fields, producer of two Wisely albums (“She” and “Turbosherbet“) sent me his big messy test pass of drums. Suddenly, [...]

Transparent recording process will reveal all. Thirty-one years ago this May, my band “The Addition” and I were LITERALLY arrested while making our first album––caught breaking and entering into our own recording studio. These days, a band making an album couldn’t even FIGURATIVELY get arrested. Music is too ubiquitous, or as former Sex Pistols manager [...]

Wisely Considers (Musical) Performance-Enhancing Drug Regimen. ‘Time Machine’ music player by Secret Friend. Politics and music are sometimes awkward bedfellows, but sometimes the combination explains everything. Late last year producer Linus of Hollywood invited me to contribute to an album project he was crafting for Secret Friend, a hybrid American/Australian project by Sydney-based songwriter Steven [...]

Expansive Radio Interview from Maui. Wow! Finally, DJ Michael McCartney and I sit down for a fatty–our first radio interview–17 years in the making on the Maui Time Machine on KEAO-FM. It rolls in at an hour and includes all manner of stories and songs–old and new. Who feels it knows it. Follow the Maui [...]