Anna, Sincerely

It’s New Year’s Eve. I’m gazing down on Times Square, looking back over the year.

Coupla’ post scripts before it ends:

I had a brainstorm the other afternoon. I want to release a double CD in 2004: AM/PM. See, for some reason I write most of my songs in the morning. Probably because my frontal lobe (the logical part of the brain) hasn’t woken up. And I’m closer to dreams. So, I thought it’d be cool to put the mellow morning songs on one CD, and the more up tempo rock stuff on another. Of course, it’s ambitious and ridiculous considering that, even with the well-received Livingroom Tour, total demand for Almost Home is about 300 units, but what the heck. We’ll see how the year goes.

I had a two song morning on Monday morning. A new one came right after I blogged about the one I’d just written, “Untitled No. 2.” The other new one’s called “Anna, Sincerely.” It took about eight minutes. And it’s a keeper (whereas I’ll probably never release “Untitled No. 2”). You may recall that I have a song called “Anna’s Lost Her Mind” on Out of Your Head, so it’s kinda’ funny or weird or whatever to write another Anna song. But it’s great to sing — all vowels — and it fit. So there it is. Oh, and it’s a massively earnest song — they just get more and more so, huh?

Anna, sincerely, I love you completely
Anna, sincerely, I know you can hear me
Anna, sincerely, believe me when I say
Anna, sincerely, I won’t go away

Man, it’s really liberating when you stop worrying about being cool.

So, heck, it’s been quite a year, huh? It started in L.A., lost for the music. I wrote some songs. I released a CD. I hit eight states in fourteen days. I ran the marathon. I met all kinds of great and interesting new people. And I loved my friends and family as best I could. And one year later, I’m found, firmly in New York City. Thanks for making the trip with me. We’ve got some miles left in us. As Dan Wilson of Semisonic sings:

You tell yourself
What you want to hear
Cause you have to believe
This will be my year