Blog Posts

Dear Maggie, You were born six months ago today. It was a humid June afternoon when your mother and I walked from our East 71st Street apartment to New York Presbyterian Hospital. You were breach and — despite our best efforts in those final weeks — refused to turn. You were delivered via c-section June…

For me, it was always crucial that “A Holiday Benefit” be more than just a compilation album. “A Very Special Christmas” (one of our original inspirations) did that well enough; we wanted to do more. It was Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” that set the bar. Phil Collins, George Michael, Bono, Simon LeBon,…

Last month, a dozen New York City singer/songwriters gathered in Brooklyn get their holiday cheer on early. The group’s recording of Tom Petty’s “Christmas All Over Again” will kicks off “A Holiday Benefit, Vol. 4,” a thirteen-track charity compilation benefiting 826NYC. Since its inception in 2007, in “A Holiday Benefit” has raised over $10,000 for…

The hardest part about recording “Golden Slumbers” with Casey Shea was asking Casey Shea to record “Golden Slumbers.” I’ve known Mr. Shea pushing ten years now. Still, it didn’t take ten minutes to discover his affinity for The Fab Four. At his own wedding, Casey nailed “All My Loving.” At my wedding (where the purvasive…

I’d been angling to collaborate with Raining Jane’s Mai Bloomfield for nearly three years. It took me that long to find the right song. I first met Mai in 2008. Raining Jane was opening for The Nadas in Des Moines. I was opening for both. The ladies knocked my socks off with their three-part harmony.…

In seventh grade, Mrs. Culp kicked me out of her music class. That she should find me twenty-five years later to tell me that she’s “impressed beyond words” with my new benefit CD, “Forever Young,” then, is sweet relief — and my best review ever. Mrs. Culp’s junior high music class was a south-facing, high-ceilinged,…