Epic is out. So now what? New Year’s Resolutions Niagara Falls. Detroit goes to high school. Summer Tour. Progress. Quotes from Hamlet. And Macbeth?

Roger CortonHappy New Year!

JCHBack at ya, mate.

RCSo. Now what?

JCHThat’s an excellent question!

RCAnd the topic of today’s little side show.

JCHHey, that’s my line! So let’s go down the list…

RCWell to begin with, we just released Epic, right? As you say, that’s not chopped liver. We need to keep talking about that, man.

JCHWe will. We will. But we’ve also got Niagara Falls in THREE WEEKS!

RCAnd then there’s Detroit for high schoolers in April.

JCHWell, I dunno if that’s of public interest, but yes, I’ll be heading for Connecticut to see a concert performance.

RCBasically that means a stripped down version?

JCHA concert version simply means that the singers don’t act. They simply sing the parts in front of the orchestra. Also, the orchestra is smaller and the parts are simplified for non-professionals. This is the second public performance and the first that will be properly recorded.

RCWell that right there is exciting!

JCHIt sure is! I’ve never actually heard Detroit all the way through like this, ‘high school’ version or no.

RCCool. OK, that covers the definite stuff. Now let’s talk about the intangibles.

JCHWell, we’re definitely gonna get the next late summer tour going. My health is getting slightly better so it may be longer this time…

RCSo perhaps you can cover the entire country?

JCHRight! I may be able to not have to pick and choose for the first time in like five years!

RCCool! Anything else?

JCHWell, I’m still saying that at the end of the year will be the next record.

RCSeriously? New material?

JCHYes.

RCWow. I don’t even want to talk about that now. It’s too much. We need to focus on Epic.

JCHWho’s blog is this? The new record is already well along and it’s called ‘Progress’.

RCOK, why so the rush? Why not just focus on Epic and the next tour?

JCHBecause I’ve got a lot more to say. It’s as simple as that. And frankly I’m no spring chicken.

RCWhat are you talking about?

JCHLook, you just reach a point where you need to buckle down and just get ‘er done, fer chrissakes. I’ve lost so much time with illness over the past eight years. Eight years! When you and I met, I was releasing a new record every year.

RCI remember! We would all wonder, “Where the hell does all that material keep coming from?”

JCHWell, it never stops coming. It’s kept coming. I gotta get it out there; now more than ever.

RCWhy more than ever?

JCHWell, I see little sags in my performing technique. I don’t sing quite as high. I don’t play quite as fast. But on the other hand, my writing is a lot better than it was. My recording chops are wayyyyyyy better. So if the material is there in my mind? There are all these reasons to keep going. So long as people still are willing to pay for me to do it.

RCAye, there’s the rub.

JCHIndeed. But Hamlet? Shakespeare? You?

RCDon’t get all excited. I think that’s all I got in terms of ‘Shakespeare’… except for maybe ‘To be or not to be.’ But regardless…

JCHRegardless, to your point, I have another quote from The Bard. *”Tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow”.

RCWhich means?

JCHWhich means that no matter what we do, it’s all a crap shoot. But what matters to me–and I may be kidding myself, the thing I keep coming back to, the reason I did Epic…

RCYes? Yes? Yes?

JCHJust enough people have always supported what I do to keep me alive. I can’t tell you how gratifying that’s been for me. Every month now I hear about some guy I’ve worked with who is selling insurance rather than doing music or is doing (cough) ‘music’ but not anything like what he or she should be doing. And that doesn’t even cover all the truly talented people I meet who never got anywhere… and… Where was I?

RCYou were getting all gooey.

JCHOh. Right. The point is, I keep going because somehow, it always works out. And since it’s always worked out in the past, I figure it always will keep working out. And as long as it keeps working out? I feel obligated to keep at it. Full steam ahead.

RCPedal to the metal.

JCHBalls to the wall.

RCAs you like to say, Enough Already!

*Macbeth: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.