Three years in the making and available now! A collection of songs from the opera Detroit, with all new arrangements and performed by JC Harris. Get the details here.

PS: I May Have Something In My Eye…

Or, maybe it’s just another infection. 😀 Seriously, I can’t thank you all (fans and music companies alike) enough for your support. In this day and age, I really had no right to expect anyone to stick with me after so long away from touring—especially to do something so insane-o as ‘grand opera.’ These past three years have been, in many ways, the toughest of my life. And as I’ve noted here, I had no idea when I began how writing Detroit would affect me personally. I used to scoff at journalists and authors who bitch about ‘getting too close to the story.’ But I get it now. Thankfully, my drinking days are over or I’d be in trouble, buddy. Again, thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s […]

To compensate for the aforementioned (and frankly inexplicable) lack operatic income, I’ve been playing with some local funk and blues groups which were quite well paid but I found myself repeatedly self-destructing. (More on that in a separate rant.) So I’ve been begging, borrowing, stealing work for various local pit bands—community theatre, dinner theatre, etc. Since my various maladies, I sure ain’t the picker I once was, but thank goodness there are still gigs where reading is a pre-requisite; and thank goodness all the jokes about guitarists and sheet music ring truer than ever. It’s a living.

And it’s given me a chance to watch all the low budget ways that you can stage various gags. I kept getting hung up on ‘impossibilities’. There are so many events in any staged production which defy believability if you think about it too much. But it seems that I have to constantly remind myself the very thing I love about the theatre: people want to suspend disbelief. I don’t have to worry so […]

As you can see, in two months you’ll be able to purchase my first album of all new material in four years. I don;t know whether I’m amazed at how fast. Or how slow.

Get details and hear some samples

Today was a weird day. I learned a couple of things that seem small, but feel pretty big to me right now.

First of all: After thirty five years in Amerikay, I still spell like Rudyard Kipling. I fantastise about the Girl From Ipanema. I live in a neighbourhood. Because that’s that was the flavour of culture the Christian Bros. beat into us (that’s a multi-layered joke if ever there was one.) Because that’s what the OED said. And by God if the OED says so? Well there you have it! My friends think it’s crazy that I could so easily adopt a mid-western accent but hold onto the ‘antiquated’ spelling—the exact opposite of every other self-respecting ex-foreigner.

But today I stumbled upon the fact that the OED now considers both ‘ise’ and ‘ize’ are considered correct. And then the final indignity: ‘ize’ is now the preferred rendition. WTF? (Same on both sides of the ocean.) Self-improvement goal #461.

What I find disturbing is that the OED, of all things so stable; so […]

I really love Boardwalk Empire. Aside from the obvious comparisons with Detroit, it’s got fabulous actors, costumes, sets and great period music. Totally captivating. After all the boffo recommendations, I couldn’t wait to get my first NetFlix disc. I flipped it in and within five seconds I was reaching for the remote to shut it off. This alt rock theme wailing away (which sounds a lot like ‘Season Of The Witch’) under all these surreal CGI-enhanced images from the show. WTF?

I must stop here to tell you that I am of that ilk that finds no joy in stylistic mash-ups. Remember all those movies in the 80’s where they hired Queen (or worse still, Hans Zimmer) to do a rock/sequencer score for a movie involving medieval castles? YUK!

Fortunately, if one fast forwards past the crappy theme music? The actual show score is fantastic early jazz. But I forgive ’em. I know why they did it. And it worries me.

When you hear live early jazz it sounds great. Big. Full. But […]