Recorded Music

Released on my 55th birthday in January 2025. The national speed limit in the US was 55 miles per hour when I was a kid, so I suppose I’ve always viewed 55 as a fulcrum. On one side is staying within the socially and legally prescribed lines of acting and thinking, and then there is hitting the gas and breaking on through to the other side. The songs on this EP are me talking to myself upon turning 55 about life, love, and the world around me. They’re also just 5 songs.

The first one, “Vampires from the East,” is my favorite thing I’ve written in years – which doesn’t mean it should be yours – but it pretty much sums up how I feel about the world socially and politically in 2025. “You Say You Want It Easy” is a reflection on dealing with mortality. “Heidegger’s Haus” is bottling the ends on and finally making some uneasy peace with philosophy, specifically German philosophy, after chewing on it relentlessly since I was about 17.

At the end of the day, “Do You Wanna Boogie With Me?” is probably the only question ultimately worth asking. It may or may not be the only song ultimately worth playing.

Recommended drink: A High-Quality, Süddeutsches Pilsner Bier

Released in 2024, this album is a collection of “studies” I used to tune up and dial in my new recording studio in Heidelberg, Germany after moving into a new house there in 2020. Meant to be a simple, quick project at onset, it turned into something much larger and more all-consuming. Find out more than you’d ever want to know about this project and my recording studios, past and present, on the Recording Studios page on this site!

Recommended drink: a rich Italian red wine, like Rosso di Montalcino

Released in 2020. This is me sitting alone doing solo piano / vocal renditions of some of my favorite AC/DC songs. It was something to do during the Covid lockdown times! Suitable for home or office and at least for me it was an interesting re-visit to some of the material that got my band, Hayseed Dixie, started in 2001.

Recommended drink: Jack and Coke

Released in 2020. French impressionist nighttime drinking music composed by Claude Debussy and Erik Satie and played solo on an upright piano. As I make these pieces to be the harmonic precursors to US Western Swing and Jazz, I tried to play them with a bit of swing and swagger not usually found in “classical” recordings.

Recommended drink: Petit Chablis

Released in 2018. An EP of dirty Southern Country Rock riding on a Trash Blues mule. Me on Gretsch electric guitar and Pete Robbins on cajon and various percussion. 4 original songs and 1 country classic cover.

Recommended drink: Bourbon Whiskey neat

Released in 2016. An old-school, classic-rock piano and guitar album of original songs dealing mostly with love, death, work, politics, religion, and food. Recorded in a 7-day frenzy in the old Nashville studio with me playing most of the instruments.

You’ll either love it or hate it, depending entirely upon your tastes or what sort of mood you happen to be in.

Recommended drink: Dirty Gin Martini

Released in 2013, this is my first solo album. These are acoustic guitar based observation songs, mostly written during the 2011 and 2012 Hayseed Dixie European tours. I truly loved these songs, but they didn’t really fit on a Hayseed Dixie band album. As I was riding a motorcycle everywhere between the shows during these tours, most of these songs were first scribbled down in gas station parking lots.

Recommended drink: Altbier aus Düsseldorf