The first bit of news is that it looks like I'll be opening up for Dweller At The Threshold at the Star's End Gathering on Sept. 23 in Philadelphia. This concert series is certainly one of the only regular concert series in the U.S. that hosts electronic music. Chuck van Zyl's dedication to this niche of the music industry is a constant source of encouragement for me. Without knowing how much time will be allotted, I plan on playing mostly new music, with a track or two from each of the two SB CDs. I'll also record the event and this may become the third SB CD, but we'll see. I'll use this space to maintain updates on the state of the new music.

As is my usual mode of operation, I'm in "incubator" mode now. What that means is that I do a lot of thinking about ideas, but don't actually sit at the keyboard and play. For the first time, I'm not rushing this stage and will put the ideas in motion once the time is right. Contributing to this is the disappearing winter here on the East Coast. My studio is in a room of our house that we don't heat regularly, which means it can be a bit uncomfortable to work in. In winters past, I've moved my gear to a different room, but with two kids now, that's not possible, so I've not done a lot of keyboard playing in the studio. We have a piano in our living room that I'll often use to sketch ideas, but for the most part the electronic equipment has gotten a break.

What I've been playing a lot of recently is bass. My first love as an instrument, and probably the one I still feel the most affinity to, it's been a good learning experience with concentrating on the instrument again. Besides new musical ideas, it's good to feel proficient on an instrument with strings. Despite almost 25 years of picking up the guitar, I've yet to feel a sympathetic resonance with the instrument. The closest I ever felt to being a guitar player was while taking a Guitar Craft course with Robert Fripp in 1990. Besides blowing my head off in terms of the other players there, I received enough material about what it means to be a musician and a human being to work on for a long time. There's going to be Guitar Craft course in Sept. in New Jersey, but given the time and money involved, it doesn't look like I'll be able to attend. This has created a disturbance in me that I'm not really able to articulate yet, but hope on these pages soon. The bottom line is that, once again, I'll have to try to make my way down the path without the support of a community.

The new CD is doing well, and I thank all who have purchased it. I'm about halfway to recouping my investment and fully expect to be able to fund the next CD. Most likely I'm not even going to send it around for consideration to other labels because it's just not worth it at this point. It's also easier to make the money back when doing it yourself.