The Rhetorical Demos
Recorded over a two-day stretch in November 2014, this collection of songs focuses on questions: questions of mortality, love, and our inquisitive nature. The initial inspiration for these songs was the interminable winter of 2013-2014, a winter of heavy snows, freezing rain, and sub-zero temperatures that refused to die.
These are bare-bones arrangements of the songs inspired by that winter. Armed with only my voice and guitar, I tackled these songs in quick succession, the idea being to create a rough impression of how they might sound for future arrangements.
Highlights include "When I'm Gone," in which a farmer idly ponders what things will be like after his death - for his farm, his family, and himself; "The Gift," the first happy love song I ever wrote; and "Spring Thaw," the song that started it all.
"Cross Word Lovers" explores the brief, tumultuous relationship between a mediocre editor and the writer he met at a Con; and "Sanctuary" serves as an ode to the sense of adventure that accompanies childhood. With "Heaven as Exoplanet," I try to illustrate the parallels between the religious person's hope for a heavenly afterlife, and the scientist's yearning for a new earth to explore.
My personal religious inclinations are made a little more evident on "The Builder's Prayer," a song of thanksgiving for the wonderful earth we call home. And rounding out the set is "A Fork In The Road," an admittedly weak attempt at Gothic fiction in song.
Many thanks go to my wife Tracy, for the cover art, and for her unflagging support.
These are bare-bones arrangements of the songs inspired by that winter. Armed with only my voice and guitar, I tackled these songs in quick succession, the idea being to create a rough impression of how they might sound for future arrangements.
Highlights include "When I'm Gone," in which a farmer idly ponders what things will be like after his death - for his farm, his family, and himself; "The Gift," the first happy love song I ever wrote; and "Spring Thaw," the song that started it all.
"Cross Word Lovers" explores the brief, tumultuous relationship between a mediocre editor and the writer he met at a Con; and "Sanctuary" serves as an ode to the sense of adventure that accompanies childhood. With "Heaven as Exoplanet," I try to illustrate the parallels between the religious person's hope for a heavenly afterlife, and the scientist's yearning for a new earth to explore.
My personal religious inclinations are made a little more evident on "The Builder's Prayer," a song of thanksgiving for the wonderful earth we call home. And rounding out the set is "A Fork In The Road," an admittedly weak attempt at Gothic fiction in song.
Many thanks go to my wife Tracy, for the cover art, and for her unflagging support.