Archives for 2025

The Legacy Music Project: Fall Samba

Fall Samba is one of the earliest - maybe even the second? - songs I composed after I relearned to play guitar in 2023. I’m assuming it was autumn when I wrote it. (That’s one of the things about my particular dementia characteristics: the passage of time has become very blurry. Gina bought me a clock that shows the day of the week, the time, and the date in huge numbers and letters, and this is extremely helpful for navigating through a single day, but a day ago could seem like a week ago, and … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: Train Time

When I was growing up in Harrison, New York, we lived about a mile from the train station. I didn’t sleep well as a kid, anxious about all sorts of things. But nothing calmed my anxiety, at least temporarily, like the quiet night-time sound of the train passing through. I have always considered trains to be these soothing, but powerful marvels of technology. In 1985 I went to see an intense action movie called Runaway Train. After the engineer has a heart attack, the train barrels down the track … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: Give Me a Second Chance

"Give Me a Second Chance" fell into my lap one afternoon; not fully gelled, but close. I find this song interesting, to me, because it begins with a thematic lead section that reappears twice more in the song, but has no rhythmic, chordal playing under it. I think it works; you’ll have to judge for yourself! If you pick up an album by Stars of the Lid (a personal favorite!), or many other exclusively instrumental acts, you might get the impression that the performers pulled their song titles out … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: A Thing That Lasts

“A Thing That Lasts” came together in a very unusual way. I was having some funky fun, playing around with a Lenny Kravitz- inspired rhythm. Once I established a “verse” and a “chorus” (I put these terms in quotation marks because having verses and choruses in my instrumental compositions is usually only obvious to Fett and I), four lyric lines appeared from left field. I wasn’t planning on writing a song with lyrics, and I certainly hadn’t considered writing a chorus about doing something … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: Something Old, Something New

Some of you might think the “Something Old” in the song title refers to me, or maybe even you! But, although that might be true, it actually has a different, very logical meaning. The “something old” refers to a riff that I have been fooling around with since my 20s. The “something new” part refers to all the other stuff I threw in to make this song longer than 36 seconds. I am always surprised when a riff or melody line finds its soulmate after such a long period of time! And, because this song … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: E All The Time

This is a short, upbeat instrumental, to add to my post-lyric songs written in the last two years. The explanation for the title is simple – every chord I play in this tune is made by forming the E chord up and down the fret board. Although there are several different chords in this instrumental, they can all be played with the basic E chord notation. The strong strumming is reminiscent of the songs I wrote and performed with my previous bands, No Mercy (hard rockin’) and Poetic Justice, and … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: I Said I Couldn’t Do It

I know exactly why I wrote this song! That’s very exciting, because most of my songs written in the last two years have been instrumentals, and there’s not much to say about why I named them what I did, other than “those were the words that popped into my head when I was working on this song.” (Although I totally believe in Divine Intervention.) But here’s the lowdown, folks: this is the song about that little (sometimes big) voice in our heads that tells us we can’t do this or that, or aren’t … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: Sunday, Early

I could make this a really short post: I wrote this piece early in the morning. On a Sunday. However, that might not be the whole story. It might not even do the song justice, but that you’ll have to decide for yourselves. Unless you are a dedicated night owl and completely adverse to rising up before the “crack of noon”* (*one of Tom Wait’s brilliantisms), you have likely experienced the joy and serenity of being present, at one with the morning, before any of the other members of the household … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: Minnesota Muse

  In July, 2024, Gina and I traveled to Minnesota for the first time. The occasion was a special event called The Everything Conference, and it drew artistic and creative people – who happen to be multi-potentialites – from around the world. The attendees were also the content presenters, providing unique perspectives and implementable strategies for a large variety of topics (close to everything!), as varied as the personalities and backgrounds of the folks who attended. It was a sweet week, … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: I’ll Be There with You

  Like the previously released “To Get Next To You,” this song, “I’ll Be There With You,” was written, recorded, and produced after I regained my ability to play guitar (acoustic and electric), write music, write lyrics, and sing after my dementia diagnosis. And, like “To Get,” it came out of my thoughts about the uncertainty of how long I had to live, and/or, how long I would continue to “be myself.” My wife, Gina, would often talk about her beloved grandfather, Bob, who passed in 1996, … [Read more...]