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...]

Legacy Music Project: Henry’s Gift

I am so grateful for the public libraries of this world for allowing people to sample, for free, all kinds of books, music, movies and more. I used to grab five or six CDs every time I went, artists and albums that I knew nothing about, but was intrigued by the song titles, or the band name, or the cover. It’s where I discovered a now favorite band, Explosions in the Sky, which led me to explore an entire genre of instrumental music that I was completely unfamiliar with. All this to say, Gina … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: I’m Still Here

Shortly after my diagnosis, I started to feel (not necessarily based on reality, but undeniably what I felt) like I was being abandoned, that long-time friends were uncomfortable continuing a relationship with a person with dementia, no matter what stage they were in. Suddenly, people that I’d had ongoing communication with started not communicating. I felt ghosted, and ghost-like. (This concern was recently validated when I was watching a show about the residents of an assisted living facility, … [Read more...]

The Legacy Music Project: Lights of Home

Lights of Home was written shortly after I moved to Nashville in October of 1988. I had left my previous “home” in Baltimore - a single apartment in Cockeysville, Maryland – to stake my claim as a songwriter in Music City. I was just establishing my new “home” in the outskirts of downtown Nashville, with a stoner named Andrew (I can’t recall what he did to make ends meet), and an aspiring stand-up comedian, named Marian. I had quickly assembled some great musicians (I jammed with two my first … [Read more...]