My Music

One of the joys of retirement has been the opportunity to finally pursue some of my own creative endeavours with renewed passion.  First among many is my love of playing the piano.

I was that weird kid who jumped at any chance to perform in public.  My first taste was at 12 when I entered the Fourth of July Talent Contest in Creston, Iowa.  That was followed at 13 by the Macksburg Skillet Throw.  (Yes, it’s a real thing.)  Then, at 15, a statewide finalist for the Rural Amateur Variety Entertainment (RAVE) contest sponsored by Iowa Farm Bureau.  Finally, performing on the Bill Riley Talent Search on the local NBC television station in Des Moines, later performing at Riley’s noon-time concerts at the Iowa State Fair.  In between were state-sponsored music contests in high school, local society clubs, playing the piano and organ for Sunday church, as well as many weekends playing background music at local restaurants, bars/pubs, even our local golf club and country club.  (How swish for Iowa!)

True story:  I was often too young to be playing in a place that sold alcohol, so my mother sat knitting in the back of the joint as my chaperone.  I also got irked people wouldn’t be listening to me while eating their dinner (!!) so I began to play songs like “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” as a jazz ballad and watch them look up from their meals, asking “Hey, isn’t that …”  Anyway.

By the time university came around, I dabbled for a bit in music as a degree, but I realised quickly I didn’t have the musical skill to be a concert pianist.  Worse, to get that level of performance talent, I’d have to rehearse for hours a day, which made me fear growing to hate playing the piano.  So, I transferred majors to communications, but never stopped playing.

Along the way, I began to compose my own music, ranging from songs that would fit in the musical structure of the Great American Songbook.  I tried my hand at musical theatre with score titled “The Office” based on a feature in a 1986 Esquire magazine.  Lately, I’ve began more complex structure, more aligned with “musical impressionism,” or music focused on atmosphere, mood and colour.

One of my first projects is a total refurbish of my YouTube Channel devoted to my music arranged in four colours:

• Orange and red songs are from the Great American Songbook:  orange songs are slower, red songs are up-tempo.
• Blue songs are my compositions that fit the GAS musical structure.  (I’m slowly re-recording these for a more professional sound.)
• Green songs are my pride & joy:  the starting cycle of songs based on my road-trips around Australia
• There’s also a separate playlist of me playing live, both classical and popular where you have the added treat of watching my beard and hair in different variations.  (I’m currently somewhere between Gandalf, Walt Whitman and Poseidon.)

You can also click here for my LInktree to all my social platforms.