music projects & recordings
I write tons of songs in the newgrass / jazzgrass / progressive-acoustic genres, and in September 2012 I released the first album of my own material, Helium Taxi. My typical objective with these tunes is to bring out dynamic, expressive performances from great improvisers.
Making the album helped me connect to more like-minded musicians in Austin so now that material sometimes gets performed under the band name Helium Taxi as well. I’ve also become a semi-regular in the rotation bluegrass gigs on Monday nights at Radio Coffee & Beer and Grassy Thursdays at St. Elmo Brewing Co., plus a few others.
Since late 2005, I’ve also played mandolin with Out of the Blue, a mostly-bluegrass trio, in and around the Austin area.
When I can find the time, I love to mess around with home recording (with no genre restrictions whatsoever) and here are some of the results:
- Your Sing-a-ma-jigs And You. A little rock-&-rhumba thing inspired by the kids’ toys.
- Bring It, Bitches. My first (and almost assuredly only) chicken-themed gangsta rap parody.
- Crunk Juice. Big fuzz bass groove with some guitar noodling over it, heavy on the autowah.
- War Pigs (ABBA Version). What if there really could be a Black sABBAth?
- The Story of Tonight. An instrumental arrangement I did of a track from Hamilton.
RL, 2012.09.10, updated 2020.07.12