After five years of production, I launched MANTRAS on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2018 because it is an album of resolutions. You can stream it below or at Spotify, YouTube, iTunes, and purchase at CDBaby or Bandcamp. For a hand-decorated CDs and t-shirts, buy em right here, directly from me.
MANTRAS uses reggae and ska-infused tunes to chant my intentions, like…
No more shitty gigs
Get Outside
No more waiting to be discovered
No more waiting to get signed
I use my system to capture information
I use my system to structure inspiration
Show up for practice
Everything’s connected, everything’s changing
Pay attention, this is what it’s like right now
Keep your word and do your best
Don’t take it personally or make assumptions
I’m not gonna to try to change anyone but myself
My dreams of having a horn section came true working with Mark Gonzalez, the trombonist and arranger for Grupo Fantasma, Brownout and others.
Dan Bechdolt (sax), Kevin Flatt (trumpet), Mark “Speedy” Gonzales (trombone) tracking at Tonehaus
Robert helped me turn my sketch of my dreaming head with repeating thought bubbles into a great graphic that can be filled with the mantra of your choice. Maile, Anais and I decorated the first 50 CDs by hand with watercolors.
Anais made this great version w paint and Sharpie on wood. (I added the LOVE sticker.)
Along with the album release I am proud to premiere the video for Not Gonna Try, the last and longest track on the album and certainly my most involved video production to date. Grey Gamboa, an RTF student at UT, did a perfectly trippy job editing and creating pulsing psychedelic colors (using oil and water dyes between curved glass).
Lil sprinkled her digital fairy dust on this screenshot from the video.
I made tees and stickers for patrons and fans, and this site now features a shop where you can purchase all the j stuff.
For the third time, I am grateful to have recorded my album with Thomas “Tbone” van der Brook at Tonehaus. In the video above are Gray Parsons on drums and Doug Snyder on bass (getting sounds at the original recording session in 2013) who supported me every step of the way personally and musically. And I would likely not have finished if not for months of great help from Danny P. finalizing and mixing. Thank you all, my brothers in music.
Big thanks to Mark “Speedy” Gonzales for arrangements and trombone parts, and to Dan Bechdolt (sax) and Kevin Flatt (trumpet), especially for their trippy solos on I’m Not Gonna Try. Thanks to Derek Morris for playing keys on few tunes, especially for such perfect accompaniment on Bright Eyes Shine. Thank you, Karla and Maile and Anais for singing backup on several tracks. Thanks to Brad Bell for mastering. And thank YOU for checking it all out, I hope you enjoy the tunes!
I was especially thrilled and proud to sing at UT Night at the Trail of Lights this year because for the first time Maile AND Anais both joined me singing on stage. We sang, walked the trail, sat with Santa and rode the Ferris wheel. Lots of love and lights. Special thanks to stage manager Breck for snapping some photos of us onstage.
Friends and family gathered at the Skye Dance ranch to remember David Mandot recently. Bek led the sharing of stories which you can hear in the audio below.
We gathered in the pavilion at Little Stacy Park on the first Sunday of June – 6/4/2017 – and had a great time singing Dylan songs. Here are a setlist, video and a few photos, below. The video features our versions of All Along The Watchtower, Subterranean Homesick Blues, and Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.
One of the wonderful things about the family I married into is the music. Maile’s dad Joe put himself through college playing in a band (that his dad managed) and has been a lifelong guitar player with a band on the side. My kinda guy. (On my first date with Maile she told me that as a little girl she used to fall asleep in the fuzzy lining of her dad’s guitar case. I remember thinking, “This girl is for me!”)
I had heard about the Good Time Dance Band from their time in Hawaii. Now Joe has shared with us some old converted VHS video from a gig that the drummer, Jim Coulter, posted on his site. Joe sings his first song at about 6 mins. See his description below.
Joe’s history of the band:
The Good Time Dance Band formed in the late 70s in upcountry Maui, Hawaii. Their popularity was due to the fact that they played Classic Rock, Country Rock, Country Smooth Jazz and popular Hawaiian music. They were very eclectic in their repertoire and as a result they were very popular on the hotel circuit and played frequently around the island.
The main band members consisted of Joe Broccoli, vocals and guitar, Jim Elliott, bass, harmonica and vocals, and Jim Coulter, drums and vocals. In later years they added Larry Givens, guitar and vocals, and John Neff, piano, bass and guitar. This video features Broccoli, Elliott, Coulter and Givens playing at the Maui County Fair in the early 1980’s.
I make songs and sites, a Washingtonian Austinite.