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Some of you may remember my music video for “The Night is Dead” which was my song of the month last June. It was recently chosen to be featured in Live From Memphis‘ Lagniappe Fest which is showcasing music videos by local Memphis artists. Lagniappe Fest is a new addition to the 7th annual Music Video Showcase being held Sunday, March 4th at The Warehouse (36 E. GE Patterson Ave, Memphis, TN).

The first half of the festival starts at 4 PM, and will feature a music video by my friends in the band El Burro. I recorded and mixed their song “Ya Ba Ya La Ba Da” for their music video which was directed by Samuel Dunn.

My music video for “The Night is Dead” will be featured in the second half of the festival which begins screening at 5 PM.

Hope to see you at Lagniappe. Get all the info you need here.

I’ve been hard at work for the last few months finishing up mixing and mastering my new album, Union, Reunion. It’s finally close enough to being ready that I can announce some details. You can see the cover art above, and below is the back of the album with the tracklist. I don’t have an official release date yet, but it should be in May. I’ll post more details as I have them.

You may have gathered from the lack of a new song for January, that I’m taking a short break from the monthly songs. You’d be correct. I’m hard at work finishing up my new album, Union, Reunion, which I hope to have ready for you this spring. Check back soon. I’ll be revealing the tracklist, album art, and other release information in the next few weeks.

I’m also planning a site redesign that I’m very excited about. In the mean time, if you didn’t hear my songs from 2011, here’s a handy link to download them all with a single click:

To download all my songs from 2011, click the image above.

Did you have a chance to hear all the monthly songs I released in 2011?

Click over to the new Downloads page and download anything you missed. All free! Although, if you like what you hear, consider making a donation so I can keep making music.

I’ve been hard at work creating a Christmas gift just for you, and now it’s ready to be unwrapped!

To download a free Christmas EP, click the image above.

This month I’m giving you not one, but three songs to enjoy during the holidays. If you have a problem with the download link above, you can also download it from Bandcamp.

1. Christmas Sweaters
2. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
3. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas/Auld Lang Syne

I’m especially excited about the first track, “Christmas Sweaters,” which is the first original Christmas song I’ve ever written. Some of you may recognize the third track as the song I released last Christmas under the title “Have Yourself an Auld Lang Syne.”  It’s a mashup of two holiday classics. That leaves the final song, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” which is one of my favorite Christmas hymns.

Download your copy and enjoy it all through the holidays. I recommend listening to it with a big mug of hot cocoa. Have a merry Christmas!

And don’t forget my other music. If you haven’t been following, I’ve posted a new song every month this year, and you can download them all for free. Check the side bar to the right.

Last Tuesday marked the official release of The Beach Boys’ “lost” album, Smile. I grew up hearing the Beach Boys and honestly thinking they were a little cheesy. That was until I heard their 1966 album, Pet Sounds, the summer before my senior year of high school. I fell in love with it, and to this day I still think it’s the most beautiful piece of popular music ever recorded. Nothing else has had as strong an impact of the way I think about and write music as that album.

For anyone unfamiliar with the legend, Smile was supposed to be the follow up to Pet Sounds. The Beach Boys saw themselves as being in a production race with The Beatles – each band trying to top what the other could do. But instead it basically drove Brian Wilson crazy and was eventually shelved without a release. That’s why I was so excited to see it finally released this month. I’ve been listening to it continuously for the last week, and it is every bit as wonderful as I hoped it would be.

Still, the story of Smile will always be a sad one to me. What would have happened if it had been released in 1967 as planned? I feel like it surely would’ve lead to more great music. It would have influenced their peers and even their own future work in ways we can only speculate about now.

If you’ve never heard either Pet Sounds or Smile, I highly suggest you check them out soon. Smile is currently streaming on Spinner. You can also find the full 5-disc Smile Sessions with tons of outtakes and alternate versions of songs on Spotify. And of course, you can always just buy your own copy!

To download a free MP3, click the image above.

This song started as a rhythm that got stuck in my head for several days. When I found a melody that finally seemed to fit, the lyrics were written fairly quickly from there.

Once the song was written, I felt like the second verse seemed to be coming from two different viewpoints. It was like there were two people talking to each other, so I asked my wife, Lindsey, to sing a few of the lines. Lindsey has sung with me in the past, but hasn’t appeared on one of my recordings since my 2006 album, Lafayette & Luxia.

I also realized while mixing this song that it is the first time I have ever chosen to end a song with a fade-out.

The photo for the artwork was taken by my sister, Hannah, at our brother’s wedding in March. Don’t forget to check  out my other downloads! I’ve been doing this every month since January, so there’s a lot to hear. You can find them in the sidebar to the right.

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To download a free MP3, click the image above.

I wrote this song in January planning to release it as February’s download, but I decided it needed some violin (which I can’t play). So it sat on the back burner for most of the year. It finally got its violin part(s) courtesy of Damian Beltsmith (who has also recently played in my live band). I’m really proud of this song and I’m glad to finally post it!

A few years ago I recorded an EP for local Memphis band, Roger Mexico. They’re now releasing the recordings as an EP called The Noah Sessions.

The sessions were a part of my senior project for the recording technology program at the University of Memphis. We got together at the University of Memphis Recording Studio over several days during the summer of 2008 to record three songs. The band was finishing up a full length album that was somewhat electronic, and wanted to record a separate EP featuring some of the songs in more of a live band setting.

So we got the whole band together in one big room and recorded drums, bass, piano, and guitar all live. We later overdubbed the vocals and some additional guitar and keyboard parts. I even contributed some backing vocals to the song “Numan.” I finished mixing it that summer and my wife and I designed the cover art for it, using a photo she had taken. It has now sat waiting to be released for several years while the band pursued a few other projects, but I’m excited to see it finally released!

Visit their Bandcamp page to download the EP: http://rogermexico.bandcamp.com/album/the-noah-sessions

To download a free MP3, click the image above.

The music for this song has been sitting on a hard-drive for about 5 years. I recorded it as an instrumental piece just for fun, and I didn’t really have any other plans for it. Recently I was digging through some old music and got inspired to work on this piece a little more. I wrote lyrics and recorded them in an 8-part harmony. It feels good to recycle an old piece of music that otherwise may never have seen the light of day.

The cover art comes from a photo I took in downtown Memphis when the Mississippi River flooded last May.

If you like this song, be sure to download all my previous songs, which you can find listed on the right side of this page.