A very Happy 2019, everyone! Can you BELIEVE the 20-teens are almost over? I sure can't. I just don't know where the heck the time goes. The passing of time is a primary theme of my ongoing autobiography, "A Life Up In The Air." I am deep into it now, and I'll have stories to tell from every phase of my life: my childhood and teen years, my memorable stint as a record store manager during the classic rock era, my passion for music journalism for umpteen years, and of course my long roller-coaster ride trying to make it as a professional musician, with one end of the spectrum being summer nights sitting on my car trying to impress a girl by playing a new song I just wrote on my guitar, and the other end of the spectrum being the completely unlikely Up In The Air saga, which found me jetting to Japan with actress Anna Kendrick to promote that multi-layered, Oscar-nominated film to a Japanese audience that wanted to mostly ask questions about the serious unemployment situation in America. Believe it or not, 2019 marks the 10th Anniversary of UITA's initial release! The surreal nature of my whole artistic journey is what made me finally decide I just HAD to write a book. I'm enjoying the process very much. I recently did a photoshoot and musical performance at Artist United Network here in St. Louis, and an interview will happen in the next couple of weeks to go along with those. I'll post a link when it's all ready. The new photo I included here was taken by Dustin Diggs, and I thank both him and Daisy Chain at AUN for facilitating this wonderful experience. What a blast! I said a couple of months ago that I am hoping to release a new single in spring. We've been working at Red Pill Studio on a fun, light-hearted song called "Beer and Wine." But I'll be back working on my more introspective new material this summer. The working title of my next record is "Diary of a Mad Time Traveler." It goes along with the nostalgic nature of my new batch of songs, which include titles such as "The Horse On the Old Brown Card," "Back When Things Mattered" (an ode to the good old days of listening to vinyl records), "My Transitional Blues" and many more. I'll be posting updates of course, but there is a long way to go on the project. In times as chaotic and unpredictable as these, we need music and art more than ever. I'd go crazy if I didn't have something to say, something I felt I could contribute to the dialogue about what life should be. I can hardly wait to get new songs out there. And I know I say this every time, but I encourage y'all to write to me and share your feelings about my music or any issue regarding life in general. I try to answer every message I get. And I truly appreciate everyone who listens and tells me they appreciate my music. Keep it up! It's YOU guys who keep me going more than anything else! Oh, and congratulations to two of my favorite groups for getting chosen for this year's crop of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees. That would be Radiohead and Roxy Music. The latter included my hero, Brian Eno, for their first two albums. Eno is without doubt the most influential musician and thinker of my creative life, and there will be an entire chapter on him in my book. See you all next time, folks...and may your new year unfold in grand style!