10 MP3 Songs in this album (42:55) !
Related styles: Rock: Americana, Avant Garde: Avant-Americana, Solo Male Artist

People who are interested in Built To Spill The Frames Wilco should consider this download.


Details:
Have you ever felt like life was conspiring for you? Or perhaps you look back on a series of events that may have seemed benign or perhaps life shattering, but after some distance you realize that these events were exactly what needed to happen in order for you to come to some realization? Idaho has been that experience for me.

The seed for Idaho was planted by the hand of the fine artists at Cornish College of the Arts. I was inspired by watching them work, their willingness to take risks, and also the way they create a series of pieces around a theme. These elements would become the building blocks for the creation of this album. It was here I also came across a book called "Story" by the screen writer Robert McKee. This exposed me to the history and craft of storytelling. At the time, I had a number of stalled compositions, but deciding to use the idea of a collection of songs around the theme of my experience growing up in Idaho, broke loose a backlog of pent up creativity.

The issues that came up and the resulting story were very personal and revealing. I couldn't help but think of Carl Jung's question, "what myth are you living by?" Was I really living in a myth where men are violent, women can't be trusted, and children are left to fend for themselves? Those arenât very pleasant realizations at all! However, I felt like through this darkness I made some important discoveries. Yes, we may all be alone, ultimately responsible for our decisions and interpretation of events, but that is true for all of us in our shared human experience. Ironically, our aloneness actually brings us together in a very profound way.

Like many stories before it, this story is an amalgamation of many different people and situations I encountered growing up in Idaho, including my own. I really tried to make honesty the guiding principle throughout the creative process. I encountered thoughts and emotions that I was reluctant to share, but I knew for my own sake that I had to. Each time I felt like withdrawing, I would come back to a line I read out of a book by Chogyam Trungpa. He said, and Iâm paraphrasing, "real strength lies in the ability to be vulnerable." I was determined that this album would be an exercise in that principle.