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A CPR Trio original. This recording was several months in the making. I wrote the song back in September of 2021, and while the lyrics and chord progressions didn’t change much over these many weeks, what you hear is quite different from its original concept, thanks to a ridiculously gratifying collaboration. I first played this… Continue reading Mischievous Smile

A reindeer walks into a bar … How many great works of art have started with that simple premise? None, you say? Well, maybe this’ll be the first. Or not. A month or so ago I decided to record another Christmas/holiday tune, carrying on a long tradition that previously had exactly one other instance, my… Continue reading So Sorry Santa (Rudy’s Blues)

After a short summer hiatus, The CPR Trio is back, this time with a tune that — let’s face it — three old white guys really have no business recording: “Treat Her Like a Lady.” Such a simple tune, and yet I am going to write a novel here. The original version of this song,… Continue reading Treat Her Like a Lady

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you The CPR Trio: What can be written about The CPR Trio that hasn’t already been written? Well, anything, I guess. I have mentioned my good friends and neighbors Chris and Peter who play drums and guitar, respectively. The band name works on several levels. As Peter responded when… Continue reading Summer Wind

I started this project late in 2020. To say it’s been a challenge would be understating it considerably. Imagine starting on a path to cover “Lady Madonna”, capturing a reasonable facsimile of the piano track and thinking that’s got to be the hard part, only to realize as months pass that the piano was maybe… Continue reading Lady Madonna

My cover of “Road to Nowhere”, a 1985 Talking Heads tune, started off as a little experiment one Saturday morning. The idea to cover it had occurred to me around the time I purchased my melodica. The original song employs an accordion (or so says this song’s Wikipedia page), but I had the pleasure of… Continue reading Road to Nowhere

To me, “Steppin’ Stone” is the prototypical “garage band” (two words, lower-case) song. If you were ever in a rock & roll band and didn’t play this at least once, I question your sensibilities. It’s been recorded by Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Monkees, the Sex Pistols, and many others. The song, written by… Continue reading (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone

I got a bit of a confidence boost recording “Secret Agent Man” because I felt like I was able to capture a reasonable facsimile of the original’s lead guitar bits, so I decided to apply the same approach to “Stray Cat Strut.” This is a tune my good friend and neighbor Chris and I ran… Continue reading Stray Cat Strut

Christmas 2020 was approaching, and I thought it would be nice to record a Christmas tune. I had been playing “Blue Christmas” on my ukulele for about a decade, and I thought it might be fun to record a version in the style of Elvis Presley’s version, but one which starts with the uke providing… Continue reading Blue Christmas

After recording “Fire“, I had a couple of misfires. I tried covering “Ticket to Ride”, the backing tracks for which came out OK (not great), but I couldn’t sing it. I started working on “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”, but wasn’t thrilled with how that was progressing, so I shelved that, too. “Secret Agent Man”… Continue reading Secret Agent Man