This was the first idea I worked on this year. 5/4 time, as usual. Lyrics were made up on the spot and I don’t think they mean anything. Guitars are all Les Paul. Rhythm through a Vox MV50 and lead through a Fender Bassbreaker. I don’t hate this…

This one hasn’t quite fallen out of favor yet but it probably will. The interesting factoid about this particular song is that the bass and drum parts were written and recorded on my iPhone while sitting in a hospital room. Later, the lyrics were…

10 songs mixed! I didn’t think I was going to make it this year, but I’ve got a submittable batch of tunes with 2.75 hours to spare! Magic! The rhythm guitars are Les Paul through Vox MV50, and the leads are Les Paul through Fender Bassbreaker…

This one was kicked off kind of late in the game. It was originally supposed to be acoustic guitars but I went for my Strat instead. Lots of sauce all over this recording. Rhythm parts were through a Vox MV50. Leads were a Les Paul through a Fender…

This one is kinda fun to play. I can’t say that very often about my songs. I’m lame like that. Overtly political, but what am I bitching about? There are so many possible answers to that question. Les Pauls all around. Rhythm direct through…

I kept going back to a songwriting crutch for this year’s RPM Challenge. The idea is to use the same bass line for verses and choruses and have everything else change around it. This is an example of that. Rhythm guitar is a Les Paul direct…

This is the first time I’ve ever tried to write a song in 5/8 time. I like this one, but I think there’s too much going on in the mix. For the last couple of years I’ve been in the habit of double tracking all of my vocal parts. While recording…

This one is the keeper. Every year there is one song that works for me from the first moment the idea starts bubbling up right through the exporting of the final mix. This is it for this year. Another overtly political lyric over a repeating…

This is an RPM2018 outtake and boy is the album better off without it. The word that kept coming to mind while “mixing” this was turd. Rhythm guitars are ES335 to both the Fender Bassbreaker and Vox MV50 direct outs. The lead is the Strat through…

Technically this counts as an RPM2018 leftover, but only barely. It started life as one of three riffs that I recorded using the Music Memos app on my iPhone. When March 1st arrived that was all there was. Maybe two measures. But I figured that…