Hello Out There, Josh Here

I know that you may have been wondering what has happened to me and my second CD, and I wanted to let you know.

The CD is finished, and has been for some time. Some of you may have even heard songs from it at gigs I've been playing. However, when Universal Music dissolved A&M records, my old company, along with many others during a takeover, they dropped some 250 bands. I was one of those bands. That will have been quite an OK thing if....I can get them to give me either the rights to release the CD, or the right to re-record the songs. As of now it's still up in the air and I'm hoping that Universal Music will do the right thing - give me the music back in some way. Also, I'm hardly the only one this is happening to and it's important for music fans, as consumers to know that. I hope that pressure on the large record labels to be fair can somehow create a situation in which everybody wins. In the meantime I am half-way through writing my next record, and I will be both focusing on that, and trying to find a way to get the new CD to you. I welcome you to record my gigs, just don't let me know in case that would have some legal ramifications. I will be playing shows on both the east and west coasts as much, and as soon as possible, and I will be posting all that information here on the web site.

Finally there is a project I'm putting together that you may have heard about. It will be a CD of artists who are in the same position as I am with my current record. By that I mean: I can not legally re-record my own songs from the new CD myself for five years (unless Universal Music gets groovy), but another artist could. So I am looking for other artists who have been "displaced" by the merger to work with in putting together the CD. (If this is you please leave an email address and/or phone number with any thoughts or suggestions.) We will each cover another's favorite, locked up, song, and release a CD with all of them. It's a way to get around this unfair situation, to be heard, and to share our music with you, the listener, which is all this is really for anyway. I am looking forward to this project and will keep you updated on it. I will also be more involved with this web stuff, so keep checking in and feel free to urge Universal Music on my behalf.

Thanks for your support and appreciation of the music. As they say in the Native American way, "For all my relations"...That is, a prayer for a blessing on all of life, everywhere, and an acknowledgment of our total interconnected and oneness. Be well,