The day is finally here! My new album Tales Told Out of School is now officially live on all platforms. You can find it here at Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, and YouTube.
I really hope that you like it, and that you share it with friends and others. The album took about three years to put together, and there was a lot of material that didn’t make it in, but I think the songs here really tell good solid tales, and are just a lot of fun to listen to and sing along with.
I’m gonna tell you a little bit about the songs in a minute, but please let me emphasize again how much I would really appreciate it if you would please share this post as well as links to the album, songs that you like, or to my website. The biggest challenge that independent artists have is trying to find their audience, and you who are already here play a huge part in making that work, and I really, really appreciate it.
So, with that said, here are the songs from the album:
Bus Ride is a song from long ago. I wrote this back in about 1990 or so, and the song was a Tunnel 18 staple for a long, long time. While it’s been part of my live set for a long time, it took a while to find the right arrangement to record. Terrance and I almost dropped it from the album, but finally found something that works and does justice to the song.
I Am Not Well was released as a single about a year ago, but was always an integral part of this project. It’s a tongue-in-cheek view of our current society in a time of pandemic and political turmoil. It really is incredibly cathartic to build those last few choruses.
Apropos of Nothing came very, very quickly as a song. The original chord progression came to me as I was noodling around on the guitar, and I recorded it to my phone so that I wouldn’t forget it, saying “OK, apropos of nothing, here’s a new song.” The rest of the song came very quickly after that, and is really a song about being ready for just about anything.
Heart of a Young Man is quite frankly, just a very long pun. Words that can be interpreted as describing different perspectives on their life could also be seen as perhaps the self-incriminating diary of a serial killer.
It’s Alright finishes out what I would normally think of as the first side of a record. It is a bit of a lullaby, and is intended to be a song of reassurance.
Long Road was originally written as we were coming out of the quarantine phases of the pandemic. Written while thinking about going back to see my family in New Jersey, parts of the song came together as I was walking around on the cobblestones of downtown Boston.
I Got Mine is a satirical protest of housing and land use policy here in the suburbs of Boston. While many of us struggle to try to make rent, those who are already here oppose the development of new apartments, driving prices up through the roof.
Dossier. Well, I think I already told the story of this one a while ago…
Careful What You Wish For. Sometime in about January 2020, I was thinking to myself about how I’ve been on the road way too much, and that I could possibly use a break. And then for the next year… So, the rest of the song kind of came from there.
All’s Well That Ends. This was, as I have described in the past, literally written at the hotel bar and restaurant at the Edmonton Marriott Courtyard. A great pleasure of mine is to watch people as they are in transit, and hear snippets of their lives. This song is an amalgam of a couple of conversations that I overheard and some that I imagined.
There are more songs on the way, and 2024 has already been a very productive year. I am scheduling a number of porch fest appearances for the summer and I hope to see you there! Look for a future blog post for details. But in the meantime, please, please, if you like this music, and if you like the art that I have created here with my friends, please share it so that we can find more of the audience that needs to hear these songs.
As always, thank you for being here with me on this journey
-Chris
PS – “Don’t wear leather shoes in the rain” and all other forms of tips are welcome and gratefully accepted. Funding the act of creation is always a bit of work, and I’d appreciate any support you can provide at all. Thank you!