A quarter of the way through 2026 already? Sheesh.

What have I done with it? Publicly, a couple shows (with a couple new tunes) and a single about a baseball player. Behind the scenes, a few new songs and ideas.

And overthinking stuff … lots of that.

I grew up as a creator of music with the idea of earning every ear. Fighting for every music-obsessed listener. Making them worth fighting for. Now it’s algorithm-driven, transactional, and passive. I don’t want it to ever feel like that, for anyone who gives me the honor of listening to my music. I like to think I make music for people who are obsessed with music.

And in the obscurity, I think there is a lot of creative freedom. I think people who love music value that. I do, as a listener.

I live in Memphis, Tennessee. I am surrounded by people who are better performers, more creative, better at selling themselves, and do things more people actually want to hear and see. I love them and I love to see them succeed. It’s not a competition.

I do what I do, and I love it, but it doesn’t lead to the same kind of results that they seem to get. I’ve made my peace with it. All this from the performer of such tunes as “Allergic to Success” and “Moneymaker” – are you surprised?

If there is another positive to being relatively unknown, it’s that there isn’t a casual anonymous audience to project expectations onto you. Music discourse on social media has a “mob mentality” feel to it nowadays. That’s a heavy thing to be saddled with, the pressure of meeting potentially inflexible standards from people you’re under constant pressure to cater to.

(IMPORTANT: I’m not referring to the standards that people *should* be held to, like … don’t be an abuser. People should be held accountable, no matter their position or stature within their community. They should be stripped of the power and influence they have, which seems to also come with this fucked up permission to do horrible things, or just be horrible in general. Past tired of all of that.)

I’m not good at ending phone calls, and I’m not good at ending these posts either.