Where do you get your song writing inspiration? … Now there is a question I am often asked, and I have always thought, you can give a 10-second answer or one that takes a day. It is almost impossible to describe the creative process to a non-creative person. As for the creative ones, we have a language and some shared insights, but we will still create from our own perspective. Moreover, we should, because that is what makes the product unique.

For myself, I usually write from the perspective of a character. If I may explain – In my early years I was an actor in New York City and Los Angeles. When I stood in the wings, waiting for my cue to walk on stage, or film set, I was inside my head steeping myself in back-story. Who is my character and what is the period? How am I dressed? Is it raining or cold, am I laughing or sad, and what do I see as I look around. (No, not myself looking at the stage, the curtains, the lights), but what the character in the production is seeing.

I write stories and songs almost the same way. I see a drunk in a bar and I wonder, who is he? what is his story? I see a soldier kissing his wife and kids at the arrival gate in an airport - Who is he? is he home from war? what are his experiences, how will he adjust to being home? I see a young woman standing in the rain on a hilltop, or an old woman pushing all of her belongings in a shopping cart... Who are they? what is their story?

Believe me, that was the SHORT answer !

An example of writing a song from seeing a man drunk in a bar is in my song, ‘Going Down Hard’, posted somewhere on this site.

No set genre. I write Western, Civil War/Historical, Southern Swamp Rock, Blues, Doo-[*****] and the usual ‘love lost – love misplaced’ songs. I also write many non-PC parodies. Apart from the serious and sad, it is nice to make people laugh.