Why These Songs Matter to My Kids

The Request

Three years ago, my daughter said: "You should record the songs you play around the house. We want to have them."

At the time I thought she meant as keepsakes—audio mementos. But she clarified: "No, like an actual album. With real production. We want to hear what they could sound like if you took them seriously."

That hurt in the best way.

What They Heard

My kids grew up hearing me play guitar while they did homework. Fragments of Dylan, covers of Zeppelin, Skynyrd when I was feeling nostalgic, folk songs I learned from my dad. Nothing polished, nothing professional—just the background music of a household.

But those songs became their songs. They attached memories to them: the night before a big test, Sunday mornings, car rides. The songs weren't mine anymore. They belonged to the family soundtrack.

The Album Concept

So this album isn't a vanity project. It's a response to a request. It's a way to say: "Yes, these songs matter. They mattered enough to play them for you all those years, and they matter enough now to record them properly."

But I wanted to do more than just capture nostalgia. I wanted to translate them—to relocate them into new arrangements that honor the original while acknowledging we've all changed, grown, moved into new musical territories.

What I'm Learning

Recording for an audience of your own children is both terrifying and clarifying. You can't bullshit. You can't rely on technique or production tricks. The songs have to be honest.

That's what I hope this album is: honest. Not perfect, not definitive, but honest.