Spent the evening at Yoshi’s debuting my new song”Heartbeat” and performing with a new arrangement of the Mr. Right Nows. Yes, that’s why the band has to be called that! Dave Fairchild, a regular, joined me on bass, and then on drums I invited Tommy Shepherd. Tommy and I usually perform in Alphabet Rockers together – very far from the singer-songwriter realm. We’re used to hip hop for kids. We had a great time in performing these songs of mine from the heart.

Thanks to our fellow musicians who had fabulous ensembles, the Blind Willies and Lia Rose. And gratitude always for Bay Vibes who make live performances for songwriters absolutely enjoyable in the Bay Area.

This summer I started a production company with producer/engineer Jason Villaroman, who is a Latin GRAMMY-winning engineer and 2-time GRAMMY-nominated engineer for works with Sergio Mendes, the Black Eyed Peas, and John Legend, respectively. After producing 9 commissioned songs for a dance workout for kids (believe me, this is fun stuff), we collaborated on several other tracks, including “We Found Everything” and the upcoming song “Go!”

Recently we were at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA, mixing and tracking the bridge with our crew Andrew Wilkins and Zach McPherson.

This fall we are also producing the record for Marcus D, an emerging artist with alternative/dance tracks inspired by Tori Amos, David Usher, and Prince. At the end of the year, we will return to production for TV and commercials. Hear some of the sounds on soundcloud.

Thanks to Songs Alive! and Katie Garabaldi for inviting me to showcase at the October Songs Alive Showcase in San Francisco.

Hosted at Cafe Velo Rouge, the Mr. Right Nows and I piled in for an intimate and packed night of songwriting. Also featuring Rich Driver, the showcase features two songwriters per month, and gives us an opportunity to share new and favorite songs with listeners. For our set, we featured Dave Fairchild on bass and Terry Thompson on percussion, but also asked a few friends to sit in. Namely, Terry’s nephew who is now 12 and continues to study drums. I always have him play when it’s not a late show- he has great talent and performing songs like Flying Horses leads me to just experience the joy of the song. I even had Alex Walsh stop by and perform a song we had just finished that day. Why not live on the edge, right?

Sara Koulouris captured a few more photos which you can see on Facebook.

Pleased to announce the publishing of an article I wrote entitled “Buddy Up” for the October 2011 issue of Electronic Musician. It was a joy to write about how we don’t have to do-it-alone in this interesting music business. My friendship and co-motivating with singer songwriter Mari Rosa in Boston, MA has changed the way I do business, and how I feel about the work we do. My view is that buddying-up doesn’t apply just to this industry – if you have goals you are reaching for, find a like-minded person and help one another plan and get there.