Travelin' is a new CD of old songs. It's been long in the making and long in the waiting to be assembled and released. The songs were written mostly in the 1980s in Idaho, Montana and Nevada and recorded mostly in the 1990s in Bethel, Alaska.

The songs were originally conceived as being on two different concept albums--one being "western" songs and the other being rockabilly-type songs. Neither set was actually complete enough to become an album and the recordings were set aside as I worked on another album of folk and singer-songwriter songs that I'm still working on.

To complicate things, I was not able to come up with a satisfying title for a long time. It started out as Dead Man's Shoes, but I could never get comfortable with that for a title, even though the song itself is a winner (Honorable Mention, Billboard Song Contest 1995, Rock category. Go figure!) Sombrero Serenade was another possiblity as I really wanted to use the picture of lil Pedro Pepper (above). But the album isn't really tex-mex enough to support that concept. I also considered Travelin' and now, with the encouragement of my friend, wife and advisor, have settled upon it.

Then there was the artwork. It took a long time to settle on that as well. It seems every aspect of releasing this set of songs has been fraught with indecision. At least I've decided to let it out there, and whatever the package looks like or the title is, the songs are the main thing.

The problem is I didn't follow my own advice in this case, which is to start with the art, as outlined in my 12 step approach to making an album .

The songs are listed in the column to the right and will soon be linked to lyrics and background notes.

By the way, the vintage trailer that made the final cover art really is my own summer camping rig. It's a '63 Aloha and I've been hauling it to music festivals all over Alaska the past several years.

Uncle Mike's Music Works | Far Beyond Publishing
Poetry Works | Images | 60/40

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Travelin'
We Couldn't Make It
Sombrero
Get Down The Road
Dead Man's Shoes
Oregon Border
Pocatello Belle
Son of the West
Three Dollar Guitar
Sharlet
Midas and Me
After While
Love Is Good
Let's Do That Boogie Thing

Web bonus song

Zip Disk Shuffle (99)
Beforre there were thumb drives and high speed internet, there was the Zip Disk:Getting the files from here to there.