University of St. Thomas and TED Conference

I was approached by a friend, who works for the University of St. Thomas and asked if I would be willing to write a song to go with her video presentation at the TED conference in LA. The subject was very technical and she wanted something very poppy and upbeat, to make the presentation fun.

With that in mind, I interviewed her for a couple hours to get the gist and then spent a lot of time on Wikipedia and bothering a couple of math genius friends of mine to make sure I wasn't saying anything really stupid. The end result is something I like a lot, is terribly geeky (which she was thrilled at) and has a very solid hook, lots of harmonies. Very fun.

Tennessee Volunteers

We did a song for the Tennessee Volunteers. The objectives were:

1. Genres: Country, Country Rock, Country Bluegrass
2. Upbeat song celebrating the long tradition of sports in Tennessee
3. Reference as much actual pieces of the traditions, like the T (formed when the team runs out onto the field, "Vol Walk", Checkboard endzones, etc
4. Tag as much of the lingo as possible: "Give um six!", "It's Football Time in Tennessee", "Pride of the Southland", etc

First really bluegrassy tune for me...my only regret is we didn't use banjo...

Polish American Festival

A friend of mine is involved in the Polish American Festival. He had heard the work we did for Aeon and asked if we could write a song for the Polish American Festival. Being that I like trying to do things that I have absolutely no confidence I can pull off and I enjoy being terrified, I said sure!

The theme of the 2009 Minneapolis Polish American Festival was "Polish Hospitality". I interviewed some Polish friends and they helped me come up with a line that is famous in Poland having to do with Hospitality. Sorda like "Home is where you hang your hat", but naturally, about hospitality...there isn't really an American equivalent. I studied as much Polish Folk as I could (which is harder to find than you think) to come up with a chord structure and feel that would make sense. This was really fun and we got to play at the Festival, with an Accordion player, which was a first for me. In short, big challenge and the festival was thrilled with the outcome, as were we.

Aeon - Building Dreams

We created a video and a song for the annual fund raising benefit on behalf of Aeon: Building Dreams. They are a local non-profit that creates affordable housing for the homeless or under-privileged.

I went through as much of their (Aeon's) materials as possible to try and write a song that would best speak from the voice of someone who was recently homeless and had felt the impact and benefit of what Aeon does. They had interviews in text form as well as in video form, brochures and I toured some facilities. It was an amazing and humbling experience.

The Kentucky Derby

We submitted two to this one. The first was chosen and is a cover of "My Old Kentucky Home" by Steven Foster.


The second was not chosen, but I really liked it. The objectives were:

1. Create a song that celebrates the tradition of drinking Mint Juleps at the Kentucky Derby
2. Reference "Early Times Whiskey", the official whiskey of the Kentucky Derby
3. Tag or reference a "Call to the Post"
4. Style of country, country rock, etc

Bristol Motor Speedway

This song was written for the Bristol Motor Speedway. 
The objectives were:

1. Create a piece that engages the crowd, in the style of rock a la AC/DC
2. Something that people can chant or 'fist pump' to...which incidentally made me laugh
3. Celebrates the tail-gating, track in the middle of nowhere, aggressive driving, uses the nickname (Thunder Valley) and lots of other stuff too.

It was a fun experience to write this song, even though it wasn't chosen.