BLOG:

06.07.13 It's been a busy spring - too busy to blog about until now, I suppose. In January I worked with Arts+Labor, providing music for their most recent Dell project. In March I scored four more Frost Bank spots for McGarrah-Jessee, including the one I keep seeing midway through Mad Men. And most recently, I've just wrapped another Southwest spot for GSD&M.

01.08.13 In December, Shipping Wars began its second season, and I worked with GSD&M again, this time on a Southwest spot that's currently airing.

10.12.12 In August, I worked with GSD&M to create music for Lennox's House Reimagined videos, and scored the first of three Maxwell House Drops of Good videos, produced by Beef & Pie and Razorfish. McGarrah-Jessee asked me to score their broadcast, cinema and Hulu spots for the latest Frost Bank campaign, about a dozen in all, and somewhere amid all of that I put the wraps on the music for the second season of Shipping Wars for Megalomedia, which has been airing on A&E for the past couple of months now.

03.20.12 Season 1 of Shipping Wars is done - created, aired, and everything (you did stay up for the epic weekend overnight all-episodes marathon last month, didn't you?). I've posted some of the music here on a TV & Film Reel page. It was incredibly fun to work on, and I got to play my Jerry Jones baritone electric guitar alot, which always makes me happy. Now I'm at work on a new one-hour crime-story documentary, about which I will attempt to report with greater alacrity than I did the previous project. 

06.22.11 I've just signed on to score a new fall series for A&E. More details as they emerge...

06.14.11 I recently scored a short film about NFL quarterback Vince Young, produced by Beef and Pie and Milkshake Media for Generation Texas. You can view it on the GenTX website.

04.14.11 Quintuplets By Surprise begins its second season with a special hour-long episode on TLC next Monday night, April 18 at 9/8c.

02.07.11 When I Rise, produced by Alpheus Media, will air this week on the PBS series Independent Lens. I was fortunate enough to provide the score for this award-winning documentary about the life of international African-American opera star Barbara Conrad Smith.

01.24.11 Heavy debuts tonight on A&E at 8pm. I've contributed a number of cues to the first five episdodes of this reality show produced by Megalomedia of Austin, TX. You can hear a few of them on the Film & TV page.

10.18.10 "More Than A Paycheck" airs tonight on the Sundance Channel at 8pm. This half-hour show includes all five Maysles short films from Mitchum's "Hardest Working ____ In America" contest. I contributed music to two of these films, "The Hardest Working Cattle Rancher in America" and "The Hardest Working Environmentalist in America," which you can also view here and here.

9.7.10 The results of Mitchum's Hardest Working _____ In America contest are in, and Mayles Films is shooting an original short documentary about environmentalist and contest winner Chad Pregracke and his efforts to clean up the Mississippi River. I've been asked to contribute music to the score, which is being produced by Duotone Audio Group of New York.

8.30.10 Quints By Surprise makes its series debut tonight at 9pm on TLC. Meanwhile, I'll be working on another four episodes over the coming weeks.

7.7.10 TLC has decided to follow up the pilot I worked on this spring, Quintuplet Surprise, with a series of six half-hour episodes titled Quints By Surprise. I'm beginning to write music for it as we speak.

6.2.10 I'm at work on a commission for the Houstonic River Museum. Actually, the museum doesn't exist yet; I'm writing music to be performed at a series of fundraising community events up and down the river next fall. It will be a fifteen minute suite of six pieces to be performed on cello, electric guitar and found percussion; the percussion will be played by fifth graders and be made up of stuff they pull out of the river. Luckily my studio is a couple of blocks from a scrapyard, so finding metal detritus to experiment with shouldn't be a problem...

5.15.10 Website update! Recent spots for AARP and Milkbone, as well as short films for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Ambhar Tequila, are now posted on the Reel page. Music from When I Rise, Quintuplet Surprise and the Wild Texas Weather soundtrack is now available under Film and TV.

4.3.10 After a bit of back and forth over the title, TLC aired the Megalomedia-produced show Quintuplet Surprise on March 16th, evidently to fabulous ratings. My score for the show included lots of banjo, for which I will only assume partial responsibility.

3.12.10 When I Rise, the story of African-American opera singer Barbara Smith Conrad, will have its world premiere at South By Southwest this Sunday, March 17th at 4 pm at the Paramount Theatre in Austin. Having done the score, I think I should attend...Once the excitement dies down, I'll be getting to work on a new project with the Butler Brothers agency, a brand film for Jason's Deli.

2.20.10 I've spent the past couple of days at Top Hat Recording with engineers John Harvey and Mary Podio, recording string players from the Austin Symphony for the score to Alpheus Media's documentary When I Rise. I've also just completed scoring an AARP spot for Tequila Mockingbird and GSD&M.

1.19.10 A couple of new projects in the works: I've begun developing music for a TV pilot Megalomedia is producing this spring for TLC, and am about to start scoring a short animated film based on activist Peter Singer's new book, The Life You Can Save.

1.8.10 The film Wild Texas Weather, with my original score, is now screening six times a day at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. On a slightly more prosaic note, I also recently scored a short video for Ambhar Tequila. And on the live front, I'll be playing every Tuesday night in January with Toni Price at the Continental Club on South Congress.

10.2.09 A busy summer - I completed scoring Wild Texas Weather, a documentary directed by John Lewis for the Bob Bullock State History Museum in Austin. The film will have its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival this month, followed by an opening at the museum itself on October 30th. What to wear, what to wear...We also spent two weeks at Top Hat Recording in South Austin where the lovely John Harvey and Mary Podio engineered the recording of a soundtrack album to accompany the film. Featured guests include Omar Kent Dykes, Carolyn Wonderland and Toni Price, and the rhythm section of Nate Rowe (Redd Volkaert) and Rob Hooper (Guy Forsyth).

Meanwhile, in September I scored a spot for Milkbone that's currently airing nationwide, and just wrapped up a long form piece for the launch of a new tequila company.

6.30.09 Have just completed music for two more Lance Armstrong Foundation videos produced by Alpheus Media; they will be posted, along with the Austin Children's Shelter PSA, sometime in the next few weeks. I also recently scored a set of Frost Bank radio spots produced by McGarrah-Jessee.

4.30.09 I'm pleased to be working again with Shiny Object, this time on a PSA for the Austin Children's Shelter. I'll be doing the music for an animated :30 that Shiny is working on with Sicola-Martin for ACS.

4.7.09 I've been asked to score the documentary Wild Texas Weather for the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. The film, directed by John Lewis, is narrated by Ray Wylie Hubbard and will ultimately be screened on a daily basis at the museum. Further developments to be posted here as they transpire.

2.27.09 The State of Tomorrow and Lance Armstrong Foundation PSAs I recently scored for Alpheus Media are now up on the video reel page.

2.18.09 Alpheus Media's State of Tomorrow PSAs have begun airing on during prime time on ABC affilliates around the country (the State of Tomorrow series itself is re-airing on PBS stations all over Texas, including KLRU in Austin). Look for Quicktimes to be posted here by the end of the week.

2.11.09 I've just completed scoring a Lance Armstrong Foundation PSA produced by Alpheus Media for Ogilvy. It should begin airing in Australia some time this spring.

11.11.08 New spots up! There are now movies posted of the Autozone and Southern Company spots I scored this past spring, on the video reel page.

10.10.08 Alpheus Media has asked me to score a series of PSAs based on their award-winning KLRU series State of Tomorrow.

9.22.08 Video of the TxDOT "My Plates" campaign is now posted on the video reel page.

9.15.08 TxDOT's "My Plates" campaign, for which I composed four pieces of music for the McGarrah-Jessee agency, is now airing in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Look for them on the Reel page by the end of this week.

8.25.08 I went down to the Saxon Pub last Tuesday to see my old comrade Freedy Johnston play a solo show and wound up in the studio with him a few nights later putting down assorted guitar tracks on his new song "The Other Side of Love." Naturally, good times and the comparison of iPhone applications ensued.

6.30.08 McGarrah-Jessee has asked me to compose music for a series of four new spots for the State of Texas, with visuals by Shiny Object.

6.3.08 My music, produced by Tequila Mockingbird, will appear in Autozone's new "Free Ride" spot.

5.29.08 Barkley Evergreen will be using my music for additional Big O Tires radio spots this spring. That's right, more Tom Selleck.

4.17.08 My music will appear in an animated spot for Southern Company, produced by Tequila Mockingbird for the Richards Group.

4.6.08 I'm currently completing music for Sweet Leaf Tea's new brand film, produced by The Butler Bros advertising agency.

3.8.08 nFusion Group will be using my music for additional Comerica Bank TV and radio spots this spring.

2.25.08 O.k., this one rang my chimes as a Magnum P.I. fan: my music will appear in spots for Big O Tires produced by Tequila Mockingbird for Barkley Evergreen and featuring the voice talent of Tom Selleck (that Tom Selleck).

2.2.08 Going coastal: I've just provided music for one of four national Wendy's spots scored by Duotone Audio Group of New York.

1.31.08 Shiny Object recently hired me to score a spot for Comerica Bank.

12.20.07 My fourth Firstcom library, Juke Joint Blues, produced by Juniper Music, is now available. I've also just completed scoring a series of Frost Bank videos for McGarrah-Jessee.

9.24.07 I've finished scoring the 7-minute brand film Small Smiles for The Butler Bros advertising agency. A Quicktime version can be found on the reel page; selected tracks from the film can be heard on the audio player as well.

6.26.07 I've just completed my fourth volume of library music for Firstcom and Juniper Music. Tentatively titled Funky Blues, the twelve tracks will be available later this year. Previous titles include Cool Commercial 7, Contemporary Country 2 and Naked Guitar.

5.4.07 Michael Fracasso's new CD, Red Dog Blues, will have its official release Tuesday, May 29th. Michael asked me to produce, as well as play various guitars and do a little horn arranging; we recorded at South Austin's fabulous, analog-friendly Top Hat studios. The record features J.J. Johnson (John Mayer) on drums,  Byron Isaacs (Olabelle) on bass and the Beaumont Lagrange horn section.

3.16.07 Virtual Boss/Folk Icon alert: I stepped into the studio during South By Southwest to lay down a track on a Bruce Springsteen/Pete Seeger remake of Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad," to be released on a Pete Seeger tribute CD this summer.

 2.27.07 I've just completed scoring the documentary "Wildcatting For Wind," a co-production of Kestrel Filmworks and the University of Texas School of Law.