Track 4 on Goody Goody, the newest record from ATOMBALM

The Sky Is Crying (feat Etta James)

Leaving the Buckeye State and moving to the Bay Area to play music with my older brother for a summer seemed as good an idea as any at the time. That was 30 years ago this month but it still feels like last week in many respects. In thirty years I have had the unexplainable pleasure of writing, producing and performing music with dozens of other outstanding players, mentors, best of friends, family and childhood idols. The Bay Area sucked me in to the early SF underground electronic music scene around the turn of the century and changed my aural landscape as a whole. San Francisco also introduced me to the stand-up stage during the comedy boom in the late 1990’s. Over the last three decades I have performed all over the country with multiple bands and spent weeks in amazing studios working with genius engineers and producers. I built a music studio in my home and helped build another studio in my rehearsal space in Oakland where I started digging in to production and sound design for stage and film. I got hitched in 2001 and have spent the last 16 years raising two daughters - one with perfect pitch and the other with perfect comedic timing, go figure. I decided it would be fun to put together a little musical (s)crapbook of my journey. Songs from bands I was in when I turned 21 through to a couple new songs of my own I finished last month, 30 years later. There are some CHUB “basement tapes” and crappy live recordings along with a lengthy menu of random unfinished morsels in need of some outside creative flavor. Part of the reason I decided to share this musical (s)crapbook was my desire to connect and create with other likeminded humans. Maybe one of these tracks inspires a vocal melody in you? Maybe quarantine inspired you to clean off that dusty ukulele? Maybe you’re a closet MC? The current state of our lives leaves me yearning for creative collaboration. If music heals then creativity comforts and collaboration cures. Download away and let’s make music together. Thanks for listening, atombalm