I actually remember how to blog!

Looks like my last entry was nearly six months ago. I knew it had been awhile since my last blog but I hadn't realized it had been THAT long. So much has happened between now and then. Some of it important, some of it, not so much. Let me start out with the least important stuff first... updates on music placements...

I landed my second main title theme for the show It's A Brad, Brad World that is currently airing on Bravo. I've also had numerous placements in a variety of other shows such as Access Hollywood, Auction Kings, and Little Couple. And the movie that I wrote the score for, Decision, made it's television debut back in October. I've also been busy writing cues for a variety of other shows but have yet to find out how many have been used yet.

In November of last year I made my annual trip to L.A. for the TAXI Road Rally. This was my fourth time going and it might have been my favorite one. It was great getting to see friends and "family" while I was there though it's amazing how fast the time flies while you're there. This one seemed to go by really fast.

After the Rally I made a big change in my recording setup. I switched from Pro Tools 9 to Cubase 6. There were lots of reasons for the change and maybe one day I'll do a blog post just about that, but after making the switch to Cubase, I can honestly say I've got no regrets. I'm LOVING Cubase!

Now on to some of the important updates... The last couple of weeks have been a sobering reminder of just how fragile life really is. Almost two weeks ago, my papaw (mom's dad) passed away. Even though he had been in a nursing home for over eight years and had been battling Parkinson's Disease for sometime, his passing was a bit of a shock. While it's never easy to see someone you love pass away, we know he's in a much better place now and we have faith that we'll see him again someday. I was able to spend about a week up in KY to be with my family. I wish I could have stayed longer.

I was just about to get back to a bit of a normal life last week but this past Friday saw an outbreak of tornadoes across the Midwest and the South. We were fortunate here in that we didn't see any damage. But the area that I grew up in, Laurel County, Kentucky, was not as lucky. In East Bernstadt, at least five people lost their life and as many as 40 others were injured. It broke my heart to see the pictures and video footage of some of the damage. While I grew up in London, we went to church for many years in East Bernstadt and I have some friends and family that live there. I basically consider all of Laurel County as "home." And to be away from there right now is definitely tugging on my heart. My body may be in Tennessee, but my head and heart are in Kentucky right now.

I posted this on facebook and will do the same here. I'm trying to find 5 people who are willing to donate $20 to the United Way of Laurel County to help out the tornado victims in East Bernstadt. I will match those donations myself and will also buy you a drink or desert the next time I see you in person. If you're willing to help, here's the link to donate at:

https://volunteer.truist.com/cng-uwa/donate/?fdn=19100&_vm10302425432_=UWW_LUW

Until next time...

Time for another update

It's been a fun-filled couple of weeks or so since my last entry, time to get everyone caught up on what's been going on. Before I get into the music updates, I had a chance to go to my 20 year high school reunion at the end of August. I had such a great time getting to see so many old friends, many of which I hadn't seen since graduation day. I ended up getting the award for "Most Changed Male" while I was there. Needless to say, I look a bit different now than I did 20 years ago :-) Hard to believe it's been 20 years! On to the music...

I was sad to see both Proving Ground and Surprise Homecoming come to a close over the last couple of weeks. I ended up having 65 placements in Proving Ground and 9 in Surprise Homecoming. I'm not sure if either will be having a second season but I'm grateful for the opportunities that I got with both shows.

Since my last entry, I've signed three new deals with some music libraries. The first deal came as a result of a TAXI forward. The company signed 5 acoustic guitar tracks in the singer-songwriter style, kind of like Ryan Adams. You can hear them all by clicking this link. I heard from him yesterday and all 5 tracks were sent to MTV for possible use in the Teen Mom series. Not sure if they'll get used or not yet but he told me that if he hears good news, then I'll hear good news, which means you'll hear good news too :-)

New placements (with a video clip!)

The last couple of months have been pretty good to me. I've been getting some regular placements in a couple of new shows, Proving Ground on G4TV and Surprise Homecoming on TLC. In both cases, I'm seeing, or should I say hearing :-) some tracks that I wrote and pitched specifically for those shows. Both of the shows also contain some personal "records" for me in terms of placements. In the Harry Potter episode of Proving Ground, I had the most placements ever in any one episode of a show with a total of 14. And in this most recent episode of Surprise Homecoming, I had my longest placement with a total length of 1:16.

It's a great feeling to be watching the show and then hear a cue that you wrote specifically for a certain type of scene, actually show up in the show AND get used in that type of scene! In this specific case, I'm referring to most recent episode of Homecoming and the "reveal" scenes. I had four cues used in this most recent episode with two of them being the "reveal" scenes. I've posted a clip below of one of those scenes. The cue is used from the beginning of the clip until the family "turns around" and it's a piece that I co-wrote with my dear friend Lydia Ashton.



It's been fun watching these shows with my wife next to me. Every time one of my cues starts I'll point to the TV and exclaim "MINE!!!" with the giddiness of a little kid at Christmas time. Though I've been writing music for a while, I'm still kinda new to the film and TV music aspect of the biz, and so far, the new-ness of hearing my music on TV has to yet wear off. I don't think it ever will. This business is tough and I feel I've been very blessed to see my placement totals continue to increase on a weekly, and in some cases, daily basis.

Some other recent placements that I've had would be in the shows Curb Appeal (HGTV), I Hate My Kitchen (DIY), 10 Grand In Your Hand (DIY) and according to my ASCAP international statement, an episode of America's Got Talent that played in the United Kingdom.

Like I said, the last couple of months have been pretty good to me. Can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds!

August Update

It has been a rather eventful summer to say the least. A couple of days after my last blog post my parents came down to visit. It was a short visit but a great one filled with lots of laughter and food. In other words, a typical family visit :-)

A few days after that I had a chance to write some music for a new reality show about a pest control service. Not sure if I'm allowed to say more than that at this time. I ended up writing and signing some new tracks in a couple of genres that were new for me, classic rock and hip-hop.

A couple of days later I got an opportunity to write some tracks for a new show that recently debuted on TLC called Surprise Homecoming, hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus. The show is about soldiers returning home from war and surprising their loved ones. It was a very quick turnaround time for the new cues as the show was already being edited. I wrote a few cues and I also did some co-writing with a couple dear friends, Lydia Ashton and Cathleen Weinrich, both of whom are amazing musicians. Cathleen and I had two tracks signed and Lydia and I had four tracks signed.

Perception and Reality

I was having a conversation with my wife yesterday about how I've been feeling that I haven't been as productive this year, from the standpoint of music creation. It's not that I feel like I've been lazy or anything, quite the contrary. I know I've been working as hard but for some reason, in my mind, it feels like I'm "behind schedule" compared to last year. So I spent some time on the subject last night.