I am currently working on a musical collaboration with my cousin Tom, but I have gotten some requests to share a couple of these tracks more widely while we still work on the others. The project is a collection of songs about the pandemic.

“Going Viral” is the first recording to really showcase my new guitar, an Ibanez semi-hollow body. I just love the sounds that come out of this thing! One of my sons (the one who did The Ballad of the California Gold Rush) played bass on the track. [download mp3]

“The Beach is Closed” is in a 1960’s Beach Boys style. It imagines how the teenage boy from Brian Wilson’s classic songs would react to the coronavirus lockdown. Another one of my sons played the organ on this song. [download mp3]

These are 100% Linux productions using Ardour 5.12, AVL Drumkits LV2, SetBfree virtual tonewheel organ, and a host of native Linux plugins. Maybe someday we’ll have a good spring reverb plugin on Linux, but in the meantime I think Dragonfly Plate Reverb sounded pretty good in “The Beach is Closed.”

I hope you enjoy these tracks. I have at least two more songs to do on this theme. Stay tuned for the rest of the project!