Along with longtime band leader Ralph Huntley and Jim Brunberg, I’ve been a member of the Mutton Chops (LiveWire! Radio‘s house band) for two years now. That amounts to 48 live tapings and 96 actual radio shows, for which we collectively composed an average of 3 25 second compositions each. With just shy of 300 original, if short, pieces of music sitting around collecting dust, it seemed like a great time to record them for posterity (or possibly more). So we did.
We got an even hundred songs done anyway, and in just 2 days. That’s very fast. Since we all switch instruments from song to song, we first set up drums, mics, guitar and bass, and the venerable Roland keyboard with all of the cringe-worthy symphonic, 80′s keyboard, and heavy metal guitar patches we love so much. Ralph had an 11 page list of our tunes and iPhone voice memos of each from the original writing sessions; we’d pick a song, relearn it, and record it preferably in 10 minutes or less. Guests came in to do tunes from shows they subbed on: Steve Berlin, Jonathan Newsome, and Paul Evans.
Since only 99 songs can be put on an audio CD, I imagine that what we have will end up as a Volume 1- not the 300 song CD we initially fantasized about. Nonetheless, I’m very excited to share this material when it gets through mixing. And there is always the other fantasy of slyly booking ourselves as the opener for a touring act and then either wowing or infuriating the unwitting audience by blowing through our 100 hits in a 40 minute set.












