The following is a blog I wrote, and made the mistake of letting Georgia read ahead of time. She said it’s terrible and I can’t put it out.

Now normally my response to damn near anything Georgia says is, “Yes dear”… but in THIS case I am going to let YOU, the home viewer, be the judge. She is afraid that YOU, (still the home viewer) will not “get” my “sarcasm,” and will turn against me the way the Roman Emperor Claudius was betrayed by his own family and poisoned in his sleep. (Or shot with a crossbow. I get it confused with Game Of Thrones.)

So here it is… I have included editorial comments in the spots where Georgia freaked out.

I just spent my evening listening to the freshly mixed, and newly mastered, second Blue Sky Riders CD.  It’s awful.

(It’s actually fantastic. I just thought that would be a funny reaction for me to have. I was going for humor.)

Frankly, looking back, I think we made some questionable and damaging choices. I think it might have been a mistake to not have a single track where all three of us actually sing together.

(This is a contradictory exaggeration for comedic effect. We trade lead vocals and sing in angelic three-part harmony throughout. But wouldn’t it be funny to have a trio band and never sing together? That would be ironic, at least.)

Another mistake we made is stylistic. Though there are some tracks on the new CD that some of our “simpler” fans might consider “pretty music,”… by and large we went, by choice, in a direction that is reminiscent of German Industrial Film Music. Very totalitarian. The kind of music you buy Italian shoes to.

(Our fans are not simple. Our fans are erudite and sophisticated and know good music. We strive for “pretty” in each and every song. Even the coarse, loud ones. I don’t know what German Industrial Film Music is, but I once had a writer listen to one of my songs and say it reminded him of that, and I have never forgotten the genius of that critique. I also hate Italian shoes, and you all KNOW that, therefore you would have immediately identified it a comedy.)

Another problem is it’s length.  52 tracks.

Now granted… the longest track clocks in at 4:11 but still, even with the rest of the songs under two minutes… that is a LOT to expect people to listen to. A lot to digest, as it were.

(Sheer exaggeration. The CD is actually 40 minutes long, and there is not one track that clocks in over a minute and a half.)

(Ow! Okay. The CD is twelve songs, and they are normal length. Jeez!)

Oh well. We did our best. No, that’s actually the title of the new CD. “We Did Our Best.”

(While I will go to my grave insisting that, “We Did Our Best,” would make a kick ass title for a CD… the actual title is “Why Not.” And we DID indeed do our best.  And our best is pretty damn great if I say so myself (with editing).)

We are obviously hoping that the goodwill we have garnered over the last few years will impel our audience to give us a pass on this one. When you finally listen to it please keep in mind that between the three of us we have thirteen different addictions that CERTAINLY have to be factored in.

(I re-counted, and between us we have five addictions. Thirteen is just a flat out funnier number. Sorry.)

We did our best.

Okay. There it is. Read and let me know. Does anyone out there think that I hate our new CD, and am apologizing for it? Or am I just being the madcap, zany chronicler that I’ve grown into and you have grown to love?

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