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The Road to Nashville
As the songs for my album "Road Tested" were falling into shape, it was clear that this record was going to lean more heavily on my deep...
About The Song: On a Night Like This
I’ve had this song in the saddle bag for a long time. It was part of a trilogy of songs I wrote several years ago and no matter how long...
About The Song: You Always Do That To Me – Sometimes
This song was born from a marriage between a lick and a line. As a guitarist, I often just bang around on the dang thing until a lick or...
The Pandemic, The Legendary McCrary Sisters, and Grilled Cheese/Side of Grapes
I knew that during his Nashville days my producer, Marco Giovino had worked with the legendary gospel group, The McCrary Sisters. They...
About The Song: We Will Walk Though The Streets of The City
Marco suggested this song, sending me a version performed by New Orleans street performer, “Mother” Mary Margaret Parker. I haven’t been...
Mapping Environmental Racism
After I left my work as Chief of Staff to a Congressman on Capitol Hill, I spent the better part of the 1990’s in the world of...
About the Song: Here’s The Thing About America
I wrote the song back in April of 2020 when covid had already locked us out of the studio. One day, with a guitar and a notebook and no...
The Making of 38 Degrees and Raining: Song Selection
The first part of our pre-production ritual was the exchange of song ideas, which was very much a two-way street. I volunteered various...
The Making Of 38 Degrees and Raining: Marco, Marco, Marco
My musical collaboration with Marco Giovino began with the sessions for my 2017 record, “Gin & Rosewater”. I had been a fan of Marco’s...
Making Noise
I’ve been making noises since January of 2020 about getting to work on a new record. Well, we’re there. CD’s are being manufactured as we...
About the Song: Hold Back The Water
I spent four years working as Joe Kennedy II Chief of Staff, then another eight more years in Washington working on public policy in...
About the Song: I Walk the Line
This song, that Johnny Cash wrote to his first wife, was one that I felt could be a “Twisted Cover” - a song everyone knows that can be...
About the Song: The Girl From St. Lucy
My mother’s parents both died young. From her teenage years on she was raised by extended family. She had an aunt who was a nun who...
About the Song: Irresistible Targets
In the 80's I was introduced to John Stewart, the same John Stewart whose face I stared at on the Kingston Trio album covers– a man who's...
About the Song: A Thousand Cuts
This song is the second track on my record, Gin & Rosewater. It’s an exploration of all the ways we can inflict – or feel –emotional...
About the Song: Belvedere
Belvedere is an ode to loneliness, to love lost. The topic is not new by any means– so I attempted to convey that sense of loss in a...
About the Song: Everything
This is the narrator talking to himself. The litany of things he “doesn’t need” is split between things he may truly not need and things...
I'm Starting a New Record
I have the distinct pleasure of starting my first new record in several many years. I'm working with an amazing producer and an amazing...
They Decided to Induct Me!
It was an honor to be inducted in the Massachusetts Country Music Hall of Fame this week. It honors the decade I spent with my group,...
Around About Now
A lot of wonderful things have happened since then. That energy company helped a lot of needy people. Joe decided to run for Congress and...