Music has always been part of my life. Pretty typical statement for a music artist to start with I know but still. My mother tells a story about me singing the theme music from the Batman television show before I was old enough to talk. An apocrophal tale no doubt which I of course have no memory of. What I do remember is always having a record player and access to musical instruments from an early age. I have always been immersed in music. I also have a lifelong fascination with recording sound. Somewhere around eight years old I asked my parents for a tape recorder for Christmas. I told them it was the only thing I wanted because I knew money was tight for our family then. They just couldn't bring themselves to buy me only one gift. A child my age surely wouldn't be happy with that. In fact after Christmas I insisted they take me to the store and exchanged my gifts and added some money from my grandparents to buy an inexpensive mono cassette deck. I recorded everything I could with it. Family activities, ambient nature sounds, television and radio programs, everything I could think of. It's one of my fondest childhood memories. Fast forward a few years and I was singing folky christian music with my older brothers(It was the seventies) and eventually found myself in middle school band. By the beginning of high school I had decided to become a song writer. I'm not exactly sure why. Probably the usual reasons, impressing people, by which I mean girls of course. In any case I determined to work at it seriously and by my sophomore year I was recording my efforts. That's the jumping off point for this compilation. I've organized Ephemera in two different ways. By time period when the recordings were made and by recording devices and techniques which I will explain in more detail along the way. The bulk of these recordings are what I would consider demos that where never intended for anything other than my private use. Some of the later tracks are unreleased recordings that where done along side actual album releases and I've notated them as such.
Volume one Disk one 1980-1984
The Early Years
Recordings from this period fall into two categories. Live stereo and live stereo overdubs. The first is fairly straight forward. I would set up two microphones in my bedroom and record my live performance straight to tape. Generally a stereo cassette tape machine. The second process I used, live stereo overdub, is a little more esoteric. I began the process with a live stereo performance as before straight to tape. I used a variety of machines for the first stage, including cassette, reel to reel, and even an eight track cartridge recorder from radio shack. Yes I made my mixtapes on eight track before cassette mixtapes became all the rage. Next I added additional performances to the first recording. I accomplished this by playing the first tape through my stereo sound system and arranging two microphones to pick up both the speakers and my live performance. Usually a harmony vocal and another instrument. The microphones would be connected to a second stereo tape machine to capture the combined performance. This technique predates tape recorder technology and was known as disk to disk back in the days before multitrack recording. To control the mix so to speak I would adjust the mic placement and volume on the stereo. I would check this with headphones monitoring the second tape machines input until I was satisfied then hit play and record. The recordings you hear are the original tapes from the second machine.
Volume One Disk two 1985-1989
College years
In 1985 I managed to acquire my first multitrack recording machine, a four channel standard speed cassette deck which most of these demos on this disk were made with. These songs were written and recorded while I was a music major at UTSA studying theory and composition.. Around 1986 I took a break from school for awhile to sort through a fairly serious episode of depression. Even though it was crippling in terms of being a fully functional human being it did produce a large volume of songs. Most of which were never recorded as the quality of my work wasn't the best at that time. Tracks 1 through 6 came out of this period. In 1988 as my depression started to lift I started looking for new musical opportunities and joined a band called Storm Searcher. I recorded a number of demos on eight track reel to reel for the band between 88 and 89. Tracks 8, 9, and 10 are from this period. As an aside, even though the band didn't work out, I did meet my future wife, Kat, during this time. A number of years later I ran into her husband at a bar and he told me they were divorced. I asked who had gotten the recording equipment in the divorce and he informed me that she had. I knocked on her door the next day and as of this writing we've been together thirty years. Truly one of the greatest blessings in my life.
Volume Two Disk 1 1990-93
In 1990 I finally buckled down and got a real job working as a graphic artist for an ad agency. It only lasted a year but I managed to make some money and bought myself a Fostex 290 high speed cassette portastudio. My brief stint at the ad agency did however make me realize I had some talent for visual art so I went back to school to study painting and sculpture. This new creative outlet also fueled my music creation and I recorded my first album, Poems And Promises, which I only recently released. The tracks on this disk were also recorded in the same time frame but never released.
Volume Two Disk 2 1994-2006
1994 was the year I got married. It was also the year I completed tracking for my album, Amystery. The story of that work is a complicated one and can be found in the album liner notes. Tracks 1, 2, and 3 were recorded for the Amystery project but were cut for various reasons and were never released till now. In 1995 I started building a private studio called Cedar Break. We started with analog but quickly transitioned to 24 tracks of ADAT digital tape as well as computer based recording and editing. By way of promoting the studio, my wife and I, along with friends, recorded a series of Christmas EP's called Christmas At The Worthams. Tracks 4, 5, 6, and 7 are the original songs I wrote for those projects. In between client projects I did manage to work on some material of my own and in 2006 I released Road Songs. Tracks 8 and 9 were recorded for the Road Songs project but never released.
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Volume one Disk one 1980-1984
The Early Years
Recordings from this period fall into two categories. Live stereo and live stereo overdubs. The first is fairly straight forward. I would set up two microphones in my bedroom and record my live performance straight to tape. Generally a stereo cassette tape machine. The second process I used, live stereo overdub, is a little more esoteric. I began the process with a live stereo performance as before straight to tape. I used a variety of machines for the first stage, including cassette, reel to reel, and even an eight track cartridge recorder from radio shack. Yes I made my mixtapes on eight track before cassette mixtapes became all the rage. Next I added additional performances to the first recording. I accomplished this by playing the first tape through my stereo sound system and arranging two microphones to pick up both the speakers and my live performance. Usually a harmony vocal and another instrument. The microphones would be connected to a second stereo tape machine to capture the combined performance. This technique predates tape recorder technology and was known as disk to disk back in the days before multitrack recording. To control the mix so to speak I would adjust the mic placement and volume on the stereo. I would check this with headphones monitoring the second tape machines input until I was satisfied then hit play and record. The recordings you hear are the original tapes from the second machine.
Volume One Disk two 1985-1989
College years
In 1985 I managed to acquire my first multitrack recording machine, a four channel standard speed cassette deck which most of these demos on this disk were made with. These songs were written and recorded while I was a music major at UTSA studying theory and composition.. Around 1986 I took a break from school for awhile to sort through a fairly serious episode of depression. Even though it was crippling in terms of being a fully functional human being it did produce a large volume of songs. Most of which were never recorded as the quality of my work wasn't the best at that time. Tracks 1 through 6 came out of this period. In 1988 as my depression started to lift I started looking for new musical opportunities and joined a band called Storm Searcher. I recorded a number of demos on eight track reel to reel for the band between 88 and 89. Tracks 8, 9, and 10 are from this period. As an aside, even though the band didn't work out, I did meet my future wife, Kat, during this time. A number of years later I ran into her husband at a bar and he told me they were divorced. I asked who had gotten the recording equipment in the divorce and he informed me that she had. I knocked on her door the next day and as of this writing we've been together thirty years. Truly one of the greatest blessings in my life.
Volume Two Disk 1 1990-93
In 1990 I finally buckled down and got a real job working as a graphic artist for an ad agency. It only lasted a year but I managed to make some money and bought myself a Fostex 290 high speed cassette portastudio. My brief stint at the ad agency did however make me realize I had some talent for visual art so I went back to school to study painting and sculpture. This new creative outlet also fueled my music creation and I recorded my first album, Poems And Promises, which I only recently released. The tracks on this disk were also recorded in the same time frame but never released.
Volume Two Disk 2 1994-2006
1994 was the year I got married. It was also the year I completed tracking for my album, Amystery. The story of that work is a complicated one and can be found in the album liner notes. Tracks 1, 2, and 3 were recorded for the Amystery project but were cut for various reasons and were never released till now. In 1995 I started building a private studio called Cedar Break. We started with analog but quickly transitioned to 24 tracks of ADAT digital tape as well as computer based recording and editing. By way of promoting the studio, my wife and I, along with friends, recorded a series of Christmas EP's called Christmas At The Worthams. Tracks 4, 5, 6, and 7 are the original songs I wrote for those projects. In between client projects I did manage to work on some material of my own and in 2006 I released Road Songs. Tracks 8 and 9 were recorded for the Road Songs project but never released.
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