The second decade
2000 - 2009
In December of 2000 I recorded my 8th studio album in a little church where my recording and sound engineer Jesse Evatte was a member. The church has long been replaced by a bank but the music we put down that day lives on here.
The title "DEMORICAN" is a portmanteau of the words Democrat & Republican which was my way of reacting to the weird U.S. Presidential election of that year.
The music was all written by me with the exception of the covers of the Indigo Girl's "You And Me Of The 10,000 Wars", Tori Amos's "Little Amsterdam" and Vince Gill's "Go Rest High On That Mountain". I even played all the instruments on two tracks ("You And me Of The 10,000 Wars" & "Epiphany") while Danny Cutts played the drums on the rest of the cuts.
It would be 3 years before the next release...
The years 2001 to 2003 were years of change, growth and mainly movement for me. But things stabilized very nicely in Feb. 2003 when I moved to a nice house by a small pond in the countryside around Farrs Bridge Road near Dacusville, SC.
And everything changed dramatically and satisfactorily in May when I purchased my first digital audio recorder...a small Fostex 8 track machine. For the next 4 years my annual recordings were all done at home in the sunken den that I labeled Neardacusville Studios...since I was near Dacusville. LOL
Here's that beauty right here!!!
In December of 2003 I began work on what became MILLER STREET. I was a newbie to the world of digital recording and it definitely shows...but one of the things of which I'm proud is how my abilities as both a producer and a sound engineer became more proficient as time passed on.
MILLER STREET featured the very first appearance of Greenville guitar legend, Mark Tyson. Thankfully it wouldn't be the last time as you will see. One of these songs 'Meanderings" would later be recorded for my commercial debut album BUTTERFLIES WITH BROKEN WINGS in 2017.
My favorite track off this EP is "Dissembling". Enjoy...
Original Cover...D.I.Y.
In 2004 I was doing plenty of walking as a meter reader for the gas company. Most of the time my mind was split in two...one side concentrating on the business at hand while the other relentlessly daydreamed about the next album.
Not a bad place to be in...I grew a little more accustomed to utilizing the FOSTEX plus learned how to tap unlimited file capacity with a solitary SD card which really gave me more time and flexibility to work on parts and melodies.
Did I get it all correct on this one? No...but it was step in the right direction.
2005 saw me adding some gospel music to the mix along with a song in Spanish. Only 3 originals on ISOCELES RISING one of which "Until You Try" saw some radio play on WNCW and no...it wasn't me who played it. LOL
It was my pleasure to have my mother Connie Cisson sing harmony on "Mama's Teaching Angels How To Sing" along with her good friend, the late Linda Dodd plus...there was a hidden track at the end of the disc ("Ghost") which I can't hide here...it's the last track below.
In 2006 I recorded my last album in Dacusville and the last one I would produce on the Fostex digital multitrack recorder...it would also be another 12 years before I would collaborate with Mark Tyson although I didn't know it at the time.
So I had come into my own regarding D.I.Y. home recording by this time which is why I am immensely proud of this album unto this day. I guess that's why in 2017 when my producer, Matt Morgan, was scouring my catalog for the songs to put on my commercial debut he chose 4 songs from this album.
The title came about as I was watching an episode of 'Survivor Man' with Les Stroud. He was saying how people who have been lost at sea for long periods of time and are rescued sometimes find it hard to walk on dry land because they can't rid themselves of the rocking feeling of being on the water...hence the title STILLNESS ILLNESS
In October of 2007 I moved to my current residence where I later established my recording domicile as BSC Studios. Major changes including the start of a relationship that is still going strong today. Still at the end of the year I was able to muster up a three song EP of unplugged cover material. This is about as basic as it gets. And I'm glad I had the opportunity to return to my piano roots however briefly because the keyboard would return as the lead instrument in the next decade.
I consider this a snapshot of a certain place and time which I will always treasure and remember.
in 2008 I took it upon myself to put together a vanity project of enforced recollection entitled
MILLERTUNES 1990-2008
The cover photo was taken on the waterfront in nice, france
D I S C O N E
D I S C T W O
To close out the decade I took a wimpy approach to an album and basically came up with a set of karaoke tunes to which my vocal could be applied. Yes...looking back now it all seems and certainly sounds a little bit hokey but what the hell? I've banged around some strange corners both as
a human and as an artist and sometimes it's necessary to fulfill the potential of the target.
UNDERCOVER was the tongue-in-cheek title...
