The Garden: An 8-part story in song…

Artwork: Who is that handsome guy in the background? Could it be, the one and only Mr. Pudding Jackson?

10/06/2025

I am in that final phases of mixing and mastering the eight tracks that will comprise “The Garden”; with the goal of releasing the full album this December. The process of mixing tracks together is a bit maddening… increase the volume on the vocals and all of a sudden you can’t hear the guitars anymore… or move the percussion a bit to the right and now the fiddle isn’t sounding quite right. Rest assured that we will work through this crazy process and the end result will be amazing!

So what is the end result intended to be? What’s all this “8-part story in song” concept all about. Well as it turns out I was just asked about this by a fan recently. Well she’s a bit more than a fan… she family and I had approached her to get a fresh set of ears to listen to a few drafts of song mixes (its a bit like going to the optometrist… which is clearer… 1 or 2… 2 or 1?). Anyway, this fan wanted to know what the songs were about. She’d already heard Saucers, Integrity, News of the World, and Good Intentions… but given that the songs were released out of order she didn’t understand that each song was written as one part of an 8-part story.

So I will not ruin that story here, but I will share that this album’s concept is an observation of what is going on in the USA today. It’s intended to be non-partisan in nature; rather it is about observing how things appear and reminescing about how they once were (not so long ago) and finally how they could be in the near future.

Starting 10/12/2025 please visit this blog site weekly as new parts to this story will be released each Sunday until the story has been told. There are pros and cons to telling stories through song: A real pro is the ability to manage the tone and dynamics of the music to convey the emotion that words alone might struggle to convey. However, a con to this approach is that within a 4 minute song this songwriter finds lyrics to be to limiting. So my intent with the blog is to provide some added context to my audience while we await the album’s release.

This is not intended to be preachy. This album is about sharing perspectives. My view point is solely my own, but it is valid… Your perspective about the state of our country is also valid and uniquely your own. While these views points may differ tremendously it remains my sincere hope that we each begin to actively note those traits that are common amongst each of us. There are loud voices in our government and communities that benefit from having us exclusively paying attention to our differences. These are not benevolent actors and it behooves each of us to take time to ask ourselves: “Is this truly how I feel and what I believe?” Or “Am is there someone that is encouraging me to feel and believe this way… and what is there motivation?”

We were once friends. Let’s find a path to be friends once again.