"...I go looking for your photograph online 
Some county judge from Ohio's all I ever find"
-John Mayer, Dear Marie

That song came on when I was listening to music last week and I've been thinking about it a lot since. Specifically that line. Allow me to explain...

Dear Marie is addressed to a girl John Mayer dated in high school, before he was a mega-celebrity. In it he wonders what she's up to now and if she still thinks he's the same person he was before he was famous. He tries to look her up online but finds only a "county judge from Ohio" by the same name.  

That line stands out to me because it's such a specific reference, and yet so relatable. Everyone knows that feeling of Googling someone from their past or searching them on Facebook and coming up empty or finding the wrong person.

To me, that is the mark of great songwriting. Taking something so seemingly mundane and making it poetic and interesting. Turning something so specific and personal and into something so relatable. That is the true art of songwriting.

The Week That Was
It was truly wonderful to be back performing live music for people again this week. I was supposed to have 3 gigs, but one was canceled due to some crazy wind. Nevertheless, it felt so great to be singing in front of live humans and I'm looking forward to doing it much more throughout the rest of this year. 

The Week Ahead
I'll be continuing to chip away at my upcoming EP. We just knocked off another song and should be breaking ground on another this week. I love the creative process of recording songs, but you definitely hit a point sometimes where you just want to get through and have it all done. ​

Photos of the Week

I'M PLAYING GIGS!!! 

3 of them in fact! 

Which, thanks to COVID, is more in-person gigs than I've played in the entire last calendar year. It feels really good to be playing live again. I was used to gigging multiple times each month (often multiple times each week), so when everything shut down it was a huge adjustment. When you're a musician who performs live regularly and then you can't play out at all, it almost feels like you're not even a musician anymore. Like you're just sitting around saying you are. It's a weird feeling. 

But I'm super excited to be back playing in front of humans again. If you're one of my local peeps, here's where I'll be playing.

The Week That Was
I have to say last week was a pretty damn good one. I played golf for the first time this year, had a nice outdoor gathering for a friend's birthday, and oh yeah...I dropped a new song!  The reception has been awesome so far. Thanks to everyone who's listened. And if you haven't hear it/watched the video yet, you can do so here.

The Week Ahead
The gigs should keep me pretty busy this week. I have a 3-hour gig Thursday, a 3-hour gig Friday, and a 2-hour gig Sunday. That's a lotta singin'. Other than that, I'll hopefully be able to squeeze in some recording time. 

Photos of the Week

Talk to all you lovely people next week.

All the best,
​Corey

Hello all!

I'm writing to you today fresh off a glorious weekend visiting friends in Rhode Island. Now that we're fortunate enough to be vaccinated, we were able to have a proper get together for the first time in over a year. It was a perfect few days filled with catching up, good food, hikes, and more. Plus our dogs seem to be pretty in love with each other. 

One thing this trip really got me thinking about is how incredible modern medicine really is. Last year at this time, we were just a few weeks into the pandemic and Matt (the friend I was visiting) and I were talking about the chaos he was dealing with as an emergency room doctor and what we were going to be up against in the coming weeks/months. And now, just one year later, we were able to get together safely. 

Though the last year has been incredibly challenging and so many lives have been lost, it is pretty amazing that there are already multiple vaccines available for mass distribution. Just a few hundred years ago (which really isn't that long!) plagues would last for YEARS and kill off half the population. It's wild how far we've come. Science, man.

The Week That Was
Obviously the weekend was the highlight of this past week, but I also finished editing the music video for my next single! It's looking really cool. Hard to believe the whole thing was shot on an iPhone! Science (slash tech), man.

The Week Ahead
This is one of those rare times where I don't actually know what this week has in store yet. My producer should be sending me the next track to work on for my EP, so hopefully I'll be working on guitar and vocals for that. Otherwise, I'll likely be tracking some tunes that I'm working on with Jerome. Lots of music in the works! 

Photos of the Week

That's all for this week. Next time we talk I'll have a little announcement to share with you...

Much love,
​Corey

Happy April everyone! Hope you all had a nice Easter, Passover, or just a good old fashioned weekend. I was able to spend some quality time with family over the past few weeks (thank you, Pfizer and Moderna...). The sis-in-law even hooked me up with a fresh haircut (my first one since last July 😬) so I don't look like Martha Washington anymore. Anyway, here's an annoyingly cutesy picture we took on Easter, that isn't particularly flattering for any of us (except maybe Ginny). 

The Week That Was
This past week I officially wrapped up work on the first song for my upcoming EP. I'm pumped, it sounds so good. I also did a bunch of other administrative crap that would not be interesting to you. So I'll spare you that and continue to bore my wife with it instead.

The Week Ahead
Ok so I thought I was going to be editing that music video last week. But I always seem to be about a week behind what I think. So I'll be doing that this week now. Unless I end up going golfing instead because it's going to be so nice out this week...no, I shouldn't do that. But I might...? No, no I won't.

GINNY, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!
So since quarantine began last year, my wife and I have been doing jigsaw puzzles at night while we watch TV. Well for the last week or two we've been working on this one that is just an absolute nightmare. There's a big purple car and a driveway and all the pieces just look SO similar. So the other night we finally got almost the entire bottom of the puzzle done...

So the next day, I take Ginny for her afternoon walk and, as is custom when we come in, she starts running around the apartment like the Tasmanian Devil playing with her burger squeaky toy. In the midst of this, I go to the bathroom and come out to find....this:

The little monster JUMPED ON THE COFFEE TABLE AND WIPED OUT ALL OUR HARD WORK. You can even see the beast licking her chops in the top right corner. So I read her the riot act and spent the next hour trying to reconstruct our work. 

Fast forward to that night. Katie is in the living room, Ginny is again playing with her burger, and I'm in the kitchen getting some ice cream. Suddenly, I hear a blood curdling shriek that could stir the dead from their slumber. And what do I come out to find...? Ginny has ONCE AGAIN JUMPED ON THE DAMN TABLE AND DESTROYED THE PUZZLE. Twice in one day!!!!

So, if anyone is looking to adopt a beagle, let me know. Very affectionate. Good around other pets and children. Not good around puzzles.

Photos of the Week

​Final Thoughts
​Last week, a local legend from my hometown passed away. His name was Dimitri and he owned Dimitri's Diner. Though I didn't know him well, just about everyone in town had some experience with him in which he showed them kindness or generosity. He was the kind of person that you met once and always remembered. 

I bring this up because he was a hometown hero of sorts. Not because he saved lives or did anything extraordinary. But because he made an impact on so many people, simply by treating them well. Sometimes it feels like the world's problems are so big that it's hard to make a difference. But people like Dimitri remind us how much of an impact we can make as individuals, just by being a positive influence within our own community. People remember how you make them feel. Treat others well wherever you go and you can make a bigger impact than you may even realize. You don't have to change the world, you just have to do your part.

Catch you guys next week. 

-Corey