Reward Music

Just a spare-of-the-moment live jam. I put a basic Em/D progression into the Boss RC-5 Loop Station and just went for it. The guitar is a Fender American Professional II Strat. The amp is a Soldano SLO30. I also used the...

Blizzard From Within is a 21 minute free improvisation in a new style I am exploring which I call Ambient Expressionism.  I seek to bring together both calm large scale moods with dynamic twists of emotions. The piece...

 I like to record my practice jams from time to time and thought it would be a great idea to share them with you. Here you get a glimpse at what goes on during my practice time. Some of these jams are complete meditations and...

All of the sounds you here are from a bird call I recorded one evening from my window.  I never heard it after that one time.  For program notes and then technical details, please click here....

These early (1990) pieces were composed on my EPS Ensoniq sampling keyboard, using only the sounds of Sprite pop cans jangling together, a small drum and a small tubular bell.  I used a small 4-track cassette tape recorder to...

The Night Ocean is the Finale to my premiere album, 43.  It's a calm summary of my accomplishment of over 100 minutes of improvised music.   The name comes from a poem by Rumi in which he describes the feeling of floating in...

Nook the Magnificent Sheep was a 4-hour old bum lamb when he went to live with Savanah Salisbury, a young 4-H student.  For the first 6 months of his life, he lived in town, and became the darling of the neighborhood, going...

This is a collection of "stubborn songs" and "old friends." Those ideas that you work on but never quite get into that groove, or it evolves into something you don’t like. So you put it down, and work on it another day. And...

All the sounds you hear are from various pieces of frozen things around the farm, enduring a 30 below winter....  For notes about this set of pieces, click here.               ...

This recently received the International Alliance of Women in Music Honorable Mention for the Pauline Oliveros New Genre Prize.  This is the Stand-Alone Version.  Click here for the Donkey Bray part for the Horn Version. You...

Soon after my first two dogs died of old age, my father died.  A thoughtful theologian, I doubt if he believed in a heaven, but somehow the title seemed ok....   I remastered this piece I wrote way back in 1994.  This used a...

All the sounds you hear are from a tiny cymbal I have.  For a description of how I wrote these pieces, please click here....

All the sounds you hear are from recordings I made from my farm.  To see how I did that, plus see some fantastic pictures of my dear animals, click here....

I was reading an article about Arnold Lobel and his Toad and Frog books from The New Yorker by Colin Stokes when, strangely at the same time, my friend Mark sent me some sounds of frogs he had heard on a walk in his Iowa...

These three little pieces were written back in 1990 on my Ensoniq sampling keyboard with it's tiny 3 x 6 cm screen for the onboard recording sequencer.  (In other words--this was before my computer, Cubase, sound effect...

My sister, pictured here with rhubarb from her garden, tapped out a couple sounds on those rhubarb flower stalks for me.  All the sounds you hear in "The Rhubarb Run" are from that initial tapping (which you can hear in the...

Small Bites is a collection of little experimental bits which I'm hoarding for use in longer pieces.   For my notes on how and why I wrote this strange little Pretzel Focaccia, click here....

"Don’t let the signature bow tie and Buddy Holly glasses fool you.... under this Clark Kent-like exterior lies a rock n roll heart! In a world full of show-off, technique for technique sake solo bass records, it’s refreshing...

A collection of darker, more contemplative tunes, involving effects and a looping pedal. credits Released February 14, 2020 Recorded live at Overneath Creative, in Kalamazoo, MI...

All the sounds you hear are from a meadowlark call I recorded.  For more information on how I did that, click here....