Stream "I'm Not Too Old"
Watch "I'm Not Too Old" Music Video
cover art
A few thoughts about writing "I'm not too old"
I started writing “I’m Not Too Old” with the intro guitar riff. It has a certain southern blues rock feel that reminds me of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat and Jerry Garcia. The sound of the riff pointed the musical direction for the song. The verses had a fun vibe to them which told me that the subject matter should be lighthearted. When I hit the bridge section, I went for a purer blues feel to get that "rolling down the highway" vibe. The bridge jams along until it reaches a blues turn-around that lands you into the main chorus hook. At that point I called in my buddy Mark Karmelich to help me craft the lyrics. Mark is a talented songwriter who's lyrics I enjoy a lot. He and I laughed our way through a writing session on the topic of being an aging male that still wanted “good lovin’. The end result is a blend of humor, reality and a touch of irony.
This arrangement and recording of “I’m Not Too Old” fell together pretty quickly. I cut the bass track live with drummer Tim Freund laying out a nice drum groove. I then arranged the song with piano, acoustic guitars, lead guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and harmony vocals. I had some influences in mind when I tracked a few of the instruments. For the piano, I was looking for a Billy Powell feel. For the sax I was looking for Bobby Keys feel. On the guitar solo, I wanted an Albert Lee country blues feel with some fast picking and some blues bending (see solo video below). This song was really fun to play on and I'm happy with the end results. All in, “I’m Not Too Old” is 3:31 of good time Americana Blues Rock music.
A few thoughts about the creation of the video
I worked with 2d animator Lithira Opatha on the creation of the “I’m Not Too Old” video. He lives & works in Sri Lanka so because of the time difference, we communicated solely by e-mail. Lithira did a nice job of following the story line of the song. He used actual photographs of me to create his animations. It's fun for me to see myself animated and rocking. As a kid, I used to watch the Saturday morning rock n roll cartoons that included The Beatles, Josie & The Pusseycats, The Archies, The Jackson 5 and more. So in a way this kinda takes me full circle; albeit as an older guy. Lithira did a nice job capturing the fun spirit of the song.
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