In making the video to "Broken Year" , I was able to express the visual side of the song. The video takes place in New England with many scenes of a woman hiking through the woods. Nature has always been a place where I can reflect and heal, so I wanted the video to express the healing side of the song. "Broken Year" was written after a short-term relationship didn't work out as I had hoped it would, and I sort of just looked back at that time as a "Broken Year" where two

The person who brings a song to life and makes the sound clean, vibrant, and professional is the mixing and mastering engineer, This role can not be underestimated and for me, it is the most important step in the recording process. Mixed and mastered by Bryon William Harris of BWH Music Group, not only did Bryon piece all the parts together (6 bass lines, 3 guitar parts, too many mandolin and steel parts to count, vocals and harmonies), he got all the parts to sound wonde

Meet Julie Broschard, the session singer who I chose to do the background vocals for "Broken Year." The key to finding just the right sound was to choose a singer whose vocal tone blended well with Mandy's, but was just different enough to make the harmonies really pop out. Julie says the voices who who influenced her most as young girl were Stevie Nicks, Karen Carpenter and Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries. Talk about a great match!! You might know Julie as the vo

The addition of mandolin and steele guitar complete the mix. These parts were recorded by session player, Bruce Hoffman. Bruce is a fantastic seasoned studio musician who has toured and recorded with several legendary Country Music artists over the past 25 years. He is also know for writing and recording the theme song for the SyFy hit series "Haven." Bruce plays fiddle/violin, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, dobro, nylon string and baritone guitars. Fans of the mandolin wo

Meet Sean Hurley and Noah Needleman! Both the guitar and bass recording sessions for "Broken Year" were done by A-list studio musicians. Sean Hurley ( L.A.) is on bass and Noah Needleman (Nashville) recorded the acoustic guitar. Sean Hurley Bassist Sean Hurley made his mark in L.A., playing bass on tour and on record for John Mayer while maintaining an astonishing pace as an in-demand studio bassist with artists including Ringo Starr, Annie Lennox, Robin Thicke, Alanis Moriss

"Broken Year" was written in 2016 after I ended an eight month avoidant relationship. It was performed many times by The BeeKeepers and always received a positive response. Then in 2020, Mandy and I finally decided to record the song with plans to release it in January 2021, because in many ways 2020 felt like a "Broken Year" as well. After the lyrics to "Broken Year" were written (See Post 1), I found the melody for the verses and the chorus. This is always my process - lyri

The Lyrics My blog posts leading up to 2021 and throughout the new year will be about my songwriting, recording and production process. "Broken Year" will be the first single I release in 2021. I've performed it many times over the years (with The BeeKeepers), but never got around to recording it. "Broken Year" feels like the perfect song for the New Year even though it was written at the end of 2016. I guess every song I write starts with an emotional experience/story. "Bro