2014

Let’s first start by summing up my year…

It was another incredibly fruitful year for yours truly having released 3 new studio albums (Transatlantic’s Kaleidoscope, Flying Colors’ Second Nature & Bigelf’s Into The Maelstrom) as well as 1 live release (Transatlantic’s KaLIVEoscope) and 1 guest appearance (Paul Gilbert’s Stone Uphill Pushing Man) and toured the world extensively with The Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, Flying Colors, Bigelf and even one-off live shows w Metal Allegiance, The Neal Morse Band and PSMS. (Wow…did I just read that right? I played live with 7 different bands this year?? My head and body hurt just thinking about it…haha!!) 

Oh yeah, and I also put on the Prog Event of the Millennium: Progressive Nation At Sea!! One of the absolute greatest highlights of my career… 

Things don’t look to be slowing down in 2015 as I already have the brand new Neal Morse Band studio album “The Grand Experiment” scheduled for a Feb release…as well as another secret studio project that’s already underway (more details soon)…AND The Winery Dogs will be reconvening next month to begin work on our next album for a release sometime later in the year (and a World Tour to follow…) 

I already have many 2015 tour dates on the calendar with Metal Allegiance, The Neal Morse Band and The Winery Dogs early in the year and I’m sure the live calendar will continue to fill up soon… 

OK, so that’s my world of music from 2014 and what’s on deck (so far) for me in 2015! 

Now onto what I was listening to and watching this past year… 

Best CD’s of 2014
(in alphabetical order): 
1. Bend Sinister – Animals
2. Beck – Morning Phase
3. Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways 
4. The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger – Midnight Sun
5. Killer Be Killed
6. KXM
7. Opeth – Pale Communion
8. Pink Floyd – The Endless River  
9. Slipknot – .5: The Gray Chapter
10. Triggerfinger – By Absence Of The Sun

Best Films of 2014
(in no particular order)
1. Birdman
2. Gone Girl
3. Boyhood
4. Nightcrawler
5. Under The Skin
6. The Grand Budapest Hotel 
7. Inherent Vice
8. Tusk
9. Interstellar
10. Whiplash

Best TV of 2014
(in no particular order)
1. Fargo
2. The Walking Dead
3. Boardwalk Empire (RIP)
4. Sons Of Anarchy (RIP)
5. Mad Men
6. Ray Donovan
7. True Detective
8. Homeland
9. The Affair
10. Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways

And a couple of International Imports (check em out on Netflix!):
— Les Revenants (The Returned)
— Black Mirror