As much as I love to write songs, I can't help but wonder what it would be like to sit down and bang out a novel of some sort. The beauty of songwriting, though, is in the way the author can express so much in so little space. I'm afraid opening up the genre to a full-length book...or even short story, I would simply run out of words. Or, perhaps I would use the wrong ones. Maybe I wouldn't think too much about them and it would turn out to be a slop-job. Or, maybe I would finally get the space that I need to express more than just a few ideas at a time.

But what in the hell would I write about? A punk-rocker turned family man? A fantasy novel? Sci-fi? When I write songs, they are usually related to intersections. I can't really explain why, but the last time I went back to Tyler I took a bunch of photos of them. Here they are and what songs they remind me of:

[iintersection photos to be inserted here]

Intersections. I have written about them before. But  I have another  picture in my head. It seems like it is in the 80's (or early 90's), but I am definitely younger. I am seeing picture through my own eyes. There is a chain-linked fence and a setting sun. It's cool. It's nostalgic to me. I think I take comfort in the image because it makes me feel so insigificant. There are millions of chain-linked fences. And there are millions of sunsets. And who's hand is that really? The chain-linked fence is surrounding a field...probably that of a middle school somewhere in suburbia.

I can see a sixties-stuled puke red-brick wing of the one-story school off to the left. It has a flat roof and long, rectangular windows that probably don't open. Most of the schools I attended in Tyler have this type of architecture, so maybe it's there...somewhere. Hubbard, Moore or Rice. Those were our middle schools. Hogg fed into our high-school as well. But it was built in aclassic forties multi-story brownstone style. It actually looked like a school instead of an institution.

Maybe that's it. Maybe it's a story of small-town Texas in the eighties; of cassette tapes and beta-maxes, red-dirt highways and the doctor's daughter who drove an I-ROC- Z.  That stands for "International Race of Champions" and I would bet my favorite paisly Generra shirt that there is no way anyone outside of my generation would know that. Ah, anyway...stay tuned.

I suppose the title of this blog post is a bit mis-leading. See, i don't realy have a "block" so much as I am "blocked" by the tedium and time-consuming process of producing the songs I have written. I have so much material to put down on tape that I don't even know where to start. You see, I can write a song in an hour or even ten minutes. The problem I am having is getting them from idea to the Internet.

So I think I am going to try something else. Something faster. Something more "agile" (to use the parlance of our times). That something else is bare-bones recordings of my entire catalog of music. I'm going to continue to divide them up into the albums you see on the music page based on genre, but when you buy or download the tune, it may be just a bare-bones version. 

I think this approach will allow me to get the tunes out and vetted before deciding which ones I want to fully produce. I'll be putting them out there for free (of course) and maybe even set up a voting opportunity for folks to give me their feedback. One of these days, I'll have an album's worth and I'll put that out. Boy I have a lot of big ideas. One would think that I actually have time to do all of this between a full-time day job, shuffling kids to scouts, ballet and football practice. In case you are wondering...I use magic. Lot's of magic. I buy it at the magic store (Spec's).

Hey there folks...I've decided I'm gonna get my blog on here at www.greggyows.com. You see, there are plenty of changes goin' on and I figure, well...you might be innersted. First off, this site is being re-designed to help me really promote the tunes as a songwriter. I'm done with the band thing for now. Too many long nights, no pay, trashy women, you know...fun things. I'm gettin up near forty and I'm lookin at my completed catalog, and then back at those tunes that actually got recorded, and I'm seein' lots of studio work in my future. I've got over a hundred starts that need a-finishin'. So I am re-organizing my catalog here on the Web site. When I'm finished, I hope to have a number of "albums" that you folks can get based on the various genres of tunes I like to write and perform. Basically, there will be rockin' stuff, country stuff, and bare-bones tunes that really benefit from less is more.

In other news, I'm working on a super-secret tune just for my Tyler buds. The song itself is not limited to Tylerites by any stretch. But the references and experience will easily be recognizable by anyone who needed to go accross Lake Palestine to get their booze. Hell yea! In addition to that, I'm working on a "politically-charged" project called Revolution Rock and Roll. Revolution Rock and Roll started as a place for me to put a couple of songs I wrote out of frustration with our giant, over-taxing, over-spending federal government. Now I aint a Rebublican or a Democrat. I'm just an American with kids who would like to see them grow up with the same freedom to succeed as I have had (and well, er, squandered!)  I will be putting these "Revolution Songs" up here as well. But over at RRR, you will find a podcast, forum and videos supporting the patriots out there who are woking to take our country back from the political elite. But that's all I will say about that because I do want to keep these songs separate from my usual tunes about girls, beer and guns.

So please keep checkin' back. I'll keep postin' up news and commentary on my tunes and other announcements. Until then, take care. If I don't see you in the future, I'll see you in the pasture!

Today, I got an e-mail from Claymores drummer Sean O'keefe. Sean had been shopping at "Cheapo's" music here in Austin when he came across the album stuck in a bin; more than likely behind an old Clay Walker record. I suppose he waxed nostalgic and listened to the tunes. He picked "Short Ride" to send me. It's funny...I could not even remember the melody when I saw the song title in his e-mail. So I gave it a listen...

It's funny how musicians can never see the forest for the trees. That is why having a dependable, dedicated opinion while you are rising to rock stardom is critical. I never did see the intricacies in this particular tune. Upon my re-listen, I found it engaging as hell. If I had to do it over, I would definitely figure out how to get more punch out of the chorus. It seems a bit dead there to me. Perhaps it was our vocal harmony that killed it. Still, the rest of the tune holds its own.

Going back and listening to stuff I did in my twenties is a great exercise. Sure, the recording possibilities were limited. I could do everything on the Claymores album on my laptop now. I could tweak the vocals so they are in perfect pitch. I could probably even get that punch I mention above. But its good to know that I can do that now and will listen for opportunities to use these tools if I am ever in the middle of a song that is 85% perfect...like "Short Ride"!

Please go to the Songs page and download Short Ride and let me know what you think!

I have been sulking for days. I've been lost. Is this all there is? I am blessed in so many ways. But I've been empty lately. Desparate to fill a void that has grown larger and larger over the last few years, I have reached for anything and everything. Project after project gets started and never gets finished. I've tried to fill the void with fear, worry, hatred and anger. I've tried to fill the void with food, alchohol, smoke and football games. Yet it remains empty.

But today...today, something happened. I was in a meeting room decorated with gray walls and half-assed, utterly predictable jokes. I could actually feel hope fading away from me as I began to grow physically cold. I returned to my desk dejected and lifeless. What else could I do? Headphones. Mathew Sweet. "Come to Love". It's not one of my all-time-favorites by any stretch of the imagination. But there it was. And for some reason, I heard the lyrics for the first time.



I started crying. Matt, you bastard. I honestly believe God put this song at the top of my playlist. Unbelieveable. The change was so drastic, I can't hardly even sit here. I am coming out of my skin.  It's only been 30 minutes but I can't remember what I felt like before this inspiration overtook my soul. Call it what you will...I call it a damned miracle. Music has never let me down. It's what I'm good at. It's life itself. It's bigger than life. It's love. I will not let this fire go out. 

It's been a long time since I took two weeks off from work (not counting lay-offs or company implosions). It's also been a long time since I've been in the mountains. Well, I'm loadin' up the family in a damned rented mini-van and heading up to our family cabin next week. I'm takin' the baby-Taylor, my Macbook, spare hard drive and a condenser mic. We'll see. My goal is to come back with an album's worth of tunes. I have six or seven now (some of them are posted up here) that have never been tracked. When I'm ready, I'll call up the boys and go into the Compound. I'd put in a link, but I can't find their damed Website. Anyhow...The Compound is actually a studio in my neighbor Ken Tondre's house. Ken plays skins for Kevin Fowler.I figger making contacts over there couldn't hurt. Hell...I get frustrated walking by, hearing  drums inside and wondering who the hell is in there? What golden moments are goin' on? Fowler's daughter is also in my son's 1st grade class. Hell, you'd think I should know the guy by now. But...he's a busy man. Someday, I'd like to go shoot pigs with him.

Anyway, I've got to get re-inspired and I think this trip is gonna help. I really do.

Sometimes, a man just needs to look himself in the mirror and convince himself that he likes what he sees. I always had a problem with "Yows" for some reason. I mean, hell...it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. All my life I have had to spell the damned thing for every bank teller, nurse at the doctor's office, teacher and coach who has uttered the words that make my skin boil: "Yost? er...Y, y Yo[ow!]s?" Even in college, my fraternity fucked up my name in the chapter directory when I was a pledge...so I'm still known as "Yeowns" to many. Dammit.

But...God gave me a name and I reckon he wants me to use it. Also, I figure that most folks that know me from way back might recognize it and take up passin' the word. Anyhow...that's my name, don't wear it out.