MILES OF DIRT
My first work of art, “Miles of Dirt” is a record album accompanied by a book of photographs taken by Lila Barth. My son Martin drew the book’s opening illustration. Markus Hartel of Raghaus Studios printed and hand-sewed the pages into 5 unique editions.
Now that the books are nearly complete, I am making white oak and brass cases for them which will include glass reliquaries with artifacts from Youngstown, Ohio and hand-cranked record players so that someone in the far-off future can listen to them, even if 60Hz electricity and vinyl records are a thing of their past.
The five editions will be offered for sale in the Fall of 2023. Two are already spoken for.
This project was eleven years in the making. It began when I was hired to build the furniture for Jane’s Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Most of the furniture was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy a year later. The carousel celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022. Perhaps one hundred years from now, someone might come across one of these volumes and wonder at the troubled times we live in.
01 Miles Of Dirt
02 Burning Gas and Rolling Steel
03 I’m From Nowhere
04 One Pony At A Time
05 Cartwheels On Concrete
06 Shining City
07 Bring Another Candle
08 The Bug
09 Dreams Of Youngstown
10 Dark Matters
11 The Last Time I Left Pittsburgh
12 The Pearl
Hard to Tame
This was supposed to be my first record album, but “Miles of Dirt” wouldn’t leave me alone to make it.
As that project neared completion, I was able to gather the time and money needed to make my debut album.
Few people make this kind of record anymore. We live in a time when popular music is filtered and compressed to imitate the sound of singing robots and digital musicians. I’ve never understood the urge.
It seems to me that, if we’d like artificial intelligence to usurp this most human of pursuits, we have opened the door wide for the takeover.
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