About Me
The Green Poet Experiment Box Set is now available. All 51 recorded songs are in mp3 format. This special will not be available on itunes, or Amazon or anywhere else - only by purchasing here. This is a limited time offer and an economy sucks special. You're not gonna get any fancy artwork, you're gonna get a disc with 51 mp3 songs to load onto your computer and/or ipod. This is the cheapest box set you will ever get. If you prefer you can purchase mp3 below. Included in the purchase are all 4 concept albums:
1999 - Breathe In The Air
2002 - A Franz Josef Liar
2005 - Visions From East Anglia Shire
2007 - Jackknife Troubadour
Plus a special bonus disc of never before heard B-Sides called Stripped & Exposed.
Stories About The Lizard - Green Poet Experiment Box Set (51 songs)
$8.00
Plus $3.00 worldwide shipping and handling.
Currently I'm located in Richmond, VA. I've made many mistakes in my life and gave up way too much of my self at times as well. It's time for me to start over and the best way for me to do that is through my music. I had a myspace way back when in 2004 and 2005 with about 10,000 fans and used to play live, but gave that all up when I got married and promoted at my job, and then ultimately got divorced in the end. Walking away from music took its toll on me and changed the type of person I was for the worse. I became too consumed with work and being someone I was not.
Well the times they-are-a-changing and Green Poet Experiment is back. The music can be described as Nebraska era Bruce Springsteen that's been kicked in the head by Roger Waters heavy Pink Floyd ("The Wall" and "The Final Cut") and then filtered through an airbag by Radiohead and The Verve. Or something along those lines. Hopefully you will enjoy the music and help support unknown artists like myself.
BRIEF HISTORY OF GREEN POET EXPERIMENT
Green Poet Experiment was a concept developed in 1996 when I first began playing guitar. I spent many bored moments in high school writing song lyrics before ever picking up a musical instrument. Many of those early lyrics were the first inspirations for the songs written in 1996-1998 that formed the concept album "Snares of the Nether." The title was inspired by Psalm 116, which appears on the album as "Hymn 116.". Many of these songs will never be heard and have only been recorded in terrible sound quality. Only one song from this era has ever been played lived and that was "The Idiot" my first song.
Being extremely influenced by the Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull concept albums of the 70's, I set out to only write concept albums as I found my greatest lyrical strength comes from expanding a topic. Two songs emerged in late 1998, "The Shinnecock Canal, Part 1" and "A Song For Leaving" as I set to embark on a 6 month study abroad program in Norwich, England and they bridged the gap between my first two albums. I did not take my guitar with me. I did however take a creative writing course where the teacher inspired me to write the first things that came to mind in 5 minute intervals. She even placed a kitchen object in front of every student, whose eyes were closed, asked us to feel the object and then write. From this experiment was born "Ode to a Cheese grater", which thankfully became "Bricks At My Feet", a song that has never been played earlier in a live set than last. I wrote many many poems in those 6 months as I journeyed through Europe every weekend. When I returned home for the summer, I moved out to the Hamptons and wrote the entire concept album "Breathe In The Air" in just a couple of weeks. Arguably my most popular song, "Watermill" emerged from these sessions and has been played at every one of my live shows.
After graduating from college, I decided to stay in Richmond full time. But not before embarking on a month long backpacking trek through Europe in the dead of winter. Born from these travels and my experience mostly in eastern Europe was the concept album "A Franz Josef Liar." This album took almost 3 years and is probably my best guitar work to date. While a mostly acoustic album, it does feature the minimal piano piece "Bulletholes" about the state of Berlin in 2001. The phrase "Catchy and Strange Lullabies" was coined by an Italian fan in 2004 after hearing the song "Romantic Road". My favorite song I've ever written appears on this album "Neon" and my live epic song "A Laugh, A Smile" appears here as well and has been known to include tons and tons of covers in the ending live ala "Bad" from U2.
The next 3 years found me experiment with recording equipment and getting away from a one man and his guitar approach. This album was started in Richmond and finished in Florida in 2005. It took a long time to finish, but is something I am very proud of. "Visions From East Anglia Shire" begins with the delay and echo of "Patches Of Mud", which is a live favorite of mine in a stripped down version and concludes with the character realizing it's all been a dream in "Soundtrack to His Dreams." And in between the album includes songs set in Ireland and England, with subtle references to James Joyce and Joan of Arc and the not so subtle reference to "John Chapman & His Dog" an old east anglian tale. It includes my attempt at a drinking song "The Bell Hotel" and my most complete and haunting recording of all time "The Future World."
In 2007, "Jackknife Troubadour" was completed. To me, part of it holds onto the fullness of Visions From East Anglia Shire, but then part of is goes back to the man and his guitar. This is the first record that is not necessarily set in a specific place. While Paris is the setting for "Paris Cemetery Prison", its more about the person himself who struggles to cope with addiction and war. The most emotional song I've ever written is "Train No. 61", which on the album refers to the moment our hero goes to heaven after "Ballroom Eyes" takes his life, but standing alone by itself it is for my stepfather who passed away in 2005 after a year long battle with melanoma. The album concludes with my favorite piano piece "Street Rebels".
2009 will bring the new concept album "Bingo In The Psych Ward", an 10 song look at the adult services wing of a psych ward. The album was recorded over a 4 day period in a basement in Brooklyn with help from my brother and his friends. It's like nothing you have heard before from GPE. This is not about the crazies that stay in acute, but this about the real people and the real struggles they deal with - some who check in voluntarily and some who don't. This is about how for a 2 day period their lives interact. It's from the perspective of the person in there that doesn't quite belong who believes "everyone is worse than me", but enjoys meeting these people and learns from every single one of them. He learns to stop living in "Reverse" and to start driving straight ahead.
