Short version: My first album, "Big Blue Dress", has been released on Amazon and iTunes. 

 

Long version:

 

I made a new year's resolution in January to release my album this year.  Here's to fulfilled resolutions (1 out of 3 ain't bad)! I actually had hoped to include more songs on the album, but as I've submitted 2 of the songs to this year's Blizzcon song and music contest, I felt it was important to have the album out in the event I did well in the contests.  The good news is that I already have some songs lined up for the next album. 

 

I'd like to thank Eledainn who gave me permission to use "The Lament of Captain Placeholder" on my album.  He wrote this song and I loved it.  I just covered the song because I love it so much.  I'd also like to thank Micacula (www.miraculous-visions.com) for creating the album cover art.  She really came through for me at the last minute in a way I didn't expect.  The album art is awesome.  You can actually purchase high resolution prints of the original cover art at her site.

 

The songs:

 

Big Blue Dress - this was the song that started it all.  I had been making WoW music videos, but just felt that the song I wanted to make a movie for didn't exist, and so I wrote this one.  Ironically, I wrote it while I was taking a 3-month break from WoW.  It's amazing how productive you can be when you're not spending all your time grinding. :)

 

Darrowshire - this is my favorite song on the album.  I've blogged about it in the past, how I wrote it on the shores of Lake Chelan.  The lyrics came to me there and I've been longing to go back and write another song since then.  The story line in the Eastern Plaguelands is epic and I think there are several more songs yet to be written.

 

The Lament of Captain Placeholder - this song was written and performed originally by Eledainn.  I tried to reach him to get permission to record it, but I couldn't find him.  After I decided to release it anyway, he contacted me.  We spoke on the phone and had a great conversation about music and such.  He gave me permission to use the song on the album, and I'm very grateful for that.  BTW Eledainn - my email got nuked by my ISP so I've lost your contact information.  Get in touch if you read this (cranius@cranius.com).

 

Happy Place - This is a song that was inspired by an email thread at work in 2006.  Essentially the story of "Happy Place" is true.  I've embellished it a bit for dramatic flare.  You can find the original thread here.  Yes, it's taken me 3 years to finish this song.  And really, I'm not done yet.  The version on the album is the trimmed-down 2-minute version used for the Blizzcon 2009 song contest.  Their restriction was 2 minutes or less.  It was a bit challenging squeezing it down, but I think it works.

 

Don't Make Me Get My Main - This song is Legs' and my submission to the Blizzcon 2009 movie contest.  As with the song contest, there was a time restriction on this song as well, so it's exactly 3 minutes long.  The song is a story about an alt who is tired of getting camped and is forced to get his "main".  If you don't understand that sentence, you might not appreciate the song, but I think anyone who's ever played on a PvP server will just "get it".  Special thanks to Legs for collaborating with me on the video for this song.  I'd like to thank my son for suggesting the ending to this song.  After he suggested it to me, I knew that was *the* ending for the song.  You'll see what I mean.  No spoilers.