Honky Tonkin' Somewhere: A New Album from The Stained Glass Cowboy

I'm so excited to finally share some news with you all that has been a long time coming.

My new album is called Honky Tonkin' Somewhere. It's a collection of songs I wrote during the spring and summer of 2025. I started with a simple concept: to create a radio-friendly, neo-traditional country sound reminiscent of the 1990s, when that music was dominating the market. The simple sounds, the sing-a-long feel, and the feel-good nostalgia were all things I longed to create, and it was a lot of fun putting ink to paper and trying to bring myself back to life in the '90s.

My biggest influences for this album came from the '90s giants like Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Brooks & Dunn, Joe Diffie, and George Strait. My vision was to write songs that I could imagine being on one of their unreleased albums. The music to me is all about a time of simplicity, with lyrics that feature the classic staples of country music - cars, trucks, and the cowboy lifestyle, but with a new spin. The song, "if it's a truck, then I'm in it," for example, is a love song to life on the road, but it goes deeper to capture the feeling that it's more than just a passion; it's a whole lifestyle.

For me, the songwriting process is like tuning into an imaginary radio station that's constantly playing in my head. I pull melodies out of the air, and when something truly grabs me, the rest of the song generally writes itself quite quickly. The core concept, verses, choruses, and melody lines all seem to appear at once. The real work comes in polishing the second verses, bridges, and outros. Ultimately, the entire process is concept-based, and I love a good songwriting challenge. In fact, there is nothing more exciting to me than investing myself in a simple idea, no matter how silly it might seem on the surface, like a song about a garage door, and bringing it to life in a way that others can enjoy and even hum long after the music stops.

This album also includes some of the more unusual stories from my songwriting journey. One of the most challenging songs was "Last Call at Loretta's," where each verse and chorus is different. I wanted to tell the story of a relationship's cyclical nature, and that would have been impossible with a repeating chorus. The feeling of capturing the ups, the downs, and the final redemption of that story was one of the greatest feelings a songwriter can have. The other song that stands out is "The Picture in the Frame," a moment-in-time song about cleaning out a house after a person is gone. The raw emotions multiplied the moment the narrator came across that one picture in the hallway. For me, capturing that moment, without needing to describe the picture itself, is the essence of the craft. That's one of the secrets of songwriting for me: I'm not writing for myself to sing, but envisioning what it would be like for others to be moved by the story.

I write these songs on my own, but I have a true partner in life , my wife, who is my biggest fan and critic. It's an honor to capture a song and a melody that others may find themselves in, and my goal for this album is to showcase my songwriting abilities for listeners everywhere. Since my vision is to one day sell these songs, I’m always aiming to have a solid framework for a radio-friendly hit. One of the greatest blessings of writing is knowing there is always another melody out there. I just need to be still and listen to where it may be.

You can find a link to the studio cuts here

For the songwriter demos, you can find those here