I won't say I've given up on getting a record deal. I will say it doesn't mean as much as it once did. With the advent of the Internet, there are many more avenues open to people like me. Now that I can sell my cds at cdbaby to people I don't even know, now that I can have my music available to people who want music for their film and video projects if they log on at licensemusic.com, now that I can have my music reviewed at another website, well, you get the picture. I guess the most discouraging part of this business to me has been all the favorable responses i've received from record company people who still couldn't help me. One guy at Warner a few years ago, told me he loved my music. Charming was a word I remember him using. He just wished my kind of music sold better. One woman A@R rep wrote in a letter to me, "I thoroughly enjoyed the originality depicted in each song. However, after careful consideration, I must respectfully decline representation, as our roster is to capacity and we lack the staff to handle another artist of your caliber." Anyway, to make a long story even longer, after growing weary of kissing up to somebody's secretary so that she might persuade her boss to return my call, i've decided to appeal to you, the music fan, directly, or somewhat directly. If you don't like my music, I won't love you for it, but I can deal with it a lot better than if someone else tells me you wouldn't like it. I'm genuinely proud of this cd though. In the past, I've depended entirely on my songwriting ability to carry the day. My reasoning was a good song is a good song. You can hear a good song, I believe, without an orchestra behind it, or even a good band. Well, there is a good band behind these songs, or good musicians, i should say. They aren't my band (I wish). I like what we did. I think you might, as well.