Count Me Out

The record

Survival without swagger

“Count Me Out” is a ten-track rock album about survival without swagger. It moves from finding love, through losing it, through duty and accountability, into hearing your own voice for the first time, reaching across distance, defying everyone who counted you out, and finally turning outward to whoever’s listening.

Heavy guitars, clean-to-grit vocal contrast, dual-male and male-female duets, one odd-time section per song. Confessional but not weak. Defiant but not bitter. Hopeful but earned.

Tracklist

Ten songs

1. 01

   The Love Beneath the Noise

   Falling in love means letting her see him hesitate. When he finally goes quiet, she pulls up a chair.

2. 02

   I Loved You Standing

   Two people still love each other and choose to leave. Each tells the breakup in their own voice, right down to the joke about the box marked “fragile.”

3. 03

   Where I Wake Up

   He wakes up beside someone new. His ex sees them together and wants him back. Three perspectives tell the same morning from different sides.

4. 04

   One Rose Whiteout

   He remembers walking through a Pennsylvania blizzard with one rose for his first love. Years later, he can still picture the walk and the distance that eventually separated them.

5. 05

   Three Hours

   Charlie Company needs someone. Within three hours he’s packed and caught a convoy. That’s what it meant for people to count on him.

6. 06

   I Knew

   He owns his part in the end of his marriage. Duty explains some missed calls. He can account for the others, too. In the end, he’s the one who packs and moves out.

7. 07

   First Time Out Loud

   At forty-six, he hears his own voice inside a finished song for the first time. The second male singer plays the recording talking back through the speakers.

8. 08

   Can’t Stop Me From You

   A deployed soldier and the woman holding home together know each other by the smallest signals. Two taps on the phone line and a porch light carry them through until their voices meet on the title.

9. 09

   Count Me Out

   He lived in a car while working a corporate job, went through two divorces and two Iraq deployments, and lost Army brothers. He never counted on talent or luck to keep him on his feet. He kept getting back up.

10. 10

    Start Here

    After love, loss, duty, confession, and defiance, he turns to whoever’s listening. The same words open and close the song: “If you want to know me, start here.”

Read the stories behind the songs