I'm not a professional musician, nor do I aspire to be one. I don't have any desire to play in front of an audience. I just get great enjoyment from sitting down at the kitchen table and plunking along to songs that are not much more complicated structurally than three chords. Any more than that and it's too much like work. It would take all the satisfaction out of it for me if I depended on music for my livelihood. The only person I aim to please with my playing and writing is myself. It becomes a very personal endeavor in that respect. Therefore, on that rare occasion when the muse strikes, I am writing for an audience of one - myself - and if I like what I've written I have great confidence in the finished work. Later if I happen to trot it out to, say, the one who may have been the initial inspiration for the song, I am not devastated if that person doesn't like what I've created. It only means that maybe what I've written doesn't mean anything to anyone else but me. As long as I'm happy with it, I don't care what anyone else thinks about it. My belief in the song's integrity isn't dependent on external opinions. Most of what I consider my best stuff seems to have written itself in thirty minutes or less, but then again, I'm not trying to create something on the level of Ives' Symphony #4.

Neil