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For a very short period of time (just about five years) I was a songwriter. I have been performing other people's songs since I was about six but one Saturday morning I sat at the breakfast table and wrote a song. The whole song. Lyrics and music. I had never done anything like that before.

The very next evening three friends and I performed it at Garvin's here in D.C. The audience wasn't nearly as enchanted as I was but we hadn't rehearsed it much and I was convinced that it wasn't the song, it was our performance which caused this disconnect. Now, twenty years later, I find the song embarrassing and doubt that any audience would ever find it entertaining but it was my first song ever and I am proud of it even as I am embarrassed by it.

For about five years I continued to write songs. At first they came to me (I have no other way of describing the process) about one a month. Later it was neither that regular nor that frequent an occurence but the later songs have a much more professional quality about them. Some, I suspect, are going to be commercial successes. Then, they just stopped coming. It's been a little over fifteen years since.the last song I wrote.

So, I decided last summer to honor those years by going into a studio and recording all of my songs. (Well, not all of them. Only the songs that don't embarrass me.) And the project is finally completed. There's a lot about the CD that I'm excited by but I don't want to let all of my cats out of the bag and, besides, you wouldn't expect the composer, lyricist, producer and performer of a new CD to say anything about it that wouldn't sound boastful. If you're really interested look at the links below.

Please mail any comments, suggestions or criticisms to Maury Merkin
created: Wed Apr 17 21:20:24 EDT 2002
Last modified: Mon Aug 23 18:01:31 EDT 2004
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