If you gig long enough, you’re going to end up with a drawing (or three) of you playing onstage. It’s incredibly flattering. In the case of “Hey Karma,” it can spark an entire record.

Writing songs is easy. (Well, relatively.) But when do you know it’s time to record and collect them on a CD? For me, it takes a theme that ties them together. Back in 2012, I had a group of songs loosely inspired by my hometown. That became “Starlite Drive-In Saturday Night” (with our town’s old drive-in theater prominently on the cover.) A couple of years back, I had a good pile of songs. But I needed something to tie them together.

I was playing at Don Quixote’s in Felton CA, opening for my pal Michelle Chappel. I noticed a guy drawing during my set. Afterwards, he handed me a fun sketch of me and my guitar, backed by mountains, and two road signs that hinted at my songs “Hang It Up” and “Highway 17”. The artist’s name is Michael Samuel. He’s a rockstar designer (his card includes the logos for Sears and Animal Planet), and he was happy to redo the drawing to fit the songs I wanted to record.

So…a new drawing came along, with zombies and angels on the roadsigns, and a handful of other graphics that namechecked some of the lyrics. We scattered those inside the CD jacket. A whole CD. Pretty much out of a drawing. (Well, that and just a *little* effort writing and recording ten new songs.)

“Hey Karma” Update: The record (I’m old – I still call ’em “records”) just passed the one-year mark. It hit #37 in the Roots Music Report’s Best of 2017, and is still on their Americana Country chart. I’m way grateful for the airplay and support. Maybe there’s something to this karma thing after all.