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 The Give Me A Reason To Stay EP is here!  I cannot express to you how relieved I am to finally have this EP released.

GMarts has been a labor of love for many years now.  Mot of the EP lyrics were written almost a decade ago while the music was composed over the past three years.

The EP includes three tracks that I am extremely proud of; Chasing Tomorrow, Just Another Night, and the title track, Give Me A Reason To Stay.

Chasing Tomorrow is a solid alt rock track dealing with the unobtainable quest for the future.  Essentially, we put what we want to do on hold for what we think we need to do today saying, “I’ll get to what’s important tomorrow.” Unfortunately, as soon as tomorrow getts here, it becomes today and the cycle continues.  I recently made an Artist Insight video (and unplugged version)for this song on YouTube.

Just Another Night is really where the electro-pop sounds are featured.  Lyrically the story is told from the perspective of someone who is watching the one they love with someone else.  This can be an ex, a significant other who is cheating, unrequited love, etc.  Continuing the theme of waiting from Chasing Tomorrow, Just Another Night, features a protagonist who is stuck in a kind of stasis.

The title track, Give Me A Reason To Stay, may be my favorite song I have ever written.  The story is different from the previous tracks.  The song deals with the concept of love not always being enough in a relationship.  The woman leaving does not want to leave but knows it’s the right decision.  She is literally pleading with her love, “Give me a reason not to leave.  Give me a reason to stay!”  I also made an Artist Insight video (and unplugged version) for this song. (SPOILER ALERT: The video tells you the song was inspired by a famous television couple)

Please, check out the EP.  I know you will love it as much as I do.  Stream it here for free or buy it and take it with you everywhere you go.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

If you dig this and want more, join the JDP family and get a FREE 3 song EP!!!

I have always love The Beatles.  I could write blog after blog echoing decades of other’s for all the reasons why they are the greatest group of musicians of all time.  I wont do that here.  Instead, I will discuss my personal Beatles journey within the context of today.  I apologize if this jumps all over the place, today has been pretty rough.

In my early 20’s I was very much a John type of guy/artist/musician/writer.  I very much wanted to cling to the ideals for which he was so well known; peace, love, etc.  I honestly believed that we could make the world a better place if we would just work together towards piece.  Imagine that!

As a grew a bit older, I transitioned into a Paul type of guy.  Paul was much more into love.  Love is all you need.  Love is something that is innate in all of us.  If we would all just try to love each other, maybe our own worlds would be a little bit better.  This seemed doable.  This seemed realistic.

I thought the ideas of John Lennon were good ideas but they were nothing more than ideas.  Or should I say ideals?  A great way to imagine (there’s that word again) the world but not really realistic.  The only way to live in John’s world is if we were able to change human nature and that IS NOT happening.  Paul’s focus on love was much more realistic in my opinion.

Now, let’s switch gears a little…

Today was yet another day of tragedy in the United States.  At 6:45am, at Bridgewater Plaza in Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, some lunatic stole the lives of two newscasters and injured another local (You can Google the story if you are not familiar with it.  I would advise not watching the video.  These are real people with real lives being taken.  No one needs to watch that, let alone seek it out.)
Bridgewater Plaza is about 5 minutes from my home.  Seriously, I could jog there (maybe walk briskly but you get the idea).  For hours, this crazy person was on the loose.  He could have literally been in my backyard.  The tension, anxiety, anger, and confusion that my wife and I were experiencing is not something that I would wish on anyone else.  And we have neighbors that live closer to the scene.  They probably felt the same way or worse.  This one individual held that type of control over me, my wife, our neighbors and the entire community.

From what I understand, he was a disgruntled former employee of the news station (I do not feel like he should be made infamous by mentioning his name).  He allegedly saw the live news broadcast on television and decided he was still angry and was going to make a statement.  So he made the choice to drive to Bridgewater Plaza and exact his revenge.

The key point I am trying to make is this.  This one crazy individual made a choice.  An individual choice to commit a ridiculous act.  His individual choice had a ripple effect that has forever altered the way many of us will live our lives.

Back to The Beatles…

If such a terrible action is an individual choice and can create such a community wide change what is there to stop a positive action from having an equally large impact?  If each of us makes the individual choices to love each other (like Paul) we can spread this love to everyone.  We can also use that same energy and focus on other ideals like (what’s so wrong with) peace, love, and understanding (sorry for the duplicate love but I couldn’t avoid it).

The Beatles may not have been big enough for both John and Paul but the world isn’t.  In fact, there is plenty of room for a world of Pauls and Johns (Georges would also be nice…maayyyybee a few Ringos)

I may be a Paul guy but John is starting to make a bit of a come back.

We can each make our world a better place.

Imagine