April 24: The main musical activity around here is the recording of the Resistor album. Very good progress is being made - we're recording the guitars, bass, and drums in the same room at the same time, so we're getting a great organic "real" sound, and the guitar, bass, and drum parts to 6 of the 8 tunes are already recorded and mixed. Tomorrow we've got a 5-hour session slated to try to get the last 2 tunes recorded... no small task, as they're the "epics," at 10 minutes and 12 minutes. Then, I'll mix those and it'll be on to recording vocals, flute, a few guitar solos and maybe some violins here and there. It's a big, thick sound we're getting - I think it's going to surprise some people who are used to me leading everything with an acoustic guitar... as there's probably not going to be a single acoustic guitar note on the album. Don't worry - it's all still very melodic and musical!

March 26: The free Sampler 2008 album is posted here!

Exciting news on the 'Air' front... the soundtrack which I created for the film, 'Air,' is completely mixed, mastered, and it looks like it will be manufactured and become available in the next couple of months! Creating the soundtrack for 'Air' really stretched my composition skills, because the director called for a wide array of styles: rock, doo-wop, jazz, classical, country... the soundtrack is something I'm really proud of - some people who have heard it even think it's my best work. It's very different from my solo catalogue, but no less musically ambitious, so I'm really happy to see it become available to the public. One tune from the soundtrack is included on the free Sampler 2008 download.

Meanwhile, Resistor is rehearsed and ready to start recording our album in April. Making this album will be fun, but what I'm really looking forward to is playing some gigs to support it - I just really enjoy playing music with Rob, Barry, and Fran - extending our pieces out with extra solos, letting a live show take on its own life... but, first things first - we must make an album that somehow, inexplicably, rocks almost as much as the band rocks live! (Then use that album to secure a few gigs at music festivals, we hope.)

Speaking of Resistor, band member Fran Turner has begun work on his new solo album. I'll be playing the part of "drummer" for that album, and plan to start writing and recording drum tracks in the same time frame that we're recording the Resistor album. Later I'll probably add some violin parts, but we'll see what develops as the album progresses. Either way, the next couple of months look like I should have lots of musical productivity going on.

On the solo album front: progress keeps slowly inching forward on my next solo album. So far, it's give-or-take in the style I've forged since Two Little Awakenings, but I think a little "heavier" and perhaps a bit more accessible than my last album, "The Great Divide." (Don't think I'm disowning "The Great Divide" in any way, I still think that's my artistic high point so far.) Anyway, although I love the format of "acoustic progressive" with no electric guitars like my last two albums, the new compositions seem to be calling for some aggressive electric guitars. So, I will do what seems best for the songs.

And, although it could mean delaying the development of my next solo CD a bit, I recently came up with an idea for a meditative new musical project by which I'm pretty intrigued. All I'll say about it now, is that it will involve lots of improvisatory flute and violin playing and lots of reverb and echo.

Feb 8: Thanks to all who attended last week's RESISTOR gig at Artists' Exchange (Cranston, Rhode Island). We had a great time debuting the new material, and are thrilled that everybody liked it so much. We'll probably come back there and play a 2-hour set in the not-too-distant future, but for now we're concentrating on making our debut album. The official recording hasn't started yet, but we've been recording our rehearsals, and things are starting to sound very promising. We're guessing that the album will be completed sometime around early-to-mid summer 2008.

In the meantime, check out the beautiful photos of the show by our talented friend and now official band photographer, Sixten Abbot. We've secured Sixten as our man in charge of the Resistor album cover, so this should be a classy looking CD.

I'm also working on material for my next solo album. I've got lots of nice melodies and promising ideas, but it's going to take some time to get everything to gel and transition properly. As always, I want the album to be as good as possible... which means there will probably be a significant wait involved. I think it's unlikely that solo album #8 will be completed this year, but you never know.

Jan 15: Happy 2008, everybody! I've been working on a new compilation album of my previously-unavailable solo material (b-sides, rarities, and out-of-print stuff). It's interesting that sometimes collections of b-sides and rarities can be compiled to make a very good cohesive album. I think maybe that's happened with my new compilation, 'Songs from the Flowered Chair.' So, I'm ready to release this album, and you can get your copy for the exact price of... nothing! It's available for free download at the following link: Click here for the free album, 'Songs from the Flowered Chair.'

Dec 4: New audio trailers are posted for The Great Divide, Song to the Sky, and Two Little Awakenings. Check out the audio trailers by clicking on the links below. (These albums were out of stock for a while, and are back in stock again... go buy one, they're all good!)
           
Click on an album cover to hear an "audio trailer" for the album. (Downloads an mp3 and opens a new window, hopefully with a media player in it!)

Dec 1: The Great Divide, Song to the Sky, and Two Little Awakenings are back in stock at the online store. You can order them here.

Nov 7: Well, I "bit the bullet" today and ordered more copies of The Great Divide, Song to the Sky, and Two Little Awakenings - as I have sold my last copy of all three of them. That's a good thing... but paying for more CD manufacturing is always painful, considering my CD salesgradually trickle in with no marketing campaing to aid them. But, it's all about being able to present my music in the best possible format (high quality CD, pretty artwork), and it's not about making money, as I barely break even on my music investments and it often takes a year to gain back my initial investment when I make a batch of CDs. If you wish to donate to the worthy cause (that being my bank account), you should find the "buy a CD" page well stocked in about 3 weeks.

Oct 12: Got an updated little web page for my rock band, Resistor. Here's the link. And, might I say - this band is starting to fire on all cylinders these days... got some amazing music developing with these very good musicians, and the best part is the band is becoming very good live - I can't wait to play some shows with them.

Sep 6: For those of you who live in or near Providence, I'll be playing a short concert with a very talented pianist Sunday Sep 9. Stephen Martorella and I will be performing for about an hour, starting at 1:30 at the First Baptist Church In America, 75 North Main Street, Providence. We'll mostly be doing arrangements of my instrumental songs, a few of which have never been performed live before.

July 1: The wonderful compilation album to benefit Sudanese refugees, titled 'One World Tapestry,' has finally been released! Order the CD direct from Musea records here or download from Mindawn here. (I'm one of the "various artists" on the album.) For more information on the album, click here. It's for a good cause, it's a great album, and if you like my music (particulary the instrumentals) you might discover some great new artists. There is some very fine music on this album.

June 16: Big news for SteveUnruh.com:

• It's a pretty hard task to figure out how to simplify and streamline a website, but I think I've made some significant improvements - actually reducing the complexity of navigation. Check out the top menu - you'll notice the "LYRICS" tab is gone, and has been replaced by an "ALBUMS" tab. This remedies the fact that my discography (now called "album-o-graphy" in this era of iTunes) was previously hard to find, wasn't laid out well, and overlooked several albums. Check out the new ALBUMS page. I'll bet you'll agree it's a lot easier to track my recorded music career now. You might even discover some albums you never knew I made!

  "But what about LYRICS?" you may ask. Well, they're still easy to find. Simply go to the ALBUMS page, then click on whatever album you want lyrics for. Every album's web page has a link just left of the album cover for lyrics. Really, it's quite easy - just try it and you'll see. All album information pages have their LYRICS link in the same place (except for instrumental albums, of course, which have no lyrics). There's also a master list of lyrics accessible from the "MISC" tab at the top of every page.

• The most significant addition to the new album-o-graphy is The Jazz Mutants - Free Album Download! Need I say more? Click here to download the free album.