• 2009-06-30: The new remix/remasters of 'Invisible Symphony' and 'Out of the Ashes' are in! If you don't have either of these albums, now is a great time to get them, as they sound better than ever (and 'Invisible Symphony' has 4 additional tracks). This is not a ploy to get people who already own the albums to buy another copy... (Audiophiles will be able to hear more dynamic range, more punch in the drums, and less hiss and background noise in these versions, but the average listener probably won't tell much difference, so only buy a 2nd copy if you're into high fidelity audio.) Rather, these new versions are a result of my obsession with refining my music until it's presented in the best way possible. For me, it has brought new life to these albums, and you know... it turns out they're worth another listen!
       

• There's also a little new info posted on the Resistor page.

• 2009-05-21: It's been a while since I posted an update, so here's the latest: I'm almost finished remixing, remastering, and even re-recording a few parts, for a spiffy new issue of 'Invisible Symphony' (my instrumental album from 2002). It's been unavailable in CD format for a while, so I'm bringing it back with style. There will even be a couple of new tracks added to it, which are consistent with the album's style - and if I dare say so myself, they're pretty good! I also ran out of copies of 'Out of the Ashes,' so I did some remastering work so the new batch will sound even better than the first batch. (Just like chocolate chip cookies - the oven's warm, you're paying attention, and the 2nd batch always turns out better than the first.) Huge progress is also being made on the new Resistor album (still untitled). We have 40 minutes of material recorded - just a few overdubs left. Now we're in the creative writing stage for the epic last track, with schedule for completion undetermined. Artwork hasn't been kicked off yet, and that always takes a while... so I suspect it'll be at least September before the album's done. Oh, and Resistor did quite respectably well in the 2008 dprp poll! Thanks for voting for us!

• 2009-03-30: Thanks to everybody who came to my solo gig at Malachi's in Providence! It was a great time with a great crowd - many friends, standing room only, played for 2 hours, warm fuzzy feelings. Sixten (the human tripod with a mohawk) was there with his camera, and Fran lent me his portable recorder, so... check out the 2 links below!

  Flute and Framedrum solo, recorded live at Malachi's (link to an mp3 file.) Lots of loopstation usage, and complete with incidental electronic doorbell
  Sixten's fantastic pictures of the solo gig at Malachi's (opens new browser window)

• 2009-02-03: The free sampler CD download for 2009 has been posted here!

• 2009-02-03: And now for something different... I recorded a quasi-Indian style raga, composed mostly of software synthesizers and samplers (yes, the antithesis of my normal lots-of-real-instruments style), but I performed the lead on a Bengali wooden flute. So, it's an interesting combination of the latest technology backing up one of the world's oldest instruments. Right-click download, or heck... just click and wait for it to load, here: steve_unruh_bansuri_raga_in_seven-four.mp3.

• 2008-10-04: The RESISTOR CD release party went great on Oct 18. Thanks to everybody for coming out and making it such a great time. I've got a little keepsake for you all :). Here's a link to Moondog, recorded live at the RESISTOR CD release party (mp3).
  

• Nov 2 2008: Other than the few days surrounding the RESISTOR album release party, the past month wins the award for my worst October ever. Usually October is one of my favorite months, but for Oct 2008 I was sick with a nasty cold for the first 2 weeks, and then my wife got sick with a nearly-fatal bacterial infection this week. Thanks to some wonderful people at Rhode Island's Women & Infants hospital, Angela's making a full recovery. So here's hoping for a much better month in November! I'm taking my mind out of the hospital for a bit by updating this website.
  
• Since RESISTOR is where much of the musical action is these days, I've added a new RESISTOR tab to the navigation bar at the top of each page. Also, the NEWS page is being deleted to make this website easier for me to update. News will now be posted here on the front page, and fairly quickly fall to the news archives, accessible by the link at the bottom of this list.
  
• Sep 2008: RESISTOR album gets 10/10 review at dprp.net!

Aug 23: Posted lyrics to the RESISTOR album here.

Aug 9: The Resistor album is in stock at the online store!

July 24: The Resistor album is done, and off to the manufacturing plant! CDs will become available in late August, and gigs in the New England area will follow shortly after. Resistor is my high-energy rock/prog/jam band, and it's where much of my musical focus is these days. I can't wait for you all to hear our new album... so I've made an mp3 of the first track available for download for free! To get the track, click the link to go to the RESISTOR PAGE.

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!)