'Snakes & Ladders & Other Songs for Sophia' is, besides 'In My Time of Dying' which is a classic blues standard, a collection of songs written over a period of about twenty years .

For this project I abandoned electric guitar, amplifiers, laptops + software, and processors of any kind. They are solo performances, direct and open, just voice and acoustic guitar. "Snakes & Ladders' has led me along a very unexpected path. A deep and intimate dive into the heart of a series of songs all of which, in some way or other, express a soul's journey. It has also been a deep dive into learning the instrument that is generated directly out of my physiology and psyche, my voice.

What a strange and marvelous instrument.
What an instrument for peeling open layers of a poem, and layers of yourself.

So it's all very simple, and direct.
It's actually taken me two years to learn these songs adequately, and come to be fairly simple and direct. That seems like a long time. I'm still learning them, still have far to go, and expect that won't end 'till I do.

And now I do have twelve songs, a decent couple of sets, that I can play with some proficiency, though far from perfectly.
So, who'd like me to play for them?
Contact me. I'll play them for you.
A stage, a living room, a barn, a chicken coop:
i've played 'em all before and would love to again.

I don't know what else to say.
The lyrics are all here to read, and I hope you find them interesting.
I think they're fairly good as far as lyrics go. And I have, on some occasions, jotted some notes at the bottom. We can talk about them if you like, and you can explain them to me, and I may look a little bewildered.

So, that's about it.