This is a sampler of all the music I've put in the collections. There are two songs from each collection. Two songs that I think capture the spirit of each collection. If you like a song, feel free to check out the corresponding collection:

Vol. 1: The Bar Band Won't Go Home
Track 1: A Little Hipster Folk For Ya
Track 2: Johnny's Blues

Vol. 2: The Calm & The Storm
Track 3: A Look to the Future
Track 4: The Wind

Vol. 3: A 90s Kid Dreams of the 80s
Track 5: 1986
Track 6: John Hughes

Vol. 4: High School Jazz Band
Track 7: Jazzy on the Beat
Track 8: Dry Mouth

Vol. 5: Odds & Ends
Track 9: Score
Track 10: Original Sin

Final note: I chose a picture of an eclipse for the sampler because this past summer (summer 2017), my partner and I watched the eclipse. We happened to live in the path of totality (Corvallis, OR), and so it didn't take much for us to watch it. We sipped our coffee in our living room and then a few minutes before the eclipse, we went outside behind the house (in an alley) with our free eclipse viewing glasses and looked up. The moment it happened, there were cheers from all over town. Cheers we heard from our alley. People in the Safeway parking lot (which is just across the street from us) were cheering. People downtown by the Willamette River were cheering. I was awestruck by the eclipse. I took my glasses off and was amazed day had turned to dusk. The sun's corona was visible, but the day was grey. It wasn't dark and it wasn't light: it was grey. It was the living representation of the ampersand.

Before the event, I thought it was just going to be some hyped up moment; but as I stood there with my coffee steaming and the sun disappearing from view, I was struck. I tried to take a picture of the eclipse on my phone. I wanted to capture the moment for future reference. But immediately after I took the picture, I deleted it. I knew that I just needed to sit and watch and enjoy the moment. I didn't need to be reminded of the event in the future, I needed to be reminded of it in the now. The eclipse is a natural phenomenon which reminds humanity that we're just floating out in nothingness. And at times, the moon gets in the way of the sun. It's wacky, but it's natural. But back to the shitty picture I tried to take with my phone: Too many times I'm tugged to capture a moment, instead of enjoying the moment.

These songs are like that feeling.

I've tried to capture moments in my life through music. But the tracks that stand out to me are the ones that stem from me being totally present in a moment. When I am fully attuned to my surroundings and fully attuned to my writing process, I produce my best work (in relationships, life, music, etc.). It's messy, sure, but it's true and honest and vulnerable. It's real. It's what keeps me going.

I will continue to write music, regardless of people's responses. I don't want to be famous. I don't really want to be known. I just want to share my experience with others. And so if you've listened to even a second of my art, I want to say thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing your day with me. And please feel free to shoot me an email. I'm always interested in hearing what you heard/felt/thought as you listened. And if you want to send me an email saying that you have issues with my music (or you don't like it, etc.) that's just fine. I'll respond just the same.

- Will Chesher
March 2018