This past Friday evening while my partner and I were sitting in a taqueria downtown waiting for our food we had a crazy realization. We had just pulled off the audacious goal we'd set for ourselves over eight years ago.

Let me explain.

When we started dating in our early 20s, we were two broke kids with backgrounds in the arts trying to figure out how to live a meaningful life. The details of our goals were hazy, but the core of the vision was clear from the beginning. Have a fulfilling and financially sustainable life based around the industries that we love. Music for me, theater for her.

On one hand, that's a clear, simple goal. But on the other hand, there's nothing crazier than two people who crave stability both deciding to make a go at earning a living in the arts.

Most of you know about my journey from cellist, to singer songwriter, to wanna be producer, to string arranger, so you know how grateful I am to get to spend my work week making music. But the piece that came together last week was my partner finally got her dream job. She's now an Assistant Producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

It's hard for me to overstate how monumental this is. As a kid, it was her trips to Ashland to come and see productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that made her want to pursue theater. She's now a part of the core team that shapes creative decision making there. Not only that, but it’s one of the largest oldest and most prestigious theaters in the country.

I could go on for hours about how proud I am of her, but suffice it to say, we're both excited.

Looking back across these last eight years we've made so many hard decisions in pursuit of this goal. It feels unbelievable that every day when I go to work, I get to make music. But the fact that now my partner gets to make theater every day too makes me happier than anything.

Last thing on this, and then we’ll get to the music stuff.

In addition to getting tacos and margaritas to celebrate this milestone, we went and grabbed a new headshot for her in the park next to her office. I thought she looked cute as hell, and I was pretty proud of my photography to boot so here’s the photo that’s going into every OSF program this season.

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Recent Releases

Be Here Now

Last month I told you about the Mat and Savanna album I worked on that made Billboard #1, and this month I get to tell you about ANOTHER Mat and Savanna song I worked on. This is probably my favorite of theirs that I’ve touched so far.

Cool thing about this one, is the video got premiered on American Songwriter. I used to be subscribed to this magazine, and it felt such a long way off to have something I worked on featured. Seems like these milestones just keep coming quicker and quicker.

Check out the article, and here the song here:

https://americansongwriter.com/exclusive-premiere-father-daughter-duo-mat-savanna-shaws-new-heartfelt-music-video-for-be-here-now/

Queen of Saratoga

Last year J.B. Boone asked me if I would consider producing some songs for him. I was hesitant since I’ve been so focused on string arranging, but he convinced me that I would be the right person for the job. This is the 2nd of 3 songs that we made, and I’m so excited about how it turned out.

Listen to Queen of Saratoga: https://open.spotify.com/track/6WhwgfgoFlAK7FkMBqvIpR?si=07602831d38047fa

Friend

My friend Dominic Romano had me lay down some strings to lift up the second half of his and Lucie Glang’s new song Friend. It’s fun having a simple directive for a song sometimes, and it was so fun to record this!

Listen to Friend: https://open.spotify.com/track/4gdZwHhrDc4ewaXHdRHAlD?si=537083d0fa564492

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I've Got Free Time

Last but not least, I am currently reveling in not having any active recording jobs on my plate for the first time in about 8 months. And for the very first time, a lull in work has not felt like the end of the world. It’s been nice to take a break and get to work on a few experiments of my own.

That being said, if you’ve been thinking about having strings on a song (or want to talk about working on a stripped down strings version of a song you already have) now is the perfect time. I’ve got some time on my calendar to chat, and could dive into recording right away.

For those of you who don't know, you don't need to know any fancy string player words, have charts, or even a specific vision of what you want strings to do on your song. I love working with you to figure out how we're going to approach it.

So if you’re interested, just hit reply and let me know what you’re working on!

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Thanks as always for being here. I'm grateful that we're connected.

Talk soon,

Harley