To mark the seventh anniversary of my prostatectomy, I wrote and recorded a two-song cycle about my experience with prostate cancer. Both songs cover a lot of the same ground, but from slightly different perspectives.

I played all instruments (some real, some Logic Pro software instruments played live on my midi keyboard) and sang all vocals; I recorded the songs using Logic Pro X and edited the videos using Final Cut Pro.

All of my music and music videos are linked from my music homepage.

This is my cover of Madonna’s Papa Don’t Preach, written by Brian Elliot (although Madonna gets some songwriting credit as well). The song appears on her studio album, True Blue, from 1986.

My cover was recorded more or less live in one take, accompanied by electric piano, using Logic Pro X. I added some backup vocals, some additional Logic Pro software instruments (drums, bass, and organ), and some acoustic guitar. The underlying video was shot live and edited in Final Cut Pro. The other video that appears superimposed on my iMac incorporates excerpts from Madonna’s 1986 music video, directed by James Foley, and starring—in addition to Madonna—Danny Aiello as the father and Alex McArthur as the boyfriend mechanic.

For more of my original music and covers.

I jotted down the basic idea for this song in January, 2023, and started (and finished) writing it in July, 2025.

The song was recorded using Logic Pro X, and I made the video using Final Cut Pro. Find more song info on the song’s official homepage.

And find more links to all my music and writings.

I played three songs at the Center for the Arts of Homer open mic on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Unfortunately, their beautiful theatre was being used for rehearsals, so the open mic took place in a more ordinary community room. Still, the audio was good, and it was nice to play some songs I hadn’t performed very often — especially my 2003 adaptation of Charlie Kaufman’s idea for his movie, “Adaptation.” For the record, I also sang “Walking in Circles” and “If I Could Sing Like That.”

Studio versions of all three songs (as well as all my other songs and music videos) can be found on my music homepage.

I’ve embedded the YouTube live performance video of “Adaptation” below (audio ‘enhanced’ using Logic Pro X). The video was shot by Susan Schwartz.

I went to the Nocturnal Cafe open mic in downtown Ithaca last Wednesday, and played three songs accompanied by my classical Goya guitar (my first guitar, purchased when I was 12 years old in 1964). It’s an interesting place — very low key, in part because they don’t have alcohol but rather serve things like elixers, expressos, CBD infusions, juices, tea blends, and kava. Here’s a song from the open mic that I wrote in 1980, called Just Another Bad Dream. The iPhone video was shot by Susan Schwartz and I “enhanced” the iPhone audio using Logic Pro X.

Check out the original “studio” recording of Just Another Bad Dream, as well as all the other songs and videos on my music homepage.

As part of my ongoing project to record covers of songs that were influential in my musical development — one for each year, without repeating any artists (with some exceptions) — and having chosen Dire Strait’s “So Far Away” to represent the year 1985, it occurred to me that Carole King had also written a song with the same title on her Tapestry album in 1971. So, I decided to record both songs.

The Dire Straits version was written by Mark Knopfler, who also does the lead vocal and adds his characteristically amazing electric guitar. Carole King, on the other hand, accompanies herself on piano. Naturally, I decided to do the opposite: the primary instrumental voice on my DIre Straits cover is a Yamaha digital electric piano, played live and input directly into my Focusrite audio interface (without making use of the keyboard’s MIDI capabilities); whereas the primary instrument for my Carole King cover is an acoustic Ibanez guitar. Click on these YouTube links (DIre Straits or Carole King) or watch the embedded videos here:

I shot the Dire Straits cover with my iPhone mounted on a tripod, with a green screen behind the piano, allowing me to inhabit an imaginary world inside of Cornell’s now-gutted Rand Hall. Both the piano and guitar parts were recorded live. The Carole King cover was shot by Susan Schwartz on a pier at Cass Park, Ithaca, NY. I recorded both songs using Logic Pro X, and edited both videos using Final Cut Pro. I sang all vocals and backup vocals, and played all the instruments, some real (e.g., guitar, digital piano) and some software instruments played live on my MIDI keyboard (e.g., bass, drums, organ).

Find links to all my music and videos on my music homepage.

I sang three songs at the Ake Gallery Open Mic in Cortland, NY, on June 19, 2025. My first song, a cynical take on “Graduation Day” (© 2011 Jonathan Ochshorn), has been uploaded to YouTube and embedded here. The iPhone video was shot by Susan Schwartz; the audio is “enhanced” using Logic Pro X.

You can check out the studio version of “Graduation Day,” which features a guest appearance by Bill Clinton and some lead guitar by brother Kurt. And all my songs and music videos are linked from my music homepage.

I played two sets at the Coffeehouse Plus in the basement of the Universalist Unitarian Church in Cortland, NY, on Saturday evening, May 31, 2025. Yes, the show was in direct competition with Game 6 of the rekindled Knicks-Pacers rivalry — which, sad to say, the Knicks lost, ending their playoff hopes. Susan captured the performance with her iPhone, and two of the songs are embedded below. The audio is just what the iPhone captured, so it’s not ideal, but really not that bad, all things considered.

Check out the “studio” versions of these songs, along with all my other songs and music videos. And there’s more information about the Cortland performance, including the complete set list with links to the studio versions of all the songs I played.

I returned to the Cortland Coffeehouse Plus on Feb. 22, 2025, playing two sets of mostly original songs* in the basement of the historic Unitarian Universalist Church of Cortland, New York. Unlike the Sept. 2024 performance, which was guitar-oriented, all the songs in this performance were played with my Yamaha digital piano. Here are two iPhone videos recorded at the performance (with the audio also taken directly from our iPhones).

* The full set list, with links to “studio” versions of the songs, can be found here.

And, of course, you can find links to all my original songs and covers on my music homepage.