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There’s no better way to promote phonelessness than by reconnecting with nature. | Before Phones Movement | Our supporters | Our adversaries | Main campfire

The Green Album
Like the White Album, but green

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Is there anything harder …

Than following up a hit opening act?

Listen to The Green Album

After an intense and prolonged period of songwriting – often deep in nature, in areas that have yet to be mapped, and sometimes but not always by a campfire – I am finally nearing completion of my second studio album. It’s theme? Much like my first album New Pangaea it strikes deep in the heart of what the Before Phones Movement (BPM) is all about.

Unlike New Pangaea, my second album takes on thornier topics that many other songwriters would shun due to their complexity and controversial nature. For example, with The Lusitania, I believe I official and forever knock the Titanic (including the movie, and quite possibly the soundtrack – although I’d love to collaborate with Celine Dion) off the top spot and elevate the sinking of the Lusitania as the most tragic and memorable maritime disaster of the past 200 years. Why? Because it’s also an antiwar protest song. Even more subtly, another song on the album – Old Jim Dill – recounts the personal devastation wrought by the Great War, also know as the War To End All Wars, or just WWI and how he, at least partly, overcame it by finding comfort in a nature retreat.

But I digress …

Tentatively, in our studio sessions, we’ve been referring to the album as simply “The Green Album,” although that may yet change. Other names being batted around include Preserved, The Blue Album (long story), Green on Green, and To All My Fans, With Love, Bobby Angel.

People often ask me: “Bobby Angel, what’s your favorite thing about your second album?” My answer is always and unequivocally the same:

Performing the songs to connect their meaning to others. And also, I must admit. I’m kind of itching to do a third album. So it feels good have the second one done, or almost done. As much as I’m an “ad hoc go with the flow” type of guy, I’m equal parts a finisher, too. That’s my secret to songwriting. Get it done and then move on. The longer a song sits the more it starts to lose its original intent. Songs in their truest form capture a moment and just flow.

Bobby Angel

A “moment catcher” is what a good song is.

At least that’s my theory (for now).

Redemptive Return
A prodigal son returns to get things right

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Restoration is possible …

You just have to believe.

Prodigal son returns with a campfire confession

A little imagination doesn’t hurt either …

Plus a lot of hard work.

The list goes on.

Or is it too late? In this campfire confession, a prodigal son returns to to find a landscape he doesn’t remember and memory he wants to reclaim. Fortunately the Cowboy at the Campfire has a fire waiting and is ready to hear him out.

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Quote: “Redemption is not perfection. The redeemed must realize their imperfections.” — John Piper

Original Gate
A short history of water management

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There was a time when the water just flowed …

Unfettered, free and without a thought.

A parable of a water manager, at night, with regrets

And then we built the original gate. And one more after that, and then another and another until there were too many to count. Granted, nothing is more complicated than water management. But let’s also face the facts: We brought it on ourselves.

And now the question: Can we still fix it to get it right? Or is it too late. In this short video, a confident water manager wavers with a moment of doubt, and a confession, in the middle of the night. The good news: The Cowboy at the Campfire was waiting.

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Quote: “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.” — Benjamin Franklin

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