Forlorn Skier™

Through the Ruins is a dark folk journey through an oncoming energy crisis, financial collapse, memories, and what remains. The album begins with the quiet ache of a worldwide oil shortage, energy lockdowns and lost freedoms. It then moves through unanswered warnings, hollow promises, multiple systemic failures, hunger, isolation, and the long road of survival.

While each song can stand alone, together they form a story that is, unfortunately, in this songwriter’s opinion quite likely to unfold over the next 3 or 4 years.

Along the way the album refuses pure despair—choosing instead to look for agency, small acts of care, and the eventual renewal.

These songs follow ordinary people as the familiar world falls away: ski lifts gone silent, roads closed, fields gone quiet, letters that could never be sent. The songs also follow the ones who tried to speak, the ones who prepared, and the ones who kept going.

This is not a soundtrack of the end.

It is a record of walking through the ruins and still being here.

Contents:
First Chair
Why Weren’t We Warned
Behold  the Warnings
Life is What You Make It
Hollow Promises
Ponzi Paper
When the Fields Went Quiet
Ghost Towns of the Mind
Letters We Could Never Send
Seeds in the Ashes
The Other Side of the Valley
We Are Still Here
Through the Ruins (title track) 

I am a songwriter. I am not a musician; I am not a performer. I write dark folk and Americana songs about freedom, connection, and memories. My passion is the words & the message. Words have power. Words have meaning. My songs describe ordinary people trying to hold onto something human in a collapsing world. First Chair begins a larger narrative that continues through each of the songs on the album.

I was born in a small Appalachian mountain town. I guess you could say that Appalachia is in my blood. It’s also reflected in the musical style that I enjoy and resonate with. My songs aren’t meant to become big pop hits. I am fully aware that my songs will definitely not be popular with the masses. That’s fine by me. I guess you could say that I write songs for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. I write songs for the courageous. I write songs for those people determined to persevere. I write songs for those who will stand firm against darkness.

I am also a avid downhill skier. I was angry and devastated when the “authorities” cut the ski season short in 2020 due to a pandemic of their own creation. That’s where the name forlorn skier comes from. I love to ski all over Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. I’m a true east coast skier at heart. My favorite conditions are hard and icy (which equates to fast!), with freshly-groomed February powder as a second choice. Reach out to me if you’d like to spend an hour or three on the slopes, I’d be honored to race down a few runs with you…