Author: box13music

Today I’m releasing a very old song, “911,” which I wrote on September 12, 2001 – the day following the 9/11 tragedy. I had witnessed the 9/11 attacks and the heroic response of firefighters, police, and other first responders, many of whom realized that they were running to their own deaths as they attempted to rescue victims of the attack. The selflessness, the courage, the commitment were stunning. So I was moved to write a song about the call and the response.

But in 2003-4, when we were recording the songs that made up “Death and Texas,” it was purposely omitted. The reason for this was that at the time I felt that the Iraq War had made a mockery of 9/11: the worst terrorist event in American history was being used as an excuse for a war of choice against a sovereign state that not only had nothing to do with the attack, but whose leader was mortal enemies of Al Qaeda, the perpetrators of 9/11. Our government had dishonored the sacrifice of those brave responders. Memorializing 9/11 seemed crass when hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis were being killed for reasons the United States government couldn’t even articulate without contradicting itself.

Decades later, another 9/11 anniversary has come and gone, but this year I felt that more than ever we need to recall what real heroism looks like. So I’m uploading two versions of the song, the original demo and the more formal, though hardly polished, CD-ready recording, as a small tribute to the fallen. To let them know that their sacrifice has not been forgotten or their actions dishonored, regardless of the dishonor of those who tried to use them for their own crimes.

CD Version:

Demo Version:

Working on our new album, Hopeful Monsters, we produced a lot of country and folk songs that were not really Box 13 material. So instead of trying to shoehorn them into a Box 13 release, we just came up with a new “virtual band”/project, Crop. And we’ve just released our first album associated with this project, Therapy.

Therapy contains 12 songs in the C&W and folk vein, although we push the limits of that definition a bit, with, for example, the country punk rock anthem, “911,” an old Box 13 song recorded for, but left off of, the Death and Texas album back in 2004, and the country hip hop experiment, “The Real Real.” The album also contains a new version of Box 13’s folk ballad, “At the End of the Day.”

As with Box 13’s Hopeful Monsters, the songs on Therapy span decades. Therapy even features two songs from 1979, the first two real songs I ever wrote, Liar’s Waltz (which started out in life as “Hayes Road,” became “Sunset Song” before settling into its current lyrical form) and I.O.U. It also features some of the most recent songs I’ve written, the aforementioned “Real Real” from just a few months ago in 2026 and “At the End of the Day,” from 2024.

You can listen to Therapy on the following streaming services:

Spotify

Tidal

Soundcloud

YouTube

Pandora

Amazon Music

YouTube Music

KKBox

iHeartRadio

We’re proud to announce the release of our first album in over 20 years – Hopeful Monsters, available on Spotify, Tidal, Soundcloud, Amazon Music and all major streaming services.

The album contains 18 songs that span decades (the oldest song, “Sea of Cash,” was written in 1982, while the title song, “Hopeful Monsters,” was written just three years ago) and genres – there’s elliptical 80’s power pop (“Time of the Signs”), big band glitchcore (“Lightning Striking Twice”), gothic western-surf rock (“The Dreaming”), spoken word (“The Curfew”), an instrumental-only piece (“Winter Light,” which is a chamber music treatment of the melody from “Happy Hour” from the Death and Texas album), even an a capella choral song inspired by the Japanese poet Bashō’s Narrow Road to the Interior.

Listen to Hopeful Monsters at any of these streaming services:

Spotify

Tidal

Soundcloud

YouTube

Pandora

Amazon Music

YouTube Music

KKBox

iHeartRadio

This month, we’re happy to announce the release of two new songs, both of which reflect our interest in our Celtic heritage.

The first, “Eventide (Refugee Song),” was inspired by a film about of Palestinian refugees reminiscing on their lost homes and lands. It reminded me of stories from my own family about their eviction from Scotland, both for political and, more importantly economic, reasons – in this case the Highland Clearances. Ancestral memory is an odd thing, and while I in particular have never been haunted by it, some in my own immediate family were. This song was for them and for the families of the displaced everywhere.

The second song, “At the End of the Day,” was meant to be a parting song, something that could be sung at the end of a night of drinking, or a wake, or both. It was inspired by a recent reunion in Houston with some old friends I had not seen in many years as well as by memories of my mother’s funeral service. The image that serves as both the thumbnail and Spotify canvas is used with the kind permission of Seamus Hanratty of the Secret Ireland blog, which is a great resource for folks interested in Irish history and culture and highly recommended for American tourists.

Spotify has issued its “Wrapped” end-of-year reports on streaming for its artists. This year, our renewed marketing efforts saw big success with our first song to pass the 30,000 stream mark, “Ghost River Song,” as well as success for older songs from the Death and Texas album, “Crash and Burn” and “Temperature’s Rising.” An old song from our archives that we just released to digital music services this year, “End of the Night,” also posted over 20,000 streams. Check out some of our Spotify numbers below!

Twenty years ago this week, Box 13 released its first album, Death and Texas. Containing 14 songs, the album ranged both lyrically and musically over a wide open range of characters, their emotions, and their stories.