RPM: Brilliant.

I absolutely shouldn't be doing this. There's no question at all. I'm looking at every obstacle: lack of time, too many other concurrent projects, dearth of recording technology and knowhow, and substandard instrument. It's ridiculous, impossible, and irresponsible for me to try to record an album in the next 24 days.

That's why I'm doing it.

I moved to the Seacoast about a year and a half ago, and since I've been here, have done very little musically. Which felt strange, because this is an active music scene, and I used to be a pretty active musician. I've performed as a solo singer-songwriter, as a vocalist and rhythm player in bands, and as a traditional/old-time player and singer. But  the workaday logistics of life asserted themselves as the priority for a time, as I moved to this new city, began a new job, and reorganized from the ground up.

The guitar just sat there. I wasn't even interested in playing my old songs, because they feel old. Those are somebody else's songs now, the songs of someone younger and more confused, someone with a different set of thoughts and ambitions than I've got now. I could tell that if I didn't pick up music in a semi-serious way again, that I would arrive at the crossroads -- the time when many a one-time performing songwriter becomes a living-room-and-backyard-bonfire player. When  you stop thinking "Next, I want to..." and start thinking "Remember, I used to...". I needed something to kick me awake and bring the music back.

RPM arrived right on schedule. The structure of the program is brilliant. Only a month; anything goes. Just do it. Keeping the time so short, and the expectations so basic, makes the obstacles seem to dissolve.

I don't have time.

What, you don't have three or four hours to record 35 minutes of whatever? Besides, it's February. And there's no snow.What else are you going to do?

I can't write that much in a month.

It doesn't have to be any good. You can write piles of crap in a month.

 I don't have recording technology.

 Record any way you want. They'll hook you up if you need help.

 This is for people who make a different kind of music than I do.

Hm. With more than 200 participating artists, it's likely that there's going to be a significant range of genre and style. Plus, if you sound different, that's probably a good thing.

I have too many other things going on.

And every one of them is making you think, turning over the soil, germinating new thoughts that sometimes - surprise - curl out of the earth as a lyric or two. You've got to process stuff anyway; why not do it in the right brain instead of the left? Besides, keeping busy and keeping moving means you can't overthink the work. You just have to lay it down.

My guitar's a hundred-dollar special, bought in a pinch to replace a stolen one. It's not a great instrument..

Well, you'll either take the plunge, turn down the thermostat for the rest of the winter, and buy the Martin this month....or record on the one you've got, and call it stripped-down and unvarnished. And then buy the Martin.

So, I'm in. I can think of far worse ways to spend my spare hours this month. Thanks.