I finished what amounts to my 10th CD to date, aptly called

"Living In The Chippewa Valley"

It's a mix of efforts with all local talent involved, including the recording and CD design.

You can hear the songs on my "Music" page.

I've also added two new tunes to "Da Coverz" including Megan and I singing a John Prine song.

CDs are available at The Local Store of Volume One, the local arts magazine.

Click here to read the feature Volume One just did on the CD and me.

If you'd like to purchase the new CD, or any for that matter, hit the "Buy Now" button below.

They're $12 with shipping included and please be sure to mention which CD you are interested in and always include your name & mailing address!

Thanks and peace!

2011 was quite the year for me for good and bad. My lovely sweetheart Megan and I got married August 14^th and moved into a beautiful new apartment overlooking the Chippewa River in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin. My student roster continues to grow. I played as many as 15 shows a month at the height of the summer. I got started on a new CD called “Living In The Chippewa Valley.”

On many a sadder note, several people close to me passed away, including a good friend of ours from our time at The Chicago Actors Studio who lost her second battle with cancer and two of the first friends we made upon our arrival in Eau Claire. Two weeks to the day after our wedding my Mom Lilias Circle passed away in her sleep. In early December, one of our groomsmen and a brother to me for 20 years, an amazing harmonica player who appears on several of my albums, also lost his second fight with cancer at the age of 43. On our way back from Chicago after his memorial I received word that the previous day, another fellow musician and good friend had a fatal heart attack at the young age of 38. The last in our long list of losses came recently when Megan’s cat of 15 years had to be put down due to a painful and inoperable tumor.

This all made our first holiday season as a married couple bittersweet, but the strength of our love for each other and the deep friendship we share of course helped tremendously.

Adding to this my now more than six months using a cane from constant hip pain due to necrosis of the ball joint at the top of my femur, life’s been a bit of a challenge to say the least.

Still, I know what I would tell anyone in my position: Winter never fails to turn to spring. While we never fully get over such losses, we do get past them. By honoring the people who have left us, we heal. For me, music is a salve for anything. I began writing and playing from a need to understand and express, never really intending to become a working professional. And yet here I am. The gift life has given me also is cathartic to others. I’m reminded of one evening back in Chicago while out for drinks with a DJ friend of mine who often played my music on his show. He mentioned how rough his life had been prior to that day. He’d been suffering from deep depression and one night found himself standing on the Ashland Avenue bridge contemplating jumping into the river. Then, he explained, the lyrics to one of my songs, a favorite of his, came into his head:

“You see it pass before your eyes, the life of any man.”

He realized we all suffer and knew that he had in me a friend who understood the pain he was experiencing, that none of us are truly alone in the world.

Now, with the New Year fully in swing, I’ve put the finishing touches on my new album. One of the tracks, called “Just The Blues Ma’am” is a dedication to Matt “Matteo” Steinmetz, my late brother-in-music the harmonica player who taught me so much of what I know about performance. A long list of his friends, including myself, are doing a concert in his memory with proceeds going to cancer research and to his widow. The symphony my Mom played in for more than 40 years is performing a memorial concert dedicated to her memory, the Gilbert and Sullivan company she co-founded before I was born dedicated this last season’s show to her, and I do my best every day to carry on her musical legacy.

Megan and I are both working hard on our respective projects. She’s on her second stage play in a row, has been busy with runway shows and photo shoots, as well as adding a great deal to my live shows with her vocal and percussive skills. We’re booking for the spring and summer and are planning an August tour, most likely to the West Coast. April 7^th is the release date for the new CD, and incidentally, it would be my Dad’s 89^th birthday if ever he’d lived that long. In fact the date I'm writing this is 6 years to the day since he passed away. The first track of the CD “Fly On By” was the tune that 25 years ago convinced him I should go into music. April 12^th I turn 29 for the 17^th time, so the April 7^th show will be multi purpose. On stage I’ll be joined by a long list of top talent from The Chippewa Valley and will bring out my electric guitar out for the first time since I’ve been in Eau Claire.

2012 looks to be another year of forward movement, as I intend for every year to be. Let’s hope this one brings fewer losses and more gains. I never shrink from hardship, however. Movement forward begets friction. Still, here’s to better days ahead for everyone.

Peace, love and music.

-Phil

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If you've ever heard of Leinenkugel's Beer, you've heard of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

I live 20 minutes from there, play there, and have been on the brewery tour.

My actual residence is currently in Pleasant Valley, but our address is Eau Claire.

Either way, Megan and I live in the beautiful and welcoming Chippewa Valley where the Chippewa River and the Eau Claire River run into each other... and there are more lakes than Minnesota.

While walking down the bike path along Route 93 one afternoon, I was missing my hometown. As I strolled and admired the beauty around me, a couple strangers walked by and said hello. I've become accustomed to this, even having met a guy wearing a Phil Circle t-shirt, an elderly woman walking with the help of her stroller and having many little conversations about the weather or the smell of the manure spreader on the corn and soybean fields along the path. The folks at The Corner Store all know me by name, several even have my CD.

There's a great quality of life here. On this previously referenced walk, I realized how lucky I am to be here and experience such a wonderful welcome from all that I've met. As the clouds dispersed, I began writing a song in my head and promptly returned home to set it to paper.

YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT AND DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE HERE ON MY WEBSITE, JUST CLICK HERE.

I want to thank the local music scene for taking me under their wing. There really is great talent here in the likes of Jeff White, Lucas Fischer, John Nielson, Sue Orfield, Dave Power of Meridene, and Evan Middlesworth, who recorded and played the guitar solo and drums on this latest song "Living In The Chippewa Valley."

Thanks to all the fantastic folks who've welcomed Megan and I to this beautiful part of the country.

Here's video from The Volume One Sounds Like Summer Concert Series in Phoenix Park, Eau Claire: