5 Essential Tips for Going Solo; “Live from the Playroom” with Mark Oblinger

Episode Notes

Transcript

[Music]

Male: It’s Legal Toolkit with Jared Correia.  Today, we bring back one of our favorite segments live from the playroom. We’re joined by special guest Marl Oblinger, because sometimes we just have to do something awesome. But first, your host, Jared Correia.

Jared Correia: The Legal Toolkit Podcast is coming at you right about now. I hope you’ve had your rabies shots. And yes, it’s still called the Legal Toolkit Podcast, even though I have no idea what a Moog synthesizer is or does. Wait, was it invented by Andy Moog? Anyway, I’m your host, Jared Correia. Both the Captain & Tennille were unavailable, so you’re stuck with me. I guess that makes me the sergeant, maybe. I’m the CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, a business management consulting service for attorneys and bar associations. Find us online at redcavelegal.com.  I’m the COO of Gideon Software, a law firm intake platform. You can find out more about Gideon at gideonlegal.com.

Now, before we get to our conversation with our second ever musical guest, that’s right, it’s going to be pretty sweet. Mark Oblinger, I want to talk to you about riding solo. So as I mentioned, we’re about to have our second ever live on replay concert here at The Legal Toolkit. I’m really excited about it. Hope you enjoy it.

Mark Oblinger, singer, songwriter and podcast engineer. You’ll find out more about that will be our guest. Now, Mark’s going to play solo for us, and he remarked when he was doing that, that was really difficult to do when you usually play with a band. Now, I don’t really know about all that because I can’t play any musical instruments, which kind of forecloses my opportunity to ever be part of a band. However, it got me thinking that it’s also hard to leave a law firm and start a solo law practice. So what do you need to know before you leave the sweet embrace of law firm employment and strike out on your own? Probably more, but at least five things. Number one, you got to pay your taxes and you’re probably thinking, “Oh, right, of course you have to pay your taxes, dumbass.” Well, you might be surprised. I know a lot of people who are sole attorneys and I know that it’s often a real surprise how much you have to pay in taxes and also how hard it is to allocate tax payments throughout the course of the year because you got to pay estimated taxes. I see people pay under. I see people who have not paid at all. I see people who ignore their tax liability for years. Like it happens. Trust me. Trust me. And I know it’s lawyers, they’re supposed to understand the regulations, but that doesn’t mean they always follow them.

So when you own your own business, you need to be paying the taxes on that business and you need to make estimated tax payments. Good idea to do it on a quarterly basis. Pretty easy to do that online for the federal system as well as through your state tax liabilities if you have them, if you have a state that has state income tax. I live in Massachusetts, so of course we have state income tax as well. But pay your taxes, it’s an important thing and you want to allocate at the very least probably about 30% for federal and 5% to 10% for state depending on where you’re at. Good times.

Okay. Number two, create a price sheet. Now this might seem like another no brainer, but when you’re solo and you’re having money conversations for the first time, really, because if you were at a firm before, you weren’t necessarily having those money conversations, it’s tough. It’s very difficult to stare somebody down on a Zoom call or in a meeting at your office and be like, “Hey, here’s these prices.” Because a lot of attorneys I talk to, they have impostor syndrome. They think they charge too much even though a lot of them don’t charge enough. It’s a difficult thing for them to stick to those prices. So having a price sheet in place forces you to do that. It’s okay to discount if you want to, but also add the discounts to the price sheet so you’re not doing on an ad hoc basis. Like if you were open to a convenience store, you’d have to have prices listed for everything. Do the same thing for your law firm. Plus, an advantage over to convenience store is you don’t have to do inventory.

Number three, understand your technology. This is an issue that a lot of lawyers have, which is they like to offload stuff because they’re so busy all the time, and a lawyer’s idea of offloading something is never to pay attention to it again.

(00:05:07)

So you offload your billing, your accounting, you don’t want to look at it. You offload your technology platforms. “Oh, somebody else is going to manage it for me. I don’t have to worry about it.” Maybe you have an admin person who’s theoretically going to do that for you. Doesn’t matter. You need to understand the technology you’re using so that you can A, better utilize it, and B, employ it in the right way in your practice. If you don’t do it correctly the first time, you’re going to be creating a ton of workarounds. You’re probably not going to be using the software to the fullest extent of its capabilities. So it’s something you really need to dig down and this is a place where you don’t want to take shortcuts. And if you’ve got some time before you leave your firm and start another one, then you’ll have some time to think about the technology you’re going to use and how are you going to deploy it. Do not take the shortcut here.

Number four, this is another tough one. You need to become a salesperson. You remember Glengarry Glen Ross? Only closers. Get coffee. Well, that’s you now because you actually have to close business. No one’s handing you work anymore. So you got to be the one at the initial consultations. You got to be the one quoting prices. You got to be the one to close the deal and it’s a really hard thing to do. Like, lawyers don’t view themselves as salespeople, but really, they are. Every business owner is a salesperson. You need to close deals to make money. And while lawyers don’t necessarily use that terminology, they use Euphemisms instead. That’s really what it comes down to. So if you have no idea what it’s like to close business and become a salesperson, you better train yourself up pretty quick. And there’s no shame in reading books or taking courses on how to do it.

Number five, you need to build systems. So if you’re going to run a law firm, the way you make the most money is to be as efficient as possible and the way to become as efficient as possible is build systems workflows for everything. For intake, for substantive case management, for administration, for closing a file. If you think about how to add value to your firm as an asset, then you should be thinking of your firm as an asset if you’re building a business just like any other business, you want to increase the value of the asset. What you should be doing is thinking about marketing systems and intake systems and client management systems so that you’ve got basically a turnkey business that you can hand over. You don’t want to be building Joe’s Burger Shack, you want to be building a McDonald’s. Good luck. Or maybe you just stay employed with the law firm.

[Music]

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Jared Correia: Yes, everyone. It took over a year, but we’re back with episode 2 of 2 of Live from the Playroom as we feature interviews with and performances from musicians. Real musicians. This is maybe my favorite episode type of ours, and we’re going to look to do more of these moving forward and at a brisker pace. The idea originally started when we wanted to find a way to spotlight live music during the pandemic, when live music shows and venues weren’t as accessible as they once were. And let’s be honest, we talk about music all the time on this show anyway, and I just wanted an excuse to do more of that kind of thing.

Now, you might have forgotten why we’re calling this live from the playroom. Well, that’s because we’re kind of a janky operation, and most of these sessions, though not this particular one will actually be recorded in Legal toolkit producer Evan Dicharry’s Playroom at his house. Plus, that’s a nice pun right there and I fucking love puns, let me tell you.

(00:09:55)

So before introducing our special guest, who also has ties to this very podcast, I wanted to take a moment to shout out our amazing production team at Legal Toolkit, the previously mentioned Evan Dicharry, the show’s producer, and our engineer, Adam Lockwood. These guys are always willing to support whatever crazy schemes I come up with, and I appreciate it. Maybe it’s the pictures I have of them, but I’d like to think it’s because we just like to work together. For real, though, episodes like this are incredibly difficult to pull off from a technical perspective.

Now, after all that preamble, let me introduce our second ever musical guest on the show, Mark Oblinger. Mark is a Grammy nominated and Emmy Award winning singer, songwriter, composer and producer who’s based in Colorado. He’s previously also been a member of popular bands like Pure Prairie League and Firefall. Mark is in the process of releasing no fewer than three EP’s in the calendar year, including Standing on the Threshold, as he is touring to support those releases as well. Mark, welcome to the show. How you doing?

Mark Oblinger: I’m doing great, Jared. How are you doing?

Jared Correia: I’m awesome. Like I’m real excited to have you on the show.

Mark Oblinger: Oh, t hank you.

Jared Correia: This is phenomenal. Seriously. And not only that, just talking to you again.

Mark Oblinger: Oh, that’s right.

Jared Correia: I feel like we should fill in the backstory here. So this is crazy.

Mark Oblinger: Right.

Jared Correia: Well, maybe not super crazy, but you have worked, continue to work for Legal Talk Network in some capacity, and you used to edit my shows back in the day.

Mark Oblinger: Yes, yes.

Jared Correia: So I have to ask, why were you slumming with us when you can hang out with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers?

Mark Oblinger: Why not do both?

Jared Correia: That was my thing.

Mark Oblinger: I didn’t feel like — honestly, what happened was I’ve had along career and done a bunch of things, and in around 2010-2011, I was working on a jazz thing for kids that we ended up getting nominated for a Grammy for. But during that process, I kind of had to shed a bunch of the work that I was doing with other clients. And so we finished the record, we got nominated for a Grammy, it came out, and it did some nice things, but I still needed to go back to work just to do the normal thing that we do and a lot of the sources that I’d used had moved on to different things. So it was like, “Well, I need to get a job.” And so, Adam Camras are your boss and like my boss.

Jared Correia: Yes. Adam Cameras.

Mark Oblinger: Yes.

Jared Correia: Great guy.

Mark Oblinger: He is. He put an ad up, and I applied for it and got the job.

Jared Correia: Well, inside baseball for the people.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah, exactly.

Jared Correia: All right, so I just got to get a scant amount of Legal Talk in here because we’re a Legal Talk Network, after all. But what is it like working with lawyers as guests and as hosts? You’re laughing, but you may know that lawyers have something of a bad reputation. What do you like about lawyers and working with them because I think there are positive aspects to attorneys? For sure.

Mark Oblinger: This whole experience has turned my world around as far as my opinion of lawyers. I mean, as far as, because I had a lot of — the conception of lawyers being–

Jared Correia: Jerks. No, no, go ahead. I’m not putting words in your mouth.

Mark Oblinger: No, not necessarily. No, but I mean, just sort of not really connected with people day to day and just sort of what’s the lawyer term all the time? It depends. There was always the qualifier with everything that had to happen. But it’s interesting. But, I mean, when I was in college years ago, the two courses I took before I finally ended up dropping out, I was taking a lot of music classes, but I took a business law class because it fascinated me and that’s what I love about working for Legal Talk is the fact that the issues are usually pretty topical and people are coming at it with a lot of really good information.

So I feel like I’m doing part of a public service as far as, yeah and I turn people onto it. I say, “You should go check this out.”  We were talking about this issue or that issue, and the legal perspective was really interesting.

Jared Correia: Yeah, it’s funny. I do have a lot of people who come up to me who aren’t lawyers, who are like, I listen to the show just because I learn a lot of stuff.

Mark Oblinger: Exactly.

Jared Correia: That was pretty good, man. I don’t think you rehearsed that because we didn’t script this. All right, so I want to talk to you a little bit about your music career because it’s super interesting. I want to get to your album when we take a break, but I was on your website this year. You are releasing three EP’s.

Mark Oblinger: Well, I’m a little bit behind that’s.

Jared Correia: Okay.  That’s all right, no pressure.

Mark Oblinger: That was the plan. I’m just getting out the first one now, and hopefully we’ll get to number two by Christmas time.

Jared Correia: Okay. So I’m interested in the EP versus the LP, right? Why do you decide to make an EP versus an LP? And then I don’t know, when I saw that you were launching three in one year, I’m like, that seems like a lot. Why not just do one album? What goes into the setup of that logistically? That’s fascinating to me.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah. Well, usually albums, unless you’re playing with a band that you’re cutting live and getting things done pretty quickly, albums take a while. If you’re a singer songwriter, they can take a while and the advantage of the EP or the single anymore is the fact that, “Oh, content next month, here’s a brand-new song.”

(00:15:09)

I see people doing that all the time, just putting singles together and then maybe putting those together into an EP, which is what I’m going to do. I already released my version of Amie not too long ago.

Jared Correia: Oh, yeah, I want to talk about that. Nice.

Mark Oblinger: But that’ll go on to EP that will come out, I think, September 25 with three other songs.

Jared Correia: So that’s really interesting. Yeah. Like, you’re feeding the content machine, basically. I totally get that.

Mark Oblinger: Yes.

Jared Correia: What’s funny, I was talking to my kids about it the other day, and I’m like, “This is a great album.” And they were like, “What’s an album?” And they don’t know that there’s, like, a collection of songs. Well, it’s hilarious because I’m like, “Yeah, it’s a collection of songs from the same time period. String them together, there’s, like, a bigger meaning.” But they don’t know. They just listen to songs. They don’t know.

Mark Oblinger: Right. Well, yeah. Well, since you’re of the age, too, where I love albums because all the B sides would really tell me what the artist was about. The singles are the singles, and they have a certain sound to them, and they’re great and most of the time, they’re really strong work on the artist part. But it’s the other pieces that are the ones that like, “Oh, that was the one I really like.” And that’s when someone comes up to you and says and they pick that tune off the record and say, “I really like that one. You really spoke to me.” It’s like, “Yes. Thank you so much.” That made my week, my year for you, that I connected with somebody on that level.

Jared Correia: I love random B sides on albums.

Mark Oblinger: Yes.

Jared Correia: From an artist perspective, it seems like that’s an important thing. So you said that if you pick out a B side, an artist like, “Oh, thanks for noticing, basically.” Because otherwise it’s buried, right?

Mark Oblinger: Right. Well, but I mean, that was the thing about having 45s. Another thing that your children will have no idea what they are. But having a 45 is that — if you had your 45, everyone knew the B side on the 45 and probably played it.

Jared Correia: Yes. Mark can I tell you, I have had these conversations where I’m like, “Okay, here’s a 45. It needs a little plastic circle in the middle, so it’ll actually play.” We have to set it to 45 versus 78. Thank God someone’s finally listening to me.

Mark Oblinger: Right.

Jared Correia: You alluded to this, like, Pure Prairie League, Amie (AMIE). Go listen to it if you haven’t. One of my absolute favorite songs of all time, country rock, like, classic. It’s been covered by a bunch of people. It’s been covered by Garth Brooks, for example. Your version, which is available on your website, markoblinger.com.

Mark Oblinger: Yes.

Jared Correia: It’s a totally different take on the song, and I love it when people take, like, a cover song and just own it. What you did with Amie kind of reminds me a little bit of what Warren Zevon did with Back in the High Life Again, when he remade that Steve Winwood song, it was like a much darker tone when he got his hands on it.  So what is your thought process of being like, “Okay, I’m going to take the song and I’m going to come up with this totally different spin and just make it like my own song”?

Mark Oblinger: For that song, it really had to do with the lyric. I mean, there was a friend of mine, lady friend of mine years ago that we were listening to the Michael McDonald, Carly Simon You Belong to Me song and Amie’s lyric, I can see why you think You Belong to Me, and she kind of recoiled and this idea of possession. And so at the same time, I had just heard Jolene by Dolly Parton and just the pain in that song and the reach for that emotional thing that goes through that. And I just thought, well, what would happen if we did, if I borrowed Dolly’s idea musically and put that over top the exact same lyric of Amie? And I think it works really well. I mean, because it just becomes this dark thing, and it makes the lyric even, I think it makes the lyric even deeper as far as questioning what’s going on.

Jared Correia: I agree. It was like a really cool spin on it. And Jolene another great song.

Mark Oblinger: Oh, gosh, yes. Yeah. I sent the ref to Craig Fuller, who I know, who was the writer of the song, and he said, “That’s interesting”, and that was it. And he said, “Good luck.” And so that was all I heard from him on it.

Jared Correia: I could go any number of ways, right? It’s interesting, good.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah. But he wasn’t really — yeah, it wasn’t like, oh, that’s really wonderful and stuff. But I mean he grew it a different way, and I’ve seen him do interviews on that song, and talking about. It was just an exercise for him. As far as the lyric thing, it was just a Nashville songwriter kind of, let me crank this one out, and he hit the money with it because it’s a great song. Just as is.

Jared Correia: Oh, yeah.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah, classing.

Jared Correia: Okay, so we’ve done enough talking. So what we’re going to do is now you’re going to sing a song.

Mark Oblinger: Okay.

Jared Correia: So I’ll shut up and I’ll let you do your thing. When you’re done, we’ll come back.

Mark Oblinger: Okay. I’m going to sing a song off of the new EP. This is called Standing on The Threshold.

(00:20:10)

[Music]

I learned my lesson long time ago

Got to roll with the punches

And the past won’t let go

You can sit all alone

Dry your river tears

But the pain won’t release you

And you are wrapped in fear

I know that your heart’s got a bad reputation

Yeah, yeah, yeah

But sooner or later, you feel that temptation

You’ve been standing on the threshold, yeah love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Well love is one big mystery

All the twist and the turns

You can dance in the fire

You know you get burn

You can lag it all the way

Toss over the key, but it will make no difference

Because love no guarantee

I know that you are heart’s got a bad reputation

(You know it, doesn’t that)

But sooner or later you feel that temptation

You be standing on the threshold, yeah love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Step outside your heart again

Wash away the pain, yeah, yeah

Let the unexpected fill your heart again

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I know that your heart’s got a bad reputation

It’s got a bad reputation

But sooner or later you feel that temptation

You be standing on the threshold, oh love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

Standing on the threshold, love

[Music]

Jared Correia: All right, that was amazing. I love that one. I may have a new favorite song. We’ll be right back for more of our conversation with Mark Oblinger.

[Music]

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(00:25:00)

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[Music]

Jared Correia: Okay, I talked to you before about the EPs.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Now what’s really interesting to me is you said you did a lot of producing.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: And then this was your debut solo album in 2019 right, High Water Line.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Like it’s really good, really eclectic.

Mark Oblinger: Thank you, yeah.

Jared Correia: But the question is like same thing as to why you’re hanging out with us. Like why did you wait so long?

Mark Oblinger: You know, that’s really great question and that’s kind of been, I mean I’ve been a writer kind of my whole life but I was always a little afraid to step out over the edge. I mean that whole thing about being 20 Feet from Stardom, I feel like I’ve been in support roles my whole time but the one thing I’ve always wanted to be was be a good songwriter and every once in a while I really hit one, that was good.

Jared Correia: Yeah.

Mark Oblinger: And I got to the point as life went on that I was afraid that if it did not happen, if I wrote songs, and they were bad, it would be like I would be crushed and I was just afraid to make the leap. I mean, I was afraid to take the chance.

Jared Correia: Yeah I get that.

Mark Oblinger: And so I was like, finally, it was like, I have a lot of friends that are my age that I’ve lost a bunch. I mean, there’s people that if life gets really serious as it always has been and I realize that it’s like, oh, how long, how long you going to wait? And it’s interesting because I think that the song you’re going to play on the way out of this today would be the song called Little Bird and that song was –

Jared Correia: Yes, which is a great song. I love that song.

Mark Oblinger: Thank you. But that song was all about standing on this fence, what am I waiting for? It’s like, jump off and get busy and get this done. So and the greatest thing that’s happened to me in the last three years is the fact that I’ve released this record and I will go out and play shows and people really like the material and to the point where they’re singing along after the first chorus and it’s like, I mean it doesn’t get any better than that.

I mean it’s just amazing and plus you can do, we do a lot of smaller value house concert kind of things and stuff like that where you have 50 or 60 people in there and you can hear a pin drop and people are listening and if I can connect like that, it doesn’t get any better. I mean, it’s just, as an artist, it’s absolutely wonderful.

Jared Correia: So that’s song in terms of your process, kind of kick this off. It’s you’re like okay I can do this like now is the time to make it happen.

Mark Oblinger: Right and I cranked out a bunch of tunes and finished a bunch that had been sitting there for a while that I couldn’t figure out how to get the logs to move down river and all of a sudden I would move one of them are like, oh that was missing from that tune so it all happened.

Jared Correia: Oh that’s cool.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Okay. So like you mentioned this before but I think I have this right, you’ve won five Emmy Awards. Is that right?

Mark Oblinger: Yeah. Yes.

Jared Correia: That seems like a lot of Emmy Awards. I don’t know, I’m personally impressed. Is it or there are people out there have won 60 Emmy Awards, I don’t know it feels like a big deal to me.

Mark Oblinger: All I know is my five. I don’t – no, I think there’s — I think that there’s people that win a lot every year. I mean, I was working on a children’s TV show, it was called the Big Green Rabbit and I think you can still find it online. I was the music director and composer and a lot of things and so I got one the one year, and I think 2008 and then 2009, I won four that year for writing and editing and stuff. So it was good. That was — I was working for — I was writing for Oprah Winfrey at the time too. So there’s a bunch of us really doing that.

Jared Correia: Really?

Mark Oblinger: Yeah, I didn’t win any Emmys for that show, but it’s hard, it’s hard to crack through that.

Jared Correia: You in for them, it’s like you bring your own box at that point, it was like pile them in.

Mark Oblinger: It was ridiculous. We were – I mean they were calling names of the things for the awards and I had two of my back to back. So I went up to get my award. I walked down the stairs and they were calling the next award and I just kept in a circle and went up right back up on stage you got. It was like, I look at my kids who were both teenagers and I’m like, really, what is this?

Jared Correia: All right, hey, that’s me again. Thanks everyone. And Grammy-nominated as well, right?

Mark Oblinger: Yeah, that was for the Jazz record. Yeah.

Jared Correia: I’m suitably impressed so.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah, thank you.

Jared Correia: So you launched this album High Water Line in 2019.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Then you start touring in support of that and you’re going out to the East Coast even I saw before the pandemic.

Mark Oblinger: Yes.

Jared Correia: So like you’ve done the band thing where you’ve been like that side player as you mentioned.

Mark Oblinger: Yes.

Jared Correia: And now you’ve done like this kind of solo tour like how different is that? Is it like crazy to be out there and be like, oh like people are paying attention to me instead of being like, if I mess up this bass chord, maybe we’ll be fine.

Mark Oblinger: Oh it’s really true. I mean, they have the spotlight on you. I mean, because normally like when I was in Firefall, I would have a couple moments, I would sing. I was one of the lead singers because we broke up. Rick Roberts was not in the band at the time and so and he was in later on, and Ricky and I sand a lot of the things.

(00:30:01)

Jared Correia: And Firefall was another band that charted.

Mark Oblinger: Yo, big time, yeah, we had a lot of hits. And they’re still playing right now. I mean, I just got to — when my son was born in 92, I got out of the band just because I wanted to be home and be more of a home dad so but they still play but yeah it was — it’s like night and day. I mean to be the front person or be the artist and I’m still learning how to wear that as far as just being taking myself respectfully seriously enough and but also like it’s also no it’s just silly me and that’s okay too.

But yeah to honor that the process and follow things through, just not kind of hide in the corner, go here’s my little song. It’s like, I can’t do that anymore. It’s like, here’s my team.

Jared Correia: Right, right, you are like exactly like you are kind of big deal now. Can be like who’s that guy that used to dust off in the Eagles to sing like the high notes.

Mark Oblinger: Oh, Randy Meisner, yeah.

Jared Correia: Yeah, it’s like, this is a different thing. You’re like Don Henley, Glenn Frey now.

Mark Oblinger: No, no, no, no, no. Not at all but I mean I’m a big deal in this room right now that’s about as big as it gets. Yeah.

Jared Correia: Now you’ve got upcoming dates, right?

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Mostly in and around Colorado.

Mark Oblinger: Well it’s interesting we played the state of Montana has a great Arts Council. We went up there and played their thing that they do to get artist, the towns will get together and do a showcase and we went up and played their showcase. And we got a bunch of shows booked for March and May of next year. So for that, and that’s — I’m going to build around that as far as because I’ll wait till oh, probably November and then reach out to some, a bunch of different dates that will fill us up into next summer.

Jared Correia: That’s great. So I encourage people if they’re around locally go check out Mark.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah.

Jared Correia: Okay, so do what you need to do to prepare here. We got one more song for us.

Mark Oblinger: Okay.

Jared Correia: I think so can you tell folks what that is and then you can get into it when you’re ready?

Mark Oblinger: So yeah, let’s — we’re going to do — this is my arrangement of Amy, as I say, I got to sing it when I was — when I told you to prepare really briefly in the 85 and it’s such a beloved song. So to do what we’ve done to it is a little sacrilegious but I think it’s interesting and it’s the exact same lyrics. So you can actually sing along. It’s just that the chords underneath that are a little bit different.

[Music]

I can see why you think you belong to me

I never tried to make you think, or let you see one thing for yourself

But now your off with someone else and I’m alone

You see I thought that I might keep you for my own

[Music]

Amie what you want to do?

I think I could stay with you

For a while, maybe longer if I do

If I do…

[Music]

Now don’t you think the time is right for us to find

All the things you thought weren’t proper could be right in time

And can you see

Which way we should turn together or alone

I can never see what’s right or what is wrong

Don’t take too long to see

Amie what you want to do?

I think I could stay with you

For a while, maybe longer if I do

If I do…

Fallin’ in and out of love

Fallin’ in and out of love

[Music]

(00:34:56)

Now it’s come to what you want you’ve had your way

And all the things you thought before just faded into gray

And can you see

That I don’t know if it’s you or if it’s me

If it’s one of us I’m sure we both will see

Amie what you want to do?

I think I could stay with you

For a while, maybe longer, longer if I do

Amie what you want to do?

I think I could stay with you

For a while, maybe longer if I do

Because I keep fallin’ in and out of love with you

Fallin’ in and out of love with you

Don’t know what I’m gonna do, I’d keep

Fallin’ in and out of love

With you

[Music]

Jared Correia: All right, that was amazing.

Mark Oblinger: Thank you.

Jared Correia: That was really cool arrangement.

Mark Oblinger: Oh thank you.

Jared Correia: I have really enjoyed that.

Mark Oblinger: Yeah thank you. It’s definitely different but I think it and I told people the last time we played like I said you can sing along and because I realized you can because Linda is basically singing the same melody. So it just that the chords underneath it are dark.

Jared Correia: Yeah. You’ve done some really unique things with that, that’s really awesome.

Mark Oblinger: Oh thank you, thank you.

Jared Correia: And you know I really appreciate you come back on the show after all these years.

Mark Oblinger: Thank you.

Jared Correia: In sort of different way.

Mark Oblinger: But I was always in the — I was always behind the scenes before.

Jared Correia: Right, not anymore. Now you are the guy.

Mark Oblinger: I know.

Jared Correia: Now listeners, next episode, we’ll be back with our regular format, but don’t get too comfortable because we’re going to do this again and again. Mark Oblinger’s latest single Amie which you’ve just heard is out now on Spotify and other streaming platforms. Seriously, check it out. As you heard, it’s a new spin on a classic song which is really phenomenal.

You can find out more about Mark’s catalog and buy his albums and singles and EPs through his website markoblinger.com, let me spell that for you M-A-R-K, Mark, that’s easy par, Oblinger, O-B-L-I-N-G-E-R, markoblinger.com. Now don’t forget to listen to Mark’s Spotify playlist where he’s got some great tunes. That’s right. It’s Mark Oblinger’s Choice Cuts, the choicest of cut.

In fact, as we roll credits here, take a listen to Little Bird from Mark’s 2019 album, High Water Line, which started it all.

[Music]

Sittin’ on this fence

Sittin’ on this fence too long

I have been sittin’ on this fence

Sittin’ on this fence too long

Time to spread my wings for I hear that angel’s song

Sittin’ on this bridge

Waiting for the river to rise

Yes I am sittin’ on this bridge

Waiting for the river to rise

Got to watch me overtime

Drown this pool and spread

Now wait a minute

There is a little bird dancing on the wire

Sittin’ all alone but hearts on fire

Trying to stretch his wings

Sittin’ all alone but hear that bird sing

I see by now

Find, find, find the bird

[Music]

(00:40:00)

Sittin’ at the station, waiting for my train to arrive

Yes I am sittin’ at the station, waiting for my train to arrive

Got to grab my bag plus my ticket and say goodbye

And say goodbye

Well I am sittin’ on this fence

Sittin’ on this fence too long

Well I have been sittin’ on this fence

Sittin’ on this fence too long

Time to spread my wings for I hear that angel’s song

Now wait a minute

There is a little bird dancing on the wire

Sittin’ all alone but hearts on fire

Little bird

Trying to stretch his wings

Sittin’ all alone but hear that bird sing

Now say find now

Find, find, find the bird

I see by now

Find, find, find the bird

Got to find now, find, find, find the bird

Got to find now, find, find, find…

Oh little bird yes

Gonna gonna gonna fly

Gonna gonna gonna fly

Little bird

Oh yeah

(00:42:19)

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