Songbook -- 2016

The Doc Schneider Songbook: Homemade Songs 1974-2016 In words and music, songs and photographs, this captivating songbook tells the story of a mostly unknown homemade singer-songwriter. A lawyer by day and night and a songwriter in between, Doc Schneider has written more than 100 songs over the last four decades and released three albums -- Choices & Chances, Second Chances and Songs & Stories Live – all available through iTunes, CD Baby, YouTube, Spotify and Pandora. His songs have found a few dedicated listeners across the United States and in tiny pockets around the world in Bruges, Paris, Malta and elsewhere.

This songbook offers sheet music and lead sheets to accompany the released albums should anyone out there want to play a song or two. But this is more than a songbook. It is the story of a love affair with music. Tracing his path from the trailblazing singer-songwriters of the early 1970's (These Were My Friends) to his own efforts over the ensuing years (Homemade Song), this book puts the songwriter's art form on display and reveals the family that carries him on his way. For readers with or without guitars, this unique collection offers a joyous adventure through the process of creating songs, with some poems and stories along the way in this Special First Edition. This songbook is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com and Mercer Press (mupress.org) Click on the News Button on this website and you will find clickable links to the songbook

New Album - 2009

Songs and Stories Live -- a 2-CD set released on December 22, 2009 featuring Doc Schneider and Eugene Ruffolo Live at Eddie's Attic is now available as of January 1, 2010 at the folllowing link: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/DocSchneiderEugeneRuffolo Second Chances -- my 2007 CD -- is now available as of January 2007 on CD Baby and iTunes. See the 'Buy" Tab for Details, and the Photo Section for the Album cover.

The album is a collection of old and new songs performed and produced by an all-star lineup of producers and performers, including Jeff Jacobs (of Foreigner), Ben Wisch ( famed producer of many including Marc Cohn) and Eugene Ruffolo (a genius songwriter, virtuoso guitarist, unbelievable singer and one hell of a human being). Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you enjoy the songs that I post here. I wrote them for me --but in truth, I wrote them for you too.

June 2005

I just had my first industry review of my first CD -- Choices and Chances, released in 2003. The review appears on CD Babel --but here it is:

"With the sound of Paul Simon and John Bucchino and lyrics to die for, Doc Schneider is simply one of the best singer songwriters I've come across.

Lyric Rating: Lyric Comments: Doc Schneider hits a home run with a combination of mature and memorable lyrics. His lyrics are sweet, heartfelt, very personal, and haunting. "I made my hands/ in the shape of chords/ that I learned from sheets/ in the music stores/ I was alone/ I was unseen/ But I sang along/ and it set me free...Souvenirs and love songs/ stars that fall at night,/ like the captain and the cowboy,/ we all fall in love sometimes./"

This is the sort of Americana vision that Doc Schneider brings the table. Doc Schneider often hints to what I can only assume is his current carrier as a lawyer and how this has affected his life and his music. He is playful with this on the song "Legal Guitarist." "I am your legal guitarist,/My briefs use up entire forests,/ You see those pine trees over there/ Pretty soon they'll all be bare/This forest doesn't stand a prayer/ Against this lawyer with no hair/ I know the law, I know the facts/ I'm a communicator/ I'll take you there, I'll bring you back/ I am a mediator./ The hired gun in your gunrack/ I am a litigator/ You've just got to catch my act/ as a legal gladiator"

Really, these are not lyrics any other artist could write. That he can poke fun at what he has chosen to do with his life just makes him that much more lovable.

On the title track "Choices and Chances" he tackles the tough choices of his life and compares them to his fathers. This song is lightly gut wrenching...you can hear the regret, the resignation, and yet the joy that his choices have brought him.

Mix Rating: Mix Comments: The mix of this album is its only true downfall. While I enjoy the constant light reverb used on his voice, it could have been a little lighter on some of the tracks. Sometimes the levels are just plain wrong. On some tracks you have to struggle to hear his voice. Also, sometimes his guitar pops in a very unpleasant way.

Music Rating: Music Comments: The music is pretty standard singer song writer fair. He sounds like a mix between Paul Simon and John Bucchino. He has a wonderful sense of melody and his guitar playing plays second fiddle to his singing and words.

Feel Rating: Feel Comments: This guy just melts me. Its nice to hear someone who made choices that didn't bring him down the musical path come back to the music with such strong music. This is definitely going on my five star playlist and belongs in any collection of fine singer songwriters."