Don’t count the love

Release date - 15th May 2025 (United Nations Family Day)

ISRC: TCAJO2511133 UPC:859705593870, Release ID:1231977502

iTunes / Apple Music / Spotify / Amazon … it’s available in lots of other places too.

Don’t Count the Love began with a ukulele I could barely play and a long afternoon at the Newport Jazz Festival. We were there as a family—my kids, my wife, the whole crew—listening to sets and playing chess under a tree to escape the hot sun. At some point, a few strangers wandered over and struck up a conversation. That chance meeting led to an invite to a Cajun-style music gathering in the woods the following week. It was there that I met Bob Metzger—Leonard Cohen’s guitarist—who helped connect me with local musicians and pointed me toward Carl Franklin’s Pwop Studios in New England. That gathering in the woods lit the fuse.

We recorded the whole thing by the third take. Just me, the family, and a few generous musicians who stepped in and made the room feel like a porch.

Bob Metzger originally played bass during the session, but due to a technical glitch, those takes were lost. Fortunately, my friend Ruido Ballieri stepped in from Buenos Aires with a bassline that grounded the whole track, while Martín “Tincho” Cappi sent a flute part from Patagonia that danced around the rhythm like sunlight on water. That last addition of flute gave me the ‘Going up the Country’ feel I wanted. Happy days.

Don’t Count the Love is about letting go of who loves who the most or not giving love because you don’t get it….as hard as that can be. I couldn’t have captured it without my family and others and that’s why I’m releasing it on the International Day of Families - 15th May.

“I don’t count the love along the way. I just pick it up in pieces as I step into the day. When I look into the motion of my mind I think I find….I don’t count the time. 5,6,7,9!’

The spirit of Woodstock

As I was writing Don’t Count the Love, a specific image kept looping in my mind: a clip from the original Woodstock documentary, where a group of teenagers in a yellow VW camper van rolls through the countryside, wide-eyed and grinning, while Canned Heat’s “Going up the Country” plays. That feel of freedom, innocence, fun, adventure with an open heart—became the touchstone for everything I wanted this song to be.

Musicians

  • Drongomala (lead vox, ukulele).

  • Drongomala fam - backing vocals.

  • Allen Sandman (Weissenborn Lap Slide, mandolin)

  • Matt Dean Rooster (djembe, cajon, percussion).

  • Tincho Cappi - Flute (Argentina)

  • Bass - Ruido Ballieri (Argentina). Bob Metzger (Leonard Cohen’s guitarist) also played bass on the original live sessions but his takes got lost (!). Ruido saved the day

    The sessions were ran by the most excellent Carl Franklin in his Pwop studios in New England.