Seventy-two years of living. One life. One idea I call The Switch — the deliberate choice to either unleash or restrain your full nature depending on the moment you’re standing in.
That’s the foundation of Unbridled, the most personal creative project I’ve ever attempted. It’s not a memoir. It’s not an album. It’s both, released side by side, week by week — a new chapter of my life published in raw, reflective prose, paired with an original song composed in the exact musical style of the era being described.
A story from 1962 sounds like 1962. A story from 1974 sounds like 1974. The music isn’t decoration. It’s a timestamp.
Right now, the Norfolk Years are live — chapters covering my childhood in Virginia, the Band of Brothers on Ashby Street, walking off the street to audition for the Bozo the Clown show, winning a talent contest with the Garage Beatles, and the night that ended it all: my father’s gun, my decision to fight back, and thirty minutes to pack up a life and leave.
That’s just the beginning. New Kensington, Pennsylvania comes next.
Every chapter and every song is archived at TommyErb.com/music, in order, free to read and listen to anytime. If you’ve been following pieces of this story on social media, that’s where you can finally experience the whole thing the way it was meant to be told.