A few words about the latest release.. it’s no coincidence that I’m releasing this collection on the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. The influence of that era in my opinion is still quite evident for better and worse. The ideas that spurred from taking a hard look at our ways of living during that era opened our eyes to how we dealt with our family life, our food, our air and water, our government, while ideas about drugs, free love, and cult life in hind site were the hard learning experiences, bumps in the road, that came from new untested ideals, proving that maybe some of those old ways weren’t all that bad. Through that constant back and forth we’ve been forging the future as always. With the opening line of “In the Sun” I speak of these “two roads”, many times thinking of the internal struggle of classic French writer Marcel Proust when the subject arises and in the modern world of politics and religion there still seems to be only the two options for many, heaven or hell, liberal or conservative. With this release I’ve tried to capture that feeling of adventure, fear, expectation, change, and what it felt like to be on the cusp of that new era, in retrospect 50 years on. An era that would shape my world as a child of the 70s.
My tools were much of the same instruments of the time coupled with the latest technology, mostly Stratocaster ( a first for me thanks to the influence of my lovely wife), Drums by Russ Lawton recorded at Bang a Song by Warren Babson, Saxophone by Mike Tucker recorded by me on a Laptop with a Saphire interface, all recorded digitally, and mixed with the latest Plugin’s from Universal Audio on an Apple Computer at home, Mastered by Toby Mountain at Northeastern Digital, taking cues from Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, Jimmy Page, Miles Davis, and Traffic.
So in that vein of taking the best of both worlds, this summer of love 2017 I’ll enjoy a backyard BBQ possibly with Farm to table food and organic vegetables, the ballgame will be on in the background while some folks talk about a new Yoga class, and we’ll continue to get along no matter our politics and religion while good music, past and present, both experimental and traditional, fills the air.