Change is dedicated to my wonderful wife. She’s constantly growing and learning and is an inspiration. But also is just about the subject of CHANGE as it appears in all of our lives. Mostly gradual, but we’re always in a process of change, whether we want to our not. But its best when we decide to change.
Crush High school reunion. I saw a woman I had a crush on since forever, but from afar. Those crushes often don’t go away. They just mature. Now we are just friends from afar. We are both very happily married!
My Amigo is dedicated to Mel Nelson, a great friend who passed away in 2014. My best friend. He was a wonderful musician and creative force.
I Have Known Mountains is about personal struggles that serve as inspiration and give us the wherewithal to overcome. I wrote this a long time ago. It had various names. We tried to play it in our very first rehearsal back in the mid 80s, but I was playing the form as an exercise from the time I was in The Runners. I remember playing it outside David Houston’s Moon Studio, leaning on Bongo Bob’s truck, around 1977. I don’t know why somethings stick around so long.
What If I Go Sailing? - another dear friend, Erik Kleven, my band's original bassist, who died unexpectedly in a tragic car accident. He and I played this song. He liked it, which surprised me. Not long afterwards he was hit by a car on an isolated street. He was an infuriatingly safe driver. It was a head on. He was on off the shoulder of the road trying to avoid the oncoming car.
Passing Open Windows - Inspired by a vision of a young princess and a soldier, Argentinian perhaps who pass opposite sides of an upstairs window every day at the same time. They watch each other and almost dance between windows but never meet. In my mind and heart, I’ve had a thing with Argentina. I don’t know why. Once A Gaucho was Argentina. Maradona was Argentina. People keep telling me I should change the name of that one! But it is what it is!
Maybe Tuesday is about my favorite day of the week. I was born on Tuesday. My band had a standing gig on Tuesdays at a club for around 10 years. My boys were also born on Tuesday night.
Then a friend, Tommie Shorter, made a guitar for me. The night he gave it to me I was writing this song. I used it to put the rhythm guitar tracks down. I love this guitar. Thanks Tommie!
When Love Returns is about love, of course, but also about being reborn, again and again, and again. There’s a vocal version of this song somewhere. Not recorded. I wanted to do a vocal version with a choir. For a minute I was flirting with the idea of releasing a double CD. How silly that would have been? But I had too much music, including two versions of this song. Maybe on the next. There’s also Samuel, a tune we recorded, but just didn’t have time to include.
Sprung Birth! Or just the birth of an idea. It has sprung. It is that amazing feeling that life has sprung.
Zebra Crossing - symbolic of all those roads one must cross. Dedicated to Chick Corea. He is one of my biggest inspirations.
American Rivers - a vision of early America, perhaps the way Lewis and Clarke saw it. Native Americans, rivers teaming with fish, vast lands and clean, wild rivers. The hope and promise of a new country.
I thought it fitting to close with the great Jim Pepper song Witchi-Tai-To, a native American musician and composer from the Northwest.
