Mystery Sandwich Coming Right Up!

My new CD has been FIVE YEARS in the making. And the Mystery Sandwich is about to be served. My hope and intention was for the sonic spectrum and emotional range of this collection to surpass everything I've recorded before. I think it rocks, rolls, soars, goes as quiet as the voice of God after the whirlwind, and resonates with the meditative soul as well as with the heart of the intrepid adventurer.

Thanks to all the brilliant musicians who contributed: Mark Weakland, Bob Banerjee, Bill Maruca, Jeff Berman, Vince Camut, Joseph Bishkoff, Professor Nelson Harrison, Cherylann Hawk, Autumn Ayers; the angelic and dedicated children's choir: Molly DeLuca, Emma & Helen Paulini, & Sean Bailly, and the saintly Guinnessmeister who corralled them, Gerard Rohlf.

Thanks to Art Gazdik and Clenice Vincent, who contributed to the songs. Thanks to those who prepared to participate but, due to conflicts of time or health, never made it into the studio, including: John Hammond, Jr., Kelly Burgos, Gina Ketter, Heather Kropf, and Eve Goodman.

Thanks to the wife of my soul, Camille Faria, for being a constant sounding board, providing loving and practical perspective, and helping to keep me grounded, honest, and wise.

To Doug Wilkin for ALWAYS understanding, or straining to understand, the needs of the songs, and custom-crafting multi-instrumental parts to meet those needs; for helping to build the best arrangements for each, and for being gentle but insistent when my innovations wanted to err on the side of song-destruction.

Finally, thanks to Mark "Renaissance" Perna who suggested and funded the project, without whom these songs would never have received professional recording treatment, and who played brilliantly, providing immaculate undergirding for each song. Taken all in all, his bass parts, stripped of all else, could provide the basis of a gorgeous symphony.

Kevin Solecki will grace the final recording session this Tuesday night. Then we mix, master, package, and go to print.

Then we plan to provide a release concert party that you'll tell your grandchildren about.

Stay tuned for a medley of the Mystery.