like Sir Duke, "Reminiscing in Tempo"

[John Savlove]

That's the portrait that started my friendship with Stephen Alcorn. I liked his work, called him up, and commissioned a linoleum cut for the jacket of my forthcoming CD, released in the autumn of 1997. Sure, I'm a visionary too, however only cultural heroes applied to the Almanac project he asked me to write for him a few years later.

It's a little hard to look back on the disc because it was intended to be a collection of demos. Selected and ordered to move as a journey, sure, but with the understanding that a bunch of one-offs played on a handsome, quirkily out-of-tune baby grand is not product. The last two, after 17 in the solo format, were still considered demos but with very capable musicians substantiating.

19 songs is but a dip into my collection. We all have our imbalances. Mine is that I know how to write a song, embrace many genres, and sing/play with the chops of a certified bluesman, .... and from there my gifts drop off.... Jung was known to advise people to work on the things they don't usually do well, oh yas!, but somehow embracing the 21st century software so that I might flesh the tunes out myself with digitized beats, digitized cellos, digitized harmonies .... one hand simply could not force the other to comply. I was already enough of a loner. Producing my music is a collaborative event, an avenue for sociality.

Unopened copies of this piece remain here at home, wrapped in cellophane. The work stands up. Titles like "Break Through the Block", "Coming From Within", and "Wild Picker". Direct message me with your address and I'll send you one. But I'd rather hear my latest, and you could well be past compact discs by now, preferring to hear things direct through Spotify.

Ah, that's done! Next time, I'll publish some poetry!