Album Notes – Portland

Portland recorded July 2016 – June 2017

In late 2014, after Imaginary Love Ballads had been completed, I suddenly remembered the midsection to the song Story and realized I had always meant to record it.  And thus began what would eventually become Portland.  Initially, it had no direction – it was just a gathering point for songs I believed were worthy of recording absent any unifying thread between them.  As ILB had represented the best of my songwriting from the 80s, one immediate theme for this new album would be to pay homage to the 90s.  The first aspect of this that formed as I planned what this album was to be was to embrace one trend from the 90s that had always appealed to me:  unplugged music.  This fit well with the songs that I picked as they were all written on the acoustic guitar, anyway, as I had purchased my first acoustic guitar in 1989 and quickly made it my primary writing instrument.

However, as I reviewed the songs at my disposal, I found only four were truly suitable for the recording process.  The other songs were flawed, incomplete, in some cases even embarrassing first raw attempts at songwriting.  They had to be brought up the level of the others in order for Portland to be a viable project.  I was by and large satisfied with the songs musically, with the chord structures, the verses, bridges and choruses.  What was really lacking was the vision of the song; what its point was.  So it was back to the drawing board – to find a different purpose for the song than what I had thrown together so casually and quickly 20 years earlier.  I decided I needed help.  I sent all 12 songs to Clint Kaster, someone I’d known since high school whose prowess with the written word I had always admired.  Clint was able to bail me out on 4 of the 12 tracks.  More importantly, he inspired me to look at what the songs could be in an entirely new light.  Apart, Songbird, and Cascadia were the result of his idea of what the song could or should be.  Portland was the result of an email he sent me recounting a powerful memory of having recorded an indie band in Portland back in the 90s.  I don’t think he ever intended it to become the lyrics to a song – but as I read his natural, flowing, descriptive and moving prose, I couldn’t help but think it would translate well to music. In keeping with the theme of paying homage to the 90s, I resolved to stick to single word song titles that may or may not appear anywhere in the song.

By late 2015, fourteen songs had formed sufficiently for me to seek the counsel of Leyth Mulla on the direction the album should take.  After reviewing the songs and having an impromptu jam session, Leyth began playing and humming what would become One Voice as he knew not one of the songs I had played him could ever serve as a closing track to an album.  This then became the first of what would become four new songs written especially for this album.  I took the songs to Tommy Quatraro early in 2016 for the two of us to lock down first off whether the songs actually worked and what the vocal melodies should be.  Along the way, Tommy and I rewrote Cascadia  by changing what I had envisioned as a chorus to an instrumental break and writing a new chorus.  This process lasted 6 months.

Upon the completion of agreeing which songs worked and locking down the melodies, I felt something was lacking in the album overall – it needed a more aggressive song played at a faster pace.  That led to a very early morning composition that I called Aftermath.  And then we were ready.  The next nine months were devoted to realizing the fourteen songs that would comprise the album.  Since we were so reliant on the same core instruments, I wanted to emphasize different instruments at a bare minimum at the onset of the songs:  classical guitar in Story, piano in both Portland and Revolution, six string steel string acoustic in Overdose and Night, vocals in Apart and Primal, trumpet in 1994, cello and violin in Songbird, bass in Remember, 12 string guitar in Cascadia and oboe and clarinet in One Voice.

On ILB, I agreed to have Jim and Tommy sing most of the backing vocals – Barry Sparks and I joined in on Power Core but it always felt like a compromise.  There’s a difference between being able to carry a tune and being a professional vocalist.  For Portland, I was convinced we would hire professional backing vocalists.  Enter the amazingly talented Crystal Stark and her cohorts in crime Julie Ann and Katherine Byrnes.  It was amazing working with them – equally delightful to see and hear how Crystal arranges the vocals and then to hear all three of them sing the parts live in perfect sync.  On the note of musicians new to my wild and whacky world, I’d like to acknowledge Nick Coventry’s lyrical and emotional violin playing – thanks to Michael Ronstadt for recommending him.  You expect a great musician like Michael to recommend another great musician like Nick.  And Nick did not disappoint.  Also thanks to Michael for suggesting the steady Rick Peron on trumpet and the avant guard brilliant saxophonist/clarinetist Mike Moynihan.  Mike single handedly saved Aftermath and Night.  Last but certainly not least, thanks to Tommy Q for putting the inestimable Troy Gray on our radar.  Troy was called in at the last second to play classical guitar and he distinguished himself as he delighted.

There’s so much to say about this album, I could go on forever.  Let’s close by saying during the making of this album, my Mom, who doesn’t understand a note of my music but knows it is of immense importance to me, would ask during our weekly phone calls how the making of the album was going.  For most of the sessions, I told her I couldn’t tell if it was going to the best album I’d ever made or the worst.  I felt that way clear up until Leyth finally put all fourteen tracks in order.  Not 5 songs into hearing it in its final form, I had my answer.

It was by a mile the best damn thing I’d ever done.  I knew it.  Leyth knew it.  And now you know it, too.