Inevitably with age, you experience loss. My wife and I each lost a dear friend around the same time to the same crappy disease. I had known my childhood friend since we were little kids (that’s the 70s folks), I think I climbed a tree to rescue her cat once and we palled around Concord, NH when I’d be up there on family visits. She always chided me to sing my own songs, not interested in hearing how uncomfortable my singing voice made me. When I was a little kid, my voice was great and I could control it. I sang in a choir. But then I crashed headlong into puberty and kissed that sound goodbye. All of our adult lives she gave me stern reminder, encouragement…to sing. And in the end I did get frustrated with my own trepidation and finally hired a vocal coach to get the ball rolling.

Any my wife’s friend was a solid lady. She served our country, faced and overcame some real obstacles in life and then gets taken in her prime. Totally sucked. I write these words and sing the melodies for myself but in memory of these ladies and the black hole they left for so many when they passed.

I cringe when I hear the vocal reverb on this track—I was experimenting a bit. I had been thinking of doubling the whole lead track but I kept thinking that was a chicken shit move.

I think doubling is cool but you rob the listener of their ability to be intimate with the singer. Another long Coda…like most of my recordings, the piano/bass/drums were recorded live and we were having fun so I just let the tape roll and never edited or faded the end…given the subject matter, I thought an honest exit was the best choice.