Rocks Off On Humboldt (1996)
This is like listening to a former version of myself. Some gems hidden in a sea of subpar technology. But hey - it's free!
While working in the corporate world just after getting married, I struggled to find a way to record a follow-up to MEALS AND ULCERS. I was without a band in a new state (Pennsylvania) and had little time to write and record. Digital-audio technology, while evolving quickly and allowing me to sequence MIDI parts, was not at the point that made home recording achievable affordable. Eventually I managed to find a guy with an elaborate ADAT home studio, and during May and June of 1996, I spent my evenings after work recording ROCKS OFF ON HUMBOLDT (my favorite album title thus far). This is one album where the recording didn’t give the songs justice. The engineer and I, both novices, worked hard to give the songs their due, but ultimately we didn’t quite hit the mark. This recording offers ten compositions ranging from a Cajun-driven love song, to more ambitious pop-ballads and R&B-influenced rock songs. Though lacking some of the continuity of my most recent recordings, this collection contains some of what I consider to be the best songs I've ever written, particularly "Car Alarms," "Going Through The Motions," and "Incomplete." The two piano solos that appear on this album, "Summer 1990" and "The Comfort Of Moving On," also appear in a different form on PIANO SOLOS. “Going Through The Motions” was written in 1987. “Summer 1990” was written during the summer of 1994. If memory serves the remaining tunes were composed during ’94-’96.