Track 1: Far From Home
I started writing the song immediately after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. The first line of the first verse laments, “We got trumped…” and telegraphs what to expect in the rest of the tune. It’s a bit tongue in cheek ala Tom Lehrer, the singer-songwriter and political satirist from the 1960s, but hits on Trump’s name calling, its deadening effect on civil discourse, and his singular taste for chaos and psychodrama, all reaping the whirlwind. Every day, with each new social media post by him, was like a fingernail down the chalkboard, another brick through a glass window. I continued writing the song through his impeachment and into the 2020 election. It finishes with a plea to our better angels. And today, we are still yet far, far from home.
Track 2: We Are Stardust
The title track of the album. An Ode to our universal connectedness. In high school, I had a wonderful biology teacher, Dr. Raymond Alf. He was also a self-taught paleontologist who would conduct weekend fossil hunts in the Barstow desert of Southern California, just a couple hours from Claremont where the school was. He was a scientist, but also God-fearing. In the desert at dawn, he would wake us boys with shouts of “Laudate Deum!” Praise be to God! He also preached the miracle of evolution in our classroom. He was both an evolutionist and a creationist, believing all living things here on earth began with the Big Bang and its aftermath but under the divine providence of God. I remember a lecture about “pond water.” Swampy, warm pond water was the petri dish of life, he would say. And from that petri dish of swampy water, the first protozoa emerged eventually developing into invertebrates and then vertebrates and ultimately into homo sapiens. A couple years ago, I had a flash of insight: Could it be that the purpose of human existence, “dew drops of intelligence,” here in our little corner of the Milky Way, was the universe’s way of becoming aware of itself?
WE ARE STARDUST is inspired by Dr Alf’s perorations on the beginnings of life and God’s purpose for humans and the universe, but also inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of Myself in his Leaves of Grass collection of poems. The song begins as an ode in spoken word, with a quote from Song of Myself, “… from every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you…” which is followed by my lyrics, “…we are stardust…stardust becomes awareness squeezed from pond water, dew drops of intelligence… you and me, I am you, and we’re all in this together.” I continued composing the song during the pandemic and through the Black Lives Matter protests. Notwithstanding all our divisions, all our man-made and natural disasters, our common origin, in a brew of swampy pond water, a billion years ago under the gaze and guiding hand of God, as Dr. Alf would put it – “dew drops of intelligence” were spawned. From stardust to stardust and everything in between.
Track 3: Freedom Bells
A Paean to the Obama victory in 2008. I wrote FREEDOM BELLS following the election of Obama. It is a paean to his cathartic effect on America and Americans of all stripes and walks of life. His ascension to the White House restored faith in ourselves and faith in American democracy to correct course and to reveal our better angels.
Track 4: Slow Dance
The lyrics are reputedly written by an anonymous teen suffering from terminal cancer. The poem came across my computer screen without attribution. I tried to track down the author but without success, hence the “Anonymous” designation for “Words By.” I then composed the music as a singer-songwriter ballad. The song is a “Cri du Coeur” to slow down, stop, look, and listen – “before the music ends.” At my age, the sentiment hit home. The recording is also the last time Doug Lunn played bass on one of my songs. He died shortly after, he also from cancer.
Track 5: Brown Eyed Angel
My dear Sam came into my life shortly after the tragic loss of my late wife and the mother of my two children. Sam “covered my grief” and “brought beauty to this barren landscape.” She is my “gentle friend, heaven sent.”
Track 6: I Am A Ghost
I wrote this song on Orcas Island. Our family property goes back over 80 years and there are lots of “ghosts” – people (“flesh and blood, come and gone”), special places and trees and ponds and Harvey’s House. Harvey’s House is named after Harvey Pinkerton, the property’s caretaker for 50 years. He died in that house; and it may be my preferred final resting place too.
Track 7 & 8: Black On White and J’can Girl
I originally wrote these two songs as country ballads. One evening hanging out with Toots Hibbert (“Toots and the Maytals”), he suggested rearranging the tunes – as reggae songs. He mentioned that he grew up listening to country music beamed into the Caribbean from super stations in Jacksonville, Fl and drew inspiration for “story-telling,” influencing his reggae songwriting. Toots produced the songs at his Reggae Center recording studio in Kingston and played all instruments except for bass, which was played by his son, Hopeton. Both songs are written about Sam, my Jamaican “brown eyed angel,” my “J’can flower.”
Track 9: Out of My Mind
A singer-songwriter ballad inspired after awaking from a dream. Out of sight does not mean out of mind. Confirming our dreamlife is rich and contextual, full of surprise tailings and remembrances.
Track 10: Cherry
A nursery rhyme, a 1950’s Brill Building pop tune. Fun and lighthearted with overtures of the Everly Brothers. The album’s first music video and streamed single.
Track 11: Broad Day Night
“Have you ever walked down Broadway in broad day night?” A psychedelic dreamscape and awe inspired by Times Square lit up at midnight.
Track 12: Brown Eyed Angel (Bonus track)
After having composed the tune in C, I was noodling on the guitar one day, experimenting with singing the lyrics in D. This track is a second musical arrangement with Steve Dudas on guitar accompanying my vocal – just his electric guitar and vocal. I don’t think I have ever seen the same lyrics of a song twice on an album, in two different musical arrangements. It’s the first time it has ever happened for me, so I thought I would share it with the listener and record both for the album.
