THE WESTSIDE
For about three years, I regularly played at the now defunct Westside Café
in Petaluma. Most of the material on this album was written during this
time, and it was a great place to try it all out in the real world. Thank
you David and Katie, and all of you (you know who you are...) who came to
hear me play Friday nights at the Westside!
DARJEELING
As the newest of this collection of tunes, this one finally came together
just days before it was recorded. Inspired by Peter Finger, it uses his
signature tuning.
HER RED HAIR
This one is for my sister Maja. Since she grew up with our mom in Germany,
and I had lived in California for most of her life, we had never spend more
than a few afternoons together. This changed one day when she called to
say that she was going to come to San Francisco to stay with me for three
weeks. After the initial nervousness ("What if we don't get along?"),
it turned out to be a wonderful time filled with donuts, shopping in the
Haight, and nights of soul-searching.
NAIROBI
Several years ago I bought a collection of four LPs of African acoustic
guitar music produced by John Storm Roberts in the '60s. My favorite turned
out to be The Nairobi Sound, and I spent hours trying to transcribe some
of the tunes. Anyone who calls this amazing music primitive ought to try
and play some of it.... In the end, I gave up and wrote my own, stealing
a few licks here and there. I think I managed to capture the essential feeling
of this great music.
SEVEN YEARS
Written for Heather around the time we passed our seven-year mark. I thought
it was a good occasion to write a tune that pulls out all the stops. Tim
Sparks inspired the middle-section in 5/4 time.
THE GROOMSMEN
Written on a busy summer day in New Hampshire. I had simultaneous duties
as musician and best man, and somehow this melody popped in my head.
PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS
A neat thing happens sometimes when you're going from one guitar tuning
to another. One day I was tuning from DGDGDD (which I use on The Westside)
to DGDGBbD (Her Red Hair) when I decided to see what would happen if I stopped
in the middle. The foundation of this tune followed shortly after.
BERLIN AT 2:00 AM
In the fall of '96, Heather and I spent three days in this pulsating city.
Thanks to Jonas (who I knew as a toddler and re-connected with 20-some years
later), we got to listen to some great music in the coolest clubs and cafes
in town. This was the first tune written for this album, and the minute
that I played it on the (borrowed)12-string, I knew that this was how it
was supposed to sound.
FREIGHT & SALVAGE IMPROV
This was recorded live at the Berkeley club in August '97. I used a Lexicon
JamMan looper and some delay to create my own backup and took off from there.
I later tried to record a similar piece in the studio, but I could never
make it sound as fresh as that particular night.
PRETTY GIRL MILKING A COW
An Irish traditional that I learned from Duck Baker (who recorded it on
American Traditional). Duck claims that this is the prettiest song he knows,
and I think I might have to agree with him. Plus, how could you not like
a title like this?
HER RED HAIR (Live version)
This is the tune that peope always seem to comment on, so I thought I'd
include it twice. This version was recorded during a show I opened for Peppino
D'Agostino and Mike Marshall in February '99 at the Noe Valley Ministry
in San Francisco.
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