It’s been a while (a dozen years, give or take) since Chris placed an advertisement in the Washington City Paper calling for seasoned musicians to work on a recording project. When I first showed up at his studio, barefoot and hung over from the previous night’s debauchery, I had no idea what lay in store as I began setting up my keyboard. I hadn’t played in several weeks since parting ways with yet another band… my head hurt… and Chris and I did not seem to have very much in common, at least on the surface. I was an engineer who worked for the Department of Defense. Chris would laugh and describe himself as one who “stacked fruit in symmetrical pyramids.” We were soon joined by John (a bass playing medical technician affectionately referred to as “Moose”), Ray (a long-haired wedding photographer and talented guitarist), and Jeff (a mild-mannered professional who played drums). Once we got started, it was immediately obvious to us that we were having too much fun playing music together to care about anything else. And so it began.
While we leisurely recorded some original songs over the next few months, we were visited by a wide variety of musicians and personalities – background vocalists Nancy and Margaret, harmonica players, saxophonists, a drummer who could muster nothing more than a polka beat, a lead guitarist with an unusually large ego, and a chiropractor/guitarist from New Jersey who (as he pulled a joint from his shirt pocket) offered to buy the chair in which he sat for $50. There were other colorful characters, who may have contributed to these songs over the years, but they have gone their separate ways, their names forgotten. After all, twelve years is a long time to take to record an album, though it was never really our intention to actually create “an album” – we just enjoyed playing and recording music. Over time, we lost touch with Jeff, while Ray (to whom this album is dedicated) succumbed to a long battle with depression. With the deepest of thanks to all our musical brothers and sisters, we decided to pool our collective efforts onto this CD, if for no other reason than to preserve the music that brought us together and helped forge lasting friendships. We hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did putting it together. It’s all good.
-tim
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