Album Notes

Last February, singer/songwriter Bennett Cale took the chance of a lifetime. He dumped everything -- his house, his job and his worldly possessions -- to pursue his music. The result is "Goodbye Kirkwood Drive." The album is a perfect musical representation of his metamorphosis from heartbreak to redemption. It unfolds like a novel you cuddle up to read and don't put down until the last page is turned.

Midway through his twenties, Cale owned a cottage in the famed Laurel Canyon section of the Hollywood Hills, had a successful business of his own, a television star for a wife and was a regular player in the Los Angeles music scene. But suddenly his life was turned upside down and he found himself picking up the pieces from a broken marriage. He quit the company and poured his soul into his music. In order to finance a new recording, Cale bet the farm and put his house up for sale. The bennett cale project had begun.

Cale enlisted the talents of producer and engineer Chris Fuhrman (Pat Benatar, Innocence Mission) to transform his house into a full recording studio. He brought together some of his friends and LA's top musicians to simultaneously write and record a live album in the same neighborhood that had given birth to the Eagles, Jackson Browne and Crosby, Stills and Nash. Writing by day and recording by night, the group was inspired by the musical legacy of Laurel Canyon's past -- giving way to a new sound that is now being called "vintage California soul."
"Goodbye Kirkwood Drive" is a unique blend of originality and familiarity. Using graceful melodies melded with classic storytelling lyrics, Cale transports the listener back in time. In the tradition of great albums from the sixties and seventies, "Goodbye Kirkwood Drive" offers an uncensored look into the life of an artist. With impeccable musicianship, Cale shares himself in an honest, unaffected way. From the breakdown of his relationship, "saw your ghost out in the hall, staring down at me watching me fall" ("Green Chair") to healing, "but now there's light where it was dark inside" ("This Time Around"), Cale tells his story of redemption with delicate ballads and memorable rock anthems. A final and hidden treasure on the album is the sound of Cale's actual footsteps on the barren hardwood floors as he walks out of his house for the last time.