Album Notes

"To the Sky" echoes the expressions of men on decks of sailing ships, men who worked railroad track, men who loved women and succeeded or loved them and lost, men who longed for freedom or for salvation, men who yearned to be with their God or with their girlfriend Under the Boardwalk.

Blue of a Kind began with my dream to recreate my college singing experience in the Whiffenpoofs and the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus at Yale. Finding a few good men to sing my music turned out to be a rather daunting task, but in 2005 it began to come together. We performed our first song in public and suddenly people wanted business cards!

Over the next 4 years, we worked building a repertoire, learning to sing together, honing our craft before audiences and reviewing the lessons learned in the field. We recorded our shows and critiqued them, making changes at every level. I arranged new material to suit these guys like my pants were on fire. After 4 years, we went into the studio to record our first CD, "To the Sky".

There are so many hours of work put in by the guys to make this CD complete; so many dreams dreamt over many years. Visions developed, ideas realized and crystallized in long hours of drill and practice, rehearsal and performance, review and reevaluation and finally, standup time in the studio.

You'll find some interesting songs on this CD. I collected a couple songs here from Geoff Muldaur and one from Jim Kweskin. There's one from the Sensational Nightingales and there's a national anthem in 3 African languages. This may be the first recording ever of "Pirates Chorus"; I found it in an 1870 edition of Songs of Yale. Two songs on the CD were arranged for the Chordettes by the legendary Walter Latzko. There's some du-wop, gospel, barbershop, folk and blues.

"To the Sky" tells a lot of stories. But one story it also tells is that of us becoming Blue. This is the Blue foundation - the beginning of our story, many years in the making.