Album Notes

"The River and the Mill" is Brian's second solo CD, following up 2000's "World Keeps Turning." Unlike the first CD, which was entirely a one-man affair, Brian has some help here: Rod Nash and Paula Bonhomme co-wrote three of the ten songs; and Arkansas musicians Buddy Case and Greg Glisich join Brian on acoustic guitar and accordian, respectively, on some tracks. Hammond organ and some electric guitars and drums also help to give at least some of the CD a fuller "band" sound. There are also some of the starker, stripped down sounds here that listeners will remember from the previous CD.

Lyrically, the songs cover a variety of topics. Two ("Sleep" and "Gone") deal with the emotional fallout of September 11th. "Tears of a Generation" laments the passing of Karen Carpenter and Princess Diana, as well as the commercialization of their lives and deaths. "All Natural: The River and the Mill" revisits the themes of nature and technology explored in the title track of Brian's previous CD, "World Keeps Turning." Of the new song, Brian says, "The lyric brings together a bunch of thoughts I've had on the boundaries between nature -- the river -- and culture or technology -- the mill.

I argue in the song that the boundaries between these things are actually pretty arbitrary -- I don't think there's anything particularly 'unnatural' about plastic or cities, for example, since they were built by humans, products of nature, following their natural inclinations to survive and prosper. I guess I had in mind some kind of statement that the environmental mess we are in can usefully be seen as totally natural. Natural, but terrible, of course. Nature, in this song, is both beautiful and terrifying, and technology offers both hope and damnation." Ok, Brian, whatever you say. The song also contemplates some of the futuristic scenarios laid out in the pages of Wired Magazine and other places by people such as Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil.

A fine set of songs in any case. Jordan Raeffler.