Album Notes

Solitude Lessons features John performing eleven of his songs. All lead vocal and instrumental performances by John.

John's comments on SOLITUDE LESSONS:

"Whereas the GRATEFUL CD showcases the cabaret side of my writing, SOLITUDE LESSONS is an intimate solo CD which provides a glimpse of a more pop aspect (well, my version of pop, anyway -- I mean it ain't exactly Justin Timberlake...) Listening to it I can hear so many of my influences: Joni Mitchell in "Love Quiz", The Beatles in "Impossible Here", Simon and Garfunkel in "If I'd Been With Him", Stevie Wonder in "The Same Man". I recorded the songs back in the 90's -- most were written after the end of a 6-year relationship. I had also just gotten some home recording equipment so one by one, as I wrote the songs, I overlaid piano, synthesizer, drum and vocal tracks for them, playing all the parts myself. It was first released as a cassette, but after the release of the GRATEFUL CD, I remastered SOLITUDE LESSONS to release as a CD, redid the artwork and here it is. I love taking a song from the writing stage all the way through the recording stage -- doing a "one man band" number -- because the finished product reflects my truest intention for the song. (Then again, as with GRATEFUL, it's also fun to collaborate and see what other creative minds and hearts bring to the work.) I have a pretty large backlog of songs, probably a couple hundred that almost no one has heard, so I'm hoping to build up a large enough group of listeners who buy my CDs that, little by little, I can get those songs and new ones recorded in some interesting form on a steady series of recordings."