Album Notes

Some couples raise a family. Some couples raise sheep. Others flip houses. Carolyn and Dickie Sullivan write songs. Dickie has studied music and songwriting since the early 70s. Carolyn has been writing songs for over thirty years, and has performed in the Northeast, the Southeast, England and Romania. Their most recent performance together was in February, 2007 at the Bluebird Café in Nashville, TN.

The two met in the early 80s, and barely had time to share their musical tastes and aspirations when Carolyn took off for a two-year stay in Bath, England. Upon her return, Carolyn and Dickie got back together in Boston and began to hone their songwriting skills, and—as will sometimes happen—a relationship developed that went beyond musical collaboration.

Eager to develop their craft, the two became involved in hosting a songwriters’ night at Christopher’s (now TOAD) in Cambridge, MA. They became Regional Workshop Coordinators for the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) in 1995. Eventually, the lure of the Nashville songwriting community became too much to resist, and they moved to Nashville in 1997.

The move has not only allowed them to absorb some of the finest songwriting in the world in clubs and house concerts, but it has influenced their sound and style of writing. Carolyn picked up the mandolin a couple of years after moving to Nashville, and Dickie has focused more and more on his slide guitar work. They have woven their songwriting and performing in amongst their other pursuits—decorative arts, furniture design, freelance writing, and the dreaded but necessary Day Job. Now, with the release of their first CD, Love and the Cold, Hard Ground, songwriting firmly takes center stage.

The CD is a testament to their continuing fascination with the hit song, the story song, the groove song, the thinking song, in short…the song. They wanted to make an album the way albums used to be made; with songs that work well together, yet stand on their own. It is a collection of songs of love, loss, and redemption; along the way there’s hope, joy, and some toe-tappin’ tunes! And let’s not forget a healthy use of reverb and distortion.

For further information, please visit www.rosewalkerdesignproject.com.