Album Notes

This new collection of 9 original and 3 cover songs continues the themes introduced on the first album. It looks back at growing up, ahead to growing old, and makes a few stops along the way to observe, interpret, and reflect.

I also used the lessons learned from the first project to do a better technical job on this recording. Although I worked in the same studio, everything was new since the first album – the acoustic space, microphones, preamps, and audio software. Producer/musician Dylan Fant did another outstanding job too.

Here are thoughts on some of the songs. Many songwriters have a song about their favorite guitar. In My D-18 I let my first guitar tell the story (and I played it on the recording). First Second Chance presents a few vignettes to make a point about the power of persistence and the value of fatherly advice. No Safe Place was inspired by the shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. In an interview a few days later, one of the students said “…things are different now, it seems like there is no safe place”. I wrote it down. An assignment in a songwriting class resulted in It’s Time To Fly. The idea was to write a children’s song for a scene in an animated movie about butterflies. Of course kid’s songs are just grown-up songs in disguise.

The title song Saints and Poets is based on Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town. That message about living in the moment never grows old. Nighthawks At The Diner is an interpretation of the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper – nothing seems to be happening and yet there is so much going on. Carry Me Home was on the first CD, but I decided to reprise it with a new arrangement on this one. Whenever I perform, this is how I like to finish the set. The three cover songs echo these themes and round out the album – have a listen.