Album Notes

From the folk-rock of "god" to the jazz-noir of "I Just Don't Wanna See You Right Now", "Into The Blue" 's fifteen tracks takes the listener on a ride through a variety of musical styles and moods. It's rock/pop sprinkled with a bit of folk/country/jazz and garnished with a bit of reggae on the side and served with a smile on the seriously humorous side of town. Life, death, love, politics and religion--it's all in there.

"A friend of mine referred to it as 'When? To The Blue'," states Jim. "It was taking a long time, to put it mildly." Not surprising, since Jim played and sang all the parts, except for the saxophone, which was ably handled by veteran horn-meister Dennis Landeen. "I hadn't even thought about a sax on this project," says Jim, "then I found Dennis living across the street." Jim and Dennis played a few gigs together, and the music effortlessly fell into place.

Most of the songs were written in the past year or so, but a couple were songs Jim wrote years ago and just recently got around to recording. "'Move To Mexico' was always a popular song live, so I thought it was about time to get it on a CD of mine," says Jim. And the defacto title track, "Drift Away", was originally written for Jim's dad, who passed away in 1996. "I had already recorded that song, and released it on a limited-release EP called 'Knives & Bleeding'. Then when my brother (Greg) passed away in late 2004 I wrote another verse just for him. Of course I had to re-record that new version and get it on this new CD."

That's just a few of the reasons why this CD was so long in coming.

"I guess it's a function of playing all the instruments myself, as well as having your own studio to work in," says Jim. "No clock to watch, and there was never the feeling that the world was anxiously waiting to hear these songs. So I would read about a new recording technique, and I'd have to try it out, or I'd find a sax player like Dennis, and I'd have to get him on some songs that before were considered finished. But I feel that taking the time just made it a better CD. But I swear, the next one I'm going to work much quicker."