Album Notes

All proceeds from the sale of these songs go directly to the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, performing vital lifesaving work in Haiti. To find out more about this great organization and the good they are doing, visit their website at http://www.haitihealth.org/

About the songs (in the words of author Jacques Fleury):

1. Almost Sixteen: This poem/song is about my mother having been a battered wife. On my sixteeth birthday, I decided to go downtown dressed up in my Sunday best to celebrate my birthday anywhere but my combative home life.

2. Haiting is on Fire!: is about growing up under the Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier dictatoship (from 1971 to 1986, when he was ousted in a coup). Duvalier employed the Tonton Macoutes in a reign of terror against any opponents. Those who spoke out against Duvalier would disappear at night, or were sometimes attacked in broad daylight.

3. A Lighter Shade of Blue: this poem/song symbolizes rejuvenation from my previous state of psychological and spiritual desolation. I no longer have a dark shade of the blues but a "lighter" shade of the blues; the sun is just beginning to peak out from under the oppressive toes of fear and melancholy into an azure sea of hope and beauty.

Jacques Stanley Fleury, a.k.a. “The Haitian Fire Fly,” was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He is the author of Sparks in the Dark: A Lighter Shade of Blue, A Poetic Memoir about his life in Haiti and America, which can be bought or sampled at: www.lulu.com.

A Poet, Freelance Writer, Journalist, columnist and novelist, whose work has been featured in the Boston Globe, The Alewife, Spare Change News, and numerous other publications, Fleury in currently working on his first novel and short fiction compilation. For more information, please visit: www.myspace.com/thehaitianfirefly

Jacques Fleury is also the Official Poet and Publicity Director for the Annual Urban Walk for Haiti, which benefits the work of Partners in Health.

Sweet Wednesday consists of singer/songwriters Lisa Housman and Dave Falk, who have toured nationally and internationally and won several national songwriting awards. To hear more of their original music (which they'd love you to do), please visit http://www.sweetwednesday.com

"A Lighter Shade of Blue" was recorded by excellent producer/engineer Raffy C. Lopez at Saucer Sound in Norton, MA.

Thanks for your support!