Album Notes

The vibrant smooth-jazz release from Diamond Rio's Dan Truman and award-winning composer Ron Saltmarsh
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Instrumental music has the distinct advantage of encompassing the various influences of time and place and emotion without fear of being pigeonholed into a specific genre or type.

Instrumentals, especially if they lean toward the jazz spectrum--and it is a spectrum-- express cultural influences, spiritual ideologies and mere human moods unconstrained by preconceived notions of right or wrong or true or false. It can be what it wants to be. What it is. Such as it is with THIS WAY THAT.

The brainchild of composer/producers Ron Saltmarsh and Dan Truman, two eclectic musicians with diverse taste and experience-but with a lot of common ground--THIS WAY THAT is the result of years of travel and musical meandering, and of exploration of all forms of music.

Dan and Ron met in college while performing in the world renowned 'Young Ambassadors.' That world-touring group's multi-genre repertoire gave the two a background in pop, jazz, Sousa marches, contemporary orchestral music and country. It was there that Truman, producer and composer, discovered the similarities in jazz and country, which eventually led him to his current place in Nashville's supergroup Diamond Rio. That heralded band has earned nine Grammy nominations and sold more than five million records.

Ron has picked up numerous awards including Addy's, Telly's, Clio's and earned several Emmy nominations for his outstanding work in television and other multimedia music productions.

Says keyboardist Truman of friend Saltmarsh, "I remember thinking back at college, how excited Ron was to play. How he loved the music. He's the same way about this music, too. I always knew we'd do something together."

And done something they have. The music of THIS WAY THAT is certainly a product of the world travels of both men. It reflects, too, in some ethereal way, the passion, the integrity, the joi de vivre and spirituality of the group. It is a product of Saltmarsh's refined musical sensibilities, his technical expertise, of his broad, musical palate and his sense of humor, his sense of self. "We tried to put no constraints on this music," says Saltmarsh. "We just wrote tunes."

That they did. THIS WAY THAT's debut is colorful, vibrant, alive. From the opening bars of "Hangin' With Newell," which lands you squarely in the contemporary jazz mainstream, through the joyful and uplifting "Ola Del Mar," to the multi-cultural felicity and rousing movements of "More Tabasco Please," THIS WAY THAT leads you on a journey through a classification-defying and heart-pleasing instrumental landscape.

Move inward with "The Seeker," float through the sweet melancholy of "Last April." Step out with "Way Too Late, Way Too Fun." Surrey on from "Mismalloya," which will put you on a beauteous beach in Puerto Vallarta to the positive and powerful "Festival" which brings you home to yourself, and allows for personal interpretation, like all good meanderings. And all good instrumentals.