THE SIRENS OF TONIGHT
FALLING DOWN... THE FACEBOOK SONG
I SHALL BE FREE #295
I CAN'T SEEM TO TELL YOU GOODBYE
THE CHESHIRE CAT SONG - 2015
CATSKILL HILLS
THE LAST SILENT SNOW
LOUISIANA LAMENT
TRUCKERS LAMENT
IT TAKES ME HOME
“Night Songs & Laments” is my LATEST album (2015) and was written and recorded over the past four years. The songs are highly personal responses to events taking place in my life at the time. And it's true… most of the songs were written late at night… as the subject matter indicates.
The lyrics to “The Sirens of Tonight” are a call for the forces of good to triumph over evil in both my personal and global outlook. The song may seem to be about nothing and everything at the same time as it was written in a manner that can be interpreted in multiple ways for anyone's own personal situation or beliefs. Whereas Homer's “Sirens” drew the sailors to their deaths mine represent the forces of “good” calling us out to take on the forces of “evil”.
“Falling Down / The Facebook Song” is about the infinite emptiness of total connectivity in today's world of so-called “social-media”. Society is indeed “Falling Down” under the cascading effects of this new digital global order. I left Facebook two years ago and have never looked back!
Bob Dylan wrote two songs with the same title as “I Shall Be Free”. Dylan numbered one of his #10… while mine gets the #295 from the Gibson model of guitar I played throughout the song. The song concerns the liberated freedom of getting to a certain age where one no longer has to worry about what anyone thinks of their actions. And I am TOTALLY there!
My dear friend and musical companion Denise Pineau passed away a little less than two years ago. She was a close friend for many decades… a terrific operatic singer… and the voice of “The Queen of Hearts” in the 1998 recording of my musical “Dreams for Alice”. Denise was the inspiration behind “I Can't Seem To Tell You Goodbye” and this album is dedicated to her memory.
I follow this with a “remake” of “The Cheshire Cat Song” from the same musical. I had grown to hate the original recording of the song and was looking for an excuse to record a proper version of it. The “Cat” was also Denise's favorite character in the show.
I moved to the Catskills just outside of Woodstock a little over eight years ago and put together a little hilltop paradise for myself called “The Grouse House” that operates as both a recording studio and a one suite B&B. “Catskill Hills” is my love song to the region. My second Catskills song follows with “The Last Silent Snow”. It was the last song completed for the album after this long harsh winter finally came to an end.
I return to my roots with “Louisiana Lament”… a song about the rape of the state and it's natural resources by the oil and gas industry. I also recorded it “live” with me and the acoustic guitar laying down the initial track alone, to come as close as possible to the sound I once got when I played clubs across South Louisiana in the 70s and early 80s.
“Truckers Lament” is my ode to Interstate 81… the route that runs between my home in upstate New York diagonally down to my Louisiana roots. I've driven the route at least two or three dozen times over the years and I wrote this from the point of view of a trucker.
The album ends with “It Takes Me Home”… a song about both my father's passing as well as the power of music to pull you back to memories of childhood. Written after discovering a long lost harmonica from my youth in a dusty bottom drawer of my studio.
I want to thank Peter Ecklund and Peter McCaw for playing horn and bass on a couple of tracks and also Dr. Randall Rissman and Counselor Heidi from the Maverick Clinic in Woodstock for helping pull me back to my creative center after about a year and a half of a serious emotional and creative funk. And also thanks to Karen and Steve for always being there on the phone… and to all of the wildlife that surround me daily here at the house. My fabulous furry friends!
ENJOY! GH