Side Trips took three years to finish and was completed in late 2006.  The “concept” was to write songs that were essentially “stories” and not particularly personal in nature.  And I wanted the sound to be like “Film Noir Meets Big Twang” . Big spacious songs with characters and sprawling landscapes.   Not all of the songs fell into this mode but that was the original idea.  “Promise to Dream” is from my musical Dreams For Alice in a shortened miniature arrangement re-written for my niece Megan’s high school graduation.   Eden White joins me on vocals on “I Walked Away” and Jason Langley plays bass on “When the Lights Went Out” (which amazingly was written and recorded a couple of months BEFORE Katrina).  GH