Suh-weeet

This project has been years in the making. Some of the songs were written 30 years ago, and only now are recorded with the arrangements that I always envisioned. When we started recording at River Sounds Studio, the Sugar Daddies were all alive and rockin'. I never suspected that, by the time I was finished, I would have lost two of my dear brothers. Joey Bowers, guitarist/recording engineer/studio manager, died way too young at age 37 in a tragic episode of violence. We were all shocked and paralyzed by this terrible event. After some years of healing, I removed the tracks from Joey's studio and looked for a place to finish our project. That's when I found Roger Tausz and BIS studio. Roger understood my desire to keep as much of our original work as possible, and we built from there. In December, 2010, I brought original Sugar Daddy Charles Neckbone Murphy down to Roger's studio to finish his bass tracks. Charles had been recently diagnosed with liver cancer, and we were fortunate that he was able to complete all of his tracks before he passed in June, 2011. Despite these sad losses, I was determined to finish this album as a testament to my lost Sugar Daddies. And the result is more than I could have imagined! On this project I was fortunate to include the talents and creative ideas of some amazing local musicians: Eric Demmer arranged and played all the sax parts. Eve Woodard finished the guitar tracks that Joey did not record. Roger Tausz, in addition to his engineering magic, played bass on three tracks. Guy Schwartz brought his vocal talent to sing backup vocals. Steve Krase played an amazing harp solo and backup on Down to Memphis, which also features the dobro skills of my friend in Los Angeles, Mark Switzer. Thanks to Bubba Gould and cyberspace! And on one song, Like LIghtnin', I am grateful to have the legendary talents of the late Earl Gilliam on organ and the fabulous Texas Johnny Brown on guitar! Holding the whole thing together is amazing drummer and friend, Osama Raad. Thanks to the devotion and love of all the great musicians who helped me, I can offer this heartfelt collection to you all now. Now you can hear what I have been listening to in my head for the last 30 years!