Time To Fly

During the time of my writing and recording this material I became obsessed with two classic albums from the LP era. The Beatles White Album and The Beach Boys Pet Sounds were always two of my favorites, but I dug much deeper into each than ever before on a recent cross-country drive. While I would never pretend to aspire to the lofty heights achieved on those two albums, they did shape a lot of my approach to the writing and recording heard here. Like the White Album, I wanted the songs to all have completely different styles and arrangements, which would hopefully unfold into an overall experience that worked as a whole. I wanted to go as broad as possible, while keeping within the confines of the classic two guitars, bass & drums format. I also add synths and string arrangements where I thought they were needed. And listening to Pet Sounds led me to pushing my studio skills and trying experimental microphone techniques, unique combinations of sounds, and a lot of layering of the backing vocals. During the writing and recording of Time to Fly I also was going through considerable personal changes with the very sad loss of my father as well as the loss of my corporate gig as the president of a major label's classical division (You haven't REALLY been fired until you've been fired in The New York Times!) I sold my Manhattan apartment and moved to the Catskills to set up my Grouse House studio and music consultancy business near Woodstock. Some of these songs are fictional, and some are autobiographical. I won't comment further on the lyrics, as I've always believed they needed to form their own interpretations within each listener. Jay Ungar joins me on Mandolin on Your Old Mandolin and Fly and Peter Davis and Peter Ecklund add horns to Wake Up Now and Peace On Earth Tonight. ENJOY! Gilbert Hetherwick Gilbert HETHERWICK BIOGRAPHY Gilbert Hetherwick began performing in clubs in New Orleans and South Louisiana in 1975 and played regularly in the area until 1984 (having a regular night at the legendary Tipitina's for a period of time). During this time he also performed as an opening act for a wide variety of acts including Robert Palmer, John Prine, Jerry Jeff Walker, Gato Barbieri, Tom Waits, Paul Butterfield, and Timothy Leary's lecture tour. To make ends meet he became the manager of an independent classical record store in New Orleans. This 'day gig' led to a job offer from PolyGram Classics to be a regional marketing manager for the Southwest. This developed into an accidental career as a 'suit' in the music business spanning over twenty years, six labels, and ten promotions, until his becoming President of Sony BMG's classical division in 2005. He left 'the business' in 2007 and moved to the Catskills. During his time as a music executive Hetherwick continued to write music and release discs every couple of years to a small group of friends and fans. But do to the conflicts with the business career most never knew of his passion for songwriting. Now he has returned to 'his roots' with the new TIME TO FLY releasing NOW from Grouse House Productions.