Life Is Sweet

So, there I was, standing in line at my local Starbucks when someone comes up from behind and gives me a warm, affectionate bear hug. Wow! My day is made! I wheel around to see my old friend Joel. Joel Martin is quite the music impresario here in Detroit. He brought Eminem, the Romantics and plenty more to the public forum. Anyway, a few years back, he bought 3 of my songs and remembers how great they were. Says he's got a studio not being used right now. 'Would you like to come in and record all your stuff at no cost?' Yeow!!! OK! I look him in the eye and say 'I'm serious. I'm gonna take you up on this.' He says, 'Great!' The next week, I'm in the studio. Joel shows me around and introduces me to all as a great songwriter, even to the guy who wrote 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' who just happens to be there hangin' with Joel. I feel like a star. 'Here's the studio you'll be using. Here's your engineer.' I sit down at this gorgeous piano and we begin. Over the next few months I get to go into the studio every week. Between sessions, I go back through my catalog and pick the songs to practice. I get suggestions from friends and family. I'm reminded of songs I'd forgotten. It's fun. We never spend more than 3 - 4 hours recording - nothing heavy. We do everything in just 1 or 2 takes, like Dylan. It goes fast. 'Life is Sweet' has 12 of the tunes we recorded. We kept them simple. We wanted the songs to shine unadorned, uncomplicated, unsophisticated, true.