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Welcome to my new, and still under construction website.
Thank you for your interest.
Thank you for your interest.
Well, here it is 18 months later, and we have finally recorded, mixed, mastered and wrapped the 'Northbound' Cd. Actually, Brian Gauci and I have been working on these songs for about 2 years in preparation for this release. I am forever grateful to Brian for the unselfish use of his time on this project,his prodigious talents as a guitarist, his producing skills and his historical knowledge of the music business in general. We first became acquainted when he joined the 'Rexford Mann' Band in the late 70's and played as the lead guitarist into the early 1980's. He is quite familiar with most of the songs on Northbound, because I wrote a majority of them during this period, when I would spend most of my summer months at our family cottage on Skeleton Lake in Muskoka, Ontario. This was a time, when as a single 'Mann,' I sowed a few wild oats, fell in and out of love several times and vented various frustrations in my life by playing guitar and writing a diary, (which later became the basis for the tunes on this album.)
Brian, myself and a few friends/relatives (most notably my sister, Cynthia Richards,) gave this project considerable thought before imbarking. We pondered the idea of taking these older songs and comtemparizing (is this a word?) them, by using younger musicians, more 'in tune' with today's musical demands and/or tastes. In the final analysis, we decided against this approach and although we did contract a couple of young studs, (Jason Wilson on Hammond B3, Michael Herring on Acoustic bass and 'Brownman' on trumpet/ flugelhorn,) we felt that the lyrics and melodies on these tracks were strong enough to stand alone, - to be considered 'timeless tunes' and not current top 40 hits, likely to be forgotten and put on the shelf months later. We hope you agree.
Anyway, with assistance from my brother in law, Arthur Richards, friends, Sandra Martin and Pat Richardson, and with the encouragement and support from my wife, Miriam, my son, Matt and my daughter Maddy, Brian and I began working. Once or twice a week, for between 6 - 8 months we got together in Brian's basement (The Home Studio,) and with help from his computer, we were able to generate a 'Demo' disc that we hoped could be used to recruit the 'more mature' members of the musical ensemble that we believed were necessary, and that thankfully, proved to be available, and willing to contribute their rather prodigious skill sets to 'Northbound.'
Brian, myself and a few friends/relatives (most notably my sister, Cynthia Richards,) gave this project considerable thought before imbarking. We pondered the idea of taking these older songs and comtemparizing (is this a word?) them, by using younger musicians, more 'in tune' with today's musical demands and/or tastes. In the final analysis, we decided against this approach and although we did contract a couple of young studs, (Jason Wilson on Hammond B3, Michael Herring on Acoustic bass and 'Brownman' on trumpet/ flugelhorn,) we felt that the lyrics and melodies on these tracks were strong enough to stand alone, - to be considered 'timeless tunes' and not current top 40 hits, likely to be forgotten and put on the shelf months later. We hope you agree.
Anyway, with assistance from my brother in law, Arthur Richards, friends, Sandra Martin and Pat Richardson, and with the encouragement and support from my wife, Miriam, my son, Matt and my daughter Maddy, Brian and I began working. Once or twice a week, for between 6 - 8 months we got together in Brian's basement (The Home Studio,) and with help from his computer, we were able to generate a 'Demo' disc that we hoped could be used to recruit the 'more mature' members of the musical ensemble that we believed were necessary, and that thankfully, proved to be available, and willing to contribute their rather prodigious skill sets to 'Northbound.'
