The music on this album spans many years of coming and going, abuse and recovery, and laughing and crying. The lyrics are heart felt and were gut wrenching to write. A lot of people were hurt in the making of this album. Mostly me. This project reconciles my past with my future and puts me smack dab in the middle of my life with a greater understanding of how to keep myself and hopefully the people around me happy and loving every moment, even the difficult ones. Each song is a place and a feeling and a transition. An unbridled joy or a trepidation depending on the circumstances around those places in my life when I was drawn to pen and paper as much as guitar. Sometimes the pain caused the music and sometimes the music caused the pain. But this is not an album about pain. It's an album about balance between that pain and the joys of overcoming it or dodging it altogether. More than that, it's an album about what it took to make an album, to feel the need to make an album and take the necessary steps toward bending the world to my will of creating this album. The relationships involved in inspiring and completing this whole process changed me forever and I feel like the happiest man alive to present this work to you. It's not about making you understand me or how I felt; it used to be about that when I was writing it. Now it's about how this may make YOU feel. I want to share the process of how I found the balance. I want to stir your emotions not only with the energy and /or tranquility of the sounds but also with the observations and inspirations about why I think every reason happens for a thing. THE LAST SONG: This song is meant to be ironic. It's about quitting music entirely and predicts that this will be the song to end it. It is deliberately upbeat and happy despite the finality of the theme. This track seemed like the best way to punch this record into the world even though it is the only song that has this crossover flavor. It feels like pushing forward but pleads for letting go.