I first started writing songs and performing them publicly when I was a senior in high school back in 1975. Since then, at one time or another, it's been a career ambition, a serious hobby, a form of therapy, just plain fun, or some combination of these things. Now it's something I do mainly for pleasure and self-expression. This album, like all of my albums, is more like a song collection than a formal "album" with a unifying theme. It's just me and my guitar ( 2002 Martin 000-15S ) with simple but quality recordings. And, as I am quite prolific, I try to get as many songs as will fit onto each CD. I live and perform in Ashland, OR and don't travel too much or very often. I'm trying to get my music as far out into the world as I can and see what comes back. Buying a musician's CD is one of the very least expensive ways of encouraging an artist in continuing to do something they love. Thank you for considering buying mine! ~ Gene Burnett Ashland, OR "Gene's voice startled my heart. It felt so intimate. I felt naked listening to it. It seemed to dissolve my defenses and made me feel things I preferred not to feel in public. Getting to know Gene personally was a similar experience: often uncomfortable, continually challenging me to connect with deeper parts of myself. I like to compare how I felt about his music so many years ago to how I feel listening to it now. I feel how much more comfortable I am with myself and the complexities and contradictions of life. I admire Gene for including so much in his music, so much mystery, struggle, irony, beauty, tenderness and above all an extraordinary embrace of acceptance. As his wife I know this acceptance is not just the rational position of a clever mind, but something hard won, and genuine." ~ Samarra Burnett Ashland, OR I first heard Gene Burnett singing at an open mic in Seattle in 1986. With his soothing sad voice, open guitar tunings, artful lyrics, and singular presence he stood head and shoulders above other songwriters in the room. There was a touch of musical genius in him, and his songs struck a mysterious chord in me. Whenever Gene came offstage people crowded around asking for a tape of this or that song, but he had nothing available at the time. Using my amateur recording gear we spent one long hot summer night recording 25 songs in the hallway of his small apartment. Although Gene was just returning to performing after a long hiatus, most of the songs he recorded that night were flawless first takes. That first production gave me a glimpse of how he worked--and what it would take to keep pace with him. So began a 10-year musical adventure which evolved into the acoustic duo “Gene Burnett & Victor Cummings.” Starting with Victory Music open mics we went on to play coffeehouses, colleges, festivals, and concerts around the Northwest until 1996. Gene’s prolific songwriting during that period yielded a duo album PLUS a solo album almost every year! In spite of Gene’s ambivalance about the music business I was determined to help bring his music to wider audiences, but ultimately fell short of landing the requisite recording deal. We had a small but loyal audience and a measure of local success, but mostly we had fun making great harmony and a solid string of independent recordings together. Gene once told me that he writes songs like an archer shoots an arrow: Take aim and let it fly, some hit the mark and some don’t. Never seemed to spend much time rewriting--he'd just reach for the next arrow and shoot again. As a master of his form, he has hit his mark many times, and there are dozens of songs (from hundreds he has written) which ring beautifully true through the years. Songs which seduce the ear with catchy melodies and rhythmic grooves, but on closer listening are expressions of an examined life: World-wise, playful, sad, inspired, sensuous, angry, funny, compassionate, deep.....the many facets of a powerful songwriter and mentor I’ve loved and learned from for twenty years. ~ Victor Cummings Portland, OR