Last fall (2016), I walked into Camp Street Cafe in Crockett,Texas, guitar in tow, to participate in the quarterly acoustic jam session/open mic night event hosted by the Wright family from Kennard, a little town a few miles up the road. I was greeted, enthusiastically as always, by the owners, Pipp and Jessica Gillette, and asked to cough up the $2 participation fee and to put my name on the list for the open mic segment of the evening. The other participants, jamming away, were already lost in the music, but a few turned to smile in acknowledgement of my late arrival. As I stood in the back, I was suddenly moved by the effect of twenty-five or so acoustic instruments playing their various parts in unison, with no real direction other than Margaret Wright facing the others and keeping time with her dulcimer, offering occasional words of encouragement and announcing chord changes for the newer folks. The instrumental chorus that flooded the smallish venue filled me with inspiration, and I determined at that moment that I would dig through my files, recover the songs I had written through these past 40 years or so, pick out my favorites, and attempt to recreate that sound to share with the world... Being fairly new to Deep East Texas, I began snooping around the local music community for ideas regarding which studio might be a fit to help me achieve my goal. There was only one man considered to be up to the task; I called Jim Taylor at his studio, The Mixing Room in Nacogdoches, and made an appointment to discuss my project. I explained to Jimmy that I didn't have a budget cap for the project, and that my only requirement was that he find me the finest musicians in the area, and that each would need to have an open mind regarding my obsession with recreating the "sound" that I had playing in my head (and heart), and that they had to "believe" that we were going to win multiple awards, including Grammy's, and be willing to show up and play their hearts out at the awards ceremonies; oh, and at the Grand Ole Opry! Well, besides being a producer, Jimmy is also an accomplished engineer (he started his career after college as the sound guy for Don Williams, and he was the recording and mixing engineer for Willie Nelson's "Nacogdoches" album a dozen or so years ago), and a fine musician, so he signed on as the bass player for the band and began recruiting the remaining cast of characters who are: Spence Peppard on lead guitar and drums; Kevin Carter on fiddle and mandolin; and Steve DeVries on banjo and harmonica. Jimmy and Spence also sing the harmony vocals (Spence took the lead vocal part on American Medley, as it was a smidgen out of my range). I play rhythm guitar and sing the lead on the other songs. This band of (mostly) old men are not only great guys; they are the most talented musicians I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and they have made the first part of my dream come true (which you are about to listen to, hopefully over and over again). Part II is yet to come: shelves full of awards!, and thanks to my new friends, I now have a Part III as well: Album #2, which we will begin recording this fall. I hope you have as much fun listening to our album as we did creating it for you. Blessings!, WBJ