Leftee's Greatest Hits Volume One is a compilation dedicated to my musical history, and takes you back to the start of music in my life Pre ThreePeace. My musical journey in this life began by a large influence of Bob Marley, The Police, The English Beat and Classic Rock. Starting off this album are recordings which date back to 1984 and my start in music with the band "Not Quite", and my musical mentor a Mr. James Lorang. We met up in Powers High School - Flint, Michigan in Chemistry class of all things, and he conviced me to buy a drumset and we started a band. I never knew all those years ago that music would have such a profound effect on my life and this musical journey would still be in progress. If there is one thing which is consistant in my life, it is the fact that "Music" has been a complete psychologist in my life. The ability to vent and get out problems is certainly something I have embraced with music. Reggae music I believe carries the spirit of earth forces and it has the power to lift me from darkness! The current that will run through this album is the third beat of reggae at the core. The first song on the album is "The Police Files" recorded in 1984, our high school band was huge fans of The Police. The way Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland weaved music with the "less is more" philosophy and that spoke to us. Although we were more of a punk band at the start, I believe we had a feel for the minamalist philosophy embraced by The Police. The first part of this recording are songs written in the 80's, when we just started to play our stuff and was recorded on a simple Fostex 4 track recorder and eventually mastered to cassette tape. It is the analog roots which seem to perfectly represent where we were at the time, with our good friends, high school parties, the general spirit of life with no perfection. While there are certainly limitations in these source tapes, they did the job in preserving the spark of the performance and our early ideas as rough demos. On Track 2 "Mice" recorded in 1984, again we are visiting The Police Reggae Vibe and the "Mice" reference is our feeling that Jim Lorang was perfectly giving us a "Mice" trip on the intro with his guitar, at least that is what we saw at the time, oh yeah and the overtones of Randy Rhoads in Jimmy's playing! Track 3 "My Uncles Farm" - Smoke that Jammer Spliff" recorded in 1987, was a complete musical improvasation that was never rehearsed, and was just a dabble in complete musical freedom. This song while embracing the elements of Reggae and Rock via The Police and Bob Marley, it was still a work which was a vapor of our own musical souls. The inspiration here was true Jim Lorang. It was his creation, I was the drummer and recording engineer that preserved one of my favorite tracks I have ever performed on! Love the vibe! Dan Ague on the vocals and bass guitar improv. Track 4 "In The Western Skies" recorded in 1987, was a song I wrote about the tribulations that America was going through at the time. This was the 80's and looking back now it seems I may have understood we were in for one hell of a ride heading into the next century. This song again was recorded on analog gear and was restored just in time. I played all the instruments on this one, it was a demo. Track 5 "I Notice Everytime" recorded in 1987, was written for my Mother. She was going through a very tough time in my high school years in regards to personal conquests like stopping smoking and the general pains we all share in life, this song was written for her, understanding her pain. It is a plea for help from the heavenly spirits. I played all the instruments on this one, and it was part of a demo recording. Track 6 "Out on the Land" recorded in 1992 is a instrumental song about "Sheehan Land" this sprawling 60 acre parcel on McCandlish Road in Grand Blanc now littered with million dollar homes was the place I in spirit grew up. If it was riding my motorcycles, shooting my BB gun, my first dates, and just a great place to be at one with Nature. This song is just a musical painting which takes me back to the land, my good friends, the parties, the freedom and the 80's! It was a great time and that is this song to me "a painting", impressionism. Unfortunately, it is very hard to return there now and try to picture what used to be before it was bastardized by developers and real estate agents! I played the Drums, Rhythm Guitar and Bass on the song and the Guitar lead was played by Mike Anderson of Jo MaMas's Bakery, a East Lansing michigan college band that I produced an album for. Track 7 "California Mountain" recorded in 1993, is another instrumental, a song composed about a drink that was invented by me and a good friend Gary. While we were working with a company called "Pyramid Systems" we were lucky enough to traverse this great land of the United States. One time we ended up in Freemont California at Daly's Irish Pub as the result of working at the Nummi GM/Toyota plant in Freemont. Working in the Audio Visual field one night we came up with this amazing drink called the "California Mountain" this song is basically a dreamscape of the place the "Mountain" took us. Listeining to is takes me there now. We will save the recipe for a future blog! LOL! This song was written on my Kurzwiel K2000 keyboard sequencer / sampler. Track 8 "Thankful for the Day" recorded in 1998, is a song which appeared on "The TecTonics - The Big One CD" which is still unreleased via Itunes and other outlets. Hopefully, some day it will be released in its complete form. The song features a great guitar solo by Jeff Warner of Gene Pool fame. Patrick Cronley Flint Jazz keyboard legend, backing vocal by Danielle Brownfield. This song is a song about learning as you go along through life. Failure is the springboard to success with everything in life. The basic idea is the failures open the door to success! Track 9 "Inside" recorded in 1998, is another track which was on the TecTonics album. This song was fashioned by the release of Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles LP. It was one of the finest bands assembled in rock history, with Sting, Kenny Kirland, Brandford Marsalis, Omar Hakim, Kenny Jones, Janice Pendarvice and Dollette MacDonald. The idea of the song is just that life is a push and pull. On one hand it looks this way, on the other hand it appears this way. The song featured great performances by Martin Sheehan, my brother who played a great drum track on the song. Also featured on the recording were outstanding preformances by Patrick Cronley on the Keyboards and Nick Calandro on the bass, both who are considered among the finest Jazz musicians in Michigan. The awesome saxophone solo on the song is played by Shawn "Thunder" Wallace and was done complete in one take ala Branford Marsalis! That is the way things flowed that day! This song was featured on KUAC FM in Alaska on the Round Midnight Riddim Show by host Alaska Jahn. Track 10 "Hear Me Tonight" recorded in 1999, was featured on the TecTonics album and was basically a spiritual alternative rock song. At least that is what people always told me they heard. It is basically a musical open prayer asking for help from the Creator when I was at the bottom. The road does seem very long while we are on the trail, however, if you stay focused eventually your prayers will be heard and your ship will come in. Track 11 "Golfing America" recorded in 1999 and remastered in 2004, was a Out-Take of the TecTonics album "The Big One", it is a collaboration in musicality by Michael Duncan, Timothy Link, Tim Baum, Brett Rominger and Myself. We painted musical soundscapes like this one, and I have a some of these recordings which hopefully we will all release someday. In the early 2000's I produced a few golf shows that aired on the Comcast community access channel in Genesee and Oakland County, Michigan. A Piece of this instrumental was used as the intro and ending credits on the show and the show was called "Golfing America". I hope you enjoy these songs. In many of the early songs they were basically rescued from envoronmental demise from a pile of old cassettes demos which I remastered. As you progress through you will notice the transition from early 4 track cassette analog to fully automated 24 track digital recordings. I have always wanted to release them so they weren't lost in the sands of time. I am honored to have had the chance to jam with such great and talented musicians featured on these songs. The great memories I have are the ones of the collaborations found here and the Musical Cats that shared their musical talents with me, and their inspiration! Much thanks to Martin Sheehan, Jim Lorang, Joe Woods, Dan Ague, Mike Anderson, Danielle Brownfield, Patrick Cronley, Nick Calandro, Mike Duncan, Timothy Link, Tim Baum and Brett Rominger and Gary Lynch for engineering on the TecTonics stuff! Currently I am Drummer, Lead Singer and Co-Songwriter with the Michigan Alternative, Punk Rock and Reggae Band THREEPEACE, and our stuff can be found on the internet with a simple search of the word "THREEPEACE" or on our website at www.ThreePeace.org! These songs featured here are dedicated to my son first and foremost, a great drummer in his own right! The greatest joy of my life! "Long may you run!" All the best, Leftee