Two years in the making, The Life of Hymn & Her follows my debut album Again: Songs That Might Have Been. My new CD features songs composed by fellow musicians Cec Wood, Peter Trott, and Oscar Rey Flores. Cec wrote a catalog of fine songs decades ago that I've kept alive over the years by playing them for friends and family. Peter played drums with The Skavengers, our 1960s Maine band, and years later wrote this lament to true love, carelessly abandoned. My grandson, Oscar Rey Flores, was only nine when penned the lyrics to the final song on the album, a cry for solitude in an increasingly intrusive world. Along with three of my own tunes, the folk-rock inspired playlist magically chronicles our lives and loves from childhood to old age...and back again. Many thanks to the talented musicians who played with me on The Prayer (guitar highlights by Oscar Rey Flores and Cooper Flores on the drums), Oh My Lord (12-string guitar and chorus voice by Cec Wood, resurrected from an old recording, and Cooper Flores on the drums), and I Want No Questions [Reprise] (lead voice by Oscar Rey Flores). This CD was recorded using Logic Pro X and was mixed and mastered at the Olivenhain Recording Studio in Encinitas, California. 1. Which Way to Go (C.K. Wood 2:46) The hope of any parent that their child will make the right choice among the few that lead to success, and the many that won’t. 2. Her Little Manny (C.K. Wood 3:01) I was thinking a lot about my dad when I recorded this song. My father was given up to foster care early in his life, along with his little sister and brother. So many families have similar stories from the times surrounding our wars and economic disasters...and things haven't changed much since then. 3. Renee's Lullaby (C.K. Wood 2:47) This lullaby was written for my little sister Renee, way back then. 4. The Wish (R.J. Souviney 2:24) I wrote this song for my daughter Michelle when she was just tall enough to pluck my guitar strings. 5. Portage La Prairie (C.K. Wood 2:51) This tune chronicles a road trip that started in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior and moves west through several villages in Ontario and Manitoba. 6. Again (R.J. Souviney 3:27) I wrote this song on a train trip across Canada when my daughter was young. We traveled from Vancouver to my family homestead in Maine. I sensed that big changes in my life were coming, and I wasn’t sure what that was all about. 7. I Missed the Train (P.V.L. Trott 5:01) Peter wrote this song years after we played together in The Skavengers. The “flanged” dulcimer in the opening foreshadows the yearning and uncertainty invoked by the lyrics. The 1960s folk-rock group, The Association, inspired the harmony on this track. 8. Forever (C.K. Wood 2:30) A love song written for a wedding but ultimately rejected by the couple’s parents who wanted something more "familiar". I think they made a big mistake. 9. Another Day Without You (C.K. Wood 3:06) Another love song, but on the other side of love. 10. Old Shoes (C.K. Wood 3:14) The next tracks are a geezer trilogy…three songs about the joy and sorrow of growing old. The Association also inspired the harmony on this song. 11. Antique Davenport (C.K. Wood 3:01) A song about two people looking after each other for a lifetime. 12. Old Man on a Wooden Cane (C.K. Wood 2:41) Growing old is inevitable, and there is always someone looking in while we are looking out. 13. The Prayer (R.J. Souviney 4:16) When I was young and angry, I wrote this anti-hymn about how institutionalized religions were dangerously impacting our lives. Though I was thinking about Northern Ireland at the time, these “problems” continue to create chaos in our world today. 14. Oh My Lord (C.K. Wood 3:00) I discovered an old recording of this humble hymn and managed to extract Cec’s 12-string guitar track and chorus vocal. The original 12-string was tuned down a little more than a half note so all the new tracks had to be recorded off-tune in order to harmonize. The result is a sweet duet, separated by more than 45 years! 15. I Want No Questions (O.R. Flores 3:43) My grandson Oscar wrote these plaintive lyrics when he was just nine years old. He is a popular guy at school and wrote about the frustration of being the center of attention far more than he liked. His haunting words take on a more prophetic tone as we find ourselves repelled by an increasingly anti-science, alternative-fact, politics-of-convenience world. 16. I Want No Questions [Reprise] (O.R. Flores 1:51) Oscar Rey Flores sings his own song, with a little help from Grandpa Randy, in this haunting reprise. [Cover Image: Stephanie Souviney @ Abbaye de Savigny, Savigny-le-Vieux, Normandy, France]