Album notes by Phil: 1. Hopeful Kids inspired by an old school photo sent to me by a grammar school pal (via Facebook) I noticed how happy and hopeful we all looked; not knowing what the future had in store. Some of the faces in the photo are still good friends, some I never see, some are gone. It's life... 2. Unusual Me is a bit of a different tune from what I usually do. Sung in a high ‘Curtis Mayfield’ like voice it is a really fun track. I use a park (stone) statue, 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'King Midas' as my comrades in telling a tale of feeling different or unusual, but in a fun way. I wanted to include horns in the song but, in the end we used my vocal guide track that I sang for the horn parts, doubled them and added a little room during the final mix. ‘It works it for me.’ 3. Difficult World my solo McCartney like track, meaningless lyrics, I threw in some ‘Macca’ lines (things we said today for example) and I use the verse and rhyme lyrics again on the title song. This song has a nice feel to it. I play bass on this one too. 4. My life in Rhymes This is my favorite song on the album; a song about the joys and frustrations of being a songwriter. I think this song is one of my better melodies. 5. In Liverpool is about my last trip there in the summer of 2012. I wrote parts of it on a napkin at a pub in Liverpool while sitting with Casey McDonough and Eric Howell. We were tired at the end of a long day, but happy to all be sitting there in that wonderful city together. I finished the song later when I got home. I tried to stay away from doing the obvious, so instead of making it sound 'Beatley,' I tried for a more folk approach; think early Paul Simon. My friend, Marc Edelstein, from Million Dollar Quartet, played upright bass on this one; he really makes the song. 6. I Might Come Back Is the newest song on the album. I felt I needed a bit of a rocker, and this one fits in very nicely. The song is a humorous look at reincarnation, done in a "Revolver" psychedelic ‘60s style. This is one of the two songs produced by Ellis Clark. 7. Too Late Tomorrow is an old song of mine that I re-recorded for this album. I have always felt that we did not spend enough time on this song. It is the (last song) on "Flower Bomb" although; I through the years I always wanted to give it another try. I have been performing it live solo and with my band, and over time the arrangement improved. The song has a better feel now overall. Again I wanted to include a horn solo, but we could not make it happen. So, I played a guitar solo instead and it worked really well. We did the ending chorus with stacked live harmonies of me and Carolyn; it really sounds nice and big. The song is about me reflecting on the future. It's a very personal song, and in my opinion it is one of the best songs I have ever written. 8. Nancy is about a girl, Nancy Klobucar that lived across the yard from us when I was a kid on Avenue L. She had cerebral palsy and was confined to a wheel chair. My sister, Tina and I used to go visit her from time to time. Her mother was very nice to us and Nancy was always happy to see us, although she couldn’t verbally communicate with us. I was very young, but felt such compassion and sadness for her and often think about her today. She died very young, and I hope wherever she is she is dancing happily, free from her earthly trouble and pain. 9. Goodbye Never Said the ‘ballad’ for the album was the last song we recorded. Chuck Bontrager added the string parts over a single vocal and acoustic guitar. As Charlie and I were working to finish overdubs and mixing final tracks for the rest of the songs, Barry started working on the mix for this song. He took a slightly different approach to the mix from the way that Charlie and I usually do it and it came out great. The song is about a sad and familiar experience that most of us go through, at least once in our lives. 10. Daddy's Country Records my fun ‘country and western’ song written for my dad who loves country music. When I was younger we listened to country music in his car all the time, and watched 'Hee Haw' on television. My parents also had many country records around the house. In this song, I jokingly tell how music made a man out of me. It is really about my appreciation and thanks to my parents for giving me such a great musical education. 11. Out of Thin Air I use a magician’s imagination with this lyric: I was here, now I’m not, etc. The title came to me after I watched the movie "The Prestige" a great film about rival magicians. Musically, it’s very ‘Bee Gees’ "Odessa," with Ellis’s help. There is a beautiful violin section that you will hear, all played by Sarah Wong, who I met for the first time at the tracking session. 12. I See Spaceships Brad Elvis, Casey and I recorded this backing track during the start of People and Places. The song has been around awhile but just never finished until now. Great drumming by Brad, and for this one I pulled out the old Rick 12 string to give it that ‘Byrd’s’ feel. The song talks about one of my favorite subjects, space aliens. On the fade out, I had originally talked over it complaining about little green men ruining my house etc. Later we replaced those lines with a more familiar voice from the original recording of the 1936 ‘War of Worlds’ radio broadcast. Yes, it’s a pretty goofy fun track to end the record with but I know you will enjoy it. Musicians on this record: Phil Angotti - vocals, guitars and percussion (bass on track 3) Brad Elvis - drums (on all but tracks 2, 3 and 5) Tommi Zender - drums and percussion tracks 2, 3 and 5 Carolyn Engelmann - piano, vocals on tracks 1, 4 and 12 Casey McDonough - bass, backing vocals (guitar on track 10) Ellis Clark - bass, organ, piano and backing vocals on track 11, organ and backing vocals on track 6 Erich McMann - bass on tracks 2 and 4 Chuck Bontrager - violin and viola, tracks 7, 8 and 9 Sarah Wong - violins on track 11 Charlie Short - bass on track 6 Chloe F Orwell - backing vocals on tacks 3 and 4 Marc Edelstein - upright bass on track 5 Charlie Piper - organ on tracks 2, 3, 4, and 12 Trevor Pritchett and Josafina Asconape' - backing vocals on tracks 1 and 12 Produced by Charlie Piper and Phil Angotti Engineered by Charlie Piper and Barry Rose Mastered by Barry Rose tracks 6 and 11 produced and engineered by Ellis Clark