For those who are interested, this is the story of how Rewind - The Early Years came into being. It is a compilation of songs off of my first three releases from the mid to late 1980”s, Treasures in the Stream, Circles Returning and Light in the Wind. I have since released 8 more cds which can be found here on cdBaby. Several years ago I was informed that the master tapes for the above mentioned recordings had deteriorated to the extent they were not functional. In order to pursue this project my only recourse was to attempt a lift to digital from the 4 cassettes of each I had left. I asked Skip Brown to do this and he completed that phase about 5 years ago. In the process I had drums added by Randy Anders to one of the songs and then I waited. This spring I felt ready to tackle remastering some of these songs and after listening to this material again for the first time in many decades I choose the 16 tunes that will soon be released. Dave Fason from Windfall studios worked to remove tape hiss, create a bit more current listening sound, and add a few tracks to two songs. We balanced levels, called our project “remastered” and finally done. It will be available in mid September. This is a little history of how these early recordings were accomplished. My first experience recording was a live sing recorded for a cassette that I put together for Blue Mountain School as a fundraiser called Celebration Space recorded by Frank Greenlee. That is how I met Frank. Later, I decided I would try to record my first tape with him. I had about 20 years worth of songs at that point one of which was called The Treasure and I ended up calling the cassette Treasures in the Stream. Many local musicians whom I was playing with at the time donated their time and excellent musicianship to the effort. They included Billy Bell on sax, Chris Prokosch on bass, Sally Rutledge (now Walker) on backup vocals, Rio Semione and A’Court Bason on percussion and vocals, Doug Coulter on drums, Tom Williams on acoustic guitar, Hal Reynolds on electric guitar and a large group of vocalists who I assembled into a choir for several songs. All those folks made the trek to Franks’ studio on the far side of Blacksburg to contribute their time and excellence. For my part, it was before the time of affordable decent portable keyboards so I actually moved my piano (an Everett console) into the studio, had it tuned and recorded the songs with that acoustic piano. I actually moved another piano that was a smaller acoustic that Tom Williams had into my home for the recording time so I would have something to practice on. When we were done, I moved them both back to their respective homes. The recording took about 25 trips to Blacksburg to complete. My only frustration was the lack of tracks to work with. Frank was awesome and played guitar as well on the song The Choice – Rise Up Singing (which I will share more about later). About a year later, I realized I wanted to record another cassette. This time I reached out to A’Court Bason as he had put together a small studio in Floyd and was closer. It turned out that some of this project called Circles Returning was recorded with A’Court and some with Frank. When I decided to begin the effort I walked from where I lived in Floyd near Tuggles Gap over to Traviana where A’Court was living (about 20 miles) to “clear my head “. Then I stayed there for a few days to get a good part of the recording started. I slept in a tent outside for three nights there and the second night the title song Circles Returning came to me in a dream. I woke up and busted A’Court out of bed at 7 am-ish. I asked him to fire up the equipment so I could record this song while it was fresh in my head. By noon that day it was basically done and we had moved onto the next tune. Again with this recording, I was joined by many of the previously mentioned musicians to complete this project. I also met a drummer, Jim Miller, who had electric pads and was touring and he volunteered to do the drums for the whole project. We did this at Franks in one afternoon. Jim vanished on tour to Tokyo and I never heard from him again. I’ve always felt grateful for his contribution. The inspiration for the third recording began from the many hours of singing with the Celebration Singers (a group I sort of lead) and from the many workshops I conducted called Rise Up Singing. The workshops resulted in a plethora of chants that I was sharing wherever I sang in those days. This recording was titled Light in the Wind and was done mostly at A’Court Bason’s studio. A core of singers from the Celebration Singers performed on it including Becky Farnham, Erbin Crowe, Joyce Foote, Sally Walker, Dick and Diane Giessler, Don Nathan, Virginia Nathan, Ocea Wilkes, Wendy White, Tom Williams, Rio Semione, Luke Staengl, and probably others I forget now! A’Court added his magic touch via percussion to several songs and one in particular called You’ve Given Me, he played Pennywhistle that is a lifetime favorite of mine. This recording was not perfect by any means but reflected the ambience of that particular time and offered a lot of light and love in the messages of the songs. One of the songs that has resonated with me for many, many years is the lead off song to Rewind – The Early Years titled The Choice – Rise Up Singing. It was written as a kind of reminder to me of why I am sharing life’s path with song and a bit of a challenge to myself as well. There is a soaring guitar lead by Frank Greenlee with a strong chorus ending. Adding the drums later (2011) was what, in a way, completed the song. It was one of many tunes I left drums off of because we didn’t have enough tracks to do them justice. There is a song book many people are aware of called Rise Up Singing and I like to think this song is where the title came from. When the cassette was released in 1987, I was at a craft fair at Virginia Tech. I traded the cassette Treasures in the Stream, which this song was on, for a copy of a songbook titled Winds of the People that a young man was distributing there. Three or four years later they changed the name of the songbook to Rise Up Singing. I never received any credit for that, but I suspect a seed was planted. Several of the musicians and singers I have mentioned are no longer with us and I am eternally indebted. They include A’Court Bason, Rio Semione, Ocea Wilkes and Erbin Crowe (and there may be others whom I am not aware of). So here I am having reached back into the ethers of song, rewinding the spindle of the creative effort to bring forth some early inspirations. Listening to these songs has informed me that I have been and remain blessed within by a source that keeps offering that light of inspiration and musical upliftment. I am very grateful for this and look forward to the next “project”. Thanks for listening and from another of my cd’s: Keep the Light Burning!