If I fell...

Regina Spektor. I remember the day I discovered her music: I was feeling really crappy about life and I happened to hear a tune of hers on net radio. Although I can't recall the song, I was instantly hooked and proceeded to download everything I could get my hands on like demos, solo shows at little NYC clubs and of course album tracks. I think Soviet Kitsch was out and Begin to Hope was on the way at the time. The music lifted my spirits greatly and my blues were gone.

It's a great feeling discovering a new artist and my wife and I fell head over heels for this girl. We went to see her at Town Hall in NYC with some friends and we were all so impressed not only with her voice but her apparent shyness and humility. So, it was in this time period that I literally woke from a deep sleep one morning, reached over for the guitar and some paper and proceeded to write down the exact dream I had just had about Regina and I. Annie was like "what are you doing?" as it was about 7AM and I told her "I just fell in love with Regina Spektor."



"I Fell In Love With Regina Spektor" features Dave Ramie on drums, Erik Lawrence on sax, Steven Bernstein on trumpet (both of Levon Helm's Grammy winning band) and myself on bass, guitar, Rhodes and vox. During the tracking of the horns Steven said to me "Great tune. I share management with her so I'll make sure she hears this!" "Uh oh" I thought.

It's a small world.... my buddy Eric Helmuth an engineer and former music professor at SUNY Purchase did some work on her 11:11 album. Also, Richie Castellano who was the sound man for my old band Unspun produced and recorded that very same album. When Unspun was at Purchase rehearsing a few times per week I probably walked right past her on numerous occasions but never met her. Damn! I'm really not as obsessed as it would seem but I thought the story behind the song might be interesting.... really!

Anyways, I'm still plugging away on this record. I have about 75% of it done. Chip Larison came over the other day and brought me his Variax. Insane! I could have used this when I was doing a lot of gigging back in the day. I'm sure I'll find a use for it on this record. Chip is working on some slide rhythm stuff for "Hearts are Breaking" and we'll probably lay something down next week. Dave might be coming in to track drums for one more song called "No rest for the weary." It's a good rocker and I may need it for the record but I definitely don't want to prolong the release of this thing. I'm also hoping to pick up some Adam Audio A7's soon. I don't have the extra cash to do it but I think I need these speakers RIGHT NOW!!!!