Inspirations

This album, my 8th, has been the longest in coming to fruition and offers a wide variety of tunes. The songs written on this album span a period of two and a half years. The first song was written and scored in 2016 (Winter Solstice) and the last couple of songs in early 2019. Inspirations to create music can come from many sources. Two of the new songs are lullabies, one for the birth of a close friend’s grandchild and the second for one of our own (grandchild number 12) born in 2018.

All but 2 songs on this album are original. Scarborough Fair comes from another century and the British Isles. For voicing on it, I finally settled in on a guitar sounding keyboard to provide more folkish sound than straight piano. The inspiration of this classic ballad is in its endurance. I chose a second song to cover on this project (Douglas Trowbridge’s “Where Dreams are Born”) My version is a derivative interpretation of the tune holding fast to the main theme but certainly less jazzy. The song “Dilemma (song for June)” was inspired by a dizzying and somewhat amazing recovery by my mother-in-law after a serious fall leading to surgery. The hoopla and excitement surrounding the total eclipse of the sun (August 2017) inspired me to create my sonic and melodic version of this big event.

One of my proudest creations on this project is “Christmastime” which I officially introduced at a concert in Arizona in late November 2018. Always inspired by this holiday of holidays, at least for Christians, I wanted to capture the joyful spirit of it.

I selected 7 of the 14 songs on this album for transcription. All 7 are compiled in my “Inspirations” songbook. Check out my website for additional details. www.freshwatermusic.com