New Album in the Works

Greetings, friends!   I hope you are safe and well.   What a difficult year this has been.  I plunged into music during the pandemic early on.  It was a saving grace for me.

I have a small studio at home and it became my refuge for several hours each day.  I felt compelled to write a soothing and healing album of instrumental music. The project name came to me early in the process.  Celtic Peace.  I reflected on a 2017 trip to Scotland with close friends and our stops in Edinburgh, Glencoe and Iona.  We rented a house near the banks of Loch Linnhe in the Highlands and also rented rooms on the sacred island of Iona on the west coast of Scotland.

I wanted to do a big album with strings, traditional woodwinds and a touch of brass to go along with my flutes, whistles, guitars and pianos.   I composed my songs with help from Vienna Symphonic Library in Austria.  VSL is recognized as the international leader in orchestral sample libraries and software.

I also wanted to invite pianist Joseph Akins to collaborate with me again.  Joseph and I worked together in 2015 on Across the Water featuring Irish-flavored instrumentals.  This week Joseph is recording three piano arrangements in Nashville.   I will probably add a few instruments to his arrangements as I did on our previous album together.

This project involves a riveting rush of rhythms, melodies and musical textures.  The creative process was reminiscent of Blue Ridge Reunion, an album I did 12-years to honor my father, a western North Carolina watercolorist.  Once the creative spigot is open it is difficult to stop the flow.  So I stuck with a regular schedule of three hours each morning before breaking for lunch.  I would add another hour of studio time mid afternoon.

I soon realized this is the most complicated album I have ever done.   There are so many layers to the music.  More instruments than I’ve ever used before.  Sometimes I would find myself adding very subtle changes to the textures of the songs.  Other times I would subtract a few instruments especially if the musical mix was starting to get a little muddy. We are still months away from completing and releasing this album but I feel it will be something you will enjoy on a deep and personal level.  I will keep you updated on the progress.