BAMA BOUND - I was about 500 hundred miles south of my home in Milton On. Canada, late at night and it was getting harder to keep my eyes open. I performed the night before in Toronto, had 3 hours sleep and was now heading south on 71, this past November, to do the bed tracks on a new record at Johnny Sandlin's Ducktape Studios in Decatur Alabama. We met telephonically about a year earlier, through Mitch Lopate, an author, teacher and independent music reviewer out of New Jersey (now resides in Gadsden Al.) who had done some reviews on my past 3 cd's for Southern Music & Culture Magazine, GRITZ, based in Greenville SC. Mitch always thought I belonged down in the Muscle Shoals region and he arranged for me to call Johnny at his home in Decatur. Johnny was a real southern gentleman and we got on real well and I sent him my latest 2 cd's.

I was thrilled when I got a call a few weeks later, saying how much he enjoyed the music, my voice and songwriting. We met in April '06 at his studio and he made me feel right at home immediately, like we were brothers who hadn't seen one another in awhile. We sat and spoke a bit and then I got my guitar and played some songs. You could feel the vibe in the room; it was special. The sense of Greg & Duane Allman, Eddie Hinton (their pictures on the wall) and all the Muscle Shoals Players that shaped the music I grew up listening to and loved more than any other musical genre. More on that later. Johnny arranged for me to do an opening for Larry John Wilson, a singer songwriter from Texas, who was doing a live recording at the 2nd Street Music Hall in Gadsden Alabama. There's a great studio in the back room and Johnny and his right hand man Jeremy were at the controls. I ended up with a 10 song acoustic recording of the night and it sounds pretty good. Another visit in September to Johnny's studio and playing him some more tunes, while on a little tour of the south. When I got to my gig at Blind Willie's in Atlanta Ga. there was a message on my cell and it was Johnny asking when I could get back to Decatur to do a record. Well I'll tell you, I had a smile as wide as a 'sumo wrestler's waistline'. So here I am driving late at night, tired, excited, sick to boot on penicillin, but nothing was going to stop me from going down to this 'dream come true session'. God bless the American dream!

Johnny arranged to have David Hood who has performed with so many of the soul and rock giants, ditto for Spooner Oldham (Aretha Franklin, Bobby Blue Bland, Staple Singers, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, Paul Simon, Neil Young, Eddie Hinton to name but a few). Also Bill Stewart on drums (Wet Willie, Allman Bros., Alex Taylor) Scott Boyer from Cowboy (Capricorn Rcd's) written songs for Eric Clapton, Allman Bros. When you're tired and sick, your thinking goes offside and the 'demons of doubt' can really do a number on you and they were break dancin' all over me that night. I was starting to wonder what these guys, who have been on so many #1 and top 10 hits would think of my music and then I started wondering if I had any songs that could even come close to being album filler with some of these hit songs. Visit David Hood's website or Spooner Oldham's and you'll get a better idea of what I was going through. I guess being alone, the new kid on the block, and in uncharted waters gave me a case of nerves   ....continued>>

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