Smoke Road

Smoke Road - the "CD that never was".

By 1993 I was evolving my performances by increasingly including Jeffra, the wonderful singer and pianist from California in the tours and it seemed a good idea to do a CD since I had quite a backlog of new songs. The recording never really jelled as a duo and essentially she backs me up on my tunes although she did a wonderful vocal on "Heaven Only Knows". Still, everytime I make a "favourites" list I include several tunes from this project.

The production was a troubled one. In retrospect I don't think the focus was clear. Garnet was slated as the producer and the recording schedule was built around his tour schedule but he abandoned the project after about a week. I had already spent a bag of money on the studio and musicians and flights from California so I continued with the project, bringing in Tom Leighton to beef up many of the cuts.

When it was finished Snowgoose did not want to release it.

So we were left with a master of some pretty good tunes with many excellent highlights. Out of cash, I printed some cassettes in order to have a result of the session. It deserved better.

Songs include: Letter To Marie, Boots & Saddles, Alfred's Chair, Pick up Charlie, A Pictograph of Crazy Horse, Heaven Only Knows, Any Highway, The Chinese Wall, Smoke Road, The Black Douglas.

Musicians were Jeffra on piano and keyboards and vocals, Tom Leighton on just about everything, Corey Thompson on drums, Paul Loeffelholtz on bass, Margaret Voorhaar on flute, Mark Haines on fiddle, Walter Maynard on banjo, Garnet Rogers on acoustic guitar on one cut.

Dave Broadbeck engineered at his dB studios in London. Brian Burnes mastered.

Mark Haines & Tom Leighton covered "Boots & Saddles" and it is their most requested song in performance. Nancy White also performs this tune and it is one of the most recognizable of my compositions.