Cornerstone "Foundation" Musicians: Dan Merrill- lead vocals, guitar Steve Boutet- keyboards, vocals Dana Cobb- drum programming and vocals John Hasenfus- bass guitar tracks 4,5,6,8. vocals Bill Phillips- guitar + slide guitar tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,8 and vocals Jim Goodrich: bass guitar tracks 2,3,9 Add'l: Tom Blackwell- programming, vocals "Crazy Ed" Agopian- Saxophone tracks 2.7 This CD was produced and engineered by Tom Blackwell at Studio 3 in Portland Maine between Dec 1987 and the fall of 1989. This 2017 re-mastered recording was made from the original analog master tapes used by the pressing plants in 1989 for the first digital pressing of the CD. It was re-mastered to reflect modern levels, equalization and also to benefit from a better analog to digital conversion process. The master tapes had not been played since 1989 and as is often the case with aged analog tapes, they had to be baked in an oven to get them to play properly again. Dan Merrill reunited with Tom Blackwell to do the re-mastering at Dan's Studio 19 in Portland, Maine. A Brief Band History of Cornerstone : Cornerstone was a Northeast regional touring band hailing from Maine. They performed a mix of top 40 and original pop music from 1982-1992. They were known for professional musicianship, strong vocals harmonies, and energetic 80's style stage shows with large audio, lighting production and even pyrotechnics. They covered music from Styx, Toto, Yes, Steely Dan, Jefferson Starship, Duran Duran, Little River Band, Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis and the News etc, meanwhile writing and performing original songs in similar styles. The founding members in 1982 were Larry Crowley (guitars and vocals) , Brian Johnson (lead vocals and acoustic guitar) , Dan Merrill (guitar and vocals) , John Hasenfus (bass, vocals and sax), Dana Cobb (drums and vocals) and Bob Leblonde (keyboards) Their first gig was on Sept 17, 1982 at Bangor Community College. Making for a shaky start, Bob Leblonde quickly exited the original line up in December, just a few months after the bands formation. Larry Crowley briefly doubled on keyboards until the empty seat was filled in March of 1983 by Rich O'Neil. The band quickly caught on and was soon traveling New England playing hundreds of shows each year. They also opened shows for local music legend, Bill Chinook, and national acts like The Outlaws, Fog Hat, Marshall Tucker Band, and Toy Caldwell. In Sept of 1984, keyboardist Rich O'Neil left and brought a change of lasting impact to the band when keyboardist Steve Boutet, who was bartending at a club the band played at, offered to fill in with the band for two weeks as they waited for a new keyboardist they had hired to arrive. Boutet fit in so well he ended up staying on permanently, and for the duration of Cornerstone's career. In March of 1985 Cornerstone recorded " Leavin," penned by Crowley, at The Outlook Studio in Bethel, Maine. It was entered and picked as a finalist in a WIGY Stroh's Superstar Talent Search Contest and released on a single along with the songs "Duck and Cover" by The Inspectors, and "Laying It On The Line" by The Bishop and Underwood Band. Unfortunately, July of 1985 would see Crowley "leavin" the band. He moved to Branson, Missouri where he continued his music and writing career. He now resides on Nashville, TN After Crowley left, Johnson and Boutet became the primary writers and the band was playing most of their material regularly in their live shows. Tunes such as: " On The Line", "Come Running to Me", "Feel The Fire", "No Regrets", " For Only a Moment" and their first co-write "Save Your Goodbyes." Cornerstone filmed a 1 hr PBS/WCBB special of these songs in 1986. Seeking to secure a "recording deal" with a major label and working with their management Class Acts/ Mark Lourie, they hired Producer Michael Baker and programmer Axel Kroll ( Axel Kroel) in April of 1986 to make demonstration recording of 2 songs. Baker had produced hits in the 80's with the UK's Blow Monkey's- "Celebrate ( the day after you)" which featured Curtis Mayfield and Hugh Grayson's- "Talk it over." They worked at Portland's Megaphone Studios (currently the location of "The Studio") and recorded a Johnson composition, "No Regrets" which featured a duet with Johnson and Merrill splitting the lead vocals, and a Boutet song, "Come Running To Me." The demos garnered label interest but no signed deals. Meanwhile, they kept a busy live schedule, with 240 shows logged in 1986. Sighting personal reasons, Johnson would leave the band in Feb. of 1987 Merrill, who had shared some of the lead vocals in the band, took over as lead singer, and also began co-writing with Boutet. At the same time Bill Phillips was brought on as lead guitarist. Bill brought a hard rocking sound that matched music of the late 80's i.e Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Billy Squire etc., and Cornerstone began to lean a bit more towards a harder rock sound in those years in their covers and their writing. At the same time with no labels offering deals, Cornerstone sought to team up with a local producer and continue to record their original music. In May of 1987 they recorded a song called "Shades of Summertime" written by Boutet and Merrill which was a guitar driven rock anthem produced by Studio 3's Tom Blackwell and released as a single on 45 rpm record. The b-side of the single was a re-sing by Merrill of the earlier "No Regrets" Michael Baker recording, which had previously never been released. . Following that collaboration, Blackwell signed on in Dec 1987 for a larger project and led them back towards the 1980's pop sound from which they'd come and which was also well suited to Boutet's and Merrill's pop music preferences. Blackwell had recorded many local artists including Devonsquare, Rick Charette, etc, and he helped Cornerstone as both producer and mentor as the band learned the ins and outs of studio recording. Working in the studio 4-6 days a month in between their live shows, Cornerstone recorded a number of tunes over the next 24 months, 9 of which would appear on "Foundation." Amidst this recording period of 1987-1989, bassist John Hasenfus departed the band and Jim Goodrich came in to fill the bass position. Both John and Jim played bass tracks on the CD. Bill Phillips would also decide in late 1989 that he would pursue other career directions and left in January of 1990 just after the CD came out. Tim Wilson later came on to replace an exiting Jim Goodrich in 1991 and the final line up until the band ended was the quartet of Merrill, Boutet, Cobb and Wilson. Completed in 1989, Foundation was released on CD and cassette. ( They sold for $14.00 and $8.00 respectively! ) Cornerstone would continue playing live shows and recording for another 2+1/2 years after this release before disbanding and pursuing other projects. Boutet and Merrill went to St Petersburg, Russia as part of a 2 year collaborative music project with Russian songwriter Victor Reznikov, called SUS. Merrill has remained a performing and recording artist and released two solo CD's: "Revolution" in 1996, and "Tomorrow to Yesterday" in 2009. Dan was the singer for the Philadelphia based progressive rock band "Simon Apple" who released "River To the Sea" in 2006. Larry Crowley released a solo CD in 2008 called "Bang!" and Brian Johnson released a self titled CD, " Brian Curtis Johnson" in 2010. This is the first time the Foundation CD has been offered publicly since 1992. Enjoy!