专辑简介

I was the opening act for historian James Oakes at Union College’s Annual Douglass/Lincoln Lecture in February of 2010. I take work wherever I can get it. They asked when I was booked if I had any songs about Frederick Douglass. The money was good and so I said, “Probably . . .” And I got writing. I hadn’t known much about Douglass, so I began reading that history, most notably Professor Oakes’ own book, The Radical and the Republican, a well-written account of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and their very special friendship. That book led me to the second autobiography Frederick Douglass wrote, which he titled, My Bondage and My Freedom. Frederick Douglass was a great man, a wonderful writer, and as fine an American hero as you’ll ever find. I was pleased with the song I came up with, a nice long one, but I couldn’t be the one to sing it . . . and so I connected with Ms. Joyce Dee, a wonderful and accomplished R&B and gospel singer from New York City whose work I had long admired. And she made me very proud of what I had wrought. Jazz violinist and composer Jim Nolet wrote and played the string arrangement for violins, I played the guitar and Fender bass, Joyce sang her heart out -- and brings tears to audiences everywhere we perform this piece. And we made this record - which I'm very proud of - about a man we should all know a lot more about than most of us do. (There is a very nice video on Youtube of this . . . )