Album notes: This CD is produced by Kenny Edwards, a dear friend through SummerSongs West songwriting camp. We had many good times there, and I am so grateful that we got to make this CD together before his untimely passing on August 25, 2010. We recorded all but two tracks in Kenny’s home studio*. I would meet him there at 10 or 10:30AM, and we would record and mix my guitar, banjo, and vocal parts. Then after a couple of hours, I’d say, “Is it lunchtime yet?” Sometimes he’d want to work some more, and sometimes he’d say, "Let's go!", and we would head to Flavor of India for lunch, and talk about music and life and love. We took turns paying. We spent about two years working on the CD , off and on. Broken Picker is a buddy song for Kenny. I wrote it on the road from LA one night, and called him up. “Hey, Buddy! I wrote you a tender love song…It’s called Broken Picker” He laughed a lot, and loved the song when I played it for him. Thanks to Caroline Aiken for introducing me to the concept, by telling me one day, “My Picker’s broken!” Check out her music. NOW! Kenny was the producer and the band on this CD. He plays the guitars, bass, box, Cello, Fiddle, Mandolin Harmonium, and sings harmony. Kenny suggested his friend, Jerry Marotta for drums and percussion on Animal Skin and Favorite Drug, and when I heard what he did, I wanted to put him on everything. HIs work is the best! Kenny and I mixed tracks together, and shared ideas. I am so grateful for our collaboration on this, and for all I learned and continue to learn from him. I miss him sorely. I am proud of our work here, and Kenny’s playing is the best, as ever. Animal Skin is, I believe, the only track in existence with Kenny playing the fiddle. He was just learning, and didn’t have as much time into it as he wanted, but told me he had made a fiddle track and that it had come out “kind of floppy and cool” and I loved it, so we put it on. His amazing mandolin chops contributed much to his fiddle playing, as you can hear. Kenny is so much a part of this record for me. I hear his guitar or his mandolin, and I miss him some more, but I also feel deep gratitude. *The exceptions in our process were: Holding Hands, which we recorded with Santa Barbara’s Pro-Tools Wizard, and “Zengineer”, Robinson Eikenberry. Read To Me, and Ride In Your Car were recorded at Robinson's and Kenny’s respectively, and all in one take, with the vocals and guitar or piano on a single track. Robinson did the mixing, and Lurssen Studios did the mastering. Those guys are the best. Grateful again...