40 years of dreams pouring into 4 studio sessions coordinated with text messages and pulled from old and new relationships over a 20 year period. The 1st session started with a right hand finger injury causing my middle finger to eventually swell to twice its size ending the night abruptly. Despite freezing temperatures, icy stairs, snow covered roads and limited time, this CD became a reality. Key To Your Soul represents a glimpse at a lifetime. Follow my story from awkward self-consciousness through streetwise experimentation and into soul fulfilling work with Hospice as an RN. It is using music as an opportunity to finally express my emotions as sound. Forever taking second stage to the responsibility of work and school, music existed inside of me as a boiling broth of hope, passion, and ideas. I have been writing poems and songs for over 40 years. In December of 2014 an alarm sounded in my soul and within two months this CD was completed. The relationships of a lifetime have contributed to this project with the help of long time friend and musician Al Paul, owner and operator of Double-a-productions studio. Having met in the mid 70's, I have watched in distant awe as Al has made his way in the professional world of art using his talents as studio engineer, bassist, guitarist, teacher and all around musician. Al introduced me to Sean Madden who provides many of the percussion tracks having had only a few days to review the material. Calling into the past from old memories of sterile fields and impromptu solos, I enlisted the superb skills of saxman Ravi Evans whom I had met in the mid 80's and was even then surprisingly adept at his trade having given me a surprise concert with his sax on the day our nurse to patient relationship ended and the seeds of respect blossomed into lasting friendship. Assisting with vocals is Frank Bressi. Watching and hearing his vocal power come to life with each track was one of the most moving musical experiences of my life. His interpretation of the lyrics on Its OK To Believe was a first take, and the first time I ever heard him sing this song as it brought tears to my eyes while I sat in disbelief inside the sound console. Even though we had worked in a cover band 5 years past I had never heard him singing with such emotion and range. And that is the Story Key To Your Soul will tell. The 1st and Title track sees me as a child in hiding from the reality of what deception can do to our lives and eventually realizing that we all hold the key to our own freedom inside us. Track 2 Razzor Rat tells the story of how a growing interest in guitar took possession of eager fingers with a quickly mumbled slice of advice from a sleep deprived friend I had hunted down after being spellbound by his playing the night before. "Learn where all your A's are at" He said as he covered his head with his pillow and apologized in fading tones. Track 3 Yupward Bound finds me while working full time in a steel mill pouring molten metal from an overhead crane going on 16 years and now also an adult student in college with a plan of becoming a nurse if the overtime and school schedule didn't kill me first. Track 4 Patience captures the hopeless imagination of unattainable love many of us have and already may have experienced in our lifetime. Track 5 Mr Disgiuse is the chilling manifestation of the tortured remains that are left in the wake of a vengeful broken heart. Track 6 Nuthin Ventured started from a dream I awoke from with the initial guitar riffs finding my fingers as old friends which played without hesitation one afternoon when I woke up after falling asleep with my guitar by my side. The song begins to find the balance between the extremes of love and hate. Track 7 Hurts Sometimes is acceptance and the beginning of the healing process after having faced the truth inside. Track 8 South Mountain Dreams once more brings hope to the surface as the healing continues and a recognition of empathy begins to strengthen a weakened spirit. Track 9 Traces Exist revives love as our strength in life and accepts the struggle to achieve peace as worthy of the pain we endure for it. Track 10 Its OK To Believe tells the story of another dream with a message of love and acceptance in who I have become and where I have been. The chorus remains a message all can share in "Its ok to laugh. Its ok to cry. Its ok to wonder if its ok to die. Its ok to give, its ok to receive. Its ok to live, its ok to believe"