This CD came about because I noticed that I was writing a number of blues songs and also that I was playing some of my older, folk-style songs in a much more bluesy manner. I figured I could rework some of these older folk songs into blues songs and produce an album that would be all in a blues style. This CD contains 8 new songs and 5 older songs (folk/rock songs that I have attempted to "bluesify") and one instrumental piece. My style of blues is on the light side (I tend to vary the standard blues chords) so that's why I titled this CD "Blues Soufflé". I asked my wife to bake a soufflé for me with blue food-coloring in it. As you can see, the soufflé fell after it came out of the oven but I think a fallen soufflé is more appropriate for a blues album than a successful soufflé, so I went ahead and used it for the CD's front cover. 1. Monica Harmonica: A few years ago I couldn't play the harmonica at all. My wife bought me a harmonica because she heard on a radio talk show that people play them when they're stuck in traffic, so I had it in the car but still rarely played it. Then I decided to write a song that would feature this instrument (it would be about a female virtuoso harmonica player who lives in the subway). Composing this song turned out to be a great motivator for practicing on the harmonica. For those not familiar with harmonica terminology, both "harp" and "tin sandwich" refer to the harmonica and a "draw" involves bending notes by pulling air in (rather than blowing air out). There are two major types of harp: chromatic and diatonic. Chromatic harps have all 12 tones but it's difficult to bend notes, so I use diatonic harps. For this song I actually bound two harps together (each one in a different key) and I switched back and forth rapidly between them while playing harmonica riffs. (Here's a verse: Monica Harmonica's a bit bizarre. Blows smoke rings through brass reed bars. Sports dirty tattoos and wicked scars. Won't say "Hello", just "Au revoir.") 2. Turnin' Me Blue: This new song was inspired by a guitar chord riff I discovered, which is: Em G A7 A# A7 Em7add4. I was considering the cold/temperature-sense of the word "blue" and that is I how came up with the title. In this song the singer's girl has left him, but it's his own fault, because he's chosen a life of crime. (Here are first verses: "Babe, I've got it made, so why rock the boat? Hit a liquor store today. Can buy ya pearls and fur coats. Babe, why ya gotta leave? When it's all there to take? You're makin' me grieve, When ya say it's a mistake.") 3. All-In-Good-Time Blues: I felt I could improve my folk song "All in Good Time" by making it more bluesy. (The folk version appears on my first CD: Nothing Seems Like What It Seems.) The blues rearrangement required substantially altering the melody (and the song now includes a key shift). The lyrics were also altered, but just a bit. 4. Exhaustion: I composed both the music and the lyrics to this song on a very hot spring night. I was tossing and turning in bed and could not sleep because there was a Santa Ana heat spell. The air was so still and oppressive and since I couldn't sleep I decided to write a song about how I was feeling at that moment. (Here are first two verses: "I lie awake in the naked night. Can't sleep in spite of, Exhaustion. My body burns. My heart just yearns, twists and turns, in Exhaustion. My skin sheds tears as my eyes are seared, With shimmering sight, in the black of night. Visions of you, I must pursue. My soul now aches, with Exhaustion.") 5. Physical Woman: I was thinking of Janis Joplin's style of singing and that inspired me to write this blues song, which is meant to be belted out "nice 'n' slow" and with lots of bluesy vocal improvisations. It's about a guy trying to convince his woman to not get seduced by "Some intellectual who claims a high I. Q. But what can his incorporeal mind really do? With a physical woman, Oh, such a physical, physical woman, yeah, such a physical, physical woman, like you?" 6. Young-Old-Man Blues: This is a more bluesy rearrangement of my song "Young Old Man" (which appeared originally in my first CD: Nothing Seems Like What It Seems). 7. Ghost-Trek Blues: The original song ("The Trek") was a folk/rock song with a mystical kind of sound to it. This blues version has a completely different melody and very different chords, so I consider it a different song. The lyrics tell a similar story but have been altered to fit the meter of this new song. 8. Full-Of-It Blues: This is a rearrangement of my song "Full Of If" (which appeared on my CD: Nothing Seems Like What It Seems). I have altered both the lyrics and the melody extensively to make it more bluesy. 9. Hidden in Plain Sight: We all have our own private demons that torment us. I was quite depressed when I wrote this new song. Expressing my state of mind in words and music helped me feel better. I think that playing the guitar and creating songs is great therapy. (Here are some of the lyrics: "Can't escape, not really, 'cause I'm stuck with me.Just myself to blame. What a pain. And hidden in plain sight, the height, of absurdity." ) 10. Lost-Cause Blues: "Lost Cause" was one of the first songs I ever wrote (many years ago, but I never played it publicly and I didn't copyright it until 2006, just before it came out on my second CD: Our Unwinding Time). Recently, I began playing this song in a less folksy and more laid-back, bluesy manner (and with a key shift). My mother-in-law had said that some of my folk songs were "too wordy" so I cut out over 20 words from the lyrics of the folk version and also changed a few words here and there. 11. No-Holds Barred Blues: I wanted to write another blues song but had no musical instrument nearby, so I decided to write the lyrics for a to-be-composed-later blues song. I thought of how "blues" could also refer to a color and that gave me the idea of having a blues song that would mention many other colors with the singer being "blue" because he's lost access to many colors (which can happen in prison). Later, I came up with a bluesy melody for the lyrics. (Here are first verses: "Ain't got no red wine, Ain't got no green grass. Ain't got no sapphire sun. Just an orange jumpsuit outcast. Know what I got? The Stripe City blues. A black-barred, cell-in-hell, upstate, no-holds barred blues.") 12. Riffin' Raccoons 1: This is an instrumental piece, so the title is somewhat arbitrary. This title came about because, the night I started composing it, I saw raccoons in my back yard. The violin-like sound is me playing a synth keyboard. I also play bottleneck steel guitar, nylon acoustic guitar, electric bass and both D & E harps on this song. 13. Tar Paper Blues (Revisited): This song appeared earlier in my CD: Butterfly's Release. Since it is a very bluesy song, I decided to include it here. This version in a different key and has a slightly different arrangement (for example, there is no percussion here so I can speed up and slow down in this version). 14. First-Time Country Song: My brother likes country music and had told me that I should try my hand at composing country songs. Also, I have beautiful friend who lives in S. Carolina, so both these facts influenced me in attempting my very first (and so far, only) country song. (Here is the first verse: "She likes country more, than even her malt liquor. So I'm tryin' to compose, God only knows, a simple country song, that sticks like liquorice, for my sweet, soft, southern dish.")