Singer-songwriters James Armstrong and Greg Black release their first CD together on the new independent label Sun Break Records. The CD is called “In the Wind” and has 12 tracks lasting about 45 minutes. The music is acoustic-guitar driven with a strong electric guitar component, varying in feel from straight-ahead rock n’ roll to folk rock. These are love songs about yearning for love, celebrating love, not having love, asking for love and believing that people can love each other on a planetary scale. Amid the driving, danceable rock n’ roll songs, there are thoughtful mid-tempo love ballads. Armstrong and Black’s original songs alternate here. They each brought six original songs to the mix and began this recording by singing and playing acoustic guitar on each other’s songs. The songs are melodic and the lyrics are multi-layered and thought-provoking. Comments by James Greg and I always pounded our acoustic guitars, tearing deep gouges in the wood, and we always sang from deep in our hearts, and singing as loud as we could. At gigs we laughed off any offer of microphones. We believed in our music and ourselves - we believed that nothing could stop us. Performing or practicing - it was always an event. One time Greg had to talk a guy down who was in shock and crumpled in a corner after I exploded at him for daring to interrupt our rehearsal in the middle of a song. We loudly boasted to anyone who doubted us or our music. A little later, challenges arose - some music friends changed their minds about forming a band with us, and I foolishly fell in love with a woman who didn’t really want me to play. The trouble reached its peak when I failed to show up for our most important gig. Stuck in a bad romance, I stopped playing, and Greg moved on, refusing to let the music die. Years later we played together again, this time electrically, in the woods north of Spokane, where Greg and some friends were living on the land. We called our band “Elderberry Jam” and had a great time playing at ski lodges and for the neighborhood Co-op’s events. Since then, I have intermittently maintained my singer-songwriter act, unwilling to let it go, while Greg has burned bright with musical fire. For this current project, Greg came down from Washington State to San Mateo, California, not far from where I live. We agreed on six original songs each, three days of rehearsal and two days recording, singing and playing together on each song. Although we are a little older now, we are still playing, singing and performing with the volume knob turned to eleven. Our great passion for the music and our lifelong friendship live on in this album, and we hope you enjoy it. Comments by Greg Music is beyond attraction. As ephemeral as it is, music is bonding. There are many of us who are life-long musicians, whose very souls overflow with outpourings of musical expression. It is not something that we can deny or extinguish. For two college buddies who chose to pursue other professions, the time has finally come to give flower to the musical ecstasy that started for them when flower children were still pervasive. While times have changed, some things endure. And even though we might be boomers, we bring forth new sounds that are current and steeped in acoustic guitar resonance while we revel in solid rock sounds. Such is the collaboration you are holding in your hands. It bloomed in the living room of a house in San Mateo CA not far from where we went to school. It grew into this sonic landscape which we hope that you enjoy. These two singer-songwriters main influence is of course the Beatles’ blinding thermonuclear explosion onto the scene. Here, Armstrong and Black play great American straight-ahead, exuberant rock n’ roll as fresh as a flash of sun just now breaking out from behind dark clouds. You get a lot of variety on this love-song album, informed by Armstrong and Black’s eclectic influences, and full of these two songwriters’ own inspiration and invention. Dark Southern-Appalachian folk inspires the minor chords of “Eye of the Tiger”, that break open into hopeful major chords. “Eyes Meet”’s happy, rollicking rock expresses the wide-open wonder of true love. You can hear the early Greenwich Village musicians in the simple folk heart of “Babe”. “Bridges” starts with some definite hard rock riffs and carries an altruistic yet practical theme. “Angelica”, a power ballad, owes much to groundbreaking country rock and deals with a questionable, unusual relationship. The funk and snap of “Come on Over” recalls some of classic rock’s best songs. Armstrong built “Sleepin’” around the iconic blues riff, and the song also has an insistent power-rock bass drum. “Sweet Love”, a power ballad with ringing guitars, has memorable, soaring octave-intervals in the lead guitar riffs. “Don’t Need Nothin’” injects some aggressive, nihilistic garage punk into the mix. “International Dance”, with its chaotic, barely controlled explosiveness, has a life of its own. “One Way” hangs on that great basic rock hook that is instantly recognizable. “In the Wind” has those achingly-beautiful major 7th chords combined with an ever-expanding lead guitarist dreamscape.