Hi and welcome to my CD! It's been a long time coming but I'm really excited about finally releasing some of my best songs to CD Baby, iTunes and many other streaming services. I'd like to give you a brief synopsis of each song, why I wrote it and what you can expect. I hope you enjoy it. If you do please share it with others. Many of the songs I collaborated with another writer named Rob Bland. Rob had a really good sense of where he wanted a song to go. We would sit together and I would write and he would listen and advise as to where he saw the song going and how he felt it sounded. The result was some great sounding songs with good stories and imagery. Many of the other songs I wrote myself. Ballads were something that I struggled with early in my writing career but I feel like I got a feel for how to write a good one eventually. I think some of my best songs are the ballads included on this CD. Living for the Weekend was a song that Rob and I wrote together. It was based on some of his experiences on the May 24th weekend in Canada which is our first long weekend with any kind of decent weather. The idea is that we have the whole summer ahead of us but some cool things are going to happen on this first summer trip and they often did! Mid Wife Crisis is humorous look at an older guy who suddenly finds himself single. No real autobiographical stuff here just a fun look at all the things he might discover as he ventures out into the dating world again. Tonight is a ballad written for my wife and I as we struggled through the early years raising kids. It's so easy to lose track of your relationship and get lost in all of the details of making it all work. It's my take on what needs to happen if you want to maintain a relationship under these circumstances. When Love Comes Calling was one of the first country songs I wrote that I actually liked. It was the first song I wrote where I thought maybe I could actually be a writer and be successful at it. You're Gonna Miss Me When You're Gone is about a guy who feels like his girl doesn't really know how good she's got it. She's about to leave but he feels she's making a decision she'll regret. its sad but somewhat defiant too. When you've taken all you can take and you know you can move on with a clear conscience it's really liberating. Yes, I've been there. In Between Homes is the first song I wrote with Rob. He came by my house and we had never really considered writing together other than him critiquing my songs and telling me where he felt I was going wrong. We were sitting around having a drink. He had lost his house and was living in his car. We were discussing the situation and with a little gallows humor I said to him: “You know how some people are in between jobs? Well you're in between homes right now.” It immediately struck us both that that would be a great song title. We sat down and wrote the song an hour or two and used many of the truths of his life at that time. He did have a dog in the car with him, some tools in his trunk. If I remember correctly we went out to his car and open the trunk before we wrote that portion into the lyrics. I think it was therapeutic for him and a great song came out of it for the two of us. Your Leaving Never Even Crossed my Heart was written very quickly one afternoon after I attended a songwriting camp. The title came to me while I was at the camp and when I got the home the song just poured out of me. It was the first ballot I wrote that I would ever play for anyone and it has remained one of the favorites that I play for others. I hope you like it. Mamma’s Voice is a traditional Bluegrass song written after a conversation with my dad at the cottage. We were sitting around on the last night befpre we left for home and he started telling me about his mother, my grandmother. Apparently she was a great singer but she was that woman who kept singing after all the music had ended so she was the last voice than anyone heard. This song was really an inspired one for me. I went into the bedroom after the conversation and wrote the first two verses in five minutes. On the way home from PEI, at a hotel room, I wrote the last two verses and the song was finished. I really feel like Nanny was right there with me telling her story through me. I have had many compliments on this one as a really great story that touches people's hearts. I hope you feel the same. Rob and I wrote Doghouse because we wanted a song that was a little edgy. There's no truth in this story, just a little bit of humor about what happens when people get themselves into situations they probably shouldn't. If you have a few dollars and want to support a starving (OK, not starving, just always hungry) artist, consider buying one or all the tunes included here. Otherwise, you could add them to your playlists in iTunes or Spotify, etc. I get paid every time it's streamed! Thanks for listening! Dave