There is no end to my gratitude, praise and respect for little brother NIck Collura for teaching me how to play a guitar, adding music on this CD, sparingly giving direction, and allowing me to go my merry way when it came to songwriting. Nick always said this process was a journey...and yes it certainly is. And to my little sister Carol thanks for pushing me on when I needed it. When making music there are those cool moments when the goosebumps appear. No other name better describes this set of songs than GOOSEBUMPS. My first soundtrack for a lifelong dream of making music is...complete. I hope this music is as fun for you to listen to as it was for me to make. All I have done is listen to that little tickle inside :) The cover photo was taken by my mom and dad before i was 10 years old. They put me up on a fence post on Skyline Drive and took the picture that put me on top of the world in woody Southeastern Ohio. This is the best place i know where you see the forest, otherwise you are just looking at trees. Somehow this picture is really about perspective. I started taking lessons in 2013 and pretty soon little brother had me singing and then I wrote the song Island 21. The other songs fell out as I lived and learned about the guitar. Gypsy was a song that I took to a workshop with Mary Gautier in June of 2015. It was a breakthrough song for me. I saw that I owned that title willingly and lovingly. Mary said it was a good song and then she challenged me with the things that may have made that song happen. For the first time i looked behind the curtain of Gypsy and I saw the song Empty. For me, Empty was a breakthrough song on a new level. The truth exposed itself without warning, causing me to see the landscape that I walked on without realizing it. This song grounded me in a way that I can never leave behind. Funny thing is, I've never been happier since I wrote Empty. There are two songs on this album that I give co-write credit to Nick Collura...Alice and Hologram. It is impossible for one person to pull off these songs and we created these together in the back of the Sound Shop (the studio) while Nick was teaching my lessons. It's become a thing with Nick for him to teach the lesson and then turn to me and say...whaddaya got? Cause he always knows I'm working things out during the week between lessons. I stumbled thru the beginnings of Alice and Hologram and he added the parts that made them come alive. Musically...little brother and I have that telepathic jam going and he and I hear the same sound. But Nick hears more...the whole peacock (orchestra) of possibilities.