"Independent Acoustic Roots" is released as a download only (upsampled 24/96 FLAC may be download from my web site that also features the Sony Hi-Rez Audio (HRA) of much of my work in DSD). It is my historical root and story of bringing independent acoustic in the form of a coffeehouse style approach to performing and soon home digital recording in the early 90's to a world wide connection of music lovers. My placement and participation in the history of modern music may be interesting to others young and old from these standpoints: - I was self-motivated to start performing live acoustic solo shows on the San Mateo Coast south of San Francisco at a time when acoustic/folk wasn't that popular, especially live in the local venues. This is 1993. I was writing a lot of songs and wanted to revisit the coffeehouse type approach to live music that I had participated in from the 70's and also listened to heavily as millions of others did from the 60's. - I was getting introduced to digital recording (PCM) using consumer grade equipment anyone could buy through the mail. These were reputable products from companies such as Tascam and Sony. - I was soon to get introduced to the new World Wide Web when it exploded with the entry of the Netscape browser allowing anyone with a computer to easily navigate the web using a graphical user interface with hyperlinks that didn't exist prior. - I was soon to also get introduced to the idea of sharing music online in the form of compressed audio files called MP3's. I quickly became a member of original communities of musicians putting music online for the world to download and listen to for free. MP3.com was such a web site that soon had millions of songs online for anyone with a dialup (or better but rarely better) connection to the web. As an original artist member of mp3.com I and thousands of other artist were offered IPO stock from that company before it went public. It was definitely a shared musical community at that time. All of that sharing got eclipsed by the entree of iTunes, the brainchild of Steve Jobs who saw a huge exchange of music that was not being paid for by anyone. iTunes capitalized on that free market and changed the music industry forever. I was and still am fully engaged in that transition as a songwriter and recording artist. Every musician, songwriter, record label and studio is still coping with that transition which launched many other transitions in its wake. As a result of these different influences, there was a genesis of creativity in a media format that had not existed only a few years prior to 1995. I was part of that genesis and applied it to a very non-digital source of music, namely my acoustic guitar, harmonica and voice. It was the dawn of a new digital world musically. I used it as a catalyst to deliver my analog independent acoustic roots. These are 16 tracks I recorded on my first home studio, some of which in 1995 yielded my first publicly distributed CD "Lost in the Green". I recorded and mixed the tracks myself in a spare bedroom setup with the equipment consisting of a Tascam DA-88 (borrowed from Roger Powell). The DA-88 recorded at 44.1Khz or 48Khz (I used 48k) in 16 bits as linear PCM. It used Hi-8 video tape as the media. I also had a couple very good pro studio mics loaned to me by Gus Skinas. I used an original small Mackie 1202 with only 2 bands of EQ (treble and bass essentially) and L/R panning to mix the tracks I was recording. This was the same Mackie I was using at my shows, and in fact still often use today to front a small powered Roland keyboard monitor. I mixed analog to a Sony TCD-10 DAT recorder at 48k 1-bit that had Low-z XLR inputs, also borrowed from Roger. I eventually bought and extensively used the Sony TCD-8 DAT which was smaller without the balanced XLR inputs, but served me very well for at least a decade as a studio mixdown machine as well as a live performance recorder. The tracks on this release are the original recordings and test mixes I made of my original songs. Some of the tracks grew with overdubs and remixes to become released tracks on my first CD "Lost in the Green" in 1994/1995. However these have never been released to iTunes or other online digital retailers. They've only existed in CD form. Other songs here were never released. All of them are the 20 year vintage recordings I made when the web was new and acoustic folk was becoming a rekindled dream to many. I perform all of these tracks solo in live takes with no overdubs, with the cameo appearances of my two Irish musical comrades Calvin McElroy (mandolin in "Season of the Fall" and John Caulfield (fiddle on "Time to Sleep Corrina"). There's plenty of space in these mixes for anyone to accompany me on their instrument of choice... There are 4 Townes Van Zandt cuts included with my original songs: Dollar Bill Blues, Nothin', Waitin' 'Round to Die, and A Song For. Two of these appeared on "Lost in the Green". Tracks on this release are: 1. The Great Unknown (David Elias) 2. Season of the Fall (David Elias) 3. Dollar Bill Blues (Townes Van Zandt) 4. Lost in the Green (David Elias) 5. Time to Sleep Corrina (David Elias) 6. May People (David Elias) 7. Field of Wood (David Elias) 8. Nothin' (Townes Van Zandt) 9. Every Hour, Every Day (David Elias) 10. Eye on the Wind (David Elias) 11. Mainland (David Elias) 12. Hair of the Dog (David Elias) 13. Rows, Desolation & Angels (David Elias) 14. Stormy Early Warnings (David Elias) 15. Waitin' 'Round to Die (Townes Van Zandt) 16. A Song For (Townes Van Zandt) Though I knew and could perform a few hundred covers, I thought at the time and still feel that Townes' songs best represented some obscure but vital message about being an independent musician living in a dependent world and delivering something authentic, not commercial. TVZ died on New Year's Day in 1997. I had met him in the last year of his life behind the Palms Playhouse in Davis, Calif. (since moved to Winters) while working on my second CD "Time Forgets". I was able to give him a copy of "Lost in the Green" with 2 of his songs on it and thank him for being Townes and for giving me and so many others so very much. "Livin on the road my friend Was gonna keep us free and clean Now you wear your skin like iron Your breath's as hard as kerosene..." - Townes Van Zandt "Sorrow and Solitude These are the precious things And the only words That are worth remembering" - Townes Van Zandt