We don’t have to tell you... You’re already in on the secret or you wouldn’t be reading this right now... Tom Pacheco is a unique and imaginative performing songwriter cast in a troubadouring tradition that stretches back, sometimes heroically, through centuries of song; launching poetic comment upon the tides of the time, the flavors of life and all of the wonders of its circumstance. Herein, you’ll find the rumble of Rough Riders seeking Empire... the fleeting dark silhouette of wings that blink across the sunlit form of a strolling woman... the throat-caught piety of a humble teen pressing a rosary into the hands of a dying leader... the glistening blue eyes of a young woman returning to a caged marriage... the seasoned twinkle of a memory reaching a lifetime back to a grim and decisive moment in the darkness of an alley... the powerful effects of the fading lifeforce of a small, helpless creature... the cautious squint of guilty knowledge peering from the curtains of a harborview window... the drifting thoughts of a stricken folksinger straying at the far edge of fame... the commanding high-heeled strut of sensual hips and a pouting smile... the shuffling energy of an earnest laborer trying to provide for his family... the cultured smirk of a crafty dealer of high-end weaponry... an adhesive grin, tucked in a remedial recipe from nature’s garden, officially attaching itself to the face of authority... the distant glow of community in an upstate mountain town left behind... the spinning lure of a drenching idealism which compels pursuit beyond the borders of secure reason... the simple essence which composes a doorstep to the infinite divine and so much more wound in melody and vision by a modern master craftsman of song... Selected from fourteen albums spanning almost two decades (out of over 20 albums in as many years), this anthology is the first to collect a treasury of Tom’s most requested songs into one bundle; a feast of favorites for Pacheco fans. Since the deepest value of a song is an intimate one in relation to its listener, any true measure of its worth is registered on a personal level. Some listeners will favor a number of these titles above those favored by others and there were many omitted only with difficulty from inclusion here. You might not find these tunes rotating endlessly on a top 40 station, although some have ‘charted,’ but the inherent qualities of a Tom Pacheco-written number dwell in the core of each one, radiating delicious leaps of fancy, observation and reflection. Secrets are meant to be kept and these "secret hits" will nuzzle nicely into your collection. But some secrets are also meant to be shared and many of the songs gathered on these disks have long been classic open secrets to Tom’s audiences around the world... You wouldn’t keep a secret from a friend, would you? -Gary Alexander West Shokan, N.Y. August 11,2007