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The “Ghosts” Behind “Ghost on the Canvass”.

A list of the musicians who play on legendary artist Glen Campbell’s swan-song album “Ghost on the Canvass”. There are some stellar artists on this. I’ve bolded the ones that caught my eye. Without looking them up on-line, how many do you recognize right off the bat?

* Glen Campbell – acoustic and electric guitar, vocals

Additional musicians and composers

* Kim Bullard – keyboards
* Shannon Campbell – vocals
* Chris Chaney – bass guitar
* Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
* Katie Cole – vocals
* Billy Corgan – electric guitar on “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Dick Dale – electric guitar on “In My Arms”
* George Doering – acoustic guitar, banjo, and mandolin
* Eric Dover – vocals
* Jakob Dylan – composition
* Jason Falkner – acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar (from the Jellyfish)
* Josh Freese – drums
* Jessie Green – violin
* Justin Grey – composition
* Peter Holmström – electric guitar on “Strong”
* Steve Hunter – electric guitar
* Chris Isaak – vocals on “In My Arms”
* Corky James – acoustic guitar
* Danny Levin – trumpet
* Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – keyboards, vocals (also from the Jellyfish)
* Wendy Melvoin – electric guitar (Prince, Wendy & Lisa, Neil Finn)
* Rick Nielsen – electric guitar on “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Tim Pierce – acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin (studio musician – plays on everything – Tim Finn, Toy Matinee)
* Robert Pollard – composition
* Zac Rac – keyboards
* Julian Raymond – vocals, arrangement, production, co-writing
* Marty Rifkin – dobro and pedal steel guitar on “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Brian Setzer – electric guitar on “In My Arms” and “There’s No More Me… Without You”
* Eric Skodis – vocals
* Aaron Sterling – drums
* Courtney Taylor-Taylor – keyboards on “Strong”
* Teddy Thompson – composition
* Keith Urban
* Michael Ward – electric guitar
* Paul Westerberg – composition
* Todd Youth – electric guitar

It Starts… Now!

Last night, Acoustic Highway had one of the best gigs we’ve had in the four years we’ve been together. We played up in Oakhurst at the Sky Ranch resort for a Ren-fair. It’s not that the crowd was huge… It wasn’t. There were only about twenty people there. But we sounded GREAT! It wasn’t just that Chris got a new drum set, which sounded so crisp and alive. It wasn’t just that we played a few songs from scratch that we’ve never played as a band before, and those songs came out great! It wasn’t just that Steve started playing a riff he came up with, i added some lyrics I recently penned…  er… texted to myself….  No. It was all this and more. But the creation of a new song right there and then, something in which my input mattered, it’s lit a spark!

It’s time to start laying down and recording the songs I’ve been writing for the last thirty year.

Yes friends….  It’s time to start recording my forever delayed solo album….  Or whatever you want to call it.

The impetus to get this in gear started a little over a month ago. Then a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Dallas for a vacation, an old friend gave me the Carter Albrecht solo album. It is a fine piece of work. Tragically, Albrecht, an alum of the 80’s band Edie Brickel and the New Bohemians, died before the album was finished and never got to see his work completed. Listening to the album weighs on me a little, as does the situation with Glen Campbell’s Alzheimer condition, both reminders that we are all finite. Those more negative thing are not the main motivation for my commitment, but I can’t deny they are not there. No, it’s the great feeling of making music that is stirring my soul to take these steps to a new unfamiliar place.

Anyway, after I woke up this morning, and got on the road to drive the 45 miles home, it all hit me like some divine sugar rush! Every fiber in my body is telling me that this IS the time!

Here is a lyric i wrote back in 89 that I think captures my new direction, my change in course onto a new exiting path!

Yeah, This is my story….
I’ve done what I had to do
Now it’s time to move on

There’s untouched places just a-waiting to be found,
These feet are gonna shadow new ground…
Yeah… it’s time to move on.

PS. I have two pieces of equipment I need to get to get the best sound I can. A direct box in to help beef up the guitar and bass inputs, and an eight channel firepod, or something like it, so I can get a good mixable set of drum tracks. The mix and clarity of the drums and percussion are very important to me – it’s one of the aspects I hone in on when I’m listening to any record. I know, given my non-existent budget, I’m limited in what I can do to produce “The Ultimate Sounding Record”. But I can at least do what I can to get the best sound possible for this thing….

Now… What the hell am I going to call it????