RETURNING FIRE (2004)

For Returning Fire, I hooked up with Jon Park-Wheeler, a gifted local guitarist and producer. We recorded the album at Pinnacle Studio in the historic coastal town of Belleville. Ken Harnden did the engineering and also provided some terrific BGs (along with the incredible Lori Dortono). We recorded the bed tracks in a day and a bit. The musicians were exceptional and instead of doing everything, I just sang. When the electric grid went down across Eastern Canada and the U.S. in the early evening, the guys found a way to come back the next day and finish up the last two songs. For those of us that stayed in town, we wiled away the evening drinking single malts at the oh so prestigious Belleville Club. (Thanks Ken!)

Graham and I came back a few times to do the vocals, overdubs and mixing. It was energizing to get away for this project and the studio setup and musicians were better than one could have reasonably hoped for. For the record (ha, ha), the amazing rhythm section was Steve O’Connor, Andrew Affleck and Kenny Post. The gifted Ted Carson did the mastering. I also learned to love the tube microphone. A product rep had left a Rode tube mic for trial and it had the multiple benefits of crystal clarity while retaining warmth and making me sound better than I am. I think Ken bought the thing the next week. Jeez, I even ended up buying one later.

As a note on authorship, the song “Don’t Tell My Mother” was actually written (mostly) by John McMullen. It was passed on to me by Edmond Chiasson who had recorded with John but had lost track of him. I made some additions and changes and recorded the song, but he has now heard the recording and put his blessing on it. John has a fine album out that has the pedigreed version of the song.

Returning Fire reflects many musical influences including (the well known) Steely Dan, James Taylor, Chet Baker, Lyle Lovett, Gerry Rafferty, Sade, Michael Franks and (the less well known) Dane Donahue, Jim Krueger and David Mead. Of course, I swipe liberally from so many others that RT has lots of references.