"Talk to Me" is the title piece of the project, which features 7 short songs, spoken word pieces and instrumentals on the theme of talk. Much thanks to Doug Haire, the lead engineer at Jack Straw. Studios, whose expertise and insights were much appreciated during two weekends of sessions. |
"That's what you get, what did you expect, when you give a phone to a human animal?" You get improvised phone conversations by Rani, Kate, and Rich layered into my guitar part. And you get Rich singing along with me on the chorus. |
I originally planned to add a wall of voices to this piece, but after trying a few things and listening to it again and again, I took Doug's excellent advice, letting the cigar box guitar do the talking by itself. |
"In that place, in that space, you could hear poetry of human talk". I thought it might be a spoken word piece over my homemade cigar box guitar part, but when Rani sang it, we were in business. |
"People talk, but does anyone listen? Everyone has something to say, but does anyone understand? Words come falling out of the black sky, like freezing rain. Thunder hums a billion names." Spoken word and 5 String Thing. |
I can't do a project or performance now without playing at least one piece on my custom made, one of a kind miniature guitar, in this case imagining an interplanetary musical discussion. |
"In the morning when you're still sleeping, when you have those crazy nightmares, I swear I hear, within the bird song, human voices joining along in a laughing song". I resurrected this song (which I originally did with my Tree People ensemble in 1984) as an acoustic guitar and voice piece with a touch of pan flute and laughter. |