Gentle Wind mp3 Album

Description

Gentle Wind, released in 2020, is a collection of folk rock/Americana songs, some of which I’ve been working on since the 1970s. It started out as a concept album back in the 1970s, and I finally got around to finishing the songs in early 2020. The content is a bit more melancholy than I am these days. The general theme is about coming to terms with loss.

I tell folks that if I hadn’t had my guitar back then, I might have gone insane. Music is the greatest therapy, so hopefully the gloomy tone of this album reflects that.

Here’s a bit about each song:

01 Gentle Wind

This song was written when I was still in high school (Class of 1978). It was my first attempt at writing a song using fingerpicking rather than strumming. Gentle Wind sets the emotional tone for the album to follow, and it’s about remembering first love.

02 Ione

Speaking of first love, this song is about losing that first love. Written in 1980.

03 Blood from a Stone

Another one that’s about losing your first love, then sitting around and remembering after reading old love letters.

04 If I Saw You Now

Suppose you met that first love again after several years. What would that be like? What would you say to each other?

05 Hitchhiker’s Song

Way back in 1980, I hitchhiked from Pensacola, Florida to Ottumwa, Iowa to join a rock and roll band. Yeah, I know, most people go to New York or L.A. to join a band, but that’s if you want to do it the easy way. During that journey, I once again thought of that first love, and hitchhiking back to find her. This song was literally written on the road, or at least on the side of the road while hitchhiking home after the band fell apart.

06 You Can’t Go Back

I’ve moved around quite a bit in my time. This song is about leaving a place and all your old friends behind, then returning years later to find that everyone and everything has moved on. Seems you can’t step twice on the same piece of water.

07 Quentin’s Song

A father-and-son song about not quite fitting in, and finding solace in music.

08 Two Feathers

Another love song, this time in waltz format. I find that most of my songs seem to be about nature, walking in the woods, and the beauty there.

09 If I Could Only Tell You

A song for my daughter, who was having a rough time when the song was written. How can you, as a parent, tell your children what you want them to know in a way that they’ll be able to hear it?

10 Leaving Pensacola

Both my parents died in 2019, within a month of each other. They were fundamentalist Christians and had alienated most of the family with their extreme beliefs. As I left town after their funeral and it began to rain, I wrote this song about regrets and reconciliations.