Let me tell you a little about the music on “Intakes”, the bonus album to accompany 2007’s “Actual Sighs.” When I was attending Rutgers University, I learned a few chords on the guitar. Up to that point, I was strictly a drummer and aspiring keyboard player. Once I mastered the basic folk chords, I attempted to write some songs. One of the first was “Woulda Coulda Shoulda” followed by “Lied Tried Cried.” As you can see, a pattern was started. The majority of songs on “Intakes” were written in the early 70’s and contain those chords – you know the ones – G, C, D, Am, Em and for good measure I began throwing in the slightly more difficult F and the dreaded B. All hell broke loose when I discovered diminished chords, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

The opening track, “Out of the Night,” is from ’73 and is an early attempt at hard rock, or dumb rock, depending on how you view these things. Some of these songs were written when I lived in L.A. in the late 70’s, like “And I Really Don’t Mind” and “Miss Angelina Starr.” Oh yeah, there are a couple of songs about America, “Strange Neighborhood” and “Down In The Merry Land”, and one about the whole planet “Peaceful Island.”

A quick note about the Soundscape Sessions (tracks 12-17). The engineer at Soundscape Studios was the late great Gary Wade. He was a fantastically talented music man – an amazing musician , producer and technician. When you worked with Gary, you got a free co-producer. He had excellent ears and the most wonderful sense of humor. We lost him way too soon.

I guess you could call this album a bit of a time capsule. These tracks represent the beginning of my songwriting life and I have a lot of memories, from happy to sad, of those times.

For those of you wondering about the cover, no I do not smoke. (Used to, until the day I had the epiphany that the smoke I was sucking down was the same smoke I’d be running for my life from in a burning building.) I just had this idea of breathing in to go with “Intakes” and I happened to pass a store called Sheherazade on Orchard Street not far from where we live and I saw the hookah in the window. The owner graciously allowed Nancy to snap some shots of me and the hookah. That’s all, I swear.

RXH
NYC ‘08

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