This project follows my album âFat Tuesdayâs Gonna be Sweetâ with melody-focused songs and personal lyrics. Youâll hear influences of bands like ELO, Supertramp, and The Beatles, as well as artists like Ben Folds, Billy Joel and Sheryl Crow. Have a list

11 MP3 Songs in this album (48:22) !
Related styles: Pop: Piano, Rock: Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Solo Male Artist

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Details:
This album has felt like itâs taken for ever to make! I began recording in February this year, but the business of my work as a teacher, writing for other projects, recording and just the general life stuff has meant that it has taken until August to complete. Having said that, Iâm thrilled with the way itâs turned out.

Itâs a slight departure from the style of my last album, âFat Tuesdayâs Gonna be Sweet,â in that this is much more of a âbandâ album. However, Iâve continued to strive toward songs which have strong melodies and lyrics which come out of my personal experience or reflect a viewpoint that I feel strongly about. Having said that, the lyrics to two of the songs: âWaiting for Loveâ and âIâm the Whole Arcadeâ were written by my good friend Jeff Roberts, the first being about his wife and the other about me!

When I write songs for myself I tend to migrate toward the formative musical influences of my life as well as some modern favourites, and this album is no exception. You will hear the influences of groups like ELO, Supertramp, The Beatles and The Hoosiers, as well as artists like Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Sheryl Crow and Charlie Winston. I donât apologies for this; itâs the kind of music I love to listen to, but I hope you agree that the music is still definitely âme.â

Lyrically however, the album flows out of my life. Songs like âComfort,â âUniverse of Loveâ and âAinât Necessarily Soâ have emerged out of my experiences of religion, philosophy and politics, and in them Iâm trying to say something about the world as I see it. âYou Decide the Endâ is a song born of my travels in the USA, and talk about people Iâve met, whilst âNew York Smileâ is a song about a day I spent with an ex-pupil of mine from my days living in Oregon, who, whilst living in New York, came to visit me in Wales. The full âback-storiesâ to my songs can be found on the lyrics page of my website if youâre interested in having more detail.

The album wouldnât have been possible without the help of several people. Iâd like to say my sincere thanks to the musicians who played on the project with me: Gerwyn Howley, Mike Ellis, Jeff Enoch, Jeff Roberts, and Rob Jones. Gerwyn also sorted a huge amount of the technical stuff production wise and put the album cover together, so big thanks to him for that too. From the start of the writing process I owe a great debt of thanks to Jeff Roberts, whoseâ¦âattention to detailâ has kept me honest and been a huge help in creating arrangements for the songs. The cover art is the work of a wonderful friend of mine, Lynne Oakes. Lynne is a professional artist from Maryland and more of her work can be seen on her website, and thereâs a link to it on my websiteâs LINKS page. My thanks go to her for allowing me to use her work, but also for her great friendship and encouragement.

I hope that you like what you hear, and if you decide to buy this cd or download it from iTunes, then my thanks go to you. I hope you find in the songs something that speaks to you; something that resonates with âwhere youâre at,â and that you get as much pleasure out of listening to the tracks as I had in writing them.

Best wishes,

Stephen J Preston.