A lot of this started with Tyler Gibbons. We went to college together and became fast friends. He’s an incredible songwriter, bassist, composer, builder, etc. I looked up to his craft and tried to emulate it. I also managed a band he was in for a while. Ty and I took some time off from college and moved to Santa Cruz to write music. He wrote like twenty great songs. I wrote two. One I called “Moon Song.” One I called “Miss Maybe.” Both eventually ended up on The Confluence.

A few years later, I met Alex Weinstein. Alex was a phenomenal guitarist and just getting started as a producer. I played him a few of my songs. It was the first time anyone (other than my mom) seemed to respond to what I had written. I remember sharing a batch of songs with him and waiting nervously for his thoughts. There were several songs (like “Golden Side” and “Stillness”) that I was pretty unsure of. Alex loved them. Felt amazing. I never thought much of my writing until then. Over then next months, he and I decided to make a record together. I kept writing. He kept encouraging. 

During the summer and fall of 2001, we went to a number of spots to record: his grandmother’s attic in Rye Brook, NY, an amazing house up near Carmel, NY, a little studio in lower Manhattan and a studio up in Boston.  Tyler played bass and sang. His wife-to-be, the also amazing Robin McArthur sang. The great Adam Buchwald played mandolin (and would become my go-to sideman for years until he stopped touring to become a luthier and eventually made my guitars). Alex played guitars. Another friend from college named Andrew Eggers played drums. A phenomenal talent named Greg Beyer played all sorts of percussion. That was the core. 

Recording this record was one of the highlights of my life. Everything was new. Thinking about my songs seriously. Considering arrangement choice. Learning about recording. Discovering happy accidents where two parts together created something transcendent. Hearing my voice through a great microphone. Going to sleep with my head still echoing with the songs. Dreaming of music.

We also happened to be recording on September 11th. Luckily, we weren’t working that day in the NY studio, for that space was right near Ground Zero. Instead we were in Boston. I was with Andy Eggers, talking to him about my ambivalence toward New York (where I was then living) to get him in the mood to record my song “Drowning,” which is about New York City going down in a great flood. We pulled up to parking attendant at a parking lot gate and watched on a little T.V. in his booth as the first plane hit the tower. We didn’t know what to do. Eventually, after making sure everyone we knew was relatively safe and okay, we stayed in the studio and recorded. We worked all day and night. Alex and I actually slept in the control room. It was so quiet that night.

The songs on this record are the first I ever wrote. When I listen now, I hear an innocence and a purity that is only on this record. I was just finding my voice, both as a singer and as a writer. It’s exciting, and it’s sweet. I never perform the title track (last on the record). But I still think it’s one of the prettier songs I’ve ever written.