Preston & Brethren by Dennis Preston
This album was recorded in the Summer of 1976 (...and it was very hot in that studio.) but was never officially released because the master tapes are missing... something beyond my control. The only music left from those sessions is a cassette of rough mixes. Tracks 1-11 are stereo mixes. Track 12 is a mono rough mix because the master stereo tape was destroyed during one of the sessions... since it was a rough mix, the bass is a touch too loud compared to the rest of the music. I didn't fully write all the lyrics to these songs... Janet Mrva came up with the Intro lyrics. She also helped out, along with Jennifer Carlson (Glenn Stutzky suggested it... I'm glad he did.), with the lyrics to The Search Is Over (One of my favorite tracks off the album). The song Always With You had a segment that we never had finished... so, recently I added the mandolin on it. Now it fits my original vision for that song to have some type of solo on there.
Tracks 13-17 were songs I was working on for a follow-up album. They're just demos... kinda sloppy in places. Tracks 18 & 19 are Live recordings. What Would You Say is something I played during the 3 + hours concert we had after our wedding reception. How I Love You (The words and music came to me in a dream.) is performed by our friends during our wedding. If you click on the song's info, you can see who did what... the same with the rest of the songs too.
Some of these songs appear on other Preston albums but have a different sound to them. Negative / Positive and Troubled Times are on Toys From Hell. How I Love You is on Basement Tapes 1993-1995 Pt.1 and Elisha's Run is on Pt.2.
About the cover... what you see here isn't what the cover was going to look like. I drew that angel in the Summer of 1976... I saw it in an old Bible that had a lot of engravings. I drew it while laying out in the sun. I was able to copyright it with the Library of Congress since I drew it with a fine-tipped felt pen and used stippling for shading... it didn't look exactly like the engraving, so it was OK with them. I was going to use the angel for a record label I was going to start, Breakthrough Records... but things never got that far since the master tapes were gone. The drawing I was going to use for the cover is of King David with his harp plugged into a large amp. I drew that in pencil. The reference for that drawing was also in that Bible.
If you purchase the whole album there are some Hidden Bonuses... a PDF of the CD case cover insert (Just in case you want to burn the songs to a CD) and the drawing that I was originally going to use on the cover. Also... more Demo songs. All photos on the back cover are by David Ewen.
All songs - Dennis Preston, BMI
