home-cooked by Edmund Jorgensen

Most tunes in this album have two names: one given by me, and one given independently by my son Patrick, who is five years old at the time of this writing. He also composed and performed the bonus track, which is available if you buy the album (including for nothing).

The opening tune has only one name--"The Mountain Rides of the Sun"--because Patrick named it first, and I wasn't about to compete with that.

"Robots in the Moonlight" was written, with that title, at Patrick's request (technically he requested a tune called "[Name-Brand Robots who Change Shape] in the Moonlight," but I altered it for reasons of intellectual property).

The closing tune--"Graciela"--is named for my mother-in-law, who we lost recently and miss terribly. Patrick agreed this was the right name and that we didn't need another.

The bonus track--"I'm a Little Dinosaur"--is entirely Patrick's creation.

All tracks were recorded on a Tascam DR40 in different rooms of our Stoneham house, occasionally to obtain different characteristics (more reverb in the study, a dryer sound in the basement, etc.), and occasionally because people were sleeping in other rooms. Apart from a pass to boost the sound pressure a bit on some tracks, nothing has been edited in post-production. You'll hear some breathing and string noise, the occasional chair creak, a door or voice in the distance, and the bumps and scrapes as I reach to turn off the recorder. This is homemade music, and there doesn't seem any point in pretending otherwise.

The guitar on these tunes, on the other hand, is a thoroughly professional affair, and fit for a far better guitarist: a splendid slope-shouldered "Banjo Killer" dreadnought crafted in 2013 by Bourgeois Guitars. Many thanks to Dana Bourgeois for creating this exquisite instrument, and to my friend Steve Yarbrough for parting with it.

My love and gratitude to my wife, Monica, for her patience and support, and to Patrick, for his great names and sometimes staying quiet while papi was recording.