Well in this part of Connecticut we have been stuck in a constant state of March. March the month, not the military exercise. It has been mild weather for the longest time with only a hint of snow. I have a friend who recently bought a new snowblower for this season and said to me – Watch it not snow now…- after he purchased it. Ah the best laid plans.
Speaking of best laid plans – My third solo CD is done and ready for pre-order. “Big Texas Sky” will be available from me directly starting on March 1st, 2012. It will also be available as a digital download from www.darrylgregory.bandcamp.com on March 1st as well. If you are interested in pre-ordering, the cost for a physical CD will be $10 and the digital download price will be $7. Click here for an order form for the physical CD.
On Saturday, February 25 I will be performing at the Trinity Church Coffeehouse at 7PM. This will be my CD release gig and copies of “Big Texas Sky” will be available for purchase at the show. Click here for more info on Trinity Church Coffeehouse.
So what’s this new CD all about, you ask?
Good question. In fact I’m planning on a series of blog posts that go into detail about each song. From concept to production, I will give you the story behind the song.
But for now I can tell you that the album is a collection of 7 songs having to do with family, spirituality, getting older, life & death and of course, love. I had about 20 songs that I was considering and I whittled it down to 12 and then decided to be more concise and focused with the 7 songs that I chose.
As in the past with my CDs I did the majority of instrumental performance, but there comes a time when you just have to call in other musicians to help. I was very fortunate to get local artist Jim Allyn (a.k.a Mr. Everything) to lay down piano, fiddle and mandolin on several tracks which really enhanced what I had already done (Jim has an amazing ear and musical sense). For the duet ‘What About Love’ I was able to snag the always busy Francine Wheeler to come into the studio and sing along with me. Her voice alone is worth the price of the CD. I also got great vocals from my friend Wayne Johnson, who is an ordained minister, on the track ‘Prayer & Hallelujah’ which breaks into a rollicking gospel celebration.
”Big Texas Sky” is a country album at heart and pulls a lot of emotional strings, but it’s also a love letter to my Texas roots and the down to earth, real life feeling I got when I visited my kin in the Lone Star State.
The title of the CD comes from a line in the second track ‘Anywhere But Here’ when the protagonist asks why she was born under a Big Texas Sky. The image of a big sky overhead makes me think of God: the omnipresence, the spirit that is always there, watching as we live our lives. We either acknowledge it or not, but the fact remains that it is there. Each of these songs are stories of the everyday life we all lead with the last song wrapping it all up with a prayer and a hallelujah.
Don’t you love the album art? The photo is from my buddy Renato Ghio who is an amazing videographer and photographer and the layout is by my good friend and co-hort David Wheeler. I hope you can purchase a copy and tell your friends where to get one as well!
May we all feel the light of a brilliant love,
Last year I started a collaboration with a lyricist on a new song that looked promising, but after many rewrites and varying attempts at orchestration, we called it a day. Part of the problem stemmed from the lyrics not being something that I would personally sing. I had a disconnect to the story and to the verbiage. But, I liked the melody and the arrangement that I wrote, it had this bright-spookiness to it that was interesting. I hated to see it abandoned.
