Back before I came to California, I recorded for the tiny by very switched on Gladman label, which was a one-man operation brought to you by Ed Jollimore, who was and is my brother in all things music. From 1992 to early 1995, I made records for Ed's label. He engineered them (oocasionally with help from Dale Drumheller), played great drums on a lot of what I recorded, sange the harmony parts, and generally made me work at it. Because of him, I got my first real notice as a musician in Philly, not least of all in the local press, which was very kind and positive.
We made two albums that came out and one that didn't. The first of these, Fallen Hand of Love, is available at CDBaby. The second, Moon Country, was cassette only, and was the first time I wrote a whole album from scratch. The third, East of Dixie, never came out.
Ed has wanted for ages to anthologize the second and third albums in a CD. The stumbling block here was, um, me. There were way too many songs that just didn't cut it even if they seemed like a good idea at the time. But more of what we did turned out well enough that I didn't want to hang myself upon hearing it. So I agreed to a reissue if -- and only if -- I had some veto power. Ed agreed. So the most blatant ersatz Westerberg, Ridgway, Waits attempts remain unissued. The Moon East of Dixie is the compilation Ed and I fleshed out together, made up of stuff I can bear to remember, stuff I'm shocked to have forgotten, and stuff that shows off a decent little Philly bar band.
Ingrid McCarthy had a pic of me from this period, and I handed it over to Jamille Malfi, who did her usual excellent design. Ed unearthed a few pix of us back in the day, and there are about 20 songs that might have gone to dust had Ed not been so loyal to them.
For those of you who were around then, a bonus is that you get to hear the late, beloved Aldo Jones play some of his best bass ever. Also, the only recording of my singing a Dave Alvin song -- "Brand New Heart" -- with the band I had in Philly that opened for him a lot. We were a good bar band, it seems.
(The one thing there ain't that I wish there had been -- recordings of the Rustics when I was in the band. That was such an important part of that time.)
Here's a preview:
And here I am -- no lie -- singing Kurt Weill!
I wonder what ever happened to the shirt on the cover?
