Today I am going out to OCL Studios to get to work on my next project, and I am all kinds of nerves about this.

What if I make the wrong song choices? What if my voice is out of shape? What if my lungs haven’t recovered from Covid? The plans I had written out last year were done only 4-5 months into Pandemic living. I didn’t have a job outside the home, I was in a constant state of gardening, reading, sleeping and in denial of what was happening. I thought, sure, I can easily put together another album in a year, and of course it’s much more ambitious than the first one.

It is so much harder.

I have had to cancel so many times this year, that I figured today wouldn’t happen. So….here I am, spending a few hours before I head in to prepare. In the essence of the genre I love, I am going to improvise. I am taking tunes into today’s session that I have internalized, that have great meaning and depth to me and to the time I’ve experienced this past year. I’ll have my dearest pal and colleague Steve Fletcher to co-pilot with, and as I see the world coming back to life in parts, for the first time I have a twinge of hope tucked away in the furthest corners of my heart.

I think it’s going to feel like jumping into a cold pool. I’m standing at the edge, I’ve been here a long time. I want to do it, but I don’t want to feel that shock of the cool water piercing my skin. After the piercing comes the euphoria as I slide around the water exploring my new freedom.

Here we go.