When Opie died on Christmas of 2014, I inherited a number of his belongings - including the portable recorder he used to record song ideas and compositions with at home during the last years of his life.  One of them was a solo guitar passage that sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it.  I kept it all this time, and this year I decided I was finally going to export it and add something to it, possibly flesh it out with several other instruments...but when I went down the hill to the studio today, it seemed most natural to just turn it into a duet...Opie starts it off and then I join in on mandola and play through to the end with him - at which point, we can hear him put his guitar down and get up from his chair.

We sure do miss you, old friend.

Maple Street, Christmas Eve

Offered here for free in Jesse's memory.  We won't see the likes of him again.

Brand New Tennessee Waltz

an improvised instrumental track recorded today, March 3rd, 2024 on the one year anniversary of one of my biggest influences, David Lindley.  There's no replacing Mister Dave, and I miss his presence on this earth on a regular basis.

Anniversary Waltz

From the "Season's Greetings Philadelphia" album, recorded in 1997 by George Manney.

The Road South

just because you can doesn't mean you should...but I did.

if Morrissey and Ryan Adams drank a shitload of cough syrup and stumbled into the studios during Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" sessions.,.this sounds nothing like what would've happened.

recorded in the Overdub Nook in Nashville on 7/22/2016 - with apologies to The Sullen One.  :)

Light

I'd heard Eric Claptons' version of this song ages ago, as he'd recorded it on his "461 Ocean Boulevard" album, but it didn't fully take up residence in my musical consciousness until I was watching a BBC documentary on Southern Rock and it played in the background as my old boss, Doug Gray from the Marshall Tucker Band, talked about the closing of Capricorn Records as the end of that particular era of Southern Rock, and I've never heard it quite the same way since.  When I started working on "Friends and Heroes" half a decade ago, I had planned on putting it on the final product, but there was just too much music and not enough room for all of it...so it ended up on a preview release called "Preliminary Hearing" - in honor of Scott Boyer's passing today, I'm uploading it here as a tribute to a largely unheralded singer, songwriter and picker from my neck of the woods.  Rest easy, Scott.

Please Be With Me

an acoustic version of a song from the 1997 "Our Mutual Angels" album, recorded live at Longview Studios in Philadelphia that same year by Steven J. Wellner.

Is That Enough (Live at Longview)

this song started playing on repeat in my head and didn't let up for almost a week after this happened...so on Friday night, I went downstairs to the studio after everyone had gone to bed and recorded this, live, with a couple of mics and one of my Weissenborns.  I did take some liberties with Mr. Gorkas' lyrics, considering the differences in scenarios between the one it was written for and the one that inspired the recording.  

If you circulate this, please de-emphasize who recorded it and simply share the message.  I'm not posting this for any sort of personal gain...just sharing it with those of you who may wander by this page on occasion.  Thanks.

Let Them In (Sandy Hook)

a song written by Julie Miller that first came to my attention on Emmylou's "Wrecking Ball" album...a few months ago, I saw Buddy play this song live for the first time ever, and that performance is burned in my mind.  I found a YouTube video of Buddy playing it when I got home that night and learned it and recorded it before I went to bed.  This version ultimately ended up on the "Preliminary Hearing" release that came out just prior to "Friends and Heroes".

All My Tears Be Washed Away

Tom Hampton's years as a journeyman multi-instrumentalist and sideman are bookended by his origins as a singer and songwriter - he released his critically acclaimed debut "Our Mutual Angels" in 1997 before heeding the call as a session player based on his demonstrated adeptness on multiple instruments during those recordings.  His path in the years that followed found his touring and recording with Poco, Craig Bickhardt, The Marshall Tucker Band, Robert Hazard, Dan May, Tracy Grammer and a multitude of acts who came to rely on his musical sensibilities.

Hampton was the last person to join the pioneering country-rock band Poco before the death of founder Rusty Young in 2021 - he later joined fellow Poco alumnus in Cimarron 615, but left the band shortly thereafter and began work on his first album of original material in 25 years.

The resulting record, "A Month of Somedays", owes as much to Jason Isbell and John Moreland as it does to formative influences Jackson Browne and Stephen Stills.  The songs are character studies - honest looks at life, regret, and the passage of time that could only come from an abundance of mileage and experience.  The music wears his country-rock origins on his sleeve, but rides an undercurrent of red dirt Americana instrumentation and confessional singer/songwriter lyricism to form a unique, yet instantly familiar sonic landscape.

Tom Hampton

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