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Released in 2019, this was my fourth studio album with Session Americana, and my favorite since Diving for Gold in 2009.  We went with the "big band" format on this release - 14 of us all told, comprising a large cross section of musicians that have performed with the group over the last 15 years.  The concept was an interesting one: all covers, but only by writers who can claim to hail from the "northeast", which we interpreted as everything north of NYC (plus James Taylor, whom we decided is an honorary New Englander).  My selection was the song "Driving" by my good friend Chris Pappas (The Everyday Visuals, Elle Belle), who hails from NH originally.

The recording sessions reminded me a great deal of what it was like in the early days of the group - a guest walks in, teaches us a song on the spot, and then we play.  A minimum of rehearsal, and only a few takes before moving on.  It was challenging, but it resulted in a freshness that made it all feel truly "live" - because in fact it all was.  Almost nothing was overdubbed.  The lead vocals (with very few exceptions) were tracked live along with all the band tracks.

I'm happy to say that this album turned out much better than many of those early gigs.

This is a two song EP that was released mid-pandemic in early 2021, yet the recording was actually done in 2016.  Both songs are my own (a rarity for me), although the arrangements and production were a group effort, aided again by Ducky Carlisle (Ice Station Zebra Studio).  After finishing the two pieces, we had intended to go back and work on some other in-process material to form a larger release, but as often happens, life intervened, and we ended up on hiatus for several years before reviving the project and realizing that we had somehow forgotten to release these two songs.  This will hopefully not be the last recording we make.

Recorded in 2014, this was the first release from Chauncey in more than 10 years, and personally I think this was our best work.  The entire EP was recorded over 6 days by our longtime friend/engineer/producer Ducky Carlisle (Ice Station Zebra Studio), and featured two tracks that were written (literally) the day before the first session at our old rehearsal space in Arlington, MA.  Once finished, what was left was a sound that I could only think of as quintessentially "Chauncey".  This also marked the first time that I had contributed a finished song to a Chauncey release (Let it Ride).

This is without a doubt the one release that I am the most proud (and fond) of.  Comprised of my former Chauncey bandmates Eliot Hunt (guitar, vocals) and Shawn Marquis (drums, vocals), ◦ ◦ ☆ was a project that we embarked upon in the wake of Chauncey with a singular goal: "just write".  We would show up every week and compose as a group without giving any thought to what would come after.  We dutifully arrived at our rehearsal space every Sunday morning to commence working.  Most weeks, we would walk in and someone would pitch a small idea - a groove, a riff, perhaps a melody - and by the end of the day we would have an arrangement of something that was beginning to sound more like a composition.  As time wore on, we would continue to refine the material by making incremental demo recordings (that would often result in rearrangement of the material).

This continued for about a year - at which point we had honed the material into 5 songs, all written, arranged, performed, recorded, produced, and mixed by the three of us together (with me doing the lion's share of the engineering work, and I capped off the effort by creating both the artwork and the website, as well).  We released it on my birthday in 2010 and played our first show.  Which was also unfortunately our last.  But thankfully not the last playing we would do.

This was my first recording ever with Session Americana.  The record was mostly done by the time that I had officially joined the band, but they were adamant that I have a presence on the record.  I had met with Ry previously to play him some demos/tracks of my own that I had been working on, and he zeroed in on "I Can't Get Out", a co-write I had done with my erstwhile bandmate Aaron Shadwell.  This would mark the first time I had ever sang lead on a recording for another group.  

Recorded in 2008 at Camp Street Studios with the great Paul Q. Kolderie (Pixies, Radiohead, Morphine), this record was also a marked departure from previous Session Americana records.  Gone was the intimate, purely acoustic feel - replaced with a bigger, fuller rock sound.  This was a trend that would continue for many records, which may have given birth to the group's tagline of "a rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle" (though I'm not sure the two are mutually exclusive).

The sophomore release for Chauncey was definitely our most ambitious.  Recorded in 2003-2004 at the tail end of the band's run, we had come to the decision that our next release had to make a bigger splash if we were going to continue on.  This eventually manifested as a producer - someone with a name to attach to the record.  A great many unreturned phone calls and emails later, we managed to find one: Steve Albini (Nirvana, The Pixies, Fugazi, et cetera, et cetera).

What ensued was a surreal experience.  We drove through the snow in January to Chicago and lived at Steve's palatial Electrical Audio studio on the north side.  We would wake in the late morning each day, eat, and then work until well into the next morning.  10 days later, we left thinking we were finished and played a string of shows all the way back to Boston.  As usually is the case, time passed and we decided the record was not quite done - and we went back to Chicago nearly a year later.  An incredulous Steve thought we were already making our next record - and was summarily unenthused that we were not (he stated he normally never took longer than a week to make an entire record, from tracking to final mixes).  We would eventually add a third session with Steve in Boston at Q Division to mix the record.  All told, 20 days - the longest I had ever spent on a single recording at that time.  And one I am enduringly proud of.