"Video Games" is the oldest recording in this collection. It was written in Aug. of 1981. "Pong" was a very big deal in the video game world and people were saying pinball was dead (they were also saying disco was dead but I was way more concerned about pinball) pinball is very important. I was asked by a parent to vacuum a rug in the den of the San Francisco pad we lived in. While I was doing this chore the song leapt into my brain. Nothing I could do about it. I figured it was stupid but sort of made fun of the new gizmo. It wound up being the only song anyone wanted me to sing for about two years. I even sang it for a couple of hours...over and over... in J.C. Penney's, Paradise Valley Mall, Az. to promote a sale on video games. I think the choice was sing the song or do inventory. I worked in retail at the time. The recording is from the very first multi track recording I ever did.

"Outlaw Willy Brown" must have been inspired by a movie. It was recorded in the same session as "Country Store", and "Blooming Grove Valley". These songs were cut from a session made for Graffiti. The other songs from this session were "Looking Down" and "Johnny Chrome Engine" - those songs fit onto Graffiti and are still there. "Country Store" is about a store around the Russian River. When I was young I was taken there and I remember how home like this little store was. Dobins CA. gave me this feeling when I went to a friend's relatives for the weekend. They lived in a trailer park and everyone knew each other. I was in 6th grade. This flows right into "Blooming Grove Valley".

Blooming Grove Valley is about real friendship. It is forever green. It has something to do with youth... "When The Moon Slips Under The Sky" was written in a 12th grade Earth Science Class. My mind was not on the subject for some reason. "As The Eagle Cries" was written in 1981 and I thought it was my best song for a long time. It was used ( without my knowing it ) for the closing of a PBS T.V. show on Democrats in the early '80s.

"Passing Through" was my closing song for many 1983/1984 gigs. Like many of these songs, I just stopped performing it. I started playing this one again in 1993 and it is on Hey Baby. Bourne Music offered me a contract for "Arc Of The Rainbow". I turned them down to go with Buried Treasure Music. "Moon Slips" and "Arc" are both published by Scott Turner's company.

"Grady The Clown" is something I still wonder about. When I was 19 I tried to join the circus and they said they weren't hiring. I'm still like Grady in many ways. "Broken Windows" is one of those songs that would not even exist if I didn't record it right away. Will Bluefield had influenced my writing and this was my version of his song "Somewhere In The Middle" which I loved but he didn't like to play. I couldn't use his theme but the feeling is kind of the same.