There's a rumor out there that Santa isn't real. This song will address that. Happy Holidays! Writen and recorded: Nov 2014

Interpret this song as you wish. The inspiration is a rash of door to door religion salesmen that plague my neighborhood. The conversations they try to engage me in made me ponder their motivation for grace.

I came up with the title after recording the song. It reminded me of the calm before a storm or the buildup to an event like a rocket taking off.

Written about a bout of writers block that struck in 2014, basically ending my attempt to complete RPM that year. The topic should be familiar to most of you.

I got a friend, his name is Tim, and he really likes donkey songs. Letter Seventeen on Mandolin, Banjo, Backing Vocals, Beer bottle, hoots n hollers...

This one went through many iterations before turning into what you hear. A key breakthrough came when I stumbled upon that keyboard part for the verses. That opened the whole thing up.

There is no reverb on any vox parts in this one. I loved how I was able to get the tone of the voices to have that mid-60s sound. This was aided by the fact I am running through an emulation of the Abbey Road mixing desk. ;)

No offense meant to my English friends. ;) I grew up there as a kid, so we have common cause. Anyway, this song is more about the struggle between the material and spiritual, doing the right thing when you are called upon, etc. Hope you enjoy!

As you may have picked up on, there's a lot this year about soldiering on when your world has been destroyed. So, this is a song of hope. Have faith, have faith...