Album Notes

One day in June, 2003 I called Sven Seaholm and asked him what it was going to take to get him to produce my record. I had talked to Sven about recording a follow-up to my first CD, "Unbelievable Unknown." Now I was finally ready to follow through, and I needed his help. He was instantly delighted at the idea for, I think, two reasons. First, it had been a few years since "Unbelievable Unknown," and it was indeed high time for me to put out the record everyone was waiting for. Secondly, Sven wanted to make the same type of album I was thinking about. While he liked "Unknown" he told me that it just didn't feel like a Dave Howard performance. He was right. When John Katchur and I embarked on the recording of "Unbelievable Unknown" we started with my solo performances and built overdubs on top of them. We approached each song as its own entity. What resulted was a multi-layered collage of each song. Often we had trouble finding or scheduling the right player for each part on each song. Even more often, I ran out of money to keep the project going. That record took two years and three credit cards to complete. I still love that album, but I knew as soon as I heard the master what the next one would sound like, and how it would be made. What Sven and I talked about for this record was to get a core group of players into the studio, sitting in a room with microphones and recording live. Sven told me to get prepared; to find the right players and start rehearsing and arranging, so that the sessions could be efficient and effective. I hadn't been working with a band, but I had an ensemble already put together in my head. Rewind. I met Peter Bolland, and later Marcia Staub at Twiggs Green Room in San Diego back in 1997. Peter and I had been playing circles around each other in San Diego's then-flourishing acoustic scene. I was astonished at how similar our styles were, particularly Peter's acoustic guitar playing. That first night we met, the club was completely empty, with the exception of John Ciccolella, Twiggs' entertainment director and Joel Siegfried, a local photographer, fan of singer-songwriters and web essayist. Peter and I traded a few songs back and forth while the two men sat and watched, and that began a mutual admiration that led to a few more tandem gigs. Fast forward to January 2003. Peter Bolland released his first full-length CD "Frame." I dug it instantly, especially Peter's stripped down approach to the songs; chunky acoustic guitar rhythms, sparse, pleading harmonies, a little lap steel guitar. Bass, drum, voice, heaven. That was the sound I was looking for, but live. After I got off the phone with Sven on that warm day in June, I called Peter and Marcia. I told them what I wanted to do, and that they were my first and only choice to record with. Fortunately for me dear reader, they were both about to have some time off, since they both work as educators. Serendipity. They were both excited to make the record and loved the songs. Schedules passed back and forth via e-mail and openings were found to allow for four rehearsals. Demo CDs were passed around to learn parts. The whole vibe was very easy-going and loose from the start. Recording sessions were booked for four days in mid-July. The next phone call was to Jeff Berkley, who was off to Texas for some Berkley-Hart shows. Jeff would indeed be in town on the days we booked with Sven. Awesome. Jeff and I have worked together for a long time, and he knew the songs as well as I did. No rehearsal necessary. "Here's the dates. Show up." Nucci is known to be one of San Diego's best drummers and we had talked several times about working together. Nucci was gigging with Berkley-Hart, so I asked Jeff if we could get him on the record. It turned out there was one day he could make it to the studio. There was one complication. Nucci is one of the hardest-hitting drummers in the business. The type of session we had planned would be totally overpo