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The Island

by Allan Thomas

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1.
HOLD ON TIGHTLY words & music - Allan Thomas music - Bryan Kessler Our World Is Filled With Mystery 
Makes You Think About It All 
Why Do Some Have Luck
 And Some Have None At All There's People Going Through Such Changes
 Just To Make It Though The Day
 Make's You Wonder If There Is Another Way Hold On Tightly
 Hold On Tightly
 Our World Keeps Spinning Out Of Control
 We've Just Got To Just Hold On Seems Like Every Kind Of Sadness
 Is Knocking On The Door
 Spread Of Deadly Sickness 
Threat Of Nuclear War 
Millions Of People Starving
 While We Conquer Outer Space
 Don't It Make You Question 
The Human Race

 Hold On Tightly
 Hold On Tightly
 Our World Just Keeps Spinning Out Of Control
 And We've got to Just Hold On 
Hold On
 Hold On Tightly It's A Time Of Indecision 
A Time Of Great Deceit
 A Crazy Moment In History
 People Sleeping In The Street
 Men Are Causing Grief And Terror
 Till The World Seems Cold And Unkind
 And If You Lose Your Sense Of Humor
 You Will Surely Lose Your Mind Hold On Tightly Hold On Tightly Our World Just Keeps Spinning Out Of Control
 We've Got To Just Hold On We've Got To Just Hold On
 Hold On Tightly
 Hold On Tightly
 Our World Just Keeps Spinning Out of Control
 And we've Got To Just Hold On
 © 1989 Bkack Bamboo Music - BMI Bryan Kessler Music - ASCAP
2.
OUR LITTLE SECRET words and music - Allan Thomas & Bobby David 
 I Know You've Got Somebody
 Keeping Tabs On You
 But He Could Never Love You
 The Way I'm Gonna Do 
Promise Not To Tell A Soul 
A Single Word I Say
 Meet Me By The Riverside
 When The Daylight Slips Away It Can Be Our Little Secret
 No One Has To Know
But You And I
 Our Little Secret
 But Only If We Keep It 
Our Little Secret I Know It's Risky Business 
To See You On The Sly
 So We Have To Cover Our Tracks
 With An Ironclad Alibi
 I Won't Take No For An Answer
 Here's What We're Gonna Do
 Take A Vow Of Secrecy
 Just Between Me And You Gonna Be Our Little Secret
 No One Has To Know But You And I
 Our Little Secret
 But Only If We Keep It 
Our Little Secret
 I Want To Fulfill Your Wildest Desire
 But Gossip Spreads Like A Wind Blown Fire
 Gotta Be Our Little Secret
 No One Has To Know But You And I
 Our Little Secret
 But Only If We Keep It
 Our Little Secret © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI - Bobby David Music - BMI
3.
ACROSS BLUE WATER Words and Music: Bryan Kessler & Allan Thomas Across Blue Water 
She's Gone Across Blue Water
 My Life Has Been That Color 
Since I Lost Her
 I Keep Staring At The Edge Of The Sea
 Long Is The Distance In Miles Apart
 Take Some Time To Heal This Heart
 So Wander To The Seashore In A Daze
 Trying To Soothe These Tired Eyes I Gaze
 Across Blue Water
 She Sailed Across Blue Water
 On A Solo Passage To A Distance Shore
 I Guess She Needed More Than Me
 Long Are The Empty Nights Alone
 Endless Thoughts Silent Phone
 What'll It Take For Me To See
 That She Is Gone
 Begin My Life Again And Go On
 I Don't Believe Someone Else Could Satisfy
 This Hungry Heart Of Mine Across Blue Water
 She's Gone Across Blue Water
 My Life Has Been That Color 
Since I Lost Her
 I Keep Staring At The Edge Of The Sea
 Knowing She's Not Coming Home To Me
 Across Blue Water
 I May Never See You Again 
I Keep Looking Over The Horizon 
But You're Not There ©1989 Bryan Kessler Music - ASCAP Black Bamboo Music - BMI
4.
WindRider 05:30
WINDRIDER words & music Allan Thomas 
music: Bryan Kessler 
 Get Up In The Morning 
First Thing I Do
 Call The Weather Man
 What Is The Wind Up To
 Northeasterly Trades 
Gust To Thirty-Five
 Six Foot Hawaiian Swell
 Clear And Sunny Sky I'm A WindRider
 Windrider
 I'm A Windrider
 Windrider I Rush Down To The Water
Drop Everything And Go
 Watching For Signs
 That The Wind Is Going To Blow
 I See Spray On The White Caps
 The Bending Of Trees 
It's Blasting The Sand
Up To My Knees 
 I'm A WindRider
 Windrider
 I'm A Windrider
 Windrider I'm Riding The Waves 
Like Never Before
 It Quickens By Blood
 To Be Out Here Once More
 Liquid Rolling Mountains
 Far As I Can See
 And The Howling Wind 
My Sailboard And Me I'm A WindRider
 Windrider
 I'm A Windrider
 Duck Jibing On The Face
 Doing Aerials Off The Lip
 Hanging On By My Foot Straps 
Booms Tight In My Grip
 Got The Speed And The Motion
 How Can I Resist
 There is Only One Thing 
Better Than This I'm A WindRider
 Windrider
 Windrider
 Windrider My Back Against The Wind
 Takes My Mind Off Everything
 White Water All Around Me
 With The Creatures of The Sea
 In Perfect Solitude
 That's All I Wanna Do
 Till My Body Cries Out For Rest
 Till I Can't Hold The Mast
 Sailing, My Back Against The Wind
 Surf Sailing
 Sailing, White Water All Around Me
 Surf Sailing Takes My Mind Off Everything
 I'm A Windrider © 1989 Black Bamboo Music BMI Bryan Kessler Music ASCAP
5.
The Island 05:06
THE ISLAND words and music - Allan Thomas
 music - Bryan Kessler Early Morning Golden Sunrise
 Fishermen On the Shore
 Something 'Bout This Kinda Life
 You Love It More and More You Live Like There's No Tomorrow
 On The Island
 You See Double Rainbows
 Multi-Colored Skies
 On The Island Walking Beside A River Ginger And Bamboo
 Thinkin 'Bout The Vast Pacific And How It Surrounds You
 Nowhere Else On Earth
 I Would Rather Be
 Than On The Island
 Waves, Waterfalls
 You Never Forget 
The Island Mongoose, Mango, Coconut Tree
 Fresh Fish From The Ocean 
Man That's The Life For Me 
Ever Changing Weather
 Constant Sound Of Sea
 Meeting The Island
 And When It Rains
 It's Like Percussion On Tin Roof
 On The Island
 There's At Least A Million Things 
You And I Could Do You Could Catch The Plane At Dawn
 Baby I'd Come Meet You
 We Could Leave Our Differences
 Stranded At The Gate
 Of The Island
 We Could Lose Ourselves
 In The Earthly Paradise
 Of The Island © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI Bryan Kessler Music - ASCAP
6.
NO WIN SITUATION words & music - Allan Thomas music - Bryan Kessler She Aroused My Curiosity That Cool Sultry Smile Stirred Up My Imagination Thoughts I Hadn't Known In A While Enchanting, Mysterious Beguiling And Aloof With An Air Of Sensuality Lips A Hundred Proof It's A No Win Situation Trouble In The First Degree An Over Night Sensation In The Morning It's History A No Win Situation Over From the Start Only Leads to One Sure Thing Someone's Broken Heart She Could Be Insatiable, Provocative Calculating Or Cruel And She Believes I'm Desperately Eager And Easily Fooled Cagy And Unpredictable Insistent On A Clandestine Affair Why am I Always In The Same Scenario Destination Nowhere Another No Win Situation Trouble In The First Degree Everything That I Don't Want Happening To Me A No Win Situation Over From The Start Only Leads To One Sure Thing Another Broken Heart No Win She's Already Got Too Many Other Men No Win Situation It's Just A No Win Situation Trouble In The First Degree An Over Night Sensation In The Morning It's History A No Win Situation Over From The Start Only Leads To One Sure Thing Someone's Broken Heart No Win Situation No Win Situation © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI Bryan Kessler Music - ASCAP
7.
Yes Or No 04:41
Yes Or No words & music - Allan Thomas 
 First It's Kisses Every Opportunity
 Then It's Music Everywhere
 Pretty Soon You Don't Know What It Is
 But It's Got You In It's Snare You Became Like Some Vintage Wine
 Had Me Intoxicated All The Time
 Took Me To Places Outside This Kingdom
 Took Me Till Now To Read Your Mind If You Want Me, Show Me
 If You Don't, I'm Down The Road
 I Can Take Anything But This Not Knowing
 Is It Yes Or No? 
 This Whole Love Game
 Get's Way Too Serious
 When You Lose The Laughter 
And Find The Pain
 Why On Earth Would Anybody
 Want To Go Through This Again If You Love Me 
Better Show Me
 If You Don't
 Honey I'm Down The Road
 A Man Can Take Anything 
But This Not Knowing
 Yes Or No? 
Yes Or No? First It's Kisses Every Opportunity
 Then It's Music Everywhere
 Pretty Soon You Don't Know What It Is
 But It's Got You In It's Snare If You Want Me
 Show Me
 If You Don't I'm Down The Road
 I Can Take Anything But This Not Knowing
 Is It Yes Or No?
 Yes 
Say Yes 
Won't You Give Me A Yes Or No? © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI
8.
IN MY AUTOMOBILE words & music - Allan Thomas 
 Black On Black Chrome And Steel
 European Suspension And Mag Wheels
 Corners Like A Dream Power To Spare
 Come On Baby Cakes We're Gonna Drive Somewhere Let's Take A Ride Tonight In My Automobile
 How 'Bout A Ride Tonight I've Got To Show You How It Feels Pop Top, Four Speed Sit Closer To Me
 Listen To The Sound On My CD
 Music, Stars, Moon Up Above
 I Know A Secret Place
 Where We Can Stop And Make Love Let's Take A Ride Tonight In My Automobile
 A Ride Tonight I've Got To Show You How It Feels Bought Insurance And A Paint Job
 Living Way Beyond My Means
 Workin' Two Jobs To Keep
 The Ultimate Driving Machine Pistons Pumping, Engine Whine
 I'm In Auto Buff Heaven
 When The Road Is All Mine Let's Take A Ride Tonight In My Automobile
 Come On Baby I Really Must Show You How It Feels She's A Halogen Headed Dragon Two Thousand CC
 I'm Accelerating Better Hold On To Me
 Lambskin And Leather The Seats Slide Way Down
 Bet We Could Find An Angle That's Never Been Found Let's Take A Ride Tonight In My Automobile
 A Ride Tonight I Wanna Show You How It Feels Let's Take A Ride Tonight In My Automobile
 You Gonna Love How It Feels In My Automobile © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI
9.
Love Or Something Like It music by Allan Thomas © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI
10.
KINDRED SPIRITS words & music - Allan Thomas
 music - Bryan Kessler Tall Man Running Down The Road
 Got A Different Colored Skin
 And If You Look Beyond The Images
 We're All The Same Within Don't Matter Your Religion 
Your County Or Belief
 Gotta Learn To Share The World We Live In
 Stop Causing So Much Grief Kindred Spirits
That's What We Are Kindred Spirits Man's Obsessed With Power
 He Keeps Grasping For More
 And The Killing Never Ceases
 War After Bloody War People Say Be just Patient
 But It's Been Too Many Years
 What's It Gonna Take For Us To Realize
 Nothing But Ourselves To Fear Kindred Spirits
That's What We Are
 Kindred Spirits Kindred Spirits
 That's What We Are
 Kindred Spirits
 Kindred Spirits 
That's What We Are
 Kindred Spirits
 Look At It In Your Own Perspective
 As You Perceive So It Becomes
 Why Not Envision Something Truly Ironic A Brotherhood Of Everyone Inhabitants Of The Same Star Maybe This Is Pure Folly
 The Dream Of A Wistful Mind A Prayer For The Creatures 
Of The Earth And Ocean
 And The Creature Called Mankind Kindred Spirits
That's What We Are
 Kindred Spirits
 © 1989 Black Bamboo Music - BMI Bryan Kessler Music - ASCAP

about

Produced & mixed by Stephen Barncard (Grateful Dead, David Crosby, Crosby Stills and Nash)

Allan Thomas - vocals & rhythm guitar
Bryan Kessler - rhythm guitar & amazing riffs
Michael Ruff - keyboards & live arrangements
Cliff Hugo - bass
Rick Shlosser - drums
Zeke Zirngiebel - left-handed lead guitar & slide guitar
Russell Ferrante - keyboards
Judd Miller - Electronic Wind Instrument
Backing vocals - Valerie Carter - Michael Ruff - Joe Turano - Leslie Smith - Nancy Shanks - Allan Thomas


By 1987 I had been living on Kauai, for about four years. My long-time buddy and musical sidekick Bryan Kessler lived on Oahu. We would island hop every so often to have writing sessions and record demos of our new tunes. Despite all the episodes of my recent left-of-field life in Hawaii, I never stopped songwriting. I never stopped wanting to make a record. Not a big over-blown commercial venture as such, more like an art venture. To record without the confines of a record company dictating what kind of songs to record, or the kind of arrangements the songs should have. An opportunity to lay some of my legacy down for the ages - or at least for my nieces and nephews.

Since I didn’t have a record deal anyway, I was on my own and could produce whatever the hell I wanted, which suited me just fine. I had saved some money and borrowed some more then flew to Los Angeles with the idea of recording two of the new songs for a music video. The songs were two AT/BK co-writes: ‘Across Blue Water’, and ‘WindRider’.

The first thing I did upon reaching L.A. was to look up my old friend, record producer and engineer, Stephen Barncard. At the time he was senior engineer at A&M studios in Hollywood, one of the top recording studios in town. He was someone I knew I could trust for an honest critical opinion, and someone whose work I respected greatly. He had produced some classic records with David Crosby and Graham Nash, the Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, and a long list of other well-known and not well-known artists.

In the mid-seventies I worked with Barncard when he hired my first wife Carole Cook and I for back up vocals on a record he was producing for the devotional rock/soul band Jiva. Steve had also produced and engineered all my demos of the 1980 - 1982 period. He was someone who was creative in the studio, relaxed, and easy to get along with, with a great sense of humor, and a keen sense of direction. He knew how to get a great sound out of any instrument, especially acoustic guitar and vocal, and had a way of creating an environment in the studio that gave the band the optimum conditions for recording.

We worked well together, and always managed to capture the essence of the song being recorded. All the musicians had to do was concentrate on the groove; he’d take care of the rest. I knew that choosing the right producer was the key to everything, and as far as I was concerned he was the man for the helm.

Steve dug the tunes, and suggested that we might as well record four instead of just the two. So we picked two more songs out of the newer material, ‘Hold On Tightly’, which Bryan and I had just finished writing, and ‘Our Little Secret’.

I thought it might help keep things in the studio flowing if I had chord charts for the tunes, so I paid a visit to the well reguarded LA jazz guitarist Jeff Richmond, and asked him to write chord charts for the songs. Since I didn't know the names of half the chords I played, I knew Jeff could figure them out pretty easily.

Bryan flew into L.A. for the recording date. It was good to have him in the band as he not only co-written six of the tunes, but had played his unique brand of melodic rhythm/lead guitar on all the demos we recorded at his Top Flight Studios in Honolulu. The bassist I had originally wanted was Armando Compean, an old Santa Monica friend and great player who had played on all my previous demos. He also held the bass chair in the Santa Monica Bay Band when we were playing clubs and songwriter showcases in the early eighties. Armando couldn't make the session, but he recommended Cliff Hugo to us.

I had already met and heard Cliff a few years back when I still lived in Southern Cal. He had played with a lot of artists including Ray Charles, and local blues guitarist Kal David. Cliff was a great cat, good fun to be around, and a remarkable bass player. He suggested his pal Rick Schlosser as drummer. This was a boon as he was a great drummer whom I had known about from his recording work with James Taylor and Nicolette Larson. Rick’s all-ears approach to playing behind singer/songwriter vocalists made me feel easy about working with him, plus whenever you have a bassist and drummer that are already married, as it were, it makes things go that much smoother. These two guys could really lock into each other’s groove. And thus we had the basic rhythm section.

Barncard asked his bud Zeke Zirngiebel to play lead and slide guitar. Zeke had played and recorded with Warren Zeon and Tower of Power, and was a zany individual with a wacky sense of humor and a smoking guitar. Bryan and I would play the rhythm guitars. Michael Ruff was our first choice as keyboard player, and Denise Kauffman, a musician friend from Kauai, who knew him, asked him if he wanted to record with us. When Ruff heard we were from the islands he immediately agreed to meet us at the studio. He turned out to be not only a major part of the record, providing head arrangements and fun musical ideas throughout, but also a long-time friend, music collaborator, and fellow Kauaian.

Now we had the four songs, a producer, and a band, so I booked studio time at 4th Street Recording in Santa Monica, my old stomping grounds. 4th Street was a studio Stephen Barncard had helped put together, and one I was quite familiar with, having recorded my earlier demos there when it was known as the Sound Solution Studios. It was also just a couple of blocks from the ocean, which was especially comforting, now that the beach was in my blood, and the island in my bones.

The tracking sessions went way beyond anything I could have imagined, with these great players spontaneously riffing off each other as if they'd played together for years, like pieces of a puzzle just falling into place. Michael Ruff's 'live in the studio' arrangements helped galvanize the band, and the songs began to take shape. We tracked live and played each tune no more than three or four times, keeping it sounding fresh.

When the tracking and overdubbing were done it was obvious that we had something very special going on. I wanted it to continue somehow, so I scotched the idea of doing a two-song music video and decided we had to make a full-blown album instead. With this in mind Bryan and I went back to Hawaii and wrote another six or seven songs in a six- month period.

This group of tunes included the title track ‘The Island’, ‘No Win Situation’, ‘Kindred Spirits’, ‘In My Automobile’, and the instrumental ‘Love or Something Like It’. ‘Yes or No’ ended up in the second group of sessions as well.

Six months after the first recording dates Bryan and I went back to L.A. for the second round of tracking sessions. Michael Ruff wasn't able to make one of the dates, but was able to recruit Yellowjackets keyboard player and composer Russell Ferrante to take his place. Once again the gods were smiling. Bryan and I were big Yellowjackets fans and loved Russell’s playing. We were honored and stoked to have him be a part of the record.

As it turned out, on the tracking session for ‘Love Or Something Like It’ and ‘No Win Situation’, we had both Michael Ruff and Russell Ferrante show up, so we had two monster pianists playing at the same time. Scary. The colors, textures, and rhythms the band came up with were out of this world. There were inspired moments of jazz, rock, blues, and passages of music we couldn't put a name to.

I was in recording heaven, and in three days we had tracked eight songs. We took a break for a couple of days to get some perspective, and then began overdubbing.

For this second group of sessions for 'The Island' were able to get Judd Miller in to do overdubs on several songs. He played his EWI (electronic-wind instrument) or trumpet-synth, and came up with some cool parts and sounds, including muted trumpet, flute, soprano sax, and a Toots Theilmans like chromatic harmonica. Judd had worked with a lot of great jazz players including tenor sax player Michael Brecker, and had recorded tons of music for film and TV. He was a nice cat and a good listener with excellent ideas.

Steve Barncard asked Valerie Carter to sing harmony with me on the chorus of ‘No Win Situation’, and that was a major treat. Valerie is known in the music world as a ‘singers singer’, she has that soulful sound in her voice and it really worked well with mine. As a soloist she worked with Little Feat's Lowell George, and she's also sung back-up vocals for Jackson Browne and James Taylor. Man, was I in good company. Michael Ruff, Leslie Smith, Joe Turano, Nancy Shanks and I sang the backing parts on the rest of the tunes.

We recorded the second group of sessions in Hollywood at Cherokee Sound, with A&M engineer and all-around great cat Mike Morongell recording us, and Barncard producing; a phenomenal experience for me, as always. To be able to record your songs with great players and a good producer and engineer, has to be the highest experience a singer songwriter can have, and it was dumb luck or good fortune that all the right elements came together for me at the right time.

I also felt lucky to record some of my vocal overdubs at the legendary A&M studios, a great classic studio where I felt really comfortable, as a result of having hung out there with Barncard on numerous occasions. It originally was Charlie Chaplin’s film studio. Steve and I smoked many a bone in the concrete labyrinth back lot environs plotting our eventual musical world-wide dominance.

Bryan and I went back to Hawaii, while Steve hired a couple of music business “deal-makers” to try to get ‘The Island’ a label deal. After about a year, of little or no response, we started Black Bamboo Recordings, our own label. If someone else didn't want to release this record then I would find a way. The idea of using Black Bamboo as a recording label name came from a lithograph of a stand of black bamboo hanging in my house in Haena. When I actually saw some real black bamboo growing here I knew that was the icon I was looking for.

Who doesn't love going into bamboo forests and just listening to the sound as the wind blows the stalks and leaves, very soothing. Bamboo is the fastest growing grass in the world, sometimes growing a foot a day! Also it's strong, flexible, and resilient, everything an artist and record label had to be to survive in the dog-eat-dog record world. Though much less so today.

There was no record distribution set up for ‘The Island’, but hanging out at A&M studios in Steve’s back room, I'd read the record and radio trade magazines to see what radio stations might spin music like mine. There was a new catagory for music such as this called New Adult Contemporary. Checking out which artists I most sounded like that were already getting played, I picked about thirty radio stations and mailed them ‘The Island’ CD’s. I then followed up a few weeks later with phone call after phone call to see if they had listened or played the record, and found to my surprise that most of them were playing it, and they were playing several different tracks as well!

Now I had become my own record promoter, but it was something that was best left to professionals. I didn't want to promote my own music at all, but someone had to at least try to get the music out there. Since I had gone through all the effort and expense of making an album, why stop there. I hired the savvy promotion man Cliff Gorov to continue promoting the album. He then mailed out a couple of hundred copies of the record to more radio stations across the country. I closely followed the radio trade mags each week, and saw ‘The Island’ being added to new stations daily.

After about two months ‘The Island was playing on about 150 stations around the country. It had climbed up the New Adult Contemporary charts to #29 in one magazine, and #49 in another. This was such great news. But I soon realized what good would it do to have the record playing on radio stations if the people listening couldn’t buy it? Shit even one more hurdle to get over.

Since I had gotten the runaround from the record distributors, who didn't want to distribute the CD until it received radio play - but when it did get radio play it was already too late for the distributers to get them into the stores. Classic no-win situation. They probably just didn't want to deal with an independant label owned by the artist, whatever, I had to put the ball in my own court and try to get the record in the stores myself. This was a tough job and was frustrating at every turn, but I still went at it for a solid two months, calling all the record stores in whatever state or city my record was being played in making sure to get those records in them stores on the off-chance someone would hear it and actually buy it. This was not my idea of fun. Windsurfing was closer to what I would have rather been doing, but you only get so many chances in life to make your art available to more than just the folks in your town, so I hung on the mainland and worked until I was over it and the record had to go on whatever steam it had and I then had to try to figure out how to get paid by all those stores out there from Alaska to Boston.

After all was said and done I sold about seven thousand copies of ‘The Island’, and to this day people still buy it from me on-line and when I gig. But more than that ‘The Island’ remains a living testimony to the good fun, hard work, and sweat that went into it. The title track is still getting airplay in Honolulu now, some 20 years later. And I thank my long-time partner Bryan Kessler, and my producer and good friend Stephen Barncard to thank for their not small contribution.

One of the coolest experiences for a recording artist - of whatever stature - surely has to be hearing one of your songs being played on the radio. I heard tracks from ‘The Island’ being played in Los Angeles, Taos New Mexico, Nashville Tennessee, and in Hawaii. Had to pull over each time and just take it in.

United Airlines also added ‘The Island’ to it’s on-board music selection for years, and I would get reports from friends of hearing the song all over the world. My mother had a great surprise on one flight when upon hearing my song being played on the planes sound system she exclaimed, “That’s my son singing!” like a typically proud mom.

For a recording artist/songwriter to know his songs have been heard by a few people around the world - regardless of how much money is made or not made, or the number of albums you sell, or don't sell - is what we thrive on. You can’t define it, yet it means everything.


§ There were two other songs I had written for ‘The Island’, that we tracked, but did not use. ‘Class of ‘65’ was a song about graduating from high school in 1965, growing up in the 60’s, and the kind of music we were listening to at the time; like Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson, Aretha and more. But it didn’t make the final cut. Sometimes I play the track we recorded, and I still get a good kick out it.

The other song that didn’t make the record was called ‘All Day All Night Love’ which just needed more work, and we recorded it too slow. Russell Ferrante played keyboards on it, and came up with a nice Caribbean/Reggae feel for it, but we left it out in the end. Better to have ten strong songs than ten good ones and two okay songs.

This recording is in memory of Carl Thomas and Rhonda Lynn Jerald.

Producers notes: Much of this music was created "live" in the studio with as many of the players participating simultaniously as possible, and overdubs were kept to a minimum. All of the tracking dates tended to be more performance than recording session and live recording techniques were used. The signal path on all audio inputs was intentionally kept as short as possible and EQ and limiting used only where really needed. Recorded Analog 48 track, 30 ips on Ampex 456 tape, mixed to Analog 1/2" 30 ips two-track tape and digitally edited and mastered back to 1630 format using the Sonic Solutions system. What you hear, thanks to the no-generation-loss feature of Digital Recording, is the original two-track master tape. Although it might have been prudent recording everything from the start as Digital, the Producer feels that a hybrid of Analog and Digital recording techniques provide the best recording possible.

credits

released December 31, 1989

Recording engineers - Mike Morongell - Kieth Wechler

Assistant engineers - Mike Bosley - Jay Lean - Scott Gordon - Richard Jallis

Art direction and layout - George Gruel
Back cover art 'Makana' - Thomas Christian Wolfe
Photography - Dane Warner
Charts - Jeff Richman
Lyric transcription - Becky Swan

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Allan Thomas Hanalei, Hawaii

Aloha and welcome to my Bandcamp Music Store home page. Here you can listen to full-length samples of all seven Allan Thomas albums and three singles. Also to be found are credits, photos, stories and lyrics for all songs. Dig in...

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