Back in September 11, 1992 Hurricane Iniki barreled into my home island, Kauai, in Hawaii, with winds up to 150 miles per hour. Several friends and I hunkered down in a 95% completed house I was about to start care-taking on the north shore in Kilauea, above Secret Beach. We locked ourselves in a couple of closets with food, blankets, pillows, candles, flashlights and a rope fastened tightly to the inside door handle in case the wind tore through the house and attempted to reach out and snatch us up. After a couple of hours of what sounded like bombs detonating nearby we ventured into the still-standing living room during the relative stillness of the eye of the hurricane just in time to see the mostly glass sliding doors vibrating like the woofer of a stereo speaker and then watched in utter awe and horror as the ravaging winds tore off the roof of our nearest neighbors house a couple of hundred yards west of us and carried it up and out over some tall ironwood trees towards the boiling ocean.

We survived as did the house, mostly, but many of our island neighbors did not fare so well. There was much devastation to put it mildly. Over the course of several months the water and electricity got turned back on and the long time process of rebuilding had begun but our lives had changed one way or another, some for the negative and some for the positive. In the aftermath I began writing down notes on what I was witnessing and what my friends and others were going through both emotionally, mentally and physically during this elongated time of healing and change. After six months or so my longtime buddy and co-writer from Oahu, Bryan Kessler flew over to Kauai and we began writing the music for After The Storm. After a few such visits we recorded a demo on my new Alesis ADAT, one of the first 8-track digital home recorders available at the time. We had Michael Ruff drop in and add his amazing piano parts and both Bryan and I played electric guitars. In 1993 Bryan and his then wildly popular and groundbreaking super group Hawaiian Style Band recorded the song on their Rhythm Of The Ocean album. Our original demo version recording made it onto my 2009 Best of Unreleased Demos CD for download only called Brooklyn Boy In Paradise.

Late in 2020 I was searching my archives for another hidden gem to record for my upcoming 7th album - The Journey - and I remembered After The Storm. I'd always held a special place in my heart for that song. I find it's always a good idea to look back and see if a song is ready to see the light of day after years go by. And this one stood out especially in light of the recent devastating fires in California and also the world-wide pandemic I felt the song had more meanings now than just a hurricane and concluded it was timely and ready for it's moment.

Since Bryan was my co-writer I asked him if he was interested in coming up with a new arrangement for it for the new album but he just couldn't get fired up to yet again record this song after having worked on the original 1992 demo and his bands 1993 album cut. Not dissuaded I contacted Mike Ruff and asked him if he wanted to tackle the tune. He replied he'd love to as he's always loved the tune. Within a week he fired back all kinds of astounding keyboard, drum and bass parts. I flipped over the sparkling and spanking new Ruff arrangement. Following that I recorded my new vocals with a few lyric changes to reflect the current zeitgeist then sent the tracks to master bassist Jimmy Johnson for his always amazing bass parts. Bryan didn't feel up to recording guitar on the track but suggested we approach someone else this time and we agreed upon well regarded session ace Michael Landau who asked us to send him the track as is to check out. After listening to the track he replied to the affirmative and wanted to come on board especially as he was in the Steve Gadd band with Jimmy Johnson and loved Keith Carlock and Michael Ruff's playing as well. We sent him the tracks and within days he returned the tracks with his astonishing guitars parts. We were overjoyed. Next Olivia Ruff added her unique and ultra sweet backing vocals, then we sent the whole shebang to Keith Carlock for his deep deep pocket drum parts. And there you have it; the resurrection of a 29 year old composition brought back to life after patiently waiting on the back shelf of the AT archives. Enjoy...