About the song:

In 1980 I still had my $275 a month beach cottage in Point Dume, Malibu. Through pure luck and happenstance I met the bewitching Stephanie. She was a soulful lady with the warmest smile imaginable. We knew right from the beginning that chapter one would be of short duration, as she had plans for returning to Europe. Needing a little more research and developement for this song I caught up with her in England later on in the year.

My dalliance with bossa grooves goes back to the early seventies after friend and guitar mentor Bob Cardwell turned me on to Brasilian guitarist Baden Powell. Powell's nylon string playing really touched something in me and I wanted to be able to play those syncopated rhythms and rich colorful chord patterns. This music left an imprint and I was as bewticthed as many of the American jazz cats were. Soon I would learn about Jobim, Joao and Nacimiento and the many other younger cats. So here we have my acoustic on the right side, finger-picking some parts and then plucking those bossa rhythms that I hope would do the Brasil boys justice.


About the recording:

At this time I was gigging solo, but would occasionally put together an outfit I called Allan Thomas and the Santa Monica Bay Band for special gigs, recording sessions and songwriter showcases. The players were mainly Pete Wasner keyboards, Armondo Compean bass, Brian Kessler lead guitar, and Mike Buono Drums. David Anderson played some lead guitar and backing vocals as well from time to time, as did backing vocalist Michael Lanning, percussionist Mike Turner, drummers Lee Spath and Don Heffington, alto player Jim Coile, and tenor man David Woodford. 

On this 1980 four song session Mike Buono played drums, Pete Wasner played Fender Rhodes piano, Armondo Compean was on bass, and I played my 1970 Gurian jumbo acoustic guitar. This guitar was made at 100 Grand Street in lower Manhattan by Michael Gurian and co. and given to me by Sire Records as part of an advance against future royalties of my would-be platinum selling LP 'A Picture' which was released in 1971. I loved that axe and always dug the way Barncard captured the sound of acoustic guitar from way back with his work with Crosby et al.

I was stationed in a vocal booth for this live session, with the acoustic mic'd by a Neumann U87, but had eye contact with the band through the glass door window. I believe we tracked with no vocal and I came in later for a vocal session. We rehearsed the tunes in the studio as Barncard got sounds, then started laying them down, - probably no more than three or four takes on a tune. It was always good fun to sing and play it live with the band, but when I had to record guitar and sing at the same time I really did enjoy the freedom of going back later and separately nailing my vocal or guitar parts and concentrate on that one thing only, instead of trying to lead the band through the tune, play the guitar in the pocket, and sing an in-tune keeper vocal all at once. That said, what a band, and with Stephen taking care of all the techno stuff and guiding us with good take suggestions we probably did four songs in three hours. These guys were all bud's of mine and each other so it was always calm and relaxed and most importantly fun. 

§: About the equipment at Sound Solution, in Barncard's words: "The Sound Solution in 1980 had exactly the same equipment that was at my 785 Beverly Glen home studio; my home-made 12 input console using Teac 100 modules in a 26 input frame and my own summing amps. The recorder was the monster One Inch Scully 8 track. No doubt the vocal mic was either the Neuman 87 or the Shure SM7. Echo was from a cheesy hammond spring doubled up for a longer time constant. 

David Epstein was a mover and shaker in Santa Monica with a studio with no equipment and when I started work for Elektra Records, he made an offer for all my gear in return for a key to his studio and $8000. This is the same gear that I used to record Chet Nichols, Sherry Fox, Jiva, Jiva's More Grace. David Lewis, RJ Fox, Kim Calkins, Cormack And Ross, Bob Lennox, Curtis Coleman, Louise Goffin and many others. The Scully Eight track was the machine that I took for payment of the construction of Bob Weir's studio in Mill Valley."