1999
5-10 Compact Discs out of print

1. Ghost From December
2. My Dependent Sweet
3. Beg You To Be Here
4. Over Again
5. Dynamic Piano 2 Way
6. Dance For Me
7. Crazy Piano
8. If The World Would Let Me Live One More Night
9. The First Time
10. Sitting On Water (Peter and Ryan in Montauk)
11. She Wants To Know
12. I’m Not Your Friend
13. In The Middle
14. Li
15. Holiest Man (piano)
16. Holiest Man
17. I Will Walk Away Now, I Will Not Look Back
18. I Know Where You Are (thunderstorm recording)
Stage – live acoustic
19. Lake Morey Inn
20. The Scientist’s Canvas
21. Shaman
22. My People

If you own this copy you are surely a true fan. I made so few copies. At the time I was recording all of my ideas with a stereo microphone and a minidisk recorder. I must have had hundreds of ideas down but none that I would consider finished songs. My close friend Thom knew that I had all of these ideas just sitting there so one day he cornered me and sat me down to listen to as much as we could. His mission was to leave that day with a CD in his hand. Basically the songs you hear on this compilation of songs were all handpicked by my friend. I probably owed him a favor and this was my payback. He left my house with what he wanted and I was left with a collection of really honest songs that left a permanent mark in my idea of what is good. This was a pre-cursor to “Songs from The Eye Of An Elephant” because of its raw state and the idea that it was not meant to be an album.

Some of these songs found life years later like “I Know Where You Are” and “The First Time.” I remember the former vividly. I just wrote it and it must have been the first time that I was recording with this new technology of mine because it doesn’t sound that great. There was an incredible daytime thunderstorm going on so I sat near the open window and began to play. The blast that I heard still shakes my bones when I listen back. The timing was uncanny and it sounds planned in the pauses when listening back. I feel like the heavens were singing with me. “The First Time” was two verses at the time on the guitar but it sounded very sweet. It actually caught the attention of a movie director and was placed in a film with Courtney Love called “Julie Johnson.” I have never seen the film. Both songs became contenders for the Maverick album years later. “I Know Where You Are” made it and I feel the band gave the song a proper debut. It is a favorite of mine.

The Stage songs that went on were recorded live at the Borders bookstore in Syosset, New York. Justin worked there and got us to play. It was one of the best Stage shows that I can ever remember. Often when we played acoustic we felt that it was a more memorable performance. None of us will ever know why and as a band we continued to make the kind of rock music that we did but I am sure we all wonder what it could have been. “My People” was our oldest song that we still played, it was from the time with our original drummer. It was never recorded but I loved playing it live. The lyrics expressed my feelings about being the sober one at a house of high school kids that play music and hang out with the band. “My friends say I’m gonna get you high. My people dance and then they die. My people, my people.” This particular version was great because we jammed into “Mother” by Danzig and Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Dianna,” a song that my siblings and I used to rock out to in front of my older sister’s mirror. It was a great moment for my family when we went down to Disney World one year and got the chance to make one of those cheesy music videos to the classic MJ song.