The Last Day Of Summer

The NYC-based rock musician has recruited a who's who of famed rock musician friends for this effort, including Dave Stewart, Earl Slick, Duff McKagan, and members of Paul Weller's band and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. "During early days of the pandemic, with not much else to do, I began to write. The first song that came was "Heartbreak." I was excited. I knew I had something special. I'd been chatting - as we all were - via text and FaceTime and (eventually) Zoom, with friends around the globe. My pal Ben Gordelier, Paul Weller's drummer, was excited by the simple demo I'd recorded, and offered to add some drums. It brought the track to life. I'd already enlisted Eric Lichter to be the producer on whatever my next project might be, so he was on board. As was my ever-present musical compadre Earl Slick. "I heard it once, and I knew exactly what you wanted, and what it needed," he told me. Jordan Summers, my keyboardist pal, based out in LA, did his thing, and Lee Harris, the guitarist from Nick Mason's band, waiting out the pandemic in rural France, added some delicate flourishes, courtesy of the lap steel he'd bought from Walter Becker's estate, and the track was just about finished. But it needed bass. Who to call? Why, Duff McKagan, of course. Would a guy from Guns N' Roses - albeit with a punk rock heart - know what to do with a Time Out Of Mind-esque ballad? It was a stupid question, really. Duff's part was perfection. By now it was October 2020, and while we'd been piecing "Heartbreak" together long distance, I'd been writing furiously. Ben cut more drum parts, as did Jeremy Stacey, the incredible drummer most closely associated with Noel Gallagher's solo recordings, and I enlisted former-Heartbreaker Ron Blair, the Boogie Wonder band's Boogie Cindy and Joan Chew from Lez Zeppelin, to add some bass. During the first break in the pandemic lockdown, after the first round of vaccinations, Slick and Eric and I put some meat on the bones of the songs they'd all sent back during sessions at Eric's rural Dirt Floor Recording studio, and Jordan, Jody Bagley and keyboard legend Mick Talbot all worked their magic to the tracks that were finally coming into focus. That's when the excitement really kicked in for me. It was clear that this was a special batch of songs, and that everybody, with nothing much else to do, had given them their all. It was exciting and stimulating, and corralling the last batch of contributions became a pure joy. Steve Cradock - Weller's right hand man for more than two decades - added some gorgeous piano to "Till New York City Dies" and 6- and 12-string acoustics to "The Poacher," while Jess Greenfield from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (and now Wonder 45) arranged some gorgeous harmonies on the soul-y version of "Movin' On." Todd Morse, from the Offspring, filled out the backing vocals that Eric and I had cut, and multi-instrumentalist Don Miguel did for me what he had done when producing Leonard Cohen's last two records, adding some final, ethereal adornments to a few of the tracks, one of which already included parts by Gene Parsons of the Byrds and Steve Holley from Wings. Finally, during sessions at Mark Plati's studio in the East Village, where he had worked with David Bowie back in the 90s and 00s, Shannon Conley, from my live band, laid down some beautiful harmonies, and even a bit of harmonica, and Mark and I did some final vocals, guitar and backing vocals. But it was Dave Stewart's 11th hour touch, on his version of "(Broken) Without You," that brought the proceedings to a close on the highest of high notes. like the mysterious, sitar-strumming caterpillar he played in the Tom Petty video, along came Dave. "What are you working on?" he asked. "Would you like me to take a crack?" Working from his studio "on a small island in the Atlantic," Dave's ghostly guitar flourishes and his gorgeous mix were the icing on the cake.