The Way Out West
was two years in the making.
Having not released a full band CD in over a decade, I took my time with
it, weaving the textures and landscapes for each song in a way as
natural as breathing. I allowed the songs to unfold with the changing of
the seasons, taking long walks listening on my iPod to each new level of
accompaniment. I walked on snowy Seattle days in December and as the
first buds of springtime poked out from hiding, through the verdant
summer and melancholy autumn - twice through. I fell in love with these
melodies again and again, not because they were mine, but because they
were alive and becoming something ever new and mysterious to me as time
passed. As each musician offered up their own love and brilliance, I
would live with that new sound scape for a time, wandering through
ravines and up trails, across neighborhood ballparks and through leafy
alleyways. Sometimes I'd walk for two hours and realize at the end that
I'd listened over and over to the same song for the entire hike, unable
to give up the mesmerizing spell long enough to change songs.
A year before this recording began I
met the love of all my lifetimes, a beautiful, spirited, hilarious and
brilliant girl named Patricia O'Driscoll. We met in the process of
creating a concert to benefit the people wounded and made homeless by
Hurricane Katrina. We did what we did having no idea that the greatest
achievement would not be the $23,000 we raised for Habitat for Humanity, but the miracle that
we had
each found the love we had yearned for our whole lives.
This record would never have happened without Patricia's belief in me,
support, encouragement and insightful accompaniment in the process. I'd
have simply made another of my very intimate solo- acoustic CDs and
moved on toward the next batch of songs. Most of the songs on The Way
Out West were already written by the time we met, but I must tell you
that each and every one of them is infused with the love we share and
the deep friendship that has happened between us.
I hope as you listen you feel that love, that friendship and kindness. I
hope you feel your spirit lifted and your faith deepened.
Not because I have anything to offer that you don't already have, but
just because you will be reminded that there is another soul out there
in the world like you; someone seeking to become a better, fuller human
being. Someone seeking to awaken and take responsibility for his own
experience in life. Someone hoping to share some kindness along the way.
When I was first beginning this new recording I could not help but
recall my very first album, Run This Way Forever. That record did some
unexpectedly wonderful things in the world and in my life. I expect that
if I live to be an old man I will still be hearing from people about
what those songs meant to them and how something in the music made them
feel less lonely. In thinking back on those songs and that time, I
brought it all home to now, to this moment creating another new cycle of
songs, and I simply asked that the work feel benevolent to those who
listen. You start out in life thinking you will perhaps achieve
brilliant things. If you live long enough, you just want to do things
that might bring a bit of peace and gratitude.
That is what I believe has happened with the
songs on The Way Out West. I hope you listen and feel that peace and
gratitude.
Your friend on a blustery Seattle day,
~Michael Tomlinson |
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Listen /
Lyrics
Click
button to listen - click again to stop before starting next
song. |
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Album
Credits |
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electric and acoustic guitars |
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Jay Kenney |
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keyboards, drum programming, tabla & other stuff |
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Mike Grigoni |
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dobro and lap steel guitar |
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Dan Mohler |
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bass |
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Steve Salamunovich |
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Drums |
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TJ Morris |
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percussion |
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Brian Dina |
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flute |
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Jennifer Ivester
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vocal harmony |
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Mitch Corbin |
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mandolin and banjo |
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Grant Dermody |
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harmonica |
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Paul Elliott |
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violin |
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Mike Mattingly |
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electric guitar (on Flag) |
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Steve Mostovoy |
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trumpet |
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The Big Mooners |
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Rick Grant, Patricia O'Driscoll, Joie Moring and Bungee Dawg |
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All songs written and performed by Michael
Tomlinson
©2008 Canadian Train Music, BMI |
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Produced by Michael Tomlinson |
Recorded and Mixed by Jay Kenney
at Audio Logic Inc. Seattle, WA
www.audiologicinc.com |
Art direction and
photography by Patricia O'Driscoll
www.patriciaodriscoll.com |
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Sponsors
This
record made possible in part by the generous support of the
following:
Doug, Marie, Sean & Sierra Hobbins, Dawn McGeddy, Patricia & Robert
Bashore,
Jeff Liter, Gregory P. Wilson, Oriental Herb Company, makers of
Cold Snap, www.ohco.com, Brian A. Thompson, Susan LaPorta, George
Bischoff, Conrad Orr at CRO Engineering Group, Inc., Dixie, Devon &
Rodney Odell, Michael Bigge, Lynette Turner, Tim & Jackie Martin, Joe
Monahan, Trudy Amery, Sparrow
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