Songs From My Heart: Music Between the Worlds by Loren Davidson

One day, I realized I had enough songs I felt okay about playing in public to make an album out of. The economy found some free time for me, via a layoff, and I recorded this album. It is a very real journal of my life’s travels to date, the story of several years of my life set to music. It has the elements of most life stories: love, disappointments, finding the humor in everyday life, dreaming of being other people in other places.

About the Songs:

Hearts Beat:

Have you ever experienced this: You’re interested in another person, and they give you conflicting signals regarding whether they’re interested in you or not. It’s frustrating.

Healing Arms:

I used to be very attracted to people in pain. I used to believe that the way to “fix” someone was to love them a whole lot. I’ve gotten better. But I definitely understand that perspective.

Missing the Best of a Bad Situation:

A friend was telling me about how she got together with her husband. At one point during their first few months, he got a call from his abusive ex, went to see her, and didn't show up again until the next morning. She wondered out loud how he could have done that, and my response was this song's title.

Flute Player:

One evening while in college, I was serenaded by one of my dear friends, who played her flute for me outside my dorm window. It's a great way to start a song.

Great Homebrewing Disaster:

This is an honest to Gods true story. I used to live in a rundown tract home in a marginal neighborhood in Oxnard, CA, back in the days when I didn't know a peach tree from a persimmon. One day I went out into the back yard and found peaches on my lawn. Figuring that gravity had something to do with this, I looked up and saw more peaches hanging in what had to be a peach tree. Well, I got excited and picked about twenty pounds of them, and then had to figure out what to *do* with them all before they rotted. Since I was already a homebrewer, I decided to try my hand at peach mead. The resulting story, including a blocked airlock, a 2:30 AM explosion, mead stains on the ceiling, and an overnight guest, is too surreal for me to have made any of it up, but you get to listen to it here.

Rise and Fall:

My intention, the day this song grabbed me by the throat, was to write something gentle and laid-back, Buffett-style, about someone sitting on a beach in Fiji, sipping on a parasol drink and watching space station Mir reenter atmosphere in flaming chunks. What came out was haunting, mystical…and a whole lot better.

By the Bay:

I grew up with the music of Pete Seeger, who wrote many songs celebrating the Hudson River area in upstate New York. I now live near the beautiful San Francisco Bay, and enjoy escaping to the shoreline to sit, watch boats go by, and feel the caress of the Bay breezes. How could I not honor such a beautiful place with a song?

Sorry About Last Night:

Well, while I like to focus on the positive in my music, sometimes life just doesn’t cooperate. Stuff happens, and then if you’re smart, you’ll apologize for it. This song is like that. I’m amazed at how Jim Croce-like it came out.

Slowly Roll By:

I used to work in a building that overlooked the Emeryville CA train station, and each day I watched the California Zephyr leave for Chicago, and wished that on my own trip to Chicago I could have taken the extra couple of days. Because life moves too darn fast these days, and I think we’d all do better to slow down a little bit and enjoy the scenery.

Real as it Seems:

One of the inspirational books I’ve read and enjoyed talks about believing that when something good is happening, it’s not “too good to be true;” it’s “good enough to be true.” That almost ended up being the title of this song. I wrote this song about a special someone who turned up at a moment in my life when I was extremely happy to be so blessed. Her presence was a reassurance from the Universe that I was indeed appreciated, and that when I really need good things in my life, they turn up.

Lady of the Sea:

Once upon a time…I tried writing a book. Actually, I’ve tried that several times. One of those times I created a fantasy world, and in the history of that world was an encounter and tragic love between a man and one of the Sea People. This is the oldest song on the album, and the only thing I wrote that was any damn good for a period of ten years. Come lose yourself in a tale of romance, in a place that never was, but that might have been.

Technical details of the album:

This CD was recorded at Flowinglass Studios in Oakland, engineered by Kristoph Klover (Avalon Rising, Broceliade), with most of the parts played by Yours Truly. The guitars are by Yamaha and Taylor; the other effects came out of a very nice Alesis keyboard. Kristoph's lovely and talented wife Margaret Davis provided the flute parts on "Flute Player."

Average Customer Review: