All Over The Map by Ronnie Jay Wheeler

We were to start recording on Sunday, and Saturday was supposed to be a day of rest for me to recuperate from jet lag and to adjust to the cold weather which I hate anyway. As it turned out, Randall had me in his Alleged Iguana Studio in his home all that day working with some of my lyrics that needed music, and we ended up with an extra song, "Sparkling Eyes"!

The next couple of days we were working long hours in a five piece band setting recording in drummer Dave King's FarmHand Barn Studio outside Toronto in the country. The band was really tight and easy to work with. Mark LaForme slipped into band leader position helping everyone else with my arrangements and musical idiosyncrasies. Neil Nickafor was on bass and Jesse O'Brien was on keyboards, who I really especially enjoyed since he greatly dug Leon Russell who has always been a favorite of mine. I can't believe we didn't get a Leon song on this CD . . . A few days later, while the music was being brought down from the analog tapes to the techno end of it being put on CDs for the final remixing and mastering, Randall drove me down to Niagara Falls (mentioned in a couple of my songs) in his hot rod Camero. After that he conned a friend of his to drive us up to the Bruce Peninsula (where the double exposure cover photo originated) for a getaway. Believe it or not, we saw no snow in Canada the whole trip--which was okay with me.

Because I had to be back in Oklahoma and Randall in Canada, and since we then had to rely on snail mail, e-mail, and phone calls, it took another seven months for him to finish up the augmentation, remixing, and mastering. I again stressed the hip-hop idea of strong bass. If it comes across too strong on your particular stereo, as I've found it does once in a great while, just turn your bass control knob a little to the left of center and your treble control a little to the right, and it will be perfect in that case for you.

This record is all over the map geographically as probably around twenty place names are used or alluded to throughout the album. And, it's a long way from Oklahoma to L.A. to Toronto. It's also all over the map musically. You'll find (as you probably already have since you can sample all of the songs on this CD Baby site) that it has an original blues, some singer songwriter, an original fiddle tune, more folk rock, several traditional country, an original rock song, and the unexpected techno "Sparkling Eyes." All these are glued together by my characteristic style of Americana. . . . The photo on pages two and three of the folder was taken at a long abandoned farm homestead of my wife's family in Roswell, New Mexico. The photo on page four of the folder was taken somewhere at a falls in Canada. The tray card, or back of the CD, was taken on my front porch in Alva, Oklahoma.

I've recently retired from teaching English and can now spend more time writing songs and playing music. Hopefully now I'll be playing all over the map, and I'll see you in your town maybe. Remember what Steve Miller always says, "Take care of Mother Earth, so Mother Earth can take care of you." And, remember what I heard from a spirit in the sky, "Music is the universal language of Love."

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