If holding off on the release of this track could coincide with a cease-fire between Israeli and Palestinian forces I'd postpone on a dime. But with that likelihood practically non-existent I'll instead inform you that: Alexis P. Suter will lead a 40 piece gospel choir tonight (Oct 14) at The Falcon in Marlboro, NY. And there--with my wife at my side-- I'll be praying for Sanity on Earth to a God seldom if ever accessible to me except in the presence of such a choir.

Three days after Tina Turner died I wrote her story in verse and set it to music. On a whim I sent "How It Was" to Bill Flanagan who strongly encouraged me to get it to a woman singer. I dreamt of sending it to Bonnie Raitt, but she had just won Song of The Year. So how would an unknown get a song anywhere near her? Undeterred, I recorded my guitar and vocal with Eric Parker on drums. Ever the gentleman, Tony Levin sent in his killer bass. Maybe I'd put it out--just the three of us-- and find the right woman singer down the line? No, it needed a funky gospel B-3 organ, and I knew just the guy: Daniel A Weiss. And then it came to me.
"Hey Dan," I wondered over the phone, "What are the chances of Alexis Suter singing this?"
"She'd kill it."
"I know she'd kill it and you're her keyboard player. So why don't you add exactly the keys she loves from you, talk it up, and send it over?"
"I'll add the organ tonight," he agreed, "the rest is up to you."
So the next night I call Alexis P. Suter and we get along like bees in the hive. Yes and I send her Dan's superb additions to "How It Was" and sure enough she flips for it. But there are details to work out and schedules to line up and a Climate-Change-induced-flooding-hurricane causing entire rail systems to wash out. Nevertheless we finally get a blue sky and rendezvous at Dan's place in Peekskill, NY. Yes, and that's the day I become a songwriter. Not that I don't have a healthy regard for my own songs. But nobody had ever knocked one clear into the stratosphere before. Until, that is, Alexis took a few astounding warm up passes with my vocal in her headphones and then? Well, Dan suggested Alexis "jump the octave," which sounded like pure fantasy to me. Until--I about fell out of my chair--as her growling, gravelly voice suddenly vaulted skyward like...well, like a Simone Biles double double dismount. And Alexis landed it--perfectly! So by this point-- if I could drink safely, people?--the Piper-Heidsieck corks woulda' been careening off the walls. Yes but that's a no. Besides which, after Dan put a most happy Alexis on her train home he recorded my blues harp trying to dance between those volcanic vocals of hers. But it didn't sound half bad so we kept it. The result being: I'm now ready to send this song to Bonnie Raitt or any other singer alive. Furthermore, Alexis has taken a shine to another of my songs and the three of us are talking about writing a few of our own. So--hey Alligator Records! "Are you listening?!"