On November 7, 2017, I received a phone call from my mother who told me through tears that hospice was with my brother Joe and he wasn't waking up. I took a flight out that afternoon to spend what little precious time there was to be had with him before he lost the courageous battle he had been fighting with a rare aggressive form of sarcoma that had spread to multiple organs throughout his body in less than a year. On November 16, exactly one month before his 47th birthday, my baby brother went home to heaven to congregate with the angels. This album is a tribute to the memory of a great man who was a loving husband, a courageous brother and father who will eternally watch over his two children.
Each of the 5 songs, which were composed between November 25th and 29th, has a story behind it and they were written to convey a sense of the tears and heartache that we all have experienced as a result of this great man being taken from us way too soon.
Sacred Ground was written to convey a sense of stillness and quiet in his home for the last week and a half of his life. The people from hospice told us that he was in transition and that the living room where he was sleeping was sacred ground. Whispering voices was inspired by what happened one night when my mother was sitting with Joe. She thought she heard some muffled voices, and thinking it was his wife or the television in the other room, got up to look around. There was no other sound in the room and yet she kept hearing the voices. She would tell me the next day that it was the angels saying they were ready for him to come home. Momentary presence was improvised to convey my own experience of a fleeting supernatural encounter as I sat by Joe's bed side one afternoon. Transition represents my interpretation of the angels calling him home. The Last Goodbye was written to convey my sadness at saying farewell to Joe for the last time and ensuring him that it was okay for him to go home.
