Dear listener,

This is not really a typical album project--where you walk into a studio, record a bunch of tunes, and six months later emerge with a finished product. These are demos I made from 1985 to 1991 while I was trying to eke out a living as a musician and pilot in and around Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Although I never stopped writing, aviation eventually won out in the sustenance department as I began flying more and gigging less. I didn’t make a proper album until 2004 when I released Swede Home Alabama. I had a lot of fun making these recordings, and got to play with some damn fine pickers and singers in the process. It would have been a shame to let the tapes waste away in a closet somewhere. They had almost reached the point of no return when we rolled ‘em on a tape machine in 2007, so I decided to enlist the engineering expertise of Jimmy Nutt in the recovery and restoration process. I salute him for a job well done.

The genesis of this collection began in 1985 after I bought an Akai MG1212 multitrack recorder, which Robert Byrne kindly offered to let me set up at his lake home (affectionately called Bob World). Robert engineered the first 3 or 4 recordings (including The Danger Zone), but invited Alan Schulman to run the console once we nixed the drum machine and started using Owen Hale. We made music off and on for the next couple of years with Owen on drums, Ralph Ezell on bass, Bill Hinds on guitar and Steve Nathan on keys. Shades, That’s All, Settin’ Myself Free, and Fly By Night are a few of my favorites from the Bob World sessions. In 1990 I met David Hood, Rick Kurtz, and Brian Owings at Raintree Studio (Lenny Leblanc’s place) for an all day session that produced Turn It Up, Hungry All The Time, Bread and Water, and Comin’ Through The Radio. The following year Bill Hinds accompanied me on several acoustic demos (including Long Night) at Lee Daley’s Mossy Cave Studio. On a cold and rainy November 24th, 1991, Lee engineered a session at Snakeman Studio with me, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, and Bill Hinds. I had intended on recording four songs, but had to settle for I’m Just Proud To Be Here and The Blonde-Headed Blue-Eyed Blues after one of my guitars and some other gear was stolen a few days earlier. Oh well, that’s my luck. A few years down the road I hired Lee to transfer the MG1212 tapes to his Fostex B16 and we overdubbed miscellaneous guitars, saxes, keyboards, percussion, backing vocals and rerecorded several of my lead vocals as well.

This collection is the result of our efforts. I hope you enjoy listening to these demos as much as I enjoyed making them way back when.

Pat Huggins
June 18, 2008
The Kingdom of Bahrain