Notes
Late in 2004 I was thinking about a recording project for Robert Casey Blues Party. While browsing iTunes, I came upon Billboard Magazine's best-seller charts and clicked on the R&B category, and then the year 1946. I was curious about what was happening in the year I was born. Obviously a lot was happening. That's when the idea came to me to record some these songs interspersed with my own tunes; 1946 being the common denominator. Almost simultaneously, my friend, wine-maker extraordinaire at Andrew Will Winery, Chris Camarda, asked me to consider doing a CD on his new label, Andrew Will Recording. I told Chris about my 1946 idea and he said "Go for it". I selected five songs from the Billboard chart while wondering if my parents had heard or danced to this music. I wrote a few songs for the project and culled a couple from my past. Dwight Anderson also contributed a song to the album. I was drawn to a Seattle recording studio called Chroma Sound. The "room" and the booth are one space. This improves communication between musicians and engineers. We were fortunate to have worked with Brad Zeffern and his assistants for many productive hours there. When recording was finished, the project moved on to Master Works in Seattle where highly regarded Barry Corliss tweaked the sound to what we finally hear. I had long admired a work of art by Northwest painter Jacques Moitoret entitled "Casino Express". This is a painting of a fantastic hydroplane speeding through the canals of Venice Italy! I wanted this image for the CD cover and Jacques was agreeable to make it so. The original work is owned by a private collector in Florida. For awhile the woking title of the CD was "1946" but I came to realize this could look too much like an oldies project. Once Jacques' painting was chosen for the cover I began thinking about hydroplane themes. (Guys in the Northwest think about hydroplanes a lot.) I thought "The North Turn" had a good sound to it and it stuck. On Seattle's Lake Washington, "The North Turn" is the final approach to the start/finish line with the Floating Bridge in the background. I met artist Caitlin Dundon at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival. I was impressed by her paintings and custom boxes with her exquisite hand written script on them. I approached her about doing titles and art on the CD. She did a great job! For photography, the great Marsha Burns supplied her eye, and her camera. More of Marsha's photos of the band can be seen on our website. Marsha shot us at the Stan Sayres Memorial Pits on Lake Washington with the North Turn in back of us. Robert Casey.
