Back when I was in 10th grade in Findlay, Ohio, I met an aspiring singer named Bill Kuhlman (in blue above). I was an aspiring guitarist so we decided to form a band. We ended up moving to Boston together in a van full of dreams and guitars. We had a lot of fun but never quite made it big, and stayed friends (in some ways better friends) long after the band broke up. A few years ago Bill found out he had cancer and decided to make the most of his time here, however long it might be. He spent time with friends and family, got to see his daughter start college, and we even fit in one more Loose Ties show, at a Findlay High School reunion. Bill spent his last few weeks in hospice care, with a parade of loved ones around him sharing stories - we actually got told, repeatedly, to keep it down since we were laughing so much.
I've spent the year since his passing thinking about Bill, and people he affected, and the world in general, and the result is my new album Next Time We Meet. I had some talented people help me - vocalists Mara Levine, Amy Malkoff, Deede Bergeron and Rebecca Lynch; instrumentalists Bob Harris (mandolin), Jackie Damsky (violin), Roger Williams (Dobro) and my Loose Ties bandmates Brice Buchanan and Chris Peeler. (I even play Bill's bass guitar on the title track.) In addition to my own songs, there's a cover of "Norwegian Wood" since we spent many happy hours in Bill's basement listening to the Fab 4 and trying to figure out what made them so good.
If there's a lesson in all this, in the album and the experiences that made it, it would be "no regrets" - that we never know what's coming, so we better live, and love, each day as it's here.
Next time we meet...
