This is an incredible work. Please pardon the analogy, but it is "symphonic" in nature to me.... in the way that a symphony has movements which are organized around a theme.

Each song flows into the next.... I have not removed this CD from the CD player since Saturday.

Just downloaded it. It's going on my iPod as I type.

I'm with you. I want to hear this live. I got to experience the "The Way Up" tour standing about 3 feet from the stage with a bunch of other hardcore fans. No cell phone talkers, dates who would rather be elsewhre and walk back and forth or talk..just people and music. That's how I want to hear this.

Heck yeah, Shannon- although Ken has so much going on in here, he'd need a couple extra players, like, oh Chieli Minucci to play the second lead and harmony parts, maybe another Keyboard to handle all the background synth (I think it'd be humanly impossible for Jay to pull all that off, but maybe it could be done...)and of course a percussionist, like Kevin Prince- he's really impressed me here.

I'd travel for this stuff.

BTW- the Daddy-O track,(#6) man... Joel R is going WILD in that one, it's like a marathon run all in 6 or 7 minutes, with all the energy he's exerting, sheesh- what a drummer. A very deceptively rocking tune, it you focus on the guitars and keys it seems more mid tempo, but when you focus on JR's drum kit, it's like he's on afterburners.

I apologize for not replying sooner to all of the wonderful posts here about "The Grace of Summer Light". You make me feel sooooo good and all of the long days (and nights!) composing, recording and mixing the music were worth it just to hear and feel all of your responses. Some updates...

In the 24 hours since I gave folks the ability to hear the entire CD from start to finish, my website traffic has tripled and it's almost all going to the streaming page. Very cool! Ands the orders continue to roll in.

New Concert dates are coming in and Joel Rosenblatt, Tom Kennedy and Jay Rowe will be the band for the majority of them. We all can't wait to play this music together live and it's going to be terrific to have a band of this caliber playing my music.

Tony - I have to comment back on a couple of interesting things you said. Regarding Joel sounding like, well, Joel plus even more... while I certainly knew Joel's playing from Spyro, I also knew of his incredible latin chops and also his ability to play delicately and his ability to create a broad palette of textures with dynamics. That's why I hired him. He is simply a consumate musician. What I didn't know was what a perfectionist he is and just how dedicated he is to the music. Tom Kennedy, as amazing as he is on electric bass, is even better on the acoustic. I worked very hard to make sure you can hear the detail in his playing, even when many other things are happening above him. I urge you to listen to the CD, just following his lines. And of course Jay Rowe, my right hand man, I can't even remember anymore which keyboard parts I played and which ones he played. We are so in sync with each other and of course Jay's acoustic piano work is superb. And how about that retro synth solo on Daddy-O?!

Also, you are right, I bucked this terrible trend to master CDs as loud as possible. It was such a pleasure to retain all of the dynamics and all of the natural qualities of these instruments. The CD is full and plenty loud but without any of the squashed qualities that are so prevalent in the majority of commercial recordings these days, especially so-called "smooth" jazz.

Well, back to work here. I have my hands full now preparing for the upcoming live shows, the distribution, marketing and publicity for the new CD. It's funny, I just got a proposal from a publicist. They wanted a bundle of money to do over 12 weeks what I do in 3 days. That's the beauty of having your own label - you can make the music exactly the way you want it and make sure that it is represented out in the world properly as well. But you do have to work 12 hours a day - not complaining, as my Dad says, "it's a good problem to have".

Hey Ken. The CD's fabulous, and I'm really lookin' forward to seein' you cats hit live. Please let me know when you're comin' through Jacksonville, or hopefully I can run into you cats somewhere while I'm on the road.

Hey Bruce - thank you! Hope to get to Jacksonville before the end of 2008 with Joel, Tom and Jay and play the new CD live there. Ane finally meet you in person!

Ken

I'm hoping you can book IMAC, the Boulton Center, or the North Fork Theatre at Westbury at some point this year.

Today I finally found the time to listen to "The Grace Of Summer Light"...wowww...what a cool album...Ken!! Congrats from the bottom of my heart! I gave some (selected) friends the chance to listen to your new recording via your website. And they asked me, if there is a way to purchase from Germany...(?). Perhaps you can give us a clue, how to do it.

So what can I say...? A real masterwork...Ken, thanks for enriching our lives with your music! (also on the other side of the atlantic...!)

Thank you for those very good words about TGOSL Marcus - and I appreciate you letting people know about the link where they can listen to a stream of it. As regards to purchasing it from Germany - you can order it right from my website and we will ship it the same day. Or they can purchase a high quality download from my site too. We have already had many orders from Germany (and Japan, Singapore, France, Italy... the internet changes everything doesn't it?!)

Thanks again Marcus.

Ken