Listen / Purchase LITTLE BIRD

TRACK LISTING

1. Wind And Rain

2. Flowers

3. Back To You

4. Last Man Standing

5. Don't Waste Your Time

6. Denied

7. Everything's Sinking

8. Madeline Falls

9. Big Game

10. Fireman

11. Hole In The Ground

All songs written by

James Stanley Walker 

C&P 2024 Thon Music (ASCAP) 

All Rights Reserved.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THIS ALBUM:

Like a lot of you, music hit me really hard when I was about 12 or 13 years old. 

Like — BOOM.

I mean, I loved music before (the radio was always on in the house growing up), but when Puberty arrived - man o man - music was suddenly a completely different animal!

A wild new experience. 

An illumination.

An epiphany!

And all those song lyrics that had just floated right by me like dandelion fluff, in one ear and out the other? 

I suddenly heard them for the first time!

All that romance, heartbreak, lust, longing, self-loathing, drama, pain…somebody else was going through the same shit I was going through and they were singing about it!

Whew. I wasn’t alone after all.

I grew up in Southern California in the 1970s.

Autumns, winters, springs…I don’t remember much about them.

But summers? As a teenager?

I remember every one of them.

My folks had a pool and that’s where I spent most of my summer days, swimming in the sun, radio on loud.

Then when I got a little older and could drive, my friends and I would head to the beach and spend the day bodysurfing, the radio blasting out the soundtrack to it all.

Nothing could beat that.

Well, except for…summer nights.

I had a 1967 Chrysler that I bought from my grandmother. A whale of a machine. 

I loved that car and all the freedom it provided.

I was rarely seen at home after I got my license…an arrangement both me and my folks seemed to be perfectly happy with.

My nights were spent driving: 

Up Angeles Crest and over the mountains to the desert in Palmdale, Night-Blooming Jasmine in the air…

North on I-5 into the shadowy hills of the Grapevine…

Down Sunset Strip to Tower Records…

Four hours to Vegas, or even Mexico if the mood hit… 

Just to drive. Just to drive.

And every one of those thousands and thousands of miles I burned was accompanied by my constant friend, The Radio.

This album - LITTLE BIRD - was made to be a summer album…at least the way I remember summers back when.

It’s meant to be played on long, hot days outside with friends and a cooler of beer. Bong hits, optional.

Or on a warm night, driving alone with the windows down, the blur of the world rushing by.

And yeah, I realize I may be romanticizing the past a bit here. Maybe just a little, but not that much. 

It was a beautiful time and I’m very grateful for those days.

Speaking of Grateful… 

That’s a word that keeps coming up the older I get. 

Grateful.

With a capital fucking G.

I’m Grateful for the memories of the past.

I’m Grateful for the promise of the future.

I’m Grateful for my lovely wife, Kim.

Grateful for my family and friends.

I’m very Grateful to my talented musical amigos, Michele Van Kleef and Albert Reda for playing and singing on this record. They made this music so much more than it was when we started the project.

Grateful to Ryan Foster, the greatest mastering engineer in the business IMHO. Each time I get a project back from him I sit and listen to the whole thing, front to back, and am completely blown out of the water at how he takes my dubious mixes and sound-sculpts them into a beautiful-sounding, cohesive album. Wow, that guy! 

I’m also extremely Grateful that I’ve somehow been able to scratch out a living making music for nearly four decades.

But mostly I’m Grateful to you, Longtime Listener.

This is for you. 

You are what the fuck it’s all about.

Walker

5.25.2024

11.09am