An R&B/Pop album superbly produced with big soul brass, blues harp, and  catchy  songs. Lewis has created a masterpiece that deserves the proverbial lucky break, transforming it into an internationally recognized work.

Available at Newbury Comics in Nashua, Salem, and Manchester (New Hampshire) and Burlington (Massachusetts)

Hear samples and order from www.amazon.com or www.cdbaby.com
 

All songs written and sung by Lundy Lewis
Female vocalists:
    Leah Ortiz
    Bethany Slack
    Theresa Yasevich
Guitar by Lundy Lewis
Bass by Roger French
Drums by Eric Blackstone
Trumpet by Jay Daly
Saxophone by Richard Gardzina
Trombone by Walt Bostian
Harmonica by Mike Turk
Wah wah guitar on Big Cash Cow by John Paul
Keyboards by Lundy Lewis and John Paul

Mike Turk courtesy of Tin Sandwich Music

Produced and arranged by John Paul

Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Nuthouse Studios, Merrimack, New Hampshire USA

My roots are in the South. My first musical experience was playing in soul clubs in South Carolina when I was 13 or so. I was the "extraordinary young guitarist" and the other band members were several years older than I. They had to sneak me beers. The band was a soul band with a 3-piece brass section and two singers out front. We covered artists like Joe Tex, the Four Tops, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Sam and Dave, Percy Sledge and others from the classic soul era.

By high school, the band had transformed into a top-40 band playing Junior/Senior Proms up and down the East Coast.  We did it mainly to make money, and it was great. Plus, as everyone knows, in high school one has to have a gimmick to be cool, typically being a musician or a great athlete. Athletics was out of the question, but the music worked. I was fairly popular, but it didn't last for long.

After high school I went to the University of South Carolina. The band continued doing proms, frat parties, and club gigs. I can remember one time when I got back to the University at 8 AM in the morning with a Math exam scheduled for 9 AM. I hadn't prepared and was in no shape to take the exam. I explained the situation to my Professor, but to no avail. I failed the exam, but overall  I managed to get by and got a BS in Mathematics and a BA in Philosophy in just under five years.

There has always been a strain between my musical life and my intellectual life. Philosophy is my main interest intellectually. After my stint at USC I went to the University of Georgia to pursue a Doctorate in Philosophy. That was fortunate because Athens has a wonderful music scene.

Life was great in Athens. First, I was a cool graduate student teaching Philosophy. Second, I left the top-40 prom gigs behind and formed a band called Toyboat. We used to play at the same clubs as REM. Parties started about 1 or 2 AM after the bars closed. It was heaven. Toyboat wrote and played their own songs, and that was the most gratifying musical experience I had to date. But I just couldn't pull off the music thing and the PhD thing at the same time.  A Professor took me aside and told me I had to simply make a choice between a musical career and an intellectual career.

It was a hard decision, but finally I decided to dedicate myself to Philosophy. I often wonder whether I made the right decision. Toyboat had some great songs, and we had a good following. What might have happened had we stuck it out and recorded like REM? Who knows. But Philosophy is a nice thing. I guess I don't regret it.

Anyway, I got the Doctorate in Philosophy and eventually ended up in New Hampshire. There are a few other steps involved in moving from the South to the North, mostly job-related and female-related, but I won't go into them here. Maybe some other time. I'm an Adjunct Professor at at the University of New Hampshire and I'm the Director of Research at a high-tech company, Aprisma Management Technologies. The intellectual life has payed off. I can't complain.

In New Hampshire I put together a band called the SpectroTones, playing the corporate circuit in New England. That's satisfying, but the days in Athens Georgia doing original music have been gnawing at me. So, about a year ago I decided to record my own stuff.

About half of the songs on this CD go back to the Athens days (those marked with a * above). People in Athens will recognize them. The other half were written within the last year. The title track "I Ain't Through Yet" is not a statement about my musical life. It's about a young druggie who's trying to kick it and get on with life.

So that's where I am musically and intellectually. I have a nice gig intellectually, but I still have the strain between music and Philosophy. It's not too bad; I can think of worse situations. I would love to have to face the decision again between the music thing and the intellectual thing. I believe I know what I would do.

Some of my favorite comtemporary artists are G. Love and Special Sauce, Shelby Lynne, Susan Tedeschi, and Fiona Apple. Generally, I'm drawn to female artists who have a kind of bluesy, raw bent.

I've been told that the songs on my album are a sort of cross between Wilson Pickett, Neil Young, and Steely Dan. I don't mind that. The songs have Pickett-like brass parts and arrangements, my voice is sort of like a bluesy Neil Young, and my guitar rifs and chord structures are a little like Steely Dan's stuff. Also, I have the same kind of angelic backup female vocalists like much of Steely Dan's songs. I hope that, to the public's ear, the album comes across with a unique, identifiable "Lundy Lewis" sound. Of course, everybody wants to be a stylist. We'll see what the critics say.

So now I'm writing songs for the next album and doing gigs in New England in support of the CD. The SpectroTones are still with me. You can see them in the insert of the CD. We'll have to wait and see whether any of my songs become hits. That just might take 3 or 4 more albums down the road.

Lundy Lewis