Desert or Sea is a raw and real album, both a document decades in the making and a project quickly lost in the shuffle of an overpacked life. In summer 2018, my husband and longtime collaborator Stephan Crump and our dear friend Jamie Fox once again took a little tour to Nova Scotia, Canada with our boys to play some shows and camp on the wild Northern Atlantic coast at The Ovens, the stunning park owned by my aunt and uncle where we have returned every August. This time, the plan was to finally record my music as we play it live, as a trio of acoustic bass, electric guitar, and my vocals and (sometime) acoustic guitar.

The studio, around the bend from the Ovens, was an amazing and historic building known as the Old Confidence Lodge, with owner/engineer Diego Medina overseeing the 3 days of recording. It was a lovely time, and we tried to capture the trio’s energy and comradery honed on stages far and wide on a humble plastic disc.

The songs include newer and previously unrecorded compositions like “Things”, “Secret”, “Home,” “Mangwanani”, “Desert or Sea” and “Gentleness” as well as much older ones like “Gold” and “With Me.” Of special mention are a rare writing collaboration with Mr. Fox, “Drinking Song”, and a cover of Abbey Lincoln’s timeless “The World is Falling Down.”

That September came, and with it the joyful challenges of my newly embraced career as a high school teacher of global history. While the hundred or so wonderful fans, friends and family who nurtured the album in a crowdfunding campaign received digital or physical copies, I never quite got organized for a wider release.

Here it is!