I wrote "Ashes to Dust" when
I was about 23, and I put it on my first cassette album way back in 1989, "Urban
Folksongs" (which we are remastering as we speak for release on cd this fall... along
with "Am I Home" my other cassette release). Those were back in the pre-cd
technology days, and I sold a couple thousand of each in Boston...
A friend of mine, Robert Haigue got a copy of
"Urban Folksongs" to Windham Hill, and it was heard by Will Ackerman, who was
running Windham Hill at the time... He flew into Boston with an engineer and we went to a
studio and rerecorded "Ashes to Dust" with Will's creamy reverb echo, and
microphone choices, which rendered it beautifully dreamy...
Will put the song on Legacy II,(1991) the second
Windham Hill songwriter compilation. I appear with Patty Griffin, Greg Brown, Patty
Larkin, and The Story, among others, many of us are still playing and traveling the
country... John Gorka appeared on the first one, not on this one...
The cd provided me with my first bit of national
exposure, and it was the first time I ever appeared on cd technology-- all of this which I
am greatful to Will and Bob for, and I am thankful to the people who still sometimes ask
for that song at shows...
