Coming Home is actually a heartfelt ditty that started as an expression of one of the universal truths of military life. War or peace, Guard or Active, your gonna miss home at some point. And home is gonna miss you.
Since this single is our latest endeavor and the blog is brand new, I thought I'd start it talking about the song... I Can Shine was released at the end of August 2019, and Two Kinds of Light is shifting gears now, picking up the pace a little. Part of that includes doing some updates to the website, developing idea's for YouTube content, and the starting of this blog. The vision is to use this blog platform to spin a yarn or two, exploring memories, and imagination. ...In addition to continuing to play, write, and develop new music.
So let's get rocking, kicking off talking about the new single, released on Veterans Day, 'Coming Home'. Actually it's not really new. It's one of the older songs. Recorded at Perks Place in the first sessions we did there a few years ago.
It was a fun time, and a funny time. The sessions were booked to record a punk band. A highly volatile, drunken mess. But a creative and interesting endeavor all the same. And probably one of the funnest bands ever. Skarecrow And The Graverobbers. But unfortunately, and not surprisingly actually, the band broke up the night before the recording session. At a packed show at Ventura's Sewer. The band oozing danger and rebellion. The singer and bass player got in a drunken altercation. And the singer got bounced out of his own show! So that was the end of that.
Meanwhile, during the timeframe that your battle-scarred-bargain-basement-bin-blues-guitarist was rocking out with the punkers and having a good ol' time, he was also being recruited to join one of Ventura's venerable blues outfits- Jodi Farrell and The Front Street Prophets. That's a story with it's own twists and turns. But suffice it to say Salty and guitarist Glen Sciurba, aka Tex Burbank, became fast friends. Glen was exiting the Prophet's, and Salty was the new guy. They got to play one show together before Glen's departure and hit it off right quick. Live onstage guitar interplay in the spirit of Richards and Wood or Whitford and Perry. At the end of the show it was obvious these two clicked musically so they promised to try and get together to rock again soon.
So back to the morning after Salty's punk rock career came to an abrupt end, he was in a bit of a quandary with a recording session booked and no band to bring in. But Salty had a song he'd written, Coming Home, and a song called Last Song, written by the creative, prolific, and notorious artist Kevin Navis. And these songs were ripe for the studio. So he kept the booking and forged ahead with a solo project of sorts. On the spur of the moment and without any rehearsals or planning Glen was called in. The perfect foil for the project, as we knew from that one show, good chemistry would be a given. Glen took Salty's Les Paul Guitar, Tweed Pro Amp, and a Slide, and laid down the slide fills on Coming Home in two takes. Salty had the story and the gut emotions, of a trip to Iraq, and all it might impart on a performer. Glen brought in some kind of magic like a shaman fortuitously appearing, and then disappearing again, when his work was done. An amazing collaboration- but the project was never released.
Fast forward a few years... bands... gigs, trials, tribulations, economic downturns, health crisis's, and a few other ups and downs... ad nauseam... Driven To Ruin Records was formed. The Two Kinds of Light album, Salty's solo debut, was done. And now it was time to release the single Coming Homefor Veterans Day 2019. Enjoy!
Salty Rose, 2019
July 2021 update: The Coming Home single was remixed by JP Hesser at Castaway Studios and included on The Big Sky album released in March of 2021.