Album Release

April 17, 2019

So excited to release my first album, “A Long Time Comin”. My lifelong dream has been realized! I’m so excited to share this with you all! As you can see below, every one of these songs has a deep personal meaning, and I’m so honored to have so many musician friends contribute in their own way to my album.

Track 1 – My Drifting Feet
This song is on the album for sentimental reasons. 1st song I ever wrote. When you listen to the words, you will hear the “restless spirit” I was going thru at the time. 19 years old and wild!! I was hanging out at my buddy Donna Waldner’s apartment. 👭 She was at work, so I picked up her guitar 🎸 and worked ALL day until I could play the chords to ” Me & Bobby McGee” I always wanted to play the guitar… Whoo hoo.. Opened up a whole new world. Never wrote a song before I started playing guitar. The next day I wrote “My Drifting Feet” My mom always said I should have been born with wheels not feet!! This song features Earl Harder on drums, Mark Penner on lead & acoustic guitar & harmonies, Eliza Mary Doyle on Dobro, Donovan Epp on bass, Gord Nodge on mandolin, Christine Hadden Lamb on tambourine and Jacqueline Hudec on harmonies.. I chose this song to “show off” my country piano so there is lots of piano in the song. Thanks!!

Track 2 – I Need You Now
When I was a kid, playing by myself.. My records were my best friends!! The song describes how I miss that as an adult. “I Need You Now” features Earl Harder on drums, Donavan Epp on bass, Christine Hadden Lamb on tambourine, Gord Nodge on mandolin, Mark Penner on accoustic guitar, Terry Winter on steel and Vern Michaels on lead guitar. This is the first song which features “the soul sisters” 4 part harmony by Corinne Newton, Kathy Kathy Grant, Paulette Hadden & Sherri Olson.. And once again.. Me 😄 .. On piano!!

Track 3 – Today is the Day
This is the song I wrote and sang at our wedding!! 29 years ago!! This song is as traditional country as it gets, lol… It features Earl Harder on drums, Donovan Epp on bass, Christine Hadden Lamb on tambourine, Mark Penner on acoustic guitar, Gord Nodge on mandolin, Terry Winter on steel, Geoff Heschel on lead guitar, Joyce Switzer on accordion, me on piano and the “soul sisters” are back on this one singing 4-part Harmony.. Corinne Newton, Kathy Grant, Paulette Hadden and Sherri Olson.

Track 4 – Falling Again
This was a last minute addition to the album. My good friend, Vern Michaels really liked Track 1.. First song I ever wrote.. So I says to Mark “I got a few old songs like that.” So I grabbed his guitar and sang “Falling Again”. I wrote this song after I got my heart broken by a bull rider(which shall remain nameless) way back in my Olds College days. Well Mark loved it!! So on the album it went. Well Eliza Mary Doyle loved it as well so she added banjo and harmonies.. This song features Earl Harder on drums, Paula McGuigan on upright bass & harmonies, Mark Penner on acoustic guitar, Christine Hadden Lamb on Tambourine, Gord Nodge on mandolin, Eliza on banjo and harmonies, Terry Winter on steel, JJ Guy on fiddle, Vern Michaels on lead guitar and me again on the piano! To my musician friends, this song was a bugger to mix!!

Track 5 – If You Could Only See
One of my favourite memories… When my son Matt Switzer was going to school in Texas, I came to visit. I asked him to take me to Buddy Holly’s grave in Lubbock.. He wasn’t very happy about it( not the best part of town) but he took me anyway(and my friend Deb Busse).. It was on this day, this track came to me. The first part anyway. It is a 12/8 time piano feel, like a Fats Domino song. The 2nd part is in rock-a-billy style. I struggled with this for awhile, until Blaine Switzer came into my studio and helped me finish it. I gave Blaine a songwriting credit!! Creek City is doing a “Jordinaires” harmony thing.. Dave Cyca, Donavon Epp, Mark Penner(who also plays acoustic guitar on this song) and Michael Tetrault(who also is playing drums). My kindred spirit where Buddy Holly is concerned, Clayton Linthicum is playing guitar, Vern Nixon is on bass and… Me again on the piano.

Track 6 – The Night I Turned 30
This is a song I co-wrote with my friend Will Ardell Ylioja. It’s a bit of a heartbreaker about a wife who is unhappy. Tons of piano.. Um.. Me 😄 .. Mark Penner plays slide guitar, Michael Tetrault on drums, Donavon Epp on bass, Christine Hadden Lamb on tambourine.. I also do some Leslie organ throughout.. The “soul sisters” are back on this one singing fantastic 4 part harmony.. Sherri Olson, Kathy Grant, Paulette Hadden and Corinne Newton.

Track 7 – Why the Dream
This song is a “rocker”. It’s basically about “Why does God give us a dream and what does that teach us?” I tried for 5 years to get the word “perseverance” in the song.. Had to finally go with something else 😄.. Earl Harder is playing drums, Vern Nixon on bass, me on Lesley organ, Mark Penner on acoustic guitar and lead guitar.. Christine Hadden Lamb on a Tambourine. The “soul sisters” on 4 part harmony Corinne Newton, Kathy Grant, Sherri Olson and Paulette Hadden.

Track 8 – A Song for Blaine
This song describes our marriage.. I don’t know any other way to describe it except for it was just MADE for the dobro which Eliza Mary Doyle plays!! Michael Tetrault plays drums, Paula McGuigan on upright bass, Mark Penner on lead guitar, Gord Nodge on mandolin, Christine Hadden Lamb on tambourine, Terry Neudorf on banjo and fiddle both and Rri-Olson Sherri, Kathy Kathy Grant, Corinne Newton and Paulette Hadden doing 4 part harmony. I really wanted to play acoustic guitar in this but I finally handed that job over to Mark… Alas, he’s just plain better… My guitar playing will have to stay at parties and campfires, lol..

Track 9 – I Thought I Had the Time(Doug’s Song)
This was a tough song to write and sing.. My friend Deb Busse helped write the last verse so she has a songwriting credit. I wrote this after I lost my cousin Doug at the age of 47 to cancer. I am playing piano, Terry Neudorf on fiddle, Mark Penner on harmonica & harmonies, Wyndham Theissen on cello, Eliza Mary Doyle on dobro, Vern Michaels on lead & accoustic guitar and Paula McGuigan on harmonies.

Track 10 – Down at the Jam
I tell my students how lucky they are to have the Youth Open mic.. Because I “cut my teeth” at the Jam Session at the Big I. This is a song that describes some of my experiences. It’s a 50’s rocker, to honor my hero Jerry Lee Lewis!! Bakersfield played on this song as I spent a lot of time on stage with them back in the day. This song pushes the 5 minute mark, ends with what else? A jam session of coarse!! Ken Friesen and Alan J Hudec on lead guitar, Skip Neufeld on bass, Tony Clark on drums and Ray Martinson in acoustic,me on the piano and the entire Bakersfield band doing harmonies and some other way COOL vocal thingies!!