- From 1972 to 1980 I lived at Waldo Dr. in the lakefront area of New Orleans, right by the UNO campus. In 1977 I surveyed all the lyrics I‘d written up to that point (that winds and roads hadn’t purloined) and compiled the most memorable in a large spiral notebook with a red plastic cover. All but one of the tunes in ONE RED SPIRAL is from the ‘70’s. For quite a few of these lyrics there was no audio record, but memory with the help of imagination (sisters, after all) helped in the reclamation. Some were recrafted and some left alone – just brought to a more sonic, articulated light. Of the many musicians who visited, jammed, and lived at Waldo, none had a deeper effect on me than Clark Vreeland – his impish nature daunted me and his fearless artistry inspired me. Those were times of wide horizons, the nights were like mothering dark oceans of spirit, adventure, and not a little mystery.
I’m fortunate to have been blessed now with these long, open post-Rads days when I can get to know some of the other songs I once was, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of these twisty back roads in the future. And as a friend told me in an old dream: “It’s one thing to flog, it’s another to gloat.”
-Ed Volker (November 2016)
- Mastered by Jon Hart
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