Well...I don't think there's a need for any more patient updates. I'm still over $20,000 in debt and I'm certainly not 100% healed up, but things have gone so well and I'm walking and functioning just about like a normal person and feeling pretty great. I suppose there's still time for something to go horribly wrong, but I just don't see that in my future. I did, however see a new CD in my future and now it's in the present and available from the store in the Music section of this site. This is the first full length release from me in eight years. I've done a little writing in those years but mostly I've focused on improving my playing and I wanted a chance to document that. Making this album is also meant to help pay off some of the massive uninsured medical expenses I accrued in late March of 2009 when I shattered my left femur and had to be airlifted to Denver to have it rebuilt with titanium. Titanium is the bomb. Health care in the United States as of the spring of 2009 is not. I invite all Republican lawmakers to shatter their left legs and get an airlift to Denver for a titanium rebuild without insurance. I did get great care for which I'm extremely grateful, but the uninsured medical bills were well over $80,000. People came to my rescue with donations and various other forms of support from around the country and overseas, but I'm still left with some hefty payments each month. This recording is a very "Taos" creation...done locally and all the guest artists are Taos area All Stars. Due to the medical bills it is also a very home made endeavor. My musical partner in Taos, Patrick Turnmire, and I cranked this out in 17 days in his project studio. It wasn't easy, but we finished it by our deadline without the use of pitch correction, drum loops, plastic shaker eggs or samples. I printed the artwork and put together the sleeves while he mixed and mastered then I burned the CDs and printed the CD art onto the discs using a pro level machine at home and assembled the pieces by hand. The sound quality is first class and the art work is water resistant but most definitely not a factory job. No plastic jewel cases. No shrink wrap. Lots of that personalized mojo. One of my photography heroes, Tom Lee (the Chouse/Norman, OK) provided me with a photo of a 2009 performance there at the Chouse that I thought captured the core of what Patrick Turnmire and I do musically together. And my friend Lou Middleton (OK City) also supplied a couple of pics for the jacket. I shot a few phone camera pics during the sessions and you can see those in the Turn Here Gallery located in the Photos section of the site. everything about this was fairly spontaneous and since time was of the essence we just used what was going to take the least time and be the simplest thing to get done. The tunes are mostly pulled from un-produced cuts that I previously recorded with just voice and guitar live in the studio. I also added a couple of newer co-writes and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". I'm very pleased with this recording and I hope you are, too. MP3 downloads will be available soon from this site and also MP4s from iTunes as soon as i can get to it.


Thanks
Big Dog thanks to friends and supporters who got me through a rough patch. There are far too many of you to thank properly here, but I'm GRATEFUL. Also to my Guests on this recording and music pals far and wide. To the music/writing/art scene of Taos, the Taos News, KTAO, the Taos Pueblo, TSV, the Rifters, Jim Bradley, the Osage Nation, Lowen and Navarro, Wayne Evanson, Jennifer Peterson, SXSW, Wayne Glover, the Big Mac, Red River, Terry Buffalo Ware, Eddie Owen, Nick Wimett, Arlo and Clan, the Woody Guthrie Festival, the Gutz Gang, Martin Kearns, my mountain biking buddies and fellow inhabitants of Vatopia. Double Dog thanks to Stephanie Gutz, Ellis Paul, Don Richmond and Jimmy Stadler who kept me in the game and to my musical partner/pal Patrick Turnmire. It's been ten years since I've made a DonCon album. We had 2 1/2 weeks to do it. He made it happen.

The Band
Don Conoscenti: Lead and Backing Vocals, Basses, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Producer
Patrick Turnmire: Drums, Percussion, Engineering, Mixing and Mastering

The Guests
Benito Concha: Native Drum on What Else Could I Do
Jimmy Stadler: Piano on Full Time Fool, Organ on Echo and Love Had Come
Michael Hearne: Backing Vocals on Black Eyed Suzi
Jed Zimmerman: Backing Vocals on Mona Lisa, What Else Could I Do and Love Had Come
Don Richmond: Mandolin on Mona Lisa and Hour In Texarkana, Pedal Steel on Echo
Mark Dudrow: Cello on Mona Lisa, What Else Could I Do, Hallelujah, Echo and Love Had Come

The Gear
Electric guitars built by Scott Harris/Caledonia Guitars, Taos NM
Acoustic guitar built by Kent Everett/Everett Guitars, Atlanta GA
Patrick Turnmire plays Tama Granstar Custom Drum Kit with Sabian Cymbals
and a Pearl Tombourine

Additional Gear Love
Fishman Transducers, D'Addario Strings (Pro Steels), Oasis CD, TarCaseCo, Rob Russell/Sweetwater, Kyser Capos, Rich Mermer/Mermer Guitars, Shubb Capos and Line 6 (X3 Live), Michael Kelly Guitars, Godin Guitars, Burton Jesperson Jewelry/Guitar Straps, Pick Up the World Pickups