The Opening Number:

I have certain particular artistic preferences that just exist within me and evolved throughout my journey as a musician.  I have always gravitated toward albums as a complete artistic entity.  For whatever reason, I also tend to go even further with making that entity tie together in some way as a narrative or conceptual journey.  Perhaps it all started with "Sgt. Pepper" or "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" as a young listener and enthusiast.  Regardless, as a creator, I can't help but be guided to a put forth music and songs that form a cohesiveness that spans an entire album.  These days, this seems to just happen automatically.  It did so in dramatic fashion for this album. The songs literally just assembled and arranged themselves.

More on this later in the experience!

When it came time to do a new album, I already had plans....and an entirely different album in mind and ready to go.  I had all of the songs, the concept, and the title.  It was going to be a much more whimsical album with a set of 10 different songs that were there and waiting.  It wasn't until the title track of this album came through that I made a complete and total right turn one night. 

But again, more on that later in the experience. 

"Flip Yer Lid"

Much like the song, "Hello" was the opening number for our previous album,

"The Alchemist", so "Flip" is the opener for "The Carousel Cabaret". In true dramatic, theatrical flair, the curtains go up and away we go!  From the time this song came into existence, I knew that it was born for this purpose.  I actually always saw it as the opener for the live show.  A theatrical mechanism to welcome the listener....the participant, to the musical festivities.

  Come on in! You're welcome to stay! 

"Penny Arcade"

A few years back, when we were working out this song for the live show, our drummer at the time, suggested doing a Cab Calloway/Big Band type of intro.  I loved it and came up with a whole carnival caller rant to go with it.  The words kind of solidified over the course of several shows, and became part of the song.  It endured to make it on the studio version, and I used it as an opportunity to do some sound design to help convey the vision I had for the song. It's a metaphor for the cosmic arena of existence as it occurs on this planet.  The good, the bad, and the ugly...and everything in between.  The choices that we make and where that gets us in this life and beyond.  I have an amazing, yet very ambitious idea for the video for this song.  It will take a big effort to bring it into reality but will be quite an artistic achievement if we can pull it off.  Wish me luck!

So why two songs as one?

I have dubbed this album as a “Rock Opera” in the sense that it runs an energetic narrative throughout the course of the songs.  I often tell people that to get the full impact of this album, it is best to listen to it in its entirety upon first listen.  Since that is not possible in this experience, I have made certain arrangements to insure that nothing is lost here.  In all honesty, it comes down to 2 lousy seconds. HeeHee!  You see, there are moments on the album where it seemed fitting, energetically, to have one song flow immediately into the next.  One of those moments is the transition from the first and second songs, where, through  the broken down carnival caller of old, we pass through the dimensional door and wind up on the other side of the veil where it's all really happening. 

Can you guess where one song ends and the other begins???