This is my first album that I mixed and recorded mostly myself. Lots of on-location recording in people's living rooms makes a good match for very personal lyrics.

Greg Dember: Voice, bass, baritone ukulele, piano, electric piano, synth, glockenspiel
Anne Marie Ruljancich: Viola
Barry Cooper: Trumpet
Linda Ceriello: Vocals
Anika Reichert: Vocals
Leslie Braly: Vocals
Levi Fuller: Baritone Guitar
Ed Brooks: Pedal Steel Guitar
Matthew Brown: Guitars
Patrick Reardon: Guitars
Greg Schlimm: Guitars
John Morse: Guitar
William Cremin: Drums
Dave Abramson: Drums
Rusty Willoughby: Drums

My contribution to Beck's Song Reader project, which is a book of sheet music that Beck Hansen published for a group of songs that he has not recorded. The idea is for musicians all over to come up with their own interpretations. So I did!

Greg Dember: Vocals, piano, electric guitar, electric piano, glockenspiel, organ
Linda Ceriello: Vocals
Brit Benjamin: Vocals
Leon Dewan: Dewanatrons (Swarmatron, Hymnotron)
Dianne Krouse: Clarinet, Saxophone
Anne Marie Ruljancich: Viola
Matthew Brown: Electric guitar, bass
John Morse: Electric Guitar
William Cremin: Drums
Terri Moeller: Drums
Patrick Reardon: Electric Guitar
Evan Kimble, Arnon Burns, Andre Sapp, William Cremin, Linda Ceriello, Lindsey Barnes, CJ Chapman, Zadok Wartes: Used Shoe Store Singalong Choir

This is a collection of recent productions of songs that I wrote a long time ago, between 1990 and 2002, that had never been recorded. Plus my version of Jenny Lewis's song "Acid Tongue." For the most part the arrangements, chord progressions and song structures are simpler than some of my other work. And the meanings of the songs are a bit more earnest and direct. The Jenny Lewis song is just one that I really like by one of my favorite newer artists, and I've always wanted, as a man, to do a cover version of a female-sung song, because women are so often covering men's songs, and not so much the other way around. There is a very high vocal part of the song, and I decided to just go for it in my falsetto, rather than bringing it down an octave.

Greg Dember: Vocals, piano, electric and acoustic guitar, bass, electric piano, organ, percussion
Anna-Lynne Williams: Vocals
Kirsten Wenlock: Vocals
Linda Ceriello: Vocals
Christine Goering: Vocals
Thorn Michaels: Violin
Anne Marie Ruljancich: Viola
Barb Hunter: Cello
Matthew Brown: Lap Steel Guitar, Electric Guitar,Acoustic Guitar, Bass
John Morse: Acoustic Guitar
William Cremin: Drums
Jacob Evans: Drums

This album was an experiment in writing under pressure. I came into the project with two pre-existing songs and then wrote the rest with deadlines. I would book an appointment for studio time, then make myself write three songs in time for the session, record the basic tracks for those songs, then repeat the process for three more songs. My reason for approaching it this way was to undo the normal autobiographical inspiration of my lyrics. Relying on the assumption that there would inevitably remain a connection, at least subconsciously, to something true inside me, I wanted to strive to write songs that were less directly about myself, and more about imagined people and situations. Writing under a time constraint helped force me in that direction.

Greg Dember: Vocals, piano, guitars, bass, organs, electric pianos, melodica, drums
Matt Brown: Guitars, bass, organ
Moises Padilla: Drums
Thorn Michaels: Violin
Anne Brewster: Cello
Kaia Chessen: Cello
Linda Ceriello: Vocals, flute
Anna-Lynne Williams: Vocals
Ahamefule Oluo: Trumpet, clarinet

In some ways, even though this was my first solo "Greg Dember" album, it could be thought of as the "Part Two" to my "Planets of Plenty" album with CHIEFLY. There were a bunch of songs that I had written during the same time period that I'd written my CHIEFLY album. I had just moved back to Seattle from Vashon Island. The CHIEFLY album had been kind of home-spun and I wanted to do some recordings with more sparkle and ear candy. I teamed up with producer/engineer/guitarist Matt Brown to help me achieve that intention. I was thrilled to discover what he was able to add to my music, not only behind the boards, but as a session musician. And he brought in the inimitable James McAlister on drums, famous for playing with Sufjan Stevens. Matt has continued to be a valuable musical ally to me over the years.

Greg Dember: Vocals, Piano, Electric Piano, Organ, Glockenspiel, Bass, Guitar.
James McAlister: Drums and Percussion.
Matt Brown: Guitar and Bass.
Thorn Michaels: Violin and Viola.
Kaia Chessen: Cello
Sam Geren: Bass
Leon Dewan: Dewanatrons (Swarmatron and Melody Gin), Guitar, Bass
Linda Ceriello, Flute and Vocals.
Mark Mohrlang: Guitar.
Chad McCullough: Trumpet and Flugelhorn.

CHIEFLY was a band I put together, originally with Jeffrey Lorien, when I lived on Vashon Island. In the early 2000s, while going through a lot of personal changes, I also discovered a new palette for my song writing. Previously, I'd been rather wedded to the classic-rock styles from the sixties and the seventies. During this time, however, I'd finally gotten caught up with a bunch of amazing, melodic fresh music that was kind of a break from both the classic rock and from the snarky grunge-alternative rock of the nineties. With this new territory to explore I got inspired to write a bunch of new songs and Jeffrey and my other bandmates in CHIEFLY helped me put them together and we recorded with island engineer Doug Findley.

Greg Dember: Vocals, Piano, Bass, Acoustic Guitar
Jeffrey Lorien: Vocals, Guitars, Bass
Alma Garcia DeLilla: Violin
Noah Dolan: Drums
Kaia Chessen: Cello, Vocals
Sara Perlman: Violin
Dan Cunneen: Drums
Bill Moyer: Drums
Sasja Michael-Brown: Vocals
Leon Dewan: Guitars, Bass

My first CD! Lavish Cat was a band I co-fronted with Linda Ceriello. To record this album, we gathered together some of the super-talented improvisational musicians I'd played with in other bands and they learned songs the night before each recording session. Linda and I alternate singing lead on the different songs. Although I was fairly steeped in the classic rock sound at the inception of these songs, I had the notion that it would be cool if we could arrange them and produce them in such a way that somebody listening in the future would not be sure what era it was recorded in. From the vantage point of more than a decade later, I'd say we did achieve that sound. However, since this was the beginning of the home/project recording era we might be dated by the slightly thin sonic quality of these tracks. In spite of that limitation, this album captures the kind of intricate, spontaneous interplay that I shared with my earliest musical collaborators.

Linda Ceriello: Vocals, Flute, Percussion
Greg Dember: Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Bass
Evan Kimble: Vocals, Guitar, Saxophone
Pat Reardon: Bass
Sasha Malinski: Drums
Leon Dewan: Guitar