CHAPTERS

FROM THE AUTHOR

Some songs arrive like lightning.

Others spend twenty years knocking on the same door before you finally let them in.

Chapters is a little of both.

These songs were written years apart—in different cities, different seasons, by different versions of me. Some were first caught on a beat-up four-track cassette recorder. Others eventually wandered into proper studios. Most, though, were coaxed into existence inside a closet with microphones, coffee, stubbornness, and more optimism than good acoustics.

They're imperfect.

Good.

Rock and roll was never supposed to smell like fresh paint.

There are fifteen tracks here. Eight lead singers. Friends I've been lucky enough to collect over decades. Horns. Strings. Homemade sound effects. Tap dancing. A theremin because... well, why not?

Every voice belongs.

Every player left fingerprints.

Every song tells a truth, even when it's wearing a disguise. It'll probably remind you of something—or someone, especially if you know me well. That's the funny thing about songs. They leave home, then somehow find their way into somebody else's life.

That's intentional.

The title Chapters came to me long before the record was finished. Looking back, I realize I wasn't just making an album.

I was writing a memoir without photographs.

My influences have always refused to stay in one lane. Folk, rock and roll, blues, country, soul, jazz, the beautiful noise in between—I've borrowed from all of it, and hopefully left enough of myself behind to make it mine.

Truth is, I never set out to chase a style.

I just wanted these songs to finally exist.

Some may feel familiar, like an old jacket hanging by the back door or a memory that still knows your name.

Every song is a chapter.

Every chapter is another version of the same author.

So if you've got fifty-something minutes, turn these sonic pages.

Welcome to Chapters.

Rovatsos