Solo, like many projects, began during the pandemic lockdown in March of 2020. And like many people I began recording homemade videos in my attic to send out on Youtube just to kill the time. Once it became clear that this situation was going to continue for quite some time, I began to hunker down for the long haul and think about making them more professional.

First off, I was unhappy with the sound I was getting in my attic (bad room bad gear) and decided to move down to the basement (better sound) and began reading blogs, watching videos and buying gear. So what started out as an attempt to improve the sound soon became a project of building a semi-pro studio. I also realized that I was no longer interested in documenting the pandemic or making videos, and my focus shifted to making a proper recording, but one that captured the time and the isolation. So I created some artificial rules: I would record the songs alone with no overdubbing and minimal editing (later I’d bring in some help with the post recording process; mixing, mastering, etc.

I ended up recording dozens of songs. There were dozens of sessions and dozens of takes in each of those sessions. I became overwhelmed and would periodically put it aside just to keep my sanity. There were also many thoughts about the pointlessness of such a project, why and for whom am I making this? Those questions remain, yet here it is, 12 songs written by Johny Blood & me, with just me singing and playing guitar, solo.

Songs written by Dennis Finnegan & Johny Blood

Lyrics for "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" adapted from "The Arrival" by Daniel Simko

Recorded and produced by Dennis Finnegan

Mixed by Dennis Finnegan, Myles Boisen, & James Crocker

Mastered by Myles Boisen

Many thanks to Chris Willging