After the Rain

           This collection of songs explores that moment in time equally tinged by past and future, poised on the edge of forever with a 360 degree view of both sides, just before taking the dive headlong into one or the other. Which to choose? As the disorienting rootlessness of contemporary life grinds against - and mocks - the restless impulse to move forward always, the questions asked are those of freedom versus connection, security opposing opportunity.
          Via contrast, the lyrics consistently underscore the push/pull nature of all desire, "burning cold and hot" in Blue Flame, a country/blues rocker that kicks off the disc with a tale of two people who can't live together or apart. This tension between opposing energies winds it's threads throughout: hope deferred and the dogged belief in redemption in After The Rain; a free spirit's pangs of isolation in The Road I'm On; the rare moment of tenderness in Slow Dancing followed by On The Loose's determined avoidance and denial of the loneliness that always lies at the heart of excess.
          We are most of us lost and everyone finds a way to allieviate the pain if not solve the problem. Some turn away from the race, surrendering to the cycles of life as in I'm Daddy Now, some heedlessly dash straight ahead and then panic once they have gone too far to turn back (Just Got To Believe), and some move forward by stepping back, trading a big city and a small existence for small town life and the vastness of Big Sky Country.
          And the one song left, Streets of L.A., acts as a way station, situated on the teetering crust of a way of life long expected to one day simply tumble into the sea. The crossroads where meet those that arrive hopeful, those that leave disillusioned, and those that remain, all chasing the ultimate status symbol- their name inscribed on a star, laid low in the dust.
          Which to choose? The transience of L.A. embodies these opposing forces and is both a point in time rich in potential and also a city in danger of collapsing into the abyss. And L.A.'s famous freeway system, snaking around the city, runs in both directions. No matter which lane you choose to travel, the road runs on long After The Rain.

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Jack Tempchin's notes on AFTER THE RAIN:

          It started with a bottle of champagne delivered to the dressing room backstage at the Palace Theater in Hollywood when the Jack Tempchin band opened the show there for Rodney Crowell.
           The champagne was from the Robb Brothers; Dee, Bruce and Joe. All three of the Robb brothers are world class recording engineers and together they own the famous Cherokee Studios.
          We made a deal and the Robb brothers produced this album and donated more than six months of recording time in their studio. It was an adventure that none of us will ever forget.
          The Seclusions were playing twenty gigs a month in L.A. I remember us in the crowded back rooms of clubs between sets, talking out the endless details that make up the soul of a band. Bands come and go, and the members of this band have since traveled the world many times over, playing big time gigs with other world famous recording artists.
          Sometimes dreams come true, and sometimes a shooting star burns out in a blaze of glory before it reaches the top of the sky. Sometimes when you look back at the memories of striving together to do something great, you realize that you already had it all.