THIS IS AN 8-SONG SLACK-KEY-INFLUENCED INSTRUMENTAL ROCK ALBUM

Back in the waning years of the previous millennium, Michael created the soundtrack for a surf movie filmed entirely in Hawai`i called “Liquid Thunder.” The film was a travelogue of the North Shore of O`ahu, told in surfing (a LOT of surfing…) by several famous surfers of the day, including BOBBY OWENS, TONY MONIZ, BROCK LITTLE, and many more. “Liquid Thunder” by B/W Productions came out in 1990, and just sort of disappeared as so many small films do, but you can actually see it right now all these decades later on YouTube (of course you can!) at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia44BAPorgU. It’s just crazy that this little film from the 1900s somehow made its blurry way to the internets…

Three tracks on the soundtrack feature the astonishing slide guitar mastery of slide guitar luminary and Grammy winner GREG LEISZ. Greg has worked with k.d.lang, Robert Plant, Los Lobos, Jackson Browne, John Mayer… the list of music industry giants he’s played with through the decades goes on forever with him. At a Hollywood Bowl performance back in the day, k.d. lang introduced Greg as “the man who saved slide guitar from country music!” She wasn’t wrong! If you know his playing (and you HAVE heard him whether you know his playing or not), Greg always brings such a great wealth of UNIQUE SOUNDS to his playing, not just playing country or Hawaiian licks by rote. While Greg was sensitive to the sort of classic Hawaiian guitar sound needs of this project, Michael gave him full rein to do whatever he wanted to do. Greg would sit and listen a single time to each track, then ask to hit record, and he’d blow through each one, nailing every song in a single take. On these tracks he plays the Rickenbacker Frying Pan—the first electric guitar!—as well as many other slides and steel guitars he brought into the studio. This is music featuring Greg that NO ONE has ever really heard before (except the surfers who saw the movie, maybe…).