About friends - by Kirk Fischer
I've followed Greg Adams since his days as a founding member of Tower of Power. I even covered some ToP material in my playing days. When Greg went solo in the mid-90's I bought and enjoyed his stuff. When East Bay Soul hit the street I was totally pumped that Greg had returned to his 10-piece roots.
Then came a cool opportunity with East Bay Soul 2.0 and the Kickstarter campaign where guys like me could help with a little funding and, in return, meet the band at the CD release concert. Excellent. We had a great time. It was during that event that Carol and I started our friendship with Greg and Andrea Adams.
In 2014 I commissioned Greg to write a song that ended up on the third EBS CD: East Bay Soul - That's Life. The song, "Grow Old With Me" tells the story of how Carol and I fell in love. It was beautifully written by Greg, Nick Milo, and Rocky Maffit.
It was during "That's Life" when I asked about using the EBS guys to add horn tracks to some of my stuff. I was thinking "legacy" and recording about four songs just to say I played with the old ToP and current EBS guys like Greg and Lee Thornburg. But then it just got out of control... Greg said, "the whole band is at your disposal"... holy moly!! I started recording concept demos here in Texas and sent them to Greg who mentored the entire project.
Ultimately we identified 10 songs - 6 original and 4 covers. Greg and I collaborated on rhythm arrangements, Greg composed the string and horn arrangements. In March 2016 we laid down rhythm tracks with Kay-Ta, Herman Matthews, and Dwayne "Smitty" Smith. I recorded most of the keyboards in my studio. That was followed by a string session and ultimately Greg, Lee Thornburg, and Greg Vail laying down those signature horns. Greg Adams producing... how good is that?
So what you have here is basically Kirk Fischer playing with East Bay Soul. Let me ask you, my fellow True Funk Soldiers, who wouldn't want to do that? It turned out great. I hope you enjoy it.