STORY

"Deep Blue Quiet Places" is a love song built on the imagery of the sea: the gentle rhythm of its tides, the power of its storms, the creatures that live in its depths, the sailors that brave its dangers. I built the song on African rhythms, which have always reminded me of ocean waves: different instruments are playing in rhythms of two, four, six, 12, 16...together, they create a churning, tense, constantly changing foundation for the song.

I made this album in an old barn in South Seattle. I & my co-producers, drummer Don Gunn & guitarist Patrick Strole, strapped dozens of straw bales to the walls of the barn to make it soundproof, bought a super-fast Macintosh computer…& then I spent a YEAR recording this album, bringing musicians from all over the world to our little studio. I wanted to create a dramatic, cinematic journey that evoked the mystery & romance of the ocean.

 LYRICS

If he is the sun and she is the sea in which he bathes
from every dawn to every dusk of every day
If she is the boat and he is the breath that fills the gale
the crest and fall of trust and thrall the billowing sail
If he is the sextant she is the stars by which he guides
from slumbering sea to port at every eventide

If she is the gull and he is the sanguine song she cries
a wistful wordless question posed to sea and sky
If he is the halcyon calm she's a summer storm
that drowns him in her furious skin hungry wild and warm

Ripples in the deep blue quiet places of our hearts
Tumbling in the deep blue quiet places of our hearts
Every ocean has its depths that we could never hope to chart
It is here that we have anchored every secret of our hearts

If he is the stream and she is the tale his babbling tells
the dream of every desert every empty well
If she is the cliffs and he is the waves that shatter here
steal away the stone in hopes of creeping nearer
True unity is impossible we understand
but this doesn't stop the sea and shore from mingling in the sand

The wander of the current the winding of the eel
Whale song to siren's call to sunken soul to sailor's reel
to the whisper of the tide
They speak of mysteries so far below the ebb and flow
So deep within the human heart where only love can go
The reefs and wrecks where all our treasures hide

Ripples in the deep blue quiet places of our hearts
Tumbling in the deep blue quiet places of our hearts
Every ocean has its depths that we could never hope to chart
It is here that we have anchored every secret of our hearts

Banishing breath they enter the waves
For only the drowned can be saved
The weight of their trust shall carry them swift
So deep below the ebb and flow in their hearts' dark drift