Originally Posted by
ralpht
Gary, unfortunately, the album didn't sell all that well but I did get wonderful letters from school teachers praising the album and using it in their classes as a teaching aid. When we did Michael's heartfelt speech at the end things didn't go all that well at first. After several takes it wasn't happening. Tommy Bee, the band's manager looked at me and said "Fire water.". Yes we got the boy drunk and the lad lit it up. We fell out in the control room, knowing we had the ending. Of course Dave Van De Pitt's amazing string arrangements definitely set the mood. The auxiliary drums you hear throughout the album, along with bells are authentic brought in from New Mexico. Also it was necessary to teach Telma Hopkins and the girls a little Navajo for the background vocals.
The seeds of the album were sown when Mike Valvano and I would fly to New Mexico to meet the band. Where they lived was like a set straight out of Bonanza, horses and all. The ranch house had a huge living room with a picture window looking out at the Sandia Mountains which was the band's rehearsal room. It was there that we would go over their songs and hammer out the outline for recording an album. Not a bad place to work.