Joey Speranza and I had been playing in bands together throughout our high school years. After high school he left town and made some really nice music in Atlanta, GA.

 

It was 1978 when I left college, bought a very used Impalla, loaded up my drums and hit the road, accepting Joey's invitation to come down to Atlanta and join his band, consisting of Joey, amazing lead guitarist Keith Long and the young, talleted singer/songwrighter/bass/keyboard player David Castles. Joey was going by his stage name of J. C. Hope, so we were the Hope band.

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At firs we had a few local gigs and then went off to Hilton Head, SC to do  a 3 week stint. They didn't know the band had a drummer and it was a very small dinner club, so the drums were set up in the bungalow they supplied to us and we turned it into a recording studio. There we recorded most of this record (tape), staying up all night and sleeping all day. What a wonderful and creative time we had. We finished the recordings back in Atlanta in the following few months.

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The tracks were recorded on Keith's TEAC 4 track reel to reel deck, with whatever microphones we could scare up, ranging from Shure SM 58s to a cheap Radio Shack mic that Joey always used for his vocals. I remember burying the Fender Super Reverb amp under a pile of cushions so we could get a good tone without blasting the neighbors. 

 

Bob Howard,  2013