Gary and I originally recorded this song back in the late 1978 yet, I was never truly satisfied with the way it came out, plus, my voice was a bit screechy back then. In mid-2021 I had the chance to re-birth this gem into full blossom, the way it was intended to be recorded and produced. Thank you to digital technology and new instruments I have in my pocession, instruments didn't have back then. Between a new perspective and digital recording tools that Gary and Ken assisted me with I  finally completed this remarkable and unusual song  about a fictional couple who spends a romantic time in a forest. I, along with Ken Pfeil and Gary Lingner we managed to record  58 total tracks beginning with  my signature double tracked acoustic guitar's sound along with piano, synthesizers, bass, sound effects multiple vocals and a new female vocal accompaniment by McHenry County's finest solo female vocalist Mary Lai who helped me build a choir-like effect during the POE refrains.  With the help of Gary Lingner together we created what I call the Mary & Eric  POE choir during the chorus adding piano synthesizer harp trills to effect a Paradise like sound.
Thank you Gary & Mary  ☺

POE, is a romantic fictional lyric about a couple who takes a fore into a pine needle forest with a natural stream running through it. Together, they  experience all the wonders of the nature around them only to realize that their togetherness, along with the forest, has helped them create their own 'Paradise On Earth' The lyrics and instruments are all poised to build up into a grand finale of a choruses built into the song.

This 2021 production would not how been possible without the generous support from recording engineer 's Gary Lingner and Ken Pfeil. Ken  recorded my signature double tracked acoustic guitars and my original vocal....5 takes altogether, Ken also used his advanced recording engineer trickery to alter the vocal where it fell short by my vocal weakness due to the PONS stroke I suffered 2 years ago. Ken went on to also digitally record the drum tracks and bass line. Ken wrote and recorded  the masterful guitar solo heard in the after the second verse of the song. Thank you Ken Pfeil.

Gary Lingner recorded everything else, all of my keyboards, synthesizers, special effects ASMR ( Silence, Echoes  whispers...Gary's voice ) and beyond...he masterfully recorded while applying his deeply rooted magic fingers to the song and his stalwart patience is gratefully heard throughout the entire song. Gary also mastered the final mix like a fine-eared comb.
 

I struggled with the final l title for a while bouncing ideas off my friend Gary multiple times until I( we ) landed on 'Watching Clouds' as a fine description of the instrumentals 'feel' I began to think the tune and its presentation reminded me of such an observation. Then in a moment of clarity I decided to write a short poem to open up the song, dropping the pitch of my voice digitally because my Dysphasia ( difficult speech ) was so bad at the time it was  hard for me to speak or, understand what I was saying. Gary and I carefully planned out the beginning to create an audio imagery of  clouds rolling by with deep synthesizer sounds and  birds chirping ( for outside effect ) combined  with ambient  sounds I found on the internet. Together we produced  the into that creates a powerful beginning. During the intro poem I spoke the line 'I can feel her breathe upon my brow' eluding to the songs initial lyrics. I finally found a brilliant flautist: Susan Siciliano to play the ever jubilant and sometimes eerie melody. We worked  every weekend  on 'Watching Clouds'  for weeks to come. I proceeded to record my signature double tracked acoustic guitars. I also used a rarely used instrument, a 6 string Fender bass VI pictured  in this column I also created a  soaring Les Paul guitar lead solo, double tracking solo in the last quarter of the song. That solo was actually a melody in my head from a jam session I had with fellow friend and roommate Mike Kennedy at Gary's house back in the late 70s. As Mike jammed out 3 chords E, B A, I began singing:' I own a blue velvet sea....' a melody which stayed with through the years. So, I applied that melody to the guitar solo and variated it  to become the soaring lead solo in 'Watching Clouds'...this is how the winds of creativity follow after science experiments a tin foil hat factory in our  heads ( Gary & I )....LOL Later I added some strings and synthesizer sounds to give the tune a kind of majestic feel.

The bonus track on the CD is my rendition the Moody Blues Classic 'For My Lady'  performed by  yours truly, Susan Siciliano on Flute,
Dan Fearn on guitar/Mellotron and Dean Milano on Bass Fiddle. The song was actually  a rehearsal recording which I felt was properly mixed and presented by Dan Fearn at his house. I added the recording to my 'Watching Clouds' CD to make it a dual song CD instead of a single tune CD.

♫ Click here to preview 'Watching Clouds' on YouTube

♫ Click here to purchase 'Watching Clouds' on Amazon.com for .99 per MP3 download

Later on, I will provide a purchase link to buy the 2 song CD which I have available copies of.

 

That night, when she left in her friends car and they drove away, I picked up my guitar and began writing this song. I was filled with a sense of unrequited love and also a feeling of an unusual sense of balance. As, is turned out we saw each other for quite some time afterwards. I never shared the song with her because I didn't want her to hear the lyrics refrains eluding to a melancholy interpretation of our first night together which prevails throughout the song. I don't know what ever happened to her as she moved out of our apartment building, at the time she lived in the apartment above my room mate and I with her mother. I wrote the last verse years later  as a retrospect on what might happen if we ever crossed paths again, 'our souls will remember our union that night long ago'...and more.

I did perform this song once, live in concert in 1997, at the first of 3 benefit concerts I performed for my late sister Dr. Linda Kinkel with Angela Martin Licari on violin and Al Ehrich on Cello. I wrote a counter melody for the violin and cello. When I recorded it in 2019  I decided to take a crack at recording the cello part myself on my Medeli 88 key digital keyboard which has a very  nice sampled cello sound onboard.

This song is a very emotionally charged melancholy song  in every sense. It's how I roll, I write what I feel, and I feel when I write.

♫ Click here to preview 'We Are Even' on YouTube

♫ Click here to purchase 'We Are Even' on Amazon.com for .99 per MP3 download

 

'Goldmoor's View' By Eric Kinkel
© 2020

(Contemporary Folk/Rock - Instrumental)

Eric Kinkel: Acoustic Guitars, Synthesizers, sound effects, vocal enhancements

Ken Pfeil: Acoustic Guitar's, Electric guitars co-producer

Engineered and recorded by
Gary Lingner & Ken Pfeil
 

 Engineered and recorded by
Gary Lingner & Ken Pfeil

♫ Click here to preview on YouTube 'Tracez'

♫ Click here to purchase 'Tracez' on Amazon.com for .99 per MP3 download


 

Nothing's Wrong Song By Eric Kinkel
© 2020

( Country)

Eric Kinkel, Vocals, Acoustic guitars Bass

Donna Adler: Duet Harmony track

Ken Pfeil: Co-producer, Digitally applied drum track

Engineered and recorded by
Gary Lingner & Ken Pfeil
 

Oddly, I don't ever remember Lynn  liking  this song after I played it for her in the early days, though most women  would probably find it an enchanting and romantically  moving song to be the subject of such a re3arkablew song...at last that is my opinion. So, years later I played 'Nothing's Wrong Song' with some bluegrass folks I used to jam with up in Libertyville IL.and they absolutely loved the song, in fact Charlie and Carol Lie got married shortly after we rehearsed the song. We performed it several times at  some gigs we got. As  the years rolled on, I managed to hang onto an old cassette tape that our soundman Billy D. recorded during a rehearsal. It was that old cassette tape which I later digitally transferred to an MP3 and re-listened  to in 2020, that got me to thinking I should get moving on properly recording this gem of song the way it was meant to sound, as I envisioned it when I wrote it.

So, this past late summer, early fall 2020 Gary and I began working on recording the basic tracks. The original bluegrass group had a female singer who sang a duet harmony with me on that early cassette tape. So, I sought out a  new female duet singer as I lost touch with Carol Lea who sang on the original. Eventually I  I found Chicago's very own Dona Adler. Her voicing's matched exactly what I was seeking for this romantic country song harmony refrains and BG vox.

I laid down the acoustic guitar  the bass track and finally my vocal, then Ken Pfeil added some electric guitar and a nicely formulated country guitar sound solo. Ken also added a  digitally created Nashville drum kit to the recording. Between Gary, Ken, Donna  and I we managed a nice over all country touch to this song. Its now a contemporary country song rather than an old cassette tape laying around.   Again, I successfully resurrected another gem from my cherished treasure chest of songs. I present to you: 'Nothing's Wrong Song'

♫ Click here to preview 'Nothing's Wrong Song' on YouTube


♫ Click here to purchase 'Nothing's Wrong Song' on Amazon.com for .99 per MP3

 

Recorded in October 2020
 

So, I came up with the idea to record a couple of 'Father/Dad' songs  by  I had known for years how play rather proficiently. These are songs I had previously never performed in concert or out in the clubs. Over the year's I always interned on squeezing these 2 song's in my sets somewhere along the, and yet I was remiss in doing so.

I went to my friend Gary's home studio and asked if I could lay down these tracks for my father, and  take a simple approach...no, real over producing or added instruments other than vocals, acoustic guitars and maybe a synthesizer track or two, here and there.

Prepared as I was over the years, I took to the mic's and projected all the feelings and sympathetic emotions I  shared with the original writers of these songs. In this case I chose 'I Brought My father With me' by the late Michael Peter Smith. If you're a fan of mine and maybe you attended any of my benefit concert's for my late sister, you probably heard Michael Peter Smith songs that I performed, in addition to that Michael was my special guest performer at my first benefit concert in 1997 at The Schaumburg Prairie Center For The Arts. Also, to note, Michael wrote infamous classic 'The Dutchman' which I recorded on my first album 'A Long Time Away' in 1988.  In the years to come I learned  allot from him, performance demeanor, finger picking styles, song creating and arranging, story telling lyrics etc... 'The Dutchman' was a  fine example.

Years later Michael recorded a song about his father, log after his father passed on. The song remains an emotionally charged lyrically poignant story song that reveals the powerful connection that often exists between a father and son throughout the many stages of life.

I chose to record a simple acoustic guitar track on my Martin 00X1 concert model guitar. It didn't take long to dig deep into this well rehearsed and certainly well crafted song by on of the most prolific song writers from the Midwest to ever grace the stage. I was deeply honored to have the opportunity to not just perform this song for a crowd at a concert but, this was an opportunity to record it, and feel my way through it in my own unique way.

I not only recorded my acoustic guitar and vocal track but I also added some cello and according using my Medeli 88 key digital piano. This recording is far from perfect, but, it is filled with my personal emotions and personal  instrumental techniques that vary somewhat from MPS original recordings. 

Because of Covid, I had to postpone playing the song for my father on a boom box since Dad lives in an assisted living facility.  My father is NOT a musical person, he really never was, but, I think at 94 he catches glimpses of my talent in a rather trivial way.  Somewhere deep down , I know he understands my sincerity in all I do musically. I have a multiplicity of talent my father  has always been ignorant of. Its just the way he is...always has been. I accept it for what it is.

Click the link below this line to preview  'I Brought My father With Me' on SoundCloud a free listening platform.

♫ Click here to preview 'I Brought my father With Me'  on SoundCloud



 

I carefully chose the late Steve Goodman's 'My Old Man' again, I kept it simple: acoustic guitars, vocals, and some cellos, putting my unique EK touch on this famed Goodman classic tear jerker and poignant lyrics about his 'old man' long after he'd passed away.

Like the song above 'I Brought My father With me', I carefully recorded and presented both of these songs to my  father.

As mentioned in the back-story about 'I Brought My father With Me' I had to postpone my presentation of these recordings to my father, because of Covid, I presented the songs  together  for my father on a nice Sony boom box. Snce Dad lives in an assisted living facility, there was no other way.  My father is NOT a musical person, he really never was, but, I think at 94 he catches glimpses of my talent in a rather trivial way.  Somewhere deep down, I know he understands my sincerity in all I do musically. I have a multiplicity of talents my father  has always been ignorant of. Its just the way he is...an always has been.
I accept it for what it is.

To preview  my version of Steve Goodman's 'My Old Man' click the link below to hear it on Sound Cloud for free.

♫ Click here to preview 'I Brought my father With Me'  on SoundCloud







 

By Francis Scott Key (1814)
Recorded by EK in October 2020
 

As the years rolled by, I eventually forgot about this arrangement and it fell by the ways side. So, in September of 2020 I decided to actually to create a broader and more expansive arrangement in the studio, and this time record my arrangement as I always saw fit.

I planned a trip to my friend Gary's home studio where we spent the better part of 3-4 days working on this new brass and strings intro arrangement I put together keeping John Phillips Souza firmly in mind, giving the intro more of a strings and brass combinations marching band style opening using my Medeli 88 key Piano...pictured here. After we mixed the song and finely tuned it to our satisfaction. I decided to do a video of the SSB. So, I called a videographer I knew named Lindsey Holton of Downtown Media works in Arlington Heights.  Covid 19 was still a major issue, and, her formal  brick and mortar studio had been ravaged by fire, so, we couldn't film indoors at all. Gratefully, she agreed to film it with the exception that we do the video outdoors, since the weather was still clement. I then scouted out a nice open area of a local forest preserve I knew was often vacant or had few, or occasional visitors.

The video was a success.

♫ Click here to preview 'Star Spangled Banner' on YouTube

♫ Click here to preview 'Star Spangled Banner' on my website