"Could've Gone Either Way" is the LP collaboration between independent Singer & Songwriter, Erich Collins Carey and Producer Matt Shane (Grammy award winner, Flight of the Conchords). The album was recorded in New York City and on Shelter Island, New York in the Fall and Summer of 2012 and features Carey's original music backed by tried and true NYC session talent, including: Joe Bonadio (drums & percussion); Zev Katz (upright & electric bass); Keith Cotton (piano & electric organ); and Chris Tarrow (electric lead, baritone, slide & twelve string guitars; pedal steel & mandolin).
The album is a scrapbook through song, of moments passed and reflection on the road ahead. The songs were written over the course of years in transition, traveling and moving, with a focus on decisions and the life that comes of them: the good, the ugly, the bittersweet and everything in between. The album summons Carey's folk, roots, rock, blues and even Irish traditional influences in the course of the winding narrative told through its eleven songs.
The album is Carey's first release since "The Bachelor of Arts" in 2002, but is the debut on Erich Collins Carey’s own independent label, Route 114 Music & Records.
The album also features:
- Lauren Sharpe... Backing Vocals on “Put Your Shadow Next to Mine”
- Ian Dudley… Backing Vocals on “I’m a Gonna Make You Mine” & “The Days & Nights of Jen & Jill”
- Caitlin Warbelow… Fiddle on “(I’m Just a Mule) On the Wagon Train of Life,” “Nothing but the Day to Lose” & “The Ballad of the Great Hugh Carey”
- Jesse Blum… Trumpet on “The Days & Nights of Jen & Jill” & “(We Ain’t Gonna Stop) ‘Til Our Luck Runs Out”; Accordion on the “Ballad of the Great Hugh Carey”
- Mario Maggio… Tenor & Baritone Saxophone on “The Days & Nights of Jen & Jill” & “(We Ain’t Gonna Stop) ‘Til Our Luck Runs Out”
- Jerome O’Sullivan… Uilleann Pipes & Tin Whistle on “The Ballad of the Great Hugh Carey”
- Bourbon Bottle… on “(We Ain’t Gonna Stop) ‘Til Our Luck Runs Out”
Credits too to:
- Atsuo Matsumoto, Assistant Engineer
- Cover & Back Cover Photography by Charlotte R.A. Moore
- Internal Album Photography by Michael Shane
Tracking at Stratosphere Sound Recording Studios, New York, NY
Additional Recording on Shelter Island, NY & at La Sala Studios, New York, NY
Mixed in Brooklyn, NY
All words & music by Erich Collins Carey (Route 114 Music & Records/ASCAP)
Produced, Engineered, Mixed & Mastered by Matt Shane
THANKS:
Our greatest gratitude to you, if you’re reading this, and all family and friends who have supported, inspired or otherwise contributed to the making of this album. That means you: Valentine Lysikatos; Rhiannon Shane; Bonnie & Chris Carey; Michael Carey; Beth Carey Hanypsiak; Tom Carey; Hon. Hugh L. Carey; the Carey, Cassidy, Dempsey, Hanypsiak, Hayes & O’Neil clans at large; Dan Backhaus; Justin Maggio; Jill Braibanti, Esq.; Ron Spark; Dan Sternbach; Rob deBrauwere, Esq.; Richard Formoso; the Hell’s Kitchen Rhinos; Dan Purdom; NOWA; Road Manager; Vincent Sagnard; Paul Hourican; Anne Rodda; Anne Tierney; Frank Glynn & the good people of Milltown, Ireland; Commander Cody’s; & Jordan “The Valiant” Maggio.
Very special thanks as well to the incredible musicians who helped bring these songs to life, most especially our badass rhythm section: Joe, Zev, Keith & Chris.
This album is dedicated to the preservation of good memories through music. Not long after we finished tracking sessions at Stratosphere Sound, the studio announced it’d be forced to close its doors − a scene that has become all too familiar for enthusiasts of the many fine music establishments of New York City. It’s true that all things must come to pass. No less, may the music haunts of yesteryear, as with the good memories, days, nights, friends, family, dead ends and open roads this album seeks to recall, live on in the music they brought into being.
Thanks for listening. “Take it light.”
