"I Walk These Roads" is a collection of 12-songs that I wrote over a 5-year period. As a result, you can hear a lot of development in both my attitude and writing style.

Originally these 12 songs didn't even exist together. They were some of many others that made up my catalog of original music, and they most hit home with my own performance style. Being a songwriter capable of writing for other artists and styles, and having a pretty versatile performance style of my own, it made sense to include on this album songs that had some kind of continuos thread.

In late 2006 I made contact with Richie Cannata (legendary saxophonist for Billy Joel), and he asked me to come to his studio and show him some of my originals. (The story of how my initial connection with Richie was made is actually quite interesting, and goes back several years earlier, but that's something for another post.)

After spending a few hours in Richie's office (in which, by the way, the walls are not visible due to the collage of photographs from years of legendary performances, celebrity friends of his, and of course his family) we listened to some piano vocal tracks of my original music and he was floored. He actually said that he hadn't heard a writing talent like mine since his early years working with Billy Joel, on songs (incidentally) that his saxophone solo's helped to make so legendary ("New York State of Mind," "Just The Way You Are," "You May Be Right" to name a few...

I was almost speechless from the compliment. He then went on to make a life-changing offer... he asked if he could PRODUCE my first album of originals! I of course was immediately on board, and in the following months we produced a 7-song album that included songs like the title track "I Walk These Roads" and "Unspoken." Richie also called up some of his "friends in the business" and after hearing the tracks, signed on to the project. Guys like Julio Fernandez (legendary lead guitarist for SpyroGyra) Don Harris, John Montanga, Kevin Bregande, Chris Clark and of course HIMSELF.

The experience was absolutely amazing, and immediately sealed my passion for a future of music, music, music.... not only writing, but also singing, recording and performing.

After finishing production, Richie was so excited about how much he enjoyed working with me, he started hinting at the idea of going back into the studio, adding some more songs and making "I Walk These Roads" a FULL 12-song album - instead of just an EP. I was excited to work on more music, but this time I decided to write some new songs specifically for the project. 

The decision to record some more songs actually took place at The Bitter End (NYC) where I had met up with Richie to attend one of his son's s hows (another great artist, Eren Cannata). One of Eren's songs featured a horn section made up of some big names including Don Harris, Ozzie Melendez and Richie himself on Sax. After speaking with Richie about adding more music, I grabbed some random flyer and on the drive home (don't worry, I wasn't driving) I began to write a new song SPECIFICALLY to include a HOTT horn section. The resulting song was "On The Town," a high energy tune about going out and having a good time!

A few other experiences like that lead to other new songs including "One Day at a Time" & "When I'm Gone." The result was a full 12-song album that cataloged a very wide range of human emotions from first love to lost love, from falling down to moving on. 

I've since performed songs from the album all over the tri-state area, and several of the songs have been played, and ARE CURRENTLY being played on radio stations throughout the country. 

But perhaps the most exciting outcome of the album are the relationships that I forged with all of these amazing people, Richie being the top of the chain. I worked with some of the most amazing people on this project, people who I'm now able to call my friends. Friends that I get to jam with, perform with or just hang with.

So if you haven't heard it yet, I hope you'll get a copy today... it's available for purchase on my website and on iTunes.

Thanks for sharing your time with me, I hope to see you soon at a show and I hope you'll stay connected and check out some of my NEW MUSIC that's coming your way.

- Nathaniel