Edmond was a stealthful, nimble, quick, snuggly cat we got from my brother’s farm. They saved him as a kitten that lived in his barn. He was in some sort of fight and a bit mangled and had no voice. They separated him and took good care of him hoping that we would take him when we visited, which we did. He was a very cute kitten.

At the time we had a black lab called Pearl that was still mostly a pup. As Edmond was still injured, we had to keep him confined in a crate. Edmond and Pearl adjusted to each other and became buds. Edmond would lie next to Pearl as time went on. It was a strong contrast of a white and orange calico cat up against a pure black lab.

Edmond was an inside outside by nature of his heritage but would always stay near our house, his safe place, waiting to come back in when he was done prowling around. He had a great purr when he was cuddling up to you. I had a new iPhone at the time and I said, “I need to record this,” which I did. His purr bookends the song and is dispersed here and there in the song a bit. Edmond was a true cool cat.

I started with a progression with I really like because it is a rock solid, sneaky sounding, A-Dorian minor mode vamp. It reminded me of Edmond. The notes in A-Dorian are A B C D E F# G. The traditional A-Minor key is A B C D E F G. The chord changes put the F# in the air in that chord progression loop. And the sax descant that Lucas plays, also puts F# in the air. Jacob on the Baritone sax, starts his awesome solo with an F# riff. Then the song migrates to F-Lydian, which is F G A B C D E. It hints at the A-Minor key just revolving around a different note. That’s why I created a play along version so people could have fun learning those scales. Give it go.

Mark Nelson the keyboardist, who toured with Mannheim Steamroller last winter, nailed his solo. One of the things you can do with Dorian loops is you can pull against them and super impose other notes not in the scale into your riffs, which Mark did superbly. Adam Hill drummer, educator and entertainer extraordinaire along with my son Wren on bass, laid down a killer funk groove that made it extremely enjoyable to play over. I was happy with my electric guitar parts and solo as well. I learned a lot getting those tones and doing this mix.

Well I hope this furtive sounding ditty gives you cool cat vibes and you hear new things in it in future listens. Have fun jamming over it. Enjoy!