Bring the Windgate and Spoon's Tunes Albums to Life!

May, 2025

Hello Dear Friends,

I trust this finds you and yours doing well.

I have some exciting news to share. From 1977 through 1987 Jan and I lived in Grand Junction, Colorado, and had the privilege of playing music the entire time, with many wonderful people. Those people became our dear friends and family there, and that family extended to include an awesome clan who encouraged us to keep at it. Various ensembles emerged and morphed into many different groupings of players over the years, and we played in living rooms, garages, clubs, out in the desert with generators, and all sorts of other assorted venues. We covered a wide variety of songs by others, but over time Danny Miller and I brought our original songs into the mix. In 1983, with a little help from my Mom, we booked time in Bill Yorty’s local studio to record our original music. Bill was great to work with, but very sadly and unexpectedly he suddenly became immersed in a health crisis, the studio was closed, and I retrieved the reels of tape.

I’m launching this GoFundMe because, though long overdue, it is now time to finish the albums we started. Thanks to a recommendation from my old friend, Al Larson, I’ve connected with Alex Drizos, a wonderful professional musician from our hometown of Middletown, NY, who relocated to Southern California after high school and built a very successful musical career there. Alex was the missing link to make this happen. He has all of the vintage recording equipment required to safely play back these irreplaceable reels, paired with the outstanding technical and musical knowledge and expertise that is needed to complete what was started all those years ago. I am absolutely thrilled to have him produce the albums with me. We are using the 8-track reels from those original studio sessions, and have decided not to add any additional tracks or players to the recordings. This is the music we made then, just finally mixed and mastered, and given the love it deserves. I’ve often said that good things take time, and I couldn’t be more excited to share this music with you now.

In early February Alex and I met and went to work. We spent the first two days in his studio mixing two songs from Reel #1, which I had shipped out to him and he had baked to perfection. On day three we played all of the other five ½” 8-Track reels and the two ¼” reels I had carried out to Southern California with me, digitizing each track to WAV files as we went. I had no idea what was on the tapes, and it turns out it is a treasure chest!

So, my vision quest for this year is to produce two albums. The first one is by the original Windgate acoustic ensemble, with Vaun Barlow on vibes, Danny Miller on mandolin, Jan Rosen on vocals and myself on bass. There are seven original compositions here, and a wonderful cover of Summertime. This was the family that assembled several times every week, playing and writing, laughing a lot, and creating the magic of music together. We are joined in the studio by our dear friend Bob Kenner, adding some very tasteful percussion.

The second album is eight of my compositions, performed by the expanded ensemble that added John Delpit on piano, Leo Brady on electric guitar, Jimbo Brady on acoustic guitar, Peb Rock on drums, and Pam Delpit on vocals. This one is called Spoon’s Tunes, and to bring it to vinyl has been a dream of mine for a very long time.

Next year will hopefully bring two more, one of Danny’s songs performed with the larger ensemble, and maybe another one being more of my compositions that I don’t have recordings of, newly recorded with who knows what collection of players Alex and I can put together. And maybe even some new writing, who knows? I’ve got to dream, right?

Based on the first trip to Modern Man Studios, I’m estimating the cost of the first two albums at $20-$25K, including all of the studio production and related expenses, and the printing of a limited number of vinyl discs and CD’s. If any of you would like to contribute to turning these quantum waves into particles, I appreciate it more than I can say, and I will of course get you both albums on your choice of media.

WINDGATE - Grand Junction

Moon Song

Sand

Summertime

Don’t Push Your Luck

Waiting for You

Spoon’s Tune

Hourglass

Windblown Sand

Gary Rosen - Spoon's Tune's

Lost Outlaw (No Lack of Time)

Don’t Push Your Luck

This Too

Circles

I Ain’t No Stranger

Solid Gone

Night In the Woods

Spoon's Tune

Thank you so much.

Love,

Gary