My first CD, "Living in the Land of Yes", was released in 2010 and has been well received by a global audience.

While playing a fair number of blues jams & open mikes, I met Jack O'Hara, a talented and gracious gentleman, with a mellow vibe and voice to match. Jack is a true musical renaissance man: producer/arranger/engineer /mixer/multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter, husband, son, father, brother and calm voice in a world that needs such men.
 

In 2016, in his ever so "no big deal" manner, Jack told me about the release of a box set containing the work of his legendary under-the radar 70's band Eggs Over Easy, and it turns out that folks like Huey Lewis, Elvis Costello, Loudon Wainwright III and Nick Lowe are all long-time fans of the band and of Jack!
So, I had an idea…


Why not pick three originals and record acoustic versions of them – and maybe even a new one as well? And so I approached Jack and, as a result, "The O'Hara Sessions” was born.

The Songs:

1. "The Redhead Said" – Words & music by Dave Rudbarg
Inspired by the great Brill Building classics, the first verse is almost a verbatim recreation of why a redhead would not go out with me, and the second verse emerged years later. The final verse came after she and I spoke again after several years.  She is great, and I think the world of her. I know that the feeling is mutual…

2. "Home to Mollie" – Words & music by Dave Rudbarg
Some people just glow. Mollie does, and I am sure her husband would agree. This song is not about anyone real, but it takes how I imagined someone could feel about someone like her... And, it was inspired by Mollie who used to live in NYC and is from Kentucky; she now lives somewhere else...

3. "Beloved" – Words & music by Dave Rudbarg
The chorus is inspired by the “Song of Solomon” and the lyrics were inspired by the love I received from an extraordinary woman. It's also meant to be a wedding song, I think...


4. "Four Phrases" – Words & music by Dave Rudbarg
In 2016, I started the Hawaiian practice of Ho'oponopono – from Dr. Joe Vitale, who co-authored the book Zero Limits with Dr. Hew Len, another Ho'oponopono practitioner.

Dr. Len's message may be quite hard to believe; yet, it's amazingly simple. He states that we are all responsible for everything that we see in our world. By taking full personal responsibility and then healing the wounded places within ourselves, we can literally heal ourselves and our world. As related by Joe Vitale in a radio interview, Dr. Len suggests a four-stage process for this Ho’oponopono work. Whenever a place for healing presents itself in your life, open to the place where the hurt resides within you. After identifying this place, gathering as much feeling as you can, say the following four simple statements:

I love you.
I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.


I started doing it – and it works BIG TIME! Of course, being a singer who loves great hooks, I couldn't help trying to incorporate this in a song. So on the first day of recording, just as we were wrapping up, I asked Jack to hit "record" one more time. I sang the hook, improvised a few verses on the spot to give us something to build on, and after developing it further, I'm EXTREMELY HAPPY with the result!
I hope you all enjoy hearing this music as much as we did creating it!

All the Best,
Dave