Captain's Audio Project - Waiting For The Moon (CD)

The guiding principle for these sessions was to keep everything raw and bare bones. James recorded the basic tracks live on his 1931 National Tenor Resonator Guitar and soaring vocals and then rounded the performances out with strategic overdubs and contributions from other great musicians. James added warm and sultry anchor notes with his 100 year old upright bass. Next, Mike Danner added piano, Hammond B-3, and Wurlitzer electric piano. Legendary Portland sideman Paul Brainard put down his trademark stellar pedal steel guitar on several cuts as well as bringing in the “Paul Brainard Horn Section” of Willy Mathis and Scott Van Schlick to put the icing on musical cake on a couple tracks.

The title track recalls a solo journey into the Warner Mountains in Northeastern California when James -- As an avid amateur astronomer -- hauled his telescope to a 7,000 foot elevation to view the night sky. At first, he was thwarted by Nature’s most potent light polluter, the Moon! So he was stuck “Waiting For The Moon” to go behind the mountain before he could start serious stargazing. As he sat and waited by the camp fire with his guitar, the song was born.

Many of Cook’s lyrics here draw from personal experiences. “Out On The Minam” recalls time spent
traveling deep into the scenic wilderness of the Minam River Valley in the Wallowa Mountains of Northeast Oregon to work at a remote lodge that had to be reached by bush plane. During his many months there, James built trails, felled dead trees and split logs for firewood for the lodge. The serenity of surroundings inspired several other tunes on the album as well. “The River” was composed as a love song for Mother Earth with her waters, the lifeblood that carries us from birth to death, and back to her bosom. The flights in and out of the valley eventually inspired Cook to become a pilot, and acquire his own plane, a 1949 Piper Clipper named “Betty.”