I guess it was just over two years ago that I initially had the idea to produce a project in which local Boston area musicians would come into a studio and record covers of their favorite local, independent songwriters. I had been playing my friends songs with them live at shows (like David Gallager’s table sessions and Roots in the Round at Toad) and Ian Fitzgerald’s “Galveston”, Patrick Coman’s “Hungover”, and “Danger and Dread” and “Down to the River” by brown bird were becoming regular songs in my live show setlists, so it only seemed like a natural progression to help others share their favorite songs with a broader audience.

With the incredible generosity through the Iguana Fund and Club Passim that first volume saw the light of day. I tapped into my closest musician friends to come and quickly record a session in the studio with my pals Andrew Kramer and Sam Margolis at Riverview Studios in Waltham. The two of them quickly became invaluable partners for me and their support during the sessions was something I can’t being to thank them for properly. Very soon after I began receiving emails and messages from folks, asking if they could take part in it, and before there was even funding for it, volume 2 was starting to be planned.

Well…here we are. 10 new artists, 10 new cover songs from “local” musicians. The geography has slightly grown in this next volume with friends from upstate New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island adding to the flavor, but the mission behind this project remains the same: we need to share one another’s songs, we need to sing together, and we need to support the art that our friends and contemporaries are creating. That is what is important and community is something that we cannot ignore or take for granted.

Here it is…Volume 2 of Locals Covering Locals.