It seems a lifetime ago that I was writing the music that later became the album. A different lifetime. I was influenced by the groups and individuals I listened to growing up --The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Supremes, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Lawrence Welk, Soupy Sales, The Turtles, Peter and Gordon, Leslie Gore, Leonard Bernstein, The Mills Brothers, The Classics Four, The Kingsmen, Petula Clark, Tom Jones, The Mamas and the Papas, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Association, The Young Rascals, Marvin Gaye, Buffalo Springfield, Sergio Mendez, Johnnie Rivers, Donovan, Bobby Hebb, The Zombies, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Boxtops, The Ventures, Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young), Santana, Aorta, Led Zepplin, Bread, Sly and the Family Stone, America, The Byrds, Traffic, Montovani, King Crimson, The Fifth Dimension, Sonny and Cher, Marianne Faithful, The Platters, The Mystic Moods Orchestra, The Troggs, "early" Elton John, James Taylor, The Doors, Thunderclap Newman, It's A Beautiful Day, Nino Tempo and April Stevens, The Drifters, Alan Sherman, Frank Sanatra, Perry Como, Louis Prima, Bob Dylan, The Guess Who, The Animals, Three Dog Night, Jose Feliciano, Al Stewart, The Doobie Brothers, Booker T. and the MGs, and many, many others.

But that was just the music I enjoyed listening to. Until I was in high school, there were only two radio stations in KC that played popular music. And until I was in Junior High, we had no record player, so for many years, I really didn't have a choice of what I listened to. I often listened to music at my neighbors' houses where I had access to their record collection. I’m sure all of this music influenced me -- both positively and negatively.

I had no musical training or background so I'd call my method of song writing more spiritual than technical -- coming more from the ether than from a plan.

Why there was only one album is an easier question to answer.

While I played mostly cover music with my guitar in piano bars in Kansas City in the late '70s, I submitted several songs to publishers and record companies in L.A. After numerous responses like, "If you are ever in Los Angeles, look us up" and with our foster kids now in college, my wife and I quit our jobs, put our house on the market, loaded up the Subaru station wagon and headed West.

Two days after arriving in Los Angeles, I landed a gig for 5 hours a night 5 days a week playing cover tunes, same gig—different locale. Over the course of nine months in L.A., we learned a lot about the recording industry and decided to return to Kansas City and record the album at an affordable University recording studio in town. With financial help from fans and friends, the album was finished and the release was planned, the pregnancy was not. I had scheduled a tour on the college circuit to promote "A Street Called Straight," but the arrival of my son and the resulting complications to my wife’s health put everything on hold – a hold that has extended for 25 years.

-- Jeff Eubank, July 2008