Great Lakes

***Fear of the Fear is the 9th album by Great Lakes, my long-running band and recording project. I think of it as my Memphis Record, since the bulk of it was written and recorded there. Like 2022's Contenders, Fear of the Fear was mixed by Luis Leal. In fact, while thematically it is very different, aesthetically it could almost be considered Contenders II, even though 2025's Don't Swim Too Close came out in between. It features two musicians I've been working with for nearly 20 years, drummer Kevin Shea and vocalist Suzanne Nienaber. It also benefits from the contributions of two of my favorite go-to multi-instrumentalists, David Gould and Petter Folkedal. Some talented Memphis-based musicians grace the record, as well, including Leah Keys, Andrew Geraci, Seth Moody, and John Whittemoore. Finally, my old friends Kyle Forester and Steve Silverstein each play on a few songs. Fear of the Fear is a collection of songs mostly about the death of my close friend, Ryan Trammel. As such, it deals thematically with loss and grief. A very personal album, it touches on feelings of anxiety, brokenness, and the role of the subconscious in our lives-be it subconscious memory or subconscious knowledge/wisdom ("there is a truth we have known without knowing it" is how I put it in the album opener). This is an idea I find especially potent. Maria Montessori wrote that as babies we are as smart as we are ever going to be. When I read that in one of her books, it immediately felt self-evident to me. As we age, of course we all also come to realize, and most of us all too well, that wisdom and knowledge are wholly different from intelligence. That's another theme of the record: "you don't get smarter with age" is how I put it in one song.