A Thousand Pictures

Produced by: Craig Chaquico and Ozzie Ahlers
Executive Producers: Matt Marshall and Dan Selene
Associate Producer: William Aura
Recorded by: Craig Chaquico and Ozzie Ahlers at Lunatunes, Mill Valley CA
Recording Engineer: Craig Chaquico
Saxophone sessions Produced by: William Aura, Richard Elliot, and Craig Chaquico at Suncoast Recording, Woodland Hills CA
Mixed by: William Aura, Craig Chaquico, and Ozzie Ahlers at Auravision Studios, Ojai CA
Mix Engineer: William Aura
Midi Tech Support and Digital Edits: Craig Dobbin
Digitally Mastered by: Joseph L. Steiner III, and William Aura with Full Dimensional Sound at Quad Teck Studios, Los Angeles CA
Creative Direction: Stan Slap for Retail Revealed, San Francisco CA
Art Direction and Design: Maria De Grassi-Colosimo
Product Management: Tami Levy
Photography: Jay Blakesberg, San Francisco CA
Stylist: Deborah Dapolito
Enhanced CD: Myriad Entertainment / Media Vortex

 
Musicians: Craig Chaquico:  Guitars, Stereo Guitar Sound Effects and Additional Percussion  Ozzie Ahlers:  Keyboards, Bass and Additional Percussion.  Wade Olson:  Drums on Acoustic Traveler, Kyle's World, Navajo Stars, Streetwise, We Rode The Wind, Why The Dolphin Smiles.  Jim Reitzel:  Bass on Streetwise.  Alain Eskinasi:  Grooves and Percussion

Special Guests:

All songs written by Craig Chaquico and Ozzie Ahlers
All songs published by Wolf Mountain / Misticaro Music / Higher Octave Publishing (BMI)

How This Recording Came To Be:

Songs for A Thousand Pictures were mostly written between February and August of 1995. The rough mixes were completed at Craig Chaquico's Mill Valley studio, Lunatunes, from August 4 to September 5th. Final mixing began on September 6th at Auravision in Ojai, which stayed on a seven-day-a-week schedule to complete production by September 27th. At least that's what everybody thought: After two days of production work, the DAT machine ate the final mix of Sweet Talk, and it was completed a second time on September 29th. September 26th was Craig's birthday, so everybody stopped for dinner, an impromptu percussion session and some howling at the moon. By September 30th, the final mixes were done. Final mastering at Quad Teck Studios in L.A. happened on October 16th. By October 19th, Craig was tired, but happy.

Craig Chaquico talks about A Thousand Pictures -

Sweet Talk: 
Unless you've really had a certain feeling, you just can't play music with that feeling. And, you know, a musician can put their feelings into a song. Maybe the person you wrote it for will hear, and they'll get it, or they won't. I have to say that it's pretty cool if they pick up the vibe the way you sent it out in your music.  I've always tried to create an honest place with my music, that in some ways was more peaceful than my real world. 

sweet talk  Have you ever taken a picture with your heart  Of someone that never seems to fade away
And never told them about it?
If a picture is worth a
thousand words
Then maybe a melody is worth
A thousand pictures

Why The Dolphin Smiles: 
why the dolphin smiles
Riding the rhythms of both the sun
and the moon
Flying and playing through a
submarine universe
As evidence of intelligent life on Earth
Or perhaps extraterrestrial
cohabitation
If we can learn to live as lightly on the
planet as they
and become more like the
Guardians of Eden
Then maybe we will be able to
someday understand
Why The Dolphin Smiles

Navajo Stars: 
We've only been around a few years and we've done more to screw up the environment than cultures that were around for centuries. The knowledge from those cultures is still out there . . . handed down through legends and symbols that we can't quite interpret. Maybe because we arrogantly think that technology makes us the most advanced civilization of all time.

The kachina dolls and the Yea figure of the Navajo and Hopi have been made for hundreds of years. But, check it out, they have this uncanny resemblance to the power lines on today's highways. What if a medicine man, sitting there a hundred years ago, saw these power lines in his vision and sensed it as some future source of planetary energy? He might have portrayed it with the kachina doll. . .

navajo stars
Far from the buzz of the
Internet tonight
Far from the silvery webs
Of power and communication towers
Closer to the song of the owl,
the coyote
And the vision of giant Kachina gods
Marching across the moonlit
countryside
Join me for a ride in the desert tonight
And come along with me
Beneath a blanket of Navajo stars
 
Autumn Blue: 
. . . is basically a story for my Dad, who passed away last year. He and my Mom had a great relationship. A true and timeless love. Without knowing anything about the song, Mom heard a rough mix of it and said, "This reminds me of your father."

I put a saxophone in this song for a couple of reasons. My Dad was a sax player. The last concert of mine he got to see was in Sacramento with Richard Elliot. It was the first time Richard and I had played on the same bill, and Dad took me aside and said, "You and Richard should play together some day." So, we have and it's on the song I wrote for him and Mom.

autumn blue
They were the diamond that sparkled
In the center of a necklace made of
Yesterdays and Tomorrows
Wheeling in a crystal blue sky
That stretched from the pasture
into the future
The wings of their hearts always
beat together
Even when they were far apart
But until they do meet again
Holding hands walking across
the Universe
Or just in her memories of Spring
There will sometimes have to be
an Autumn Blue

We Rode The Wind: 
This song is about deep friendship . . . I wrote it like a Louis L'Amour novel. It's saying, you know, partner, if you're ever back in town, and they haven't caught up with you . . . I don't care whatever it is, you can always count on me for a roof, a meal, and a fresh horse.

The Starship was like that for me, being in a band, touring the country. And I was thinking of Grace (Slick). When she moved to L.A., she left a message on my machine that was so innocent, but it was funny. Because it was kind of like, "Well, if you're down here and you ever need a place to stay or some food or anything, you know, call me." And I thought, 'some food?'  But that's how you are with someone that you've ridden the high plains with.

Streetwise: 
streetwise
All the family dogs
Are always scratching at their collars
And barking at the wolves
That they think they hear in the garden
Or maybe it's just an echo
Of the way they used to be
Not so long ago
And it's still the same for you and me
Sometimes something wild is in the wind
Sometimes something wild
Answers to the call of the wild
Again

Kyle's World:
Kyle is my son; he's four. And I wanted to write a song that sees through the eyes of a little boy. I started the song out with a jump because that's how he starts every day. Kyle's got pure joy for the world and whatever it's going to show him next.

And at the same time, I wanted the song to speak through the eyes of a parent. I was thinking of that overwhelming feeling you get when you look at your little kid and you go, "My God, I can't believe how much I love him." This song is a combination of innocence and energy . . . which is Kyle and which is what Kyle brings out in me. We all want to dance naked in our cowboy boots.

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