Bill Carrothers - Excelsior (2011)

Excelsior is the sort of town Norman Rockwell or Currier and Ives would have painted… A beautiful, rustic, old-fashioned town along the shore of picturesque Lake Minnetonka, all of it surrounded by trees. From 1925 until 1973 it boasted an incredible amusement park that stretched along the shoreline. The carousel there was a child’s dream. There was also Bacon Drugstore, which had an honest-to-God soda fountain straight out of the 1930’s. Walking in there with a dollar in your pocket meant no more dollar in your pocket. That being said, there’s nothing particularly special about Excelsior, nothing exceptional that I know of. It doesn’t have the first or last of anything, or the most or least of anything, or the only anything, or the most famous anything. It was a quiet town of 3000 people when I lived there. It’s a town of pot roasts, pot pies, and pot lucks. Excelsior could be any small town in the United States except that this «Anywhere, USA» is my hometown. Context is everything. It was a great place to grow up.

For the first time in my career, and with a fair amount of trepidation, I went into the studio with absolutely nothing. No tunes, no chord structures, no plans, not even a scrap of paper in my pocket. I just wanted to meditate at the piano, considering Excelsior and what it meant to me as a child and now, as an adult. Because of this, the tracks on this CD were all spontaneously created, and are presented here without alteration or editing of any kind.

Tracklist:

1. Wild Rose Lane 3:09
2. Trees 4:03
3. Amusement Park 3:01
4. The Commons 3:52
5. Holy, Holy, Holy 3:17
6. Lake Minnetonka 3:35
7. Bike Ride 3:25
8. Soda Fountain Happiness 2:52
9. Water Street - Summer 5:24
10. Water Street - Winter 5:19
11. Excelsior Bay Fireworks 4:44
12. Whoville 2:55
13. Goodbye Carousel 1:49
14. Cemetery On The Hill 4:37
15. Bygone Era 4:23
16. Excelsior In a Dream 4:04

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