Singer and guitar player Alan Arena had worked hard to position two of his albums at the Top Ten New England Chart, when he learned that his best friend had been diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. Alan left Boston and put aside his rising career and travelled to take care of his friend. When he was thinking he would never play again, he was aware that a new venue and recording studio named The Music Room just opened on Cape Cod, so he decided to try again and record some of his own songs. There he met guitar player and producer Paul Nelson, a Grammy winner and 14 years Johnny Winter’s guitar player, who was impressed with Alan’s talent and proposed to him to do a new recording.

Paul Nelson assembled a rhythm section with keyboard player Brooks Milgate (Chris O’Leary), bass player Brad Hallen (Susan Tedeschi, Roomful Of Blues) and drummer Marty Richards (J. Geils Band), as well as a series of guest musicians like Jerry Portnoy, Milton Smith, Sax Gordon, Allyssa Jones, Joe Russo or Jamie Brown.

Thanks to Paul, Alan was able to regularly play at The Music Room, opening for such great artists as Albert Lee, Kim Wilson, Mike Zito, Albert Castiglia Shemekia Copeland or Bernard Allison.

Alan Arena was ready to collaborate on Paul Nelson’s new album when Paul suddenly died from a heart attack at the age of 63. Alan eagerly wants this album to become a tribute to his good friend Paul, with ten more than interesting songs, displayed with huge doses of quality and honesty, by an remarkable artist who deserves to be known and appreciated by all good blues lovers.