Years before recording started on my third album, First Love, I had picked the songs for the album. After recording mostly older songs on my first album, then going with new songs for my second, I realized that I had written many beautiful love songs when I was in my twenties that deserved to be recorded. They were written about the love of my life, Carolyn Moses. I had been Carolyn’s first love, and the 14 songs on this album establish my romantic character, and tell this love story of girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, they endure a long distance relationship, but then ultimately  break up. I wanted this album to be in the unplugged style and to use acoustic piano. Rick had recovered and built a new studio and was happy to get another chance to make an album with me. Dave Dionisi again played saxophone and flute, and I recruited some excellent young string players. After multiple lead singers on the first two albums, I wanted only one lead singer on the third album and Claudio Guilino was the perfect choice to bring this emotional set of songs to life.

As I was finishing this album, I had finally decided to leave my marriage. I had kept in token contact with Carolyn, calling every few years, and writing letters here and there. She had cut off communication (as I was a married man) seven years before, but I still wrote her a letter every year and sent it to her on her birthday. Obviously, for me, that flame had never completely gone out. Carolyn finally wrote me back that year and we re-connected right as the completing touches were being made on the album. I shared it with her one night, and some songs she remembered from back in the day, and others were love songs written more than 20 years before, and only delivered after all that time had passed. This historic album helped us get back together. Work on this album started on 2004 and was completed in late 2006.