Behind the Scenes:
The Making of Face to Face: Meditations For Spiritual Guidance
With Paula Langguth Ryan and Renelle West.

It's hard to remember who came up with the idea of this CD. I think it was a tipping point where Renelle and I both had such a strong desire to co-create something with each other that we managed to manifest us being in the same place at the same time, from halfway across a country.

The adventure got fully underway in August 2005, when Renelle and I met up at the "Hayden Hilton," the home of one of Renelle's dear friends Ray and Sharon Hayden.

That's Sharon (an amazing writer) and Renelle on the left and Sharon and Ray on the right.

We then went to the S.O.L.O Creative Media Studio in Cocoa Florida, where we met up with master arranger, keyboardist, techno-mixer and general-all-around-nice-guy Leon Olguin. When we first arrived at the recording studio, I had the opportunity to meet singer/songwriter Sheryl Paige who was gracious enough to autograph her album, Selling Out the Moon (check out the song "I Won't Forget You").

Renelle and I took turns in the studio, with me wowing Leon with my ability to be a "one-take" wonder on 20-minute tracks - okay, if you DON'T count the time I bumped the music stand when I was changing that one page! - and Renelle creating so many cool harmony tracks for Peace in the Night that I actually lost count of how many different tracks there were.

Leon, in the meantime, had put his artistic cap on and was working his keyboard magic, creating extended instrumental interludes and providing invaluable advice on how to maximize the energy generated by the meditation-music combo.

We took breaks between studio sessions to take dips in the Hayden Hilton pool - and Sharon snapped this great picture of Renelle and I celebrating our collaboration.