This self-produced debut record combines Americana, Folk Rock, and Pop sensibilities with thoughtful lyrics that center around the yearning to discover mystical, unique, and soulful romance beyond the everyday, repetitive trappings of the daily grind.

"There Must Be More to Life Than Walmart" is the result of two years of garage-based studio recording among a few friends and myself mostly around the Culver City area of Los Angeles, and is partly a tongue-in-cheek rhetorical statement, yet simultaneously a call for the preservation of the dream of adventure in the face of the mundane. This record is meant to be an American journey that starts out with the cautious but optimistic track "New Destinations," and with a question born out of a crisis and the need for a change: "...Am I going crazy? Or am I just too sane...?" The record ends with the heartfelt "Song of Peace," which proclaims: "Let Muslim and Jewish Kids play /Like they do down on Beverly Way/ in L.A/ Down in Sunny L.A.". The question in the first track is born out of feelings of loss of love and innocence, and the subsequent need to regain the spirit of adventure and risk-taking in the face of ever repititious conformity and harsh disillusionment across the "recession"-weary American landscape. Wherever we go, it seems like everywhere looks more and more the same. Corporations, treated legally as people, and symbolized in the record's title by one of the most successful and controversial in the world, are truly having a global impact. The celebration of the individual, the uniqueness of a particular place and time, much of the truth of history and connectedness of people are often lost in the shuffle of corporate greed, consumer demands, and the exploitation of others for personal gain. In the second verse of "New Destinations", our journey comes alive with dreams of maintaining loving, personal connections with others while traveling far and wide throughout the nation when I sing: ..."I've Got a Friend in Nashville, and a couple in L.A....Yeah, I've got friends from New York City to the San Francisco Bay...". It is from this point in this musical journey that I hope you get the sense that we are not venturing forth alone just looking out for ourselves, but instead we are along for a ride with the gifts of friends, music, love, and, hopefully, an angel at our sides. This record features great drums by Todd Myers, excellent percussion by Rich Mangicaro, great studio electric guitar work by Peter Thompson, and a vibrant touch of strings provided by Stevie Blacke, and Erik Smith. As we move along through the Bob Seger and Credence Clearwater Revival influenced track 2, "Nobody Hotter," we are guided by Eric Hargett's soulful sax and the poppy bass guitar work of the record's engineer/mixer, Charles Brandick. The longing for something beyond the everyday inspired the title track "There Must Be More to Life Than Walmart," and it is here that we get to experience the impressive drum work of Denny Fongheiser and Deron Johnson's sweet keys. Deron and Denny provide a powerful and uniquely mixed structure for my best attempt to create a soulful brand of "Americana Folk Pop"/Rock. Further along the way, this journey offers us the vision of an inspiring, yet challenging world in which the phrase "The truth is there's no truth at all...," (from track 5, the second song I ever wrote titled "Nihilism in the Kiev Sea") is inspired by the experiments of Leonardo Da Vinci, who refused to accept the status quo as truth, and instead searched for a new truth which had been thus far unknown in his day. Still, despite the influence of the most famously inventive figure of the Italian Renaissance, the country, blues, and rock based roots of the music make it clear that this is an American musical and lyrical journey; one inspired as much by musicians Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Ben Harper as it is by poets Walt Whitman, Sterling A. Brown, and Robert Hass (Hass, incidentally, was my college poetry professor). Along the way, we get to hear speech expert and descendant of Chief Seattle's tribe, Vi Hilbert, share the chief's name with us in the original Lushootseed tongue. What could be more "American" than that? I am grateful to have been able to communicate with Vi Hilbert's granddaughter, Jill La Pointe, in order to obtain permission to use this track, and to have learned from her of the great artistic work of her grandmother in Washington State. In contrast to the (at times) vapid predictability offered by streamlined consumerism, this record celebrates, with the help of recorded sounds provided by The Seattle Times, the rich cultural experience of the walking through the Pike Place Market in Seattle's Elliot Bay Wharf. It's a matter of semantics, but if we're really going to talk about an American journey, it's only natural that the Native "Americans" and the mysterious mountains of South "America" should be included along the way. Accordingly, this journey culminates with a stop in Peru that features the beautiful, pan-flute-like sounds of keyboardist Alex Del Zoppo in the tune "In the Hills of Machu Pichu." By the way, I've never been to Machu Pichu, but I did see a television program about it on the History Channel once. If you can afford the time to check out this record, please do so. Be assured that the stops you'll be guided through on the musical train tracks between "New Destinations" and a "Song of Peace," will provide a collaborative journey worth checking out for its spirit of positive, hopeful, and playful musical expression amid the complexities of life, love, and the search for meaning in what can sometimes be an otherwise soul-less landscape of greed, disappointment, and cruelty. In case you are wondering, I have shopped at Walmart, and may continue to do so in the future. I would be lying if I said there aren't things that I like about that store. I like listening to very loud music, too. But if I do it too often my ear drums will blow out. And, again, the use of Walmart is simply metaphorical. It stands for all the corporations and "shopping malls" that might lure us toward consumerism that comes at the possible expense of spirituality, individualism, and humane action. Instead of a barrage of political/social criticisms targeted against it, this record is really more about the feeling you get when you live in, or visit a small town in America, and after a while, even though it may not be so, it eventually seems like the local Walmart is the only possible destination. The metaphor is intended to merely capture this feeling with no serious, negative claims about the store chain. Again, there are things that I can't help but like about Walmart. Having said that, I highly doubt they'll ever sell copies this record, and I've come to acceptable terms with that realization. Still, if Walmart has a sense of humor, then I'd appreciate it if they'd sell this record there. But more importantly, I'm hoping that perhaps this record will somehow inspire you to see a path of light ahead of you and somehow help you to be brave enough to seek some "New Destinations" of your own. As I was inspired by the album "March" by singer/songwriter/producer Michael Penn when I was 14-years-old, I hope this album has some ability to inspire you as well. -Damon Rosario