In hindsight, I recognize the irony of releasing The New Britton Sound on the summer solstice. More scarecrow than sunflower, its unveiling would have been better suited to the autumnal equinox of grain harvests and Wyeth-brown landscapes. Summer was over. My shape had changed and my gaze turned inward, yielding an introspective crop of songs tuned to the frequencies of the natural world as they revealed themselves to me.

The end of my 20s and a move to rural southern Michigan's farm belt turned my bright coat brown and rolled some of youth's treble from my mix. Like the rotating wheat, corn, and soybean crops that stretched to the horizon, change became a constant and inevitable presence. By 2010, Great Lakes Myth Society had peaked and was winding down to its uncertain conclusion. I began keeping more songs for myself. Eventually, a new band of colleagues coalesced, under the here/anywhere banner of Timothy Monger State Park. 

The crippling debts of my younger years dictated a stricter D.I.Y. approach for my second album. Studio time would come at a premium, and the cobbling-together of a humble home studio began. Pirated programs, secondhand gear, and a positive attitude made up the base level to which I added a marginally-decent mic and preamp, purchased with earnings from a Christmas web jingle I made for a London ad agency. The artistic freedom I gained from recording entirely at home was offset by the limitations of my rig and engineering skills, and I quickly learned to lean on my more talented friends. 

Starling Electric, musical soulmates from Ann Arbor, became an integral part of The New Britton Sound, with Jason DeCamillis engineering early sessions, John Fossum drumming across the album, and Christian Anderson playing guitar. Returning collaborators Matt Collar (trumpet) and Scott DeRoche (bass) completed State Park's core, while new friends Paula Kelley, Tyler Duncan, and Jared Nelson Smith added their own textures. Mostly self-recorded in the barns and little 9' x 9' bedroom of Brablec Farms, the album was mixed by my mentor Geoff Michael who tamed its flaws and unearthed the dignity and power I'd tried so hard to instill into its bones. Finally, Kristie Brablec's ethereal cover photo — an inspiration in itself — gave The New Britton Sound its mystique and sense of place. -TM