The five-track EP, Hot Glass, is an ode to New England rock and roll in a number of ways and also a story about hard times and societal ills, such as the opioid epidemic that continues to ravage communities across the otherwise “idyllic” New England landscape.
He reminisces about his youth growing up in the capital city of Manchester, New Hampshire (or Hamp-sha).
“It is not a relatively large city,” he adds, “but it does have its own vibe. Over the course of the years, many of my friends have fallen victim to opiates, drugs, and alcohol addiction. We have lost a lot of people from that epidemic and it is still going in today.”
Whitney says this album has been 70 years in the making. “I’ve been playing guitar for about 20 years and this is my first recorded project.”
“It was after the divorce that I committed myself to the studio for a year to see what I could make of it. I saved my blue-collar dollars and spent my Sunday’s at a small studio in Manchester. This is the music that came from those sessions.”
“When I learned the guitar my Dad at the time was living in an isolated log cabin in central New Hampshire,” Whitney says. “I spent four years [ages 18 to 24 years] living with him there without TV and only guitars to play… [m]y Dad never did too much. He drank, there w[ere] a lot of tragic family stories. What else can I say?; blues is something you live.”
He adds that last year, in a six-month stretch of time, he lost his father, his father-in-law, and his own marriage.
Whitney picked out talented area musicians to play drums, sax, and vocals. The album title, Whitney says, “comes from when the tubes in an amp heat up; once the glass is hot, the notes really shine.”
What is nice, however, is the music on the E.P. is much brighter – for the most part – than all of that and one can imagine what a cathartic experience it must has been recording the album.
The standout tracks are the 70s-rock vibe of “Loaded Gun”; the melodic love ballad, “Empty” Pockets” and the equally smooth and cozy instrumentation, lyrics, and vocals of “Rewind,” the 70’s singer/songwriter and sweet alt.country rock jam of the Allman Brothers “Blue Sky” come together in perhaps the top track on the album, and that’s to say a lot considering the other accomplished songs on the album all of which he also produced himself.
Altogether – a solid piece of work and perfect for curling on the bed or lounging in the backyard as the dog days of summer come upon us in our surreal and troubled world.
