New album idea 6/11/20
Completed 6/10/20 (for Bensen Comes Alive III!)
Master finished 6/12/20

Beyond The Mass Pike
(BE20012)

Another state-themed album escapes the clutches of the dangerously expanding triple album Bensen Comes Alive III! This time, it's the commonwealth to my immediate north which was earlier to my immediate south.

The Pioneer Valley feels like home more than anywhere else though I've never lived right there - my cool cousin was part of a commune in Leverett; my friends and I had an epic college tour trip; and Northampton is the big town for where I lived in VT and the cool town for where I am in CT. Heidi and I were signing the papers on a charming Victorian apartment with open beam ceilings in Florence in 1990 when the owner paged our realtor to say he'd just rented it to a friend. A whole alternate life path unfolds from right there.

Boston is The City to me even though I'm from New York and lived in San Francisco for many years; familiar and compelling yet somehow makes me uneasy and claustrophobic; home to my daughter for nearly two years.

Then there are the strong foreboding psychic New England symbols in places such as the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River; the Brockton tunnels; the demolished plants of Lynn; the New Bedford whaleyards; haunted little empires such as Athol, Attleboro, Fitchburg, Lowell, and Salem; the post-industrial mill towns (North Adams - my anti-muse); the shortsighted suburbs; the briefly lavish yet crushingly seasonal service economies of beach towns and islands; all the abandoned mental hospitals; and the whole sprawling Oakland meets Waterbury - and not Boston at all - vibe of Springfield and Worcester.

Way over to the lower right of MA is Cape Cod - home of my mom's sister Harriet and my favorite uncle Lou Jacobucci, both now long gone; where I had fun at Lake Farm Camp with good people, many of whom are still friends; and where I lived with my dad one sad, awkward summer when my mother prepaid for a beach cabin but died before she could enjoy it. That was the start of me driving around all night like a budding Springsteen so I still know the shortcuts, ways to avoid traffic jams (when possible at all), and where the record stores were in 1983. The beach geography is trickier to keep straight as it changes with the storms.

Three of the tracks are new wave pop songs, two are gentle fusion explorations, one is acoustic folk, and "Blackstone Valley" is as heavy as a lead anvil made of stone axes, petrified tree stumps, and molten flaming skulls, like the headaches of guys getting up for an 11:45 a.m. Tuesday beer party in a crumbling Uxbridge tenement block when everything else has fallen through. I'm nodding my head just thinking of the riff right now; a personal favorite.

I. Bay Side

1. The Boss Of Towns (Album Version) 3:03
2. It's Recreational 2:25
3. Searching For Haunted Mansions Already Fallen Into The Sea 7:22
4. Circling Cape Ann 2:45
= 15:35

II. Valley Side

5. A-Frame By The Quabbin 3:23
6. Blackstone Valley (Album Version) 7:30
7. Tracing An Intuitive Diagonal Home 7:51
= 18:44

Total 34:19

All songs written by Nick Bensen

(c) & (p) 2020 by Nick Bensen

Outtakes not included:

The Boss Of Towns (Take One) 5:22 - the busted Roland strikes again; muffled undertones with piercing highs, hard to whip into shape. Might work if heavily remixed.

Blackstone Valley (Uxbridge Monster Mix) 7:25 - too oppressively heavy and industrial, like an even louder "Grindstone" by Motorpsycho. Maybe a B-side.

They might turn up as sampler bonus tracks.