I attribute my love of music much to the creation and the coming of oil from the center of mother earth to the surface, because that’s were it was first developed over thousands of years, evolving from the surrounding muskegs, swamps, water, and the deterioration of plants and soil.
My influences, which much like the creation of oil, congregated in the center of my being by the musical influences of:
Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Jose Feliciano, Santana, Dave Clark Five, Frank Sinatra, Englebert Humperdinck, Elvis, Beach Boys, Righteous Brothers to Redbone.
Later in my life my influences began to change. I began to become more attracted to Motown artists, black funk, soul and jazz music. While I was in LA shopping my ‘Black and White Raven’ album to the A&R departments of major record labels I met artists like Melissa Manchester, Bobbie Caldwell, Kenny Loggins, Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers and actor Don Stroud.
The first thing that struck me about these famous people was how basically human they all were. Because I always envisioned them bigger then life because of the big screens I usually viewed them I thought they would be taller, bigger, younger looking. When, in all actuality, some of them looked older, were smaller than I would have imagined, and were like everybody else.
The second thing I noticed about these famous people was that there appeared to be some sort of aura around them. Something that emitted an effect of power, energy much like that of the Alaskan northern lights.
Sounds Like
NEW RELEASE----LOVE BIRDS
To buy the CD go to: http://www.archiecavanaugh.com/lovebirds.php
Love Birds is a compilation of original smooth jazz and soft rock songs I wrote throughout the years along with my wife Melinda, who is my co-lyricist. Many of them are based on our own experiences in life. The good along with the bad. But, of course, others are just like movie scripts, made up experiences of perceived emotions of relationships.
This music is easy listening, easy dancing and the songs all have meanings that people can relate to just based on their own life experiences. Full of variety, I would mostly call it Jazz/Pop but it has a little country, gospel and Christmas.
I have always wanted to do a second album. Melinda and I have written so many songs through the years. We decided to take some of the love songs we wrote and feature them with the theme Love Birds.
It’s Alright is the story of how Melinda and I met. Let me Go and Sparkling Eyes were from our bad times. Second Chance was written when we actually had a second chance at our marriage. Amy was written for a person’s 80th birthday party. We even wrote a Christmas song when we had moved from Washington State back to Alaska and Melinda was missing her family that Christmas. “One More Time” is what Jeff Tassin, our “Love Birds” cd producer, calls a cross over tune that has some country twangs in it.
The album cover concept, “Love Birds,” is derived from the Tlingit culture of how only persons of opposite moieties (Eagle/Raven) were permitted to marry. I wanted to keep consistent with the theme of this album by playing all my love songs. I’m keeping all my funk and rock and roll tunes for a CD in another time.
My first album was Black and White Raven, world renowned and still available at: http://www.archiecavanaugh.com/album.php
I was born and raised in an Alaska village called Kake a predominently Tlingit village of 700 people. My better half, Melinda, is the co-lyricist and my best friend. We have two grown children and 2 grandchildren with another on the way. My family are the best parts of my life.
When I was young, playing and making up music, I always admired famous musicians that influenced my life. But I never thought that I could ever attain their status as a musician, or even do an album.
This obstacle way of thinking was because I lived in a village that had mountains all around us, and I never could imagine that my abilities to accomplish a dream of an album could surpass those mountains.
Twenty seven years after the release of ‘Black and White Raven’ and still selling on the internet, I always wanted to record another albuml. I was never able to find another person to help me record or orchestrate the album until one day when my wife and I were walking our dogs on the wetlands in Juneau, Alaska we met a bass guitar musician friend of mine, Bill Ashby, who suggested that I get hold of Jeff Tassin, a three-time Emmy music producer, writer and performer.
I contacted him and we agreed that I would send him two songs to see how well he did with these productions. Needless to say when we received copies of his work it caused my wife and I to jump with excitement, dance and holler with joy at the accomplishment and compliment of his work. He nailed the emotion and feeling of the music as it should have been by his enormous musical talents and genius music production abilities.
For more information on Archie, to purchase a CD or listen to sound bites from Love Birds and Black and White Raven go to archiecavanaugh.com.
