Richard O'Connor
Record Producer of American Zen

I, Richard Connor, produced this record on a Tascam 4-track tape recorder. Coyote'd moved to Utah, got ripped off and stranded. This inspired him to write a host of songs and book of poetry. We decided not to wait for Coyote to return to L.A. to record in a nice studio. Instead we decided to do our best with what we could afford.

We had just finished mixing the soundtrack for the rock opera: "Coyote In A Graveyard." There are pirate battles on a Spanish galleon. Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy arranged for us to use a Spielberg set on weekends, when they weren't using it, at the Universal Studios lot. We later found out the movie was called, "Hook."

We begin promoting our Music Movie with the release to college radio of the CASSINGLE: "It's Your Shadow." This was a good recording and the 'B-Side' had INSTRUMENTAL VERSIONS of the two songs on 'Side-A' of the cassette cassingle. (Single release on cassette = "cassingle")

It turned out to be the 'B-Side' song that took off with requests whenever it was played: "Coyote In A Graveyard." It's a sad song from the original rock opera storyline where Elaine dies in Thumper's arms.

When New World Pictures optioned my screenplay, they requested a rewrite for the ending. So I rewrote the ending and now it 'begs' for a sequel.

Then, Coyote ran off to Utah with a blonde girl.

That's where this story / album / CD starts:
right when Coyote left L.A. during our movie project. He was there less than three weeks before he wrote the first two songs of the album. The rest followed over a 6-month period.

The other bandmembers visited Salt Lake City a couple times and recorded their tracks. We only had a 4-track recorder so each player got ONE TRACK.

Usually:
Track 1:     Drums + Acoustic Guitar
Track 2:     Bass + bassist backing vocal
Track 3:     Electric Guitar/Slide/Ukulele/Synth
Track 4:     COYOTE: Lead Vocal, Flute, Acoustic#2or1...

That's it. Great songs recorded simply. I'm proud of their performances.

Sincerely,
Richard  Del Connor
Producer, Shaolin Records (for American Zen)