How we have arrived at this point today:

The week after Christmas of last year, I found myself in the hospital with some heart complications that were threatening to take my life. Over the course of a week of intense testing by the hospital staff in an attempt to discover what was causing my heart weakness, one evening I experienced something that changed my entire outlook on not only those moments, but on life moving forward overall.

Halfway through my stay in the hospital, I received some communication in Facebook messenger from a woman named Jada who stated that I had taken a photo with her son Reese at a recent Belizbeha reunion show. She informed me that he was now 12 years old and also had a heart condition that was going to be requiring surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital in the near future. She told me that he wanted her to please relay the message that HE was thinking of ME.

This amazing sentiment was exactly the message from the universe that I needed in that moment of feeling sorry for myself. For this young man with such an unknown in front of his own health future to be able to think of me and reach out to me truly woke me up. His message of love in my darkest moment reminded me that I had created my own health mess and was able to take the right steps to make my own situation better. It also fueled a renewed belief within me to live life to the fullest. He has inspired me to get healthier, never take time for granted and seek out the completion of an unfinished musical idea.

You see, over time, I had made contact with numerous amazing producers in the area who were creating amazing music in their bedroom studios. My vision was to create a collaborative album. The concept would be to take their beats, break down the stems that they had created and then reach out to the list of talented live musicians I had the pleasure of working with over the last 30 years and invite them to create a collection of songs that would combine the studio wizardry of these producers with live musicianship added to the tracks. And because of Reese’s message to me that night, I decided to make the theme of this amazing album based around the concept that the universe is constantly giving us all signs - many of which are meant to show us that change is not only necessary in our lives, but also a positive step that will lead us to new and stronger paths moving forward. And, as I began working with all of these artists, I discovered that this was not only true for myself at the time, but also was for many of them as well. So, with all of this in mind, every song on this project is a genuine collaborative effort and brings together the most talented people that I know in the music industry in a unique way. This project is so full of love and every single person that I reached out to in regards to being a part of it (especially when they heard the inspiration for it and the meaning behind it) jumped onboard with excitement and emotional energy.

I am honored to share GUMBO with you.

I have to say that this project would literally not have been possible
were it not for the efforts of these talented individuals:

SkySplitterInk aka Zach Crawford

ILLu aka Luke Gauthier

Matt Scott Sound aka Elder Orange

Urian Hackney

PRO Knows Music aka Brian McVey

Bob Wagner

Rico James aka Eric McEdward

+ Dwight Ritcher

Please know I truly appreciate each of you.

And most of all, please remember… live life now.

Enjoy this amazing music ~ Fattie B.