Didn't See It Comin'

11 great songs from an artist who really CAN'T STOP NOW. Craig Ingraham is a dynamic performer, singer/songwriter known for his soaring melodies, poetic lyrics, and exciting arrangements.

The album includes 3 songs from the PBS documentary "ABOVE AND BEYOND: The Story of Cpl. William T. Perkins, Jr. USMC". For Craig Ingraham, Cpl. Perkins' death in 1967 in Vietnam was like a bad dream that wouldn’t go away. The last time he saw Bill, they had a terrible fight over a girl named Denise. She was only a friend and the first girl that Craig ever made love to. But he didn’t know that Bill had deep feelings for her. Tragically, the last time Craig looked into Bill’s eyes, he saw tears, rage, sorrow, and betrayal. They would never speak again.

The song "Another Place, Another Time" was written in 1987 as a demo for the Vietnam movie HANOI HILTON. "I was working as a cable puller on the set and heard that they were looking for music for the film. So, between working from 5am until 7pm, I stayed up most of the night, writing and recording this song. It's sung beautifully by Anna Pagan who along with several other musician friends had performed with Ingelbert Humperdink and Tom Jones. Although it didn’t make it into HANOI HILTON, it was a perfect song to play over the end credits of “ABOVE AND BEYOND: The Story of Cpl. William T. Perkins, Jr. USMC”. It became a personal tribute to my friend Bill.

“Didn’t See It Comin’” – I was raised Roman Catholic and even studied for the priesthood. I have always had a place in my heart for scripture. One day while pondering the myth of the poor schlub who goes down hard to a femme fatale, I had a vision of the front cover of our family Bible and the line came to me, “Samson and Delilah were laying on the floor…” mmmm, that’s a promising start but what next? What were they doing on the floor? “They drank too much wine and then, they drank a little more.” By this time I was cracking up and the rest just flowed. “Delilah picked him up and put him in his bed, she kissed his lips and then she shaved his head.” That’s about as fatale as a femme can be.

“I’ll Be Good to You” – this song was recorded at home on ½ inch, 8 track tape on a TASCAM model 38. The original track was laid at 4am with young Matt Williams on drums and me on acoustic and vocal. Later, John O’Kennedy played the slide guitar part and Kevin Bradley added the trombone solo and I laid an electric bass line. I think you can really hear 4am on this track.

Other great musicians who played on these tracks are Ed Martel and Tom Hanson on keyboards, and Debora Masterson and Toni Ingraham on background vocals. Every rehearsal, recording session, and live performance was a blast, thanks. All of the songs are mostly true stories. They were all recorded with love and respect for the muse.

Peace always, Craig