Beginning Of The Day

Though they met in 1997, guitarists Jim Dexter and Rich Stein could have just as easily been lifelong friends, judging from their uncannily similar childhood record collections, toy boxes and favorite TV shows. Jim’s Long Island upbringing and Rich’s Michigan/Missouri history share far more commonalities than differences. Graduating high school in 1980, both players explored the wide variety of new sounds available to electric guitarists of the era while keeping their love for the acoustic instrument alive. By the time they met, both Jim and Rich had placed the bulk of their creative energies in the acoustic guitar and its sonic possibilities as a solo instrument.

Over the past dozen years Jim and Rich have performed alongside one another in bands, shared gigs as soloists and appeared on recordings by fellow Long Island artists. Jim’s band The Road Home and Rich’s Counterclockwise Ensemble provide both guitarists the opportunity to delve thoroughly into their highly skilled compositional interests; Beginning Of The Day’as a project name and CD exists with the opposite in mind, a sonic space both musicians can enter with limited preconceptions and "roadmapping." The songs on the CD took shape in the studio, as one idea gave birth to the next. The result is a recording that sounds fresh and spontaneous.