Wayne Merdinger sheds the light of the present on his storied past with his inspired new album Hidden Gems — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Hidden Gems showcases Merdinger’s knack for turning common human emotions and experiences into multi-faceted melodic expressions and moving lyricism. From the warm reflection of the album’s title track to the perfect storm of It’s Raining Somewhere, this release is full of potent real life stories.
Wayne’s most ambitious project to date, Hidden Gems is a hybrid collection of six previously unreleased tracks (produced by Danny Saxon and Mark Jaimes) six previously released singles (produced by Mark DeCozio), and a particularly special song, Abbey Road, remastered from the 2017 Behold the Invisible Man album (produced by Scott Leader).
“I wrote Abbey Road following a 2014 private tour I took of the studio, at which time I never imagined that I would have the chance to record there myself,” Merdinger says. “But low and behold, I did record there, and it was only right to honour that experience with the remastered version of my 2017 tribute.”
All the previously released tracks were remastered by Streaky (Ed Sheeran, Usher, Snow Patrol, etc.). The unreleased tracks were partially recorded in Studio 2 at Abbey Road Studios in London. The album features, among other established studio musicians, long-time Simply Red guitarist and solo artist Mark Jaimes, and includes multiple songs written by (or co-written with) British producer Danny Saxon (Simply Red, Paul Young, Luciano Pavarotti, Jeff Beck). Wayne also continues his 50-year friendship with songwriter Carl Wilkenfeld (“depicted in the song from my 2022 Troubadour EP, Nebraska Bay“), with Carl’s delightful love song All My Life.
Merdinger penned the opening lyrics of the title track, “Dust off the chords, break out the lines,” to portray the resurrection of several songs written back in the 1990’s but that never saw the light of day until now. His cry of “Give me back the streets I can walk on” in the energetic American Dream, while composed decades ago, is as relevant today as it was in its infancy.
“Several of the songs on this album are truly hidden gems, having been written decades ago but never seeing the light of day until now,” he says. “It was an immense privilege, and a dream come true to work with a group of esteemed producers, musicians, and engineers, at Abbey Road Studios in London, MaD Studios in London, and Brick Road Studio in Scottsdale, AZ to bring this collaborative effort to fruition.”
Check out Hidden Gems below, watch some of Wayne Merdinger‘s videos above, and find him on his website and Facebook.
