Dreams of the Skies has taken several years to come together. This is the fourth Jim Ransom album and the first in five years. I would like to tell you a little bit about the songs.

Side One is called "The Earth Side".
Night-Time Ceremony on the Prairie & The Flow came from an extended trip to "The Land of Enchantment", New Mexico, with Laura. The Flow was written in the evening while camping at Cochiti after a day of wandering alone and naked in the desert area by the Rio Grande, which was to be flooded for the reservoir. Several days later, in Taos, I found the pamphlet by Adolph Hungry Wolf which contained Ceremony. These two aspects seemed to fit together quite nicely and naturally. Ceremony relates a tale of the gathering of northern and primarily Canadian Indians as they prepare to spend the long, cold, and lonely winter. The Flow, on the other hand, has a southern setting, on the deserts inhabited by the Hopi or Pueblo Indians, in an area such as Mesa Verde or, perhaps, Chaco Canyon. It is a Carlos Castenada like story, relating an area of consciousness not generally on the surface. This piece always reminds me that we are all wandering alone and naked in the desert, no matter how many things we may think we are gathering around us.

Montreal Ladies (Jimmer's Song) was written in a pyramid that used to be set up in my living room, in Denver. My son, Jimmer, and I lived in Montreal for a time, when he was quite young. I guess I was quite young, too. Jimmer died in Espanola, New Mexico, with his friend Tommy. He was ten years and four months old on August 18,1977, when the arroyo caved in. Ian and Lis miss him and so do 1. If you have ever lost someone who was close to you or with whom you shared very strong love bonds, I hope you will find something in this song. Jimmer is in Valhalla and one day I will join him there.

In December of 1980, 1 "rediscovered" a song named Here Come John which I had written on 1-70 while traveling from Aspen to Denver, several years before. We had an old Ford truck with a wooden house built on the back. It was a nice white, with light blue trim and a skylights. Laura was driving and I was riding in the back and fooling around with the guitar. A song loosely formed and I sang it for awhile. In the back of my mind was John Lennon, who was very much alive, if not necessarily well, at the time. I could relate to his struggle, so it was written down, and forgotten at the journey's end, until it turned up many years later. Most friends who have listened to the master tapes of this album have said that they do not like the ending. I can only say that I do not like the way it ended, either.

Suzy Sez . . ., the last song on The Earth Side, takes place in Marseilles as a young man sits alone in his room on a rainy day, overlooking the harbor, pining for his lost love, and dreaming of the sun in St. Tropez and Cannes. It is a pretty song about an unhappy person. I like to tnink that one day, shortly thereafter, he suddenly says, "Okay, that was an experience. Now I'll stop being unhappy and go over to St. Tropez and catch some sun." As Buddha said, "I have shown you great sorrow. Now I will show you great joy." The final version of this song was worked out in the bathroom of a motel in Louisville, Kentucky, on a journey to the east coast for performances, while Marie and lan were in the main room reading "A Wrinkle in Time". I made this song from an idea by my friend, the late Dave Ellebrecht.

Side Two is called "The Sky Side".
It begins with Angel in Your Pocket which is a story of unrequited love in the Space Age. it was written into an old Sony tape recorder when I lived in Philadelphia, for a short time. This song, to me, has a lot of hope for the future, as this young man sets out to find a new and different life on a new world far away. I can always picture, in my mind, the long silver ship as it rises in the sky, with its single, small viewing port and the young man looking out, as his old life and problems and his old world are left behind, on a long journey to what he hopes will be better.

Planet in the Sky was originally written on the dulcimer. It was just a couple of verses I used to play around with. Laura Benson-Sunday encouraged me to make it into a full song and it became the song once sung by the grandfather (perhaps the young man in Angel), but now sung by his descendants on a distant world. In the little farmhouse perhaps two hundred miles from the spaceport, the large family of colonists gathers in the evening to share some music. The father, a big and powerful man, in his late forties, picks up his little dulcimer and sings this song to his wife and children. It ends with the thought that there really is no place to travel to, since we are already here. I like that.

Free as the Sky seems to anticipate another sort of world with these ending lines: "Did you ever feel That there was nothing To keep you from What you'd like to be? Free, free . . . Free as nothing Free as the sky." It is entirely possible that there will. indeed, be a world, one day, in which the beings have learned mastery of themselves and can escape forever the bonds which keep humans from true freedom. Can a being who can consciously Astral-project ever be locked in a prison? Can a being capable of telepathic communication ever believe in lies? Can a being who can telekinetically lift large and heavy objects ever be murdered by a gun? Can a being who can control inner wants and desires ever be held on a rat race consumer treadmill? It certainly seems, now, as tho' these are foolish questions. But what of the world in one hundred years? Will we be slaves to our technology or will we be truly masters of our own beings? When this sonq speaks of freedom, this is what it meant. It is a possibillty but I guess it just depends on what "we" decide to concentrate.

In 1978, I spent a month performing in Brasil. Dreams of the Skies was written there, during that visit. It was begun on the day after I arrived and finished and recorded on cassette on the night before my departure. It tells the story of a young man's dreams, which he tries to tell to Mariangelina, his love. He goes to the mountains of Minas Gerias to find the "ancient, old man" and asks his questions. The old man's reply is contained in verses five, six, and seven. One of the verses spoken by the old man is in Portugese, the native language of Brasil. The English translation is, roughly: "The Master of Masters Is coming at last With a light that will show the way Up the pathway To something you have only dreamed It's only been dreams 'til today." The fast instrumental bridge symbolizes the young man's joy as he races down the mountain to tell Mariangelina what he has found. When he arrives, he repeats what he was originally trying to tell her, and in his own words, tells her of the wisdom gained by his journey, as contained in the last verse.

I would like to say that I made this album but I don't think I did. I just think it is somehow, simply "here". It has no purpose other than to be listened to and to be the ancestor of others of its type. I think that it seems to be more of a "vehicle" than a music product. I will let you be the judge of how you would like to use it within your life. My hope is that those who live in spirit will "grok the essence" of what is contained herein. And to those who can see within this album, and within these musics, I present Dreams of the Skies, with love.