Center of Six

Recording

The first part of the album features songs composed by Josh Clayton-Felt in the winter of 1996-97 in Kinsale, Ireland and recorded by him with his backing band in Los Angeles.

The second part consist of tribute songs written for Josh. The musicians that participated include Raina Lee Scott, who have previously added additional vocals to Spirit Touches Ground, former lead singer of Men at Work Colin Hay, Kevin Hunter of the former San Francisco band Wire Train, the Los Angeles-based musicians Jami Lula Washington and Sage, musician and actor Andras Jones, the Irish musician and composer Linda Buckley, Los Angeles musician Renee Stahl and actress Renee Faia.

Music and lyrics

Josh Clayton-Felt's songs on the album are in search of the self and the journey inward. The title song refers to finding a center in the six Native American directions: North, South, East, West, Up (All Father/Heavens), and Down (Grandmother Earth), and speaks of memory of "when the wind blew... when the sky knew.... when the earth told me not to forget" while on the song "Sacred Mountain" Josh imagines his future. The songs “Forever Self”, “Two Sides”, and “Intermission” head into the direction of Clayton-Felt’s funk-pop interests.

Release

Center of Six was originally intended to be the title of the follow up record to Josh's debut solo album Inarticulate Nature Boy but during the final stages of work on the album that eventually was released as Spirit Touches Ground both the title Center of Six and the song had been set aside by Josh for a possible future.

After the release of Spirit Touches Ground more tracks by Josh Clayton-Felt were prepared for release. The co-executive producer for the album as well as producer of several tracks was Chad Fischer who previously played with Josh Clayton-Felt in School of Fish and did mixing of Spirit Touches Ground album.

The album was released only on CD with proceeds from sales donated to Descendants of the Earth, a non-profit Native American organization to which Clayton-Felt was dedicated.

Several songs by Josh's friends that were included on the album have been previously released. The song "Dear J" by Colin Hay was previously released on his 2002 studio album Company of Strangers. The song "Complicated O" by andras Jones have been released on his EP Complicated '00 in 2002.

Reception

Patrick Schabe in the PopMatters review wrote that "Center of Six is what a true tribute album really should be all about: celebrating the life of the artist" with "a small but tasty dose of Josh’s own work" and "some wonderfully touching, almost gut-wrenching, eulogies to the man himself".

Josh Claytin-Felt

Friends