Most albums come to life after great amounts of planning, practice, budgeting, and coordination — notwithstanding the orchestrated spontaneity of the recorded performance itself. On the other hand, sometimes great albums are made without the artists even realizing they're doing it. Case in point,"Unplugged and Unshaved" resulted from recordings that were not originally intended for release. Hastily arranged and rehearsed to meet a compressed performance deadline, these acoustic concerts were recorded for posterity over two consecutive nights — and then promptly lost. Rediscovering the tapes nearly two decades later, I suddenly realized I had a record’s worth of great material on my hands, one in which fresh renditions of my popular songs and re-envisioned older “deep cuts” were fully realized. More importantly, these recordings captured a very early version of my backup band — The Benchmarks — before that name was even coined. And of course, the band’s interaction with the audience — complete with self-depreciating humor — was nothing short of fun. I chose the best bits of each show and combined them into a final mix to recapture the essence of the original concerts. The result is something very special that I believe you will enjoy.In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't set out to make a live album. The sound check would have been agonizing, and the band would have been glued to their mics... uptight, focused on not making mistakes, and picturing every note they played as living forever. Instead, we were relaxed, creative, happy, and even a bit silly — a much better ambiance for a live concert.Album Notes by Paul