OK·here it is in a nutshell·

You're a young Chicago musician whose first album is released on Columbia Records to critical and regional success. Clive Davis, at the time the most powerful man in the music business, is your mentor and you are entering the studio to record your second album. Everything is going well until Clive is dismissed and the new regime decides, after you've recorded almost the whole LP, you will be the label's answer to Tony Orlando. What do you do if you're an early 20s-something Bill Quateman? You say 'thanks but no thanks. I trust my musical instincts and I'm not knocking three times on anybody's ceiling.'

Flash forward to 2001·a more mature Bill Quateman has the good fortune of having found the lost album he was working on in 1972 and he is leaving up to us to decide who was right. The Almost Eve of Everything has been gathering dust for almost 30 years. And listening to it is like finding one of those time capsules buried in your backyard and discovering a rare prize. Here it is, a brand-new, three decade old record. Sure, some of it sounds a little dated but most of what you hear is a musician finding his voice. The opening track, 'Stone Fool', floats in with a slide guitar reminiscent of George Harrison/Eric Clapton (played by Buzzy Feiten) and takes off from there. 'Ties That Bind' is a raucous, rock and roller complete with brass. 'Rosie' is an acoustic-guitar driven ballad that would fit seamlessly on side two of 'The Beatles' with a subtle arrangement straight out of Sir George's chart book. Other highlights include the Randy Newman influenced 'Amazed & Afraid' and the elegant closer 'Rivers Go Rolling Home'.

After Columbia dropped Quateman because of their 'creative differences', it was four more years before he appeared again, this time on RCA. By that time, the momentum of his first release was release was lost. Three critically acclaimed but poor selling LPs later, Bill Quateman left the music scene and moved to California to raise his children. Now, after 20 years, he's released his self-titled first album and now 'The Almost Eve of Everything' at his own website billquateman.com and has been making appearances back in his old haunts in the Midwest. He and his old pal Buzzy Feiten are back in the studio, picking up where 'Everything' left off. Expect to see new music by the end of the year. Until then, enjoy the almost 30-year-old The Almost Eve of Everything for the first time.