The first overdubs on this album were by Steve Rodby, who I worked with on my album This Perfect Day. As I have written in my Session Notes for that album, it’s very unusual to find a jazz player capable of playing songs with this kind of tone and pop sensibility. I would have been quite satisfied releasing this track as a duo with Steve. As it turned out, Larry Goldings came in fairly early on and played such a fine piano part that that particular idea vanished.

Two of my oldest friends in LA are the Del Barrio brothers, Eduardo and Jorge. Although Eduardo is like a brother to me, I’ve also known Jorge about 30 years and we'd also spent many great times together. When I asked Eduardo if he would write a string arrangement for “End Of The Day,” I also mentioned needing one for “Road Of Pain,” and he suggested I use Jorge. I had never worked with Jorge. When I was recording my first orchestral composition years ago, he had been kind enough to give me advice about the orchestration beforehand. But given his resume (string arrangements for everyone from Michael Jackson to Lalo Schifrin), I would never have though to ask him for this. But he turned out to be willing. I especially like that his arrangement sits next to Edu’s on this record, the two brothers side by side. Sadly, this arrangement would be Jorge’s final arrangement before he died.