It's hard to imagine the amount of dedication, commitment, focus and sheer energy it takes to complete a record when you're touring the world as a lead guitarist for a popular artist, as well as producing yet another musical project. For Chiaravalle (pronounced ("shaira velley") it simply comes down to passion. It's not a matter of choice; it's just creative necessity. Not that he doesn't absolutely love the job he's had with Michael McDonald for the past 26 years, it's just that he has music he needs to make and artistic statements of his own to offer.
And Chiaravalle has done that in a very complete way with "Hideaway Tales", his 6th record, on which he supplies all the vocals and plays all the instruments (with the exception of Dan Needham on drums and Vince Denham on sax). Most of the songs were written by Bernie alone on this record. "I had a lot of personal feelings and emotions to express while writing this record and I felt to really say what I felt, I need to write alone".
All the songs were recorded at his home studio, Hideaway, hence the album title Hideaway Tales.
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