Warning: listening to this album will make you want to quit your job, buy a boat and live the life of Mike Aiken. “Just Add Salt” is Norfolk based Aiken’s 3rd cd and was literally recorded on the Chesapeake Bay, in a studio on a tugboat in Willoughby Spit. He’s been living here ever since a storm blew his boat into Hampton Roads years ago. He liked what he saw and has used the area for musical inspiration while sailing to gigs up and down the East Coast.
Other local players like Lewis McGehee, Bob Zentz and Robbin Thompson help with the mostly acoustic arrangements and Aiken’s vocal harmonizing with his wife Amy is irresistible. Almost every song has a reference to sailing or life near the ocean. “Hillbilly Beach Bum” leads off the cd with a honky tonk rhythm and when he rhymes “senorita” with “margarita” the scene is set for the rest of the album. There are songs about fishing in Alaska, sailing to Cuba, private coves, secluded beaches, hurricanes, swaying palm trees and a guitar that has seen it all. Aiken does two cover songs, Lyle Lovett’s “If I Had a Boat” (of course) and The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” but it’s his original songs that have defined his party on the water style. He’ll be playing Granby North on February 11th and listen for a live performance on Out of the Box just before that show.
“Salt on the breeze, saltwater under your keel, salt on the rim of your glass!” explains Aiken of the title of the cd. “Just Add Salt” is a vicarious thrill ride arriving just in time to blow off the winter blues. At the very least it should dramatically increase boat sales in the area.
Listen for lots of songs from Mike Aiken’s “Just Add Salt” all this week on Paul Shugrue’s new music show “Out of the Box” Monday through Thursday from 7pm to 9pm and Saturday afternoon from 1pm to 6pm on Public Radio 89.5 WHRV.