On The Horizon is Neil's fourth album and the first to exclusively feature his own compositions. It was recorded over the summer of 1999 and includes many of the pieces he had been performing over the last 15 years.

A real Renaissance to Ragtime experience.

Original liner notes.

Boy, I thought it was a long time between my 2nd and 3rd albums. that was nothing compared to becoming a really lazy guitar player and not really challenging myself for quite a long time. I think I was wrapped up in parenthood.

Once I decided to get back to learning a bit, I decided to tackle a favorite John Renbourn piece, Faro's Rag. This led to a string of events that included meeting John, getting to know him, and scheduling a concert with him for May, 1999 at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, just a few minutes from Los Gatos.

A few months before the concert I figured I should get back to composing, hopefully to come up with a duet we could play. This led to 3 new pieces: Back To The Drawing Board, On The Horizon, and S.O.S.

The show was both a highlight and low spot in my life (details in liner notes below) but it also led to writing Papa's Guitar a few days later.

Over the next month or so I took the time to revisit pieces I had written about 15 years earlier and was pleasantly surprised to enjoy playing them. At that point I decided to head back to Joe Weed's studio and record the tunes. I even got my old friend Rich Olson out of retirement to help play Rico's Best Shot.

Neil