A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

the history of Vertical Alignment

Vertical Alignment began at the turn of the 21st century as Pete & Terri Jorgensen and Monty Pierce began collaborating on increasingly long and complex progressive rock tunes. Pete was also writing “Joseph’s Dream,” the novel. That book was the huge background story of the rock drama of the same name that he had already been working on for a number of years. It was during that writing that he conceived the science fiction concept of vertical alignment for the book. Pete took that name and a band was born.

Vertical Alignment’s first epic composed in that period was the 25 minute long “The Calling Out.” Pete and Monty attempted a performance of the piece at Pete’s birthday bash in 2001. It didn't really go over too well. (Ziggy fell asleep.) Since that time the piece has gone through some rewrites but has yet to be released.

That memorable birthday party marked the less than auspicious coming out of Vertical Alignment. Although a number of proggy songs had already been written (including the core songs of the yet to be released massive rock epic “Joseph’s Dream,”) this event caused a new focus on the progressive rock songwriting that would become the hallmark of the band. The framework of several albums was in place with mini epics such as the still unreleased “Small Charade” waiting in the wings.

The group began experimenting with musical guests. This became a standing tradition into today. The first time this was done, Pete invited Chad and Kristi Gaines of the Raleigh, NC area to spend a weekend recording some vocals. Monty knew Chad from his time teaching in that area and positively raved about his voice. During that weekend, Chad recorded vocals for “God Is Love.” (Pete later added the fantastic lead guitar work of Charleston, SC guitarist Rob McRae to that song.) The equally talented Kristi recorded the vocals for “Trail of Tears,” a song that Peter J wrote while visiting Tahlequah, OK for the first time in the late 1990’s. That song would become a future echo of much greater musical things. These two songs lay dormant for years until Pete polished them up and released them in 2009 as a part of the free “Promises and Tales” EP (still available in the Music For Free! section of ThunderSongs.)

It was around that time that Pete discovered Bill Hammell’s Internet C-Prog mailing list. A whole new world opened up as the group discovered Christian progressive rock friends from around the globe. These e-friendships would become extraordinarily fruitful in the following years and on into tomorrow.

A little more than a year later this all went to a whole new level as Vertical Alignment and about twenty other bands accepted an invitation to join a new Internet mailing list to promote their genre. That new beginning turned into CPR and has since spawned three compilation CD’s with a collection of the finest Christian progressive musicians on the planet. Vertical Alignment had the singular honor of being included on the first two disc compilation, “CPR Volume One.” They had the privilege of being on the same discs with such greats as Rick Wakeman, Kerry Livgren, and Neal Morse.

In 2003 both Pete and Terri were visited with an awesome series of dreams. They were interconnected and both deemed them highly significant. Out of that experience Pete wrote the epic song “Horizon’s Queen.” It was an early candidate for CPR Volume 1 and the first versions squeezed the song below 15 minutes in length. That idea was scrapped and the song became a beloved orphan on Pete’s hard drive. It was revisited several times and was recently expanded to 25 minutes in length.

The song “Once In A Dream” was ultimately recorded for that first compilation. New friend Jim Braunreuther became the first lead vocalist of the band who was not a guest. OIAD was recorded and mixed by Peter J in his home studio. Longtime friend Clay Stuckey played drums on the tune while Terri J played bass. Peter J filled out the rest with guitars, keyboards, and background vocals. The song was mastered by Gene Crout before making it onto CPR Volume 1.

During the release of that venerable double CD, Peter J became close friends with Randy George of the band Ajalon. Randy was recruited by Neal Morse to join his band for the upcoming “Testimony” tour. Randy traveled from his home in Seattle to the Nashville area to rehearse with Neal, Mike Portnoy, and the other greats that were in that touring band. He had a one week break from rehearsal and used that time to travel to the Charleston, SC area to visit Pete and Terri J. The three spent a most memorable week together. Pete and Terri's daughter loved Randy and enjoyed visiting with him. They spent the nights jamming in the studio and listening to Randy’s awesome CD collection. No TV for those three!

Pete and Terri saw Randy again at the Neal Morse “Testimony” concert in Metuchen, NJ. They also met many members of the C-Prog mailing list in person. The concert put reality into the great virtual friendships begun on that list. It was a memorable concert and they got to meet Neal, Mike Portnoy, Rick Altizer, and other band members. The evening was topped off by all the C-Proggers taking over a nearby diner at about 2:00 in the morning.

It was in that time that the concept for the album “Signposts” was conceived. Peter J already had several songs that dealt with the spiritual significance of historical events. Several more were written and the concept was a reality. It just had to be played and recorded. Pete enlisted the help of over twenty of his long distance C-Prog buddies and the idea began to take shape. Jim Braunreuther was already committed as the local vocalist but one piece remained. VA still needed a drummer. It was then that long-distance friendship with Mike Adams blossomed and he became the band’s drummer. Mike recorded all drum parts in his Nashville, TN area studio and shipped the tracks to Peter J. More parts were done by musicians from all over the country and also shipped to Peter J for final assembly and mixing. Some came on CD’s in the mail, some came via an FTP transfer. They all came together and “Signposts” was released, first as electronic downloads in 2006, finally as physical CD’s in early 2007. The release met with critical success and sales were brisk.

It was after the release of “Signposts” that Pete met Mike Florio. They began what would become an extraordinarily fruitful collaborative friendship. The first song that Mike did was a song for “Joseph’s Dream” which is still unreleased, “Fugue.” Both Pete and Terri were frankly blown away with Mike’s talent in songwriting and singing. It was from that small beginning that Mike became the voice of Vertical Alignment. Mike has since contributed both vocal and keyboard work.

The group moved forward towards their next release (presumably “Joseph’s Dream”) when events intervened. Pete’s Mom died and he traveled to Tahlequah, OK for the funeral and again to close the estate. It was there that he once more came face to face with the reality of the Cherokee Native Americans. As in his first visit, Pete was reminded that the Trail of Tears was not a historical footnote. It was personal. After his first trip that time he wrote “Land and Sky” and “The Trail of Tears Suite” was born. Riveted by the history of the Cherokee, Pete rapidly penned more tunes. Soon, there was enough to fill a CD. He still felt that the whole story was not told. He wrote more including the centerpiece song “The Story Trunk” which is 42 minutes long.

Pete and Mike Florio continued with the writing and recording of the Suite. Mike recorded vocals for a great portion of the Suite and wrote a tune, “Native Son,” while collaborating on more. Both Pete and Mike worked in some of the finest collaboration either had experienced. For “Native Son” Pete told Mike the idea for the song; an ode to Cherokee humorist Will Rogers. Mike came back in a few days with a short masterpiece and a true prog original: a bluesy song in 11/8!

The Suite became big, over two hours of music. The production bogged down due the sheer size of the work. Peter J also used that time to complete writing the novel that is the extended background story for the Suite, “Generations of the Eagle.” He went on to self publish the book and it is now available on Lulu.com. Pete then decided to take a break and work on something else.

Back in the time of the writing and production of “Signposts,” Pete was recruited by good C-Prog buddy and NASA Shuttle Flight Controller Mike FitzPatrick to assist in writing music for an in house NASA movie production. The film was on the Return To Flight program that came after the tragic loss of Space Shuttle Columbia. Both Pete and Mike developed a number of themes for this project but the whole thing was ultimately scrapped. Pete’s song fragments gathered dust in a NASA folder on his DAW’s hard drive. He decided to dust them off and complete the ideas. These became the core of the release “Lost In Space.” Pete also wrote the title cut and, appropriately, Mike FitzPatrick sang lead vocal on the song. Mike Florio also contributed his song “The Viking Mission.” The album was released on ThunderSongs in 2009.

Work on “The Trail of Tears Suite” continued apace. There was much more recording and mixing but the two hour musical event remained a daunting proposition. Nevertheless, progress was evident.

In this more recent time, Vertical Alignment has taken on a new main bass player. Jaymi Millard brought his signature gnarly Rickenbacker sound into the mix which nailed down the bass parts in a whole new way. Jaymi has become integrally involved in all aspects of the band and has already laid down bass tracks for almost all of the Suite. His excitement and enthusiasm are truly contagious. He is an in demand session bass man in his hometown area of Nashville, TN and Vertical Alignment is fortunate to have him aboard.

Pete then wrote another song in the space theme, “Spot Upon the Sun,” and Mike recorded vocals for same. Pete also remastered “Lost In Space” and he and Mike came up with the idea for “Lost In Space Special Edition.” That release would have the remastered songs plus a few extra new ones including SUtS.

Currently, Vertical Alignment is releasing two advance singles from “The Trail of Tears Suite,” which are “Land and Sky” and “Native Son.” These are being made available as free downloads to help promote the coming Suite. They will also be available as a limited edition EP which will contain some more material which includes a monologue by Randall Reeder in the style of Will Rogers.

Vertical Alignment will also release “Spot Upon the Sun” and another new instrumental, “Earthrise,” as singles. Following that will be the release of “Lost In Space Special Edition.” Then the deck will be cleared to press into the full completion of “The Trail of Tears Suite.” The band hopes to release that in early 2011.

The future of Vertical Alignment holds many things. After the Suite, VA will return to the long neglected “Joseph’s Dream,” a work that will be as big or bigger than the Suite. The band will also revisit “The Calling Out” from the dawn of VA. Most importantly, the “Horizon’s Queen” project will be completed. It will be a release about dreams; dreams that mean something. Two epics are planned, both based on deep and intense dreams experienced by both Pete and Terri. There will be “The Tenant” based on a huge dream that Pete had along with the title cut which portrays the overlapping dreams of both Pete and Terri from back in 2003.

The next year of 2011 will be the 10th anniversary of Vertical Alignment and there is still much to do. Along the way will be much creative fun and great spiritual fulfillment. We hope you help us celebrate our 10th anniversary and also stay with us for the journey. We’ll see you in tomorrow!

-Peter J
May 2010

© 2010 Vertical Alignment
a ThunderSongs design
last updated June 11, 2010