Hard Place To Find is volume two of Tobin Mueller's covers, intimate and unique takes on his favorite songwriters. It follows the success of his first cover album, Song of Myself.

All songs include themes of journeying, questing, reshaping, recalling, or searching for that Hard Place To Find. Just Tobin Mueller at his piano, searching. He weaves each song into a growing tapestry, finding common threads in music from varied artists like Bob Dylan, Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon, Gordon Lightfoot, David Wilcox and Stephen Sondheim. His additions of lesser known artist Jai Uttal and Anders Osborne are welcome and fresh. Mueller adds one of own compositions into the mix, Let Yourself, completing this spiritual-musical travelogue.

The journey begins with Richie Haven’s lyric “Paradise is a hard place to find.” Arrangers have a free hand to interpret chordal settings and melody, but only rarely do singers embrace the same freedom regarding lyrics. Mueller, however, includes several unique takes on lyrics as well as musical stylings. For example, in Richie Havens' Paradise, Mueller explains "I just couldn't sing 'searching is such a waste of time' and mean it." The new lyric reads: I used to think I'd be a prophet, find reasons in these rhymes. But I think that kind of searching could be a pleasant waste of time.

Mueller says, "Each of these songs tells a partial story of myself, of my journey. I’ve changed some lyrics to keep that story honest."

Since Sondheim’s No More follows Don Quixote on the album, he sing "No more windmills" instead of "No more witches." It is interesting for those who know some of these songs well to catch both subtle changes like this, as well as greater rewritings, as Mueller does to Wilcox's Show The Way.

Mueller also adds clever musical interludes to some of the tunes. Dear Prudence is a playful coda to Dulcinea. Interjecting Dangling Conversation into Paul Simon's Still Crazy creates a haunting flashback moment. Juxtaposing Hal David’s question, “What’s it all about, Alfie?” with Sondheim’s “No more questions, please” adds meaning to them both.

Perhaps the most startling remakes are on the two Bob Dylan songs and the Gordon Lightfoot epic, Don Quixote. Each verse of these longer tunes is arranged differently, bring to life the lyrics in special ways.

For more of Mueller's music, from solo piano to jazz ensemble to progressive folk and prog rock, please search Tobin Mueller.