Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening

According to Keyboard, the album was originally slated to be released "during the first quarter" of 1992.{{cite journal|title=Career Update|journal=Keyboard|date=August 1991|volume=17|issue=8|page=25|quote=New ager Ray Lynch will have a new album out during the first quarter of '92.}} In an interview with the Vancouver Sun, Lynch revealed some of the struggles he faced while creating the album, and said that it had taken four years to create. In regards to its delayed production, he said, "That's the problem when you love what you make, if you love what you make and care about it, you're going to struggle with it until it's right."{{cite news|last1=Strachan|first1=Alex|title=Love for music can be deadly|work=The Vancouver Sun|date=October 19, 1993|accessdate=October 23, 2022|page=E2|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111857299/love-for-music-can-be-deadly-alex-stra/}} In an interview with Brian, Mind in 1995, Ray Lynch explained that he shifted more closely to acoustic instruments than synthesized instruments. He further explained that he had always wanted to write a "very classical" album.{{cite journal |title=Composer Ray Lynch 'True artist has no options' |journal=Brain / Mind |date=January 1995|accessdate=October 23, 2022|volume=20 |issue=4 |page=6 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_brain-mind_1995-01_20_4/ |publisher=Interface Press}}

Debbie Stover of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch praised the album for its use of instruments to recreate the sound of both the Baroque and Renaissance eras while also "managing to sound fully modern." Stover concluded her review by calling it "easily one of the year's best."{{cite news|last1=Stover|first1=Debbie|title=Recordings - In Review|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|date=December 16, 1993|accessdate=October 23, 2022|pages=4G|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111856666/nothing-above-my-shoulders-but-the-even/}} Elisabeth Le Guin of The New York Times praised the album for evoking "the highly colored emotions of the classical tradition" and described the album's sound as "pop Dvorak".{{cite news|last1=Le Guin|first1=Elisabeth|title=By Any Other Name, It Would Sound Sweeter|work=The New York Times|date=July 31, 1994|accessdate=October 23, 2022|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/31/archives/by-any-other-name-it-would-sound-sweeter.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023182429/https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/31/archives/by-any-other-name-it-would-sound-sweeter.html|archive-date=October 23, 2022|url-status=live |url-access=limited}}

Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening includes the following tracks. All tracks are written by Ray Lynch.

{{track listing

| title1 = Over Easy

| length1 = 4:53

| title2 = Her Knees Deep in Your Mind

| length2 = 6:18

| title3 = Passion Song

| length3 = 5:24

| title4 = Ivory

| length4 = 5:38

| title5 = Mesquite

| length5 = 6:18

| title6 = Only an Enjoyment

| length6 = 7:16

| title7 = The Vanished Gardens of Córdoba

| length7 = 8:22

}}

All music composed, arranged and produced by Ray Lynch.

• Ray Lynch – keyboards and guitars
• Timothy Day – flute and alto flute
• Nancy Ellis and Nanci Severance – viola
• Glen Fischthal – trumpet, fluglehorn, and piccolo trumpet
• Julie Ann Giacobassi – oboe and English horn
• David Kadarauch – cello
• Dave Krehbiel – French horn
• Daniel Kobialka – violin
• Marc Shapiro – piano

• Ray Lynch and Daniel Ryman – engineering and mixing
• Bernie Grundman Mastering, Hollywood, California – mastering

{{reflist|30em}}

{{Ray Lynch}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Ray Lynch albums

Category:1993 albums

Category:Windham Hill Records albums