In the summer of 1987, 16-year-old Scott C. Mallett and his band scheduled an outdoor concert of original music. It was to be Mallett’s introduction as a songwriter and the band’s transition from covers to original music. Thunderstorms had other plans, and the band broke up shortly afterward. Disillusioned, Mallett walked away from performing. But the music kept coming, existing only in his mind, on “track zero”: the place where music lives before it is recorded, accompanied by the promise that someday he would record it. That day finally came.