Former Mayor Peter Trent may have disappeared behind the curtain of private life, but he recently confirmed long-standing rumours that he is about to re-emerge — and will be bringing it all back home as a recording artist.

Trent's first CD, 'Westmount Skyline', is scheduled to be released by Sony Music later this spring, and it promises to show Westmounters another side of the well-known politician and demerger activist.

"It's sort of a self-portrait in words and music," the freewheeling Trent told the Examiner this week. "My back pages were filled with ideas over the years, so now I've put them down in the studio."

Backed by former Beatle Ringo Starr on drums ("He must have needed the money," Trent quipped) and current city councillors John de Castell and George Bowser on guitar and bass, Trent has put together a double-length album featuring such songs as 'Highway 401 Revisited', 'Tangled Up in Blue (Make That Red) Tape', 'Positively Sherbrooke Street', and 'Just Like Tom Thompson's Blues'.

He also sings frankly about the demerger fight in 'When Harel Freezes Over', and even pays tribute to old Hollywood musicals in 'Meet Me in St. Louis's Office'.

The album is set to be released on May 1, and Trent is booked for several live appearances in and around Montreal — with more and more dates added each day. "This may turn out to be somewhat of a never-ending tour," he said. "But it promises to be great fun."