Few of the songs on this CD sound like
typical singer/songwriter material. While nominally a solo CD, it contains
performances by the other members of Loky and a number of Houston musicians
it's been my pleasure to work with over the years. Many of the cuts were set
up to give the soloists room to play and they took advantage of the
opportunity to provide many magical moments.
About the Songs:
1.
Battle of New Jericho
The song: A traditional folk ballad I made up myself; a story that takes
place in a world of the US west circa 1868, the Middle East circa 1000 BC,
and somewhere in the 23rd century AD all at once.
The recording: Banjo & fiddle from Buddy Allen, acoustic guitar, and a set
of changes from an incorrect learning of a familiar pop song which shall
remain nameless here.
2.
Jo’s Got Nothing (But Nothing to Say)
The song: This is the tune my now-grown daughter asked me to put on the CD.
It’s one of the first songs I wrote that anyone remembered. Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Girl.
The recording: Joining me on this vocal duet is Beth Mefford, a friend of
several years’ standing who once played congas and sang with David Fahl &
the Strange Attractors. She’s a jazz singer now, but helped me out with the
old folkie stuff anyway.
3.
Waterwall
The song: The waterwall is a landmark in Houston, at one end of a nice lawn
facing graceful Phillip Johnson skyscraper. On nice Saturdays, quincinera
parties get their pictures taken there. Late at night, couples from the
Richmond Strip meat markets hang out and make out. This song is what happens
when a folk singer tries to write a James Brown song, the lyrics inspired by
hearing Dylan’s "Obviously 5 Believers" on the radio.
The recording: Victor Agis’s bass and Dana Harrington’s drumming set an
awesome groove that gives Buddy’s fiddle, Kat Jones’s flute, and Jimmy Mac’s
guitar an excuse to do some of the prettiest ensemble jamming I’ve ever
heard.
4.
The Girls in their Summer Dresses
The song: I wrote this at the request of my wife in honor of the Irwin Shaw
short story of the same name.
The recording: Julia Olivares, one of the best jazz pianists in Houston,
helped out here. A long time ago we played this song during a jam at the now
legendary Boatyard; a bar that had great music any night of the week. This
is the one tune on the record that reminds me of the music my mother and her
sister used to play in my grandmother’s living room.
5.
Graduation Day
The song: There were three relationships breaking up at once in my small
circle of friends, all of them due to changing attitudes, increased
maturity.
The recording: My idea of a straightforward pop arrangement.
6.
Life is Good
The song: Written about three months before a beer company’s famous ad
campaign using the same phrase. During my first visit to the Kerrville Folk
Festival I was hanging with a buddy who seemed unwilling to let the
beautiful scenery, fine weather, great music and company keep him from his
accustomed state of perpetual anxiety. I repeated the three-word mantra
endlessly in an attempt to remind him. The song got written back in
civilization a week later.
The recording: This has my all-time favorite recorded Jimmy Mac guitar solo
in the middle.
7.
Gifts of Smoke
The song: This was a poem before it was a song. Then it was a reggae tune.
For a friend who had a hard time dealing with a relationship that was all it
ever would be.
The recording: All me. Showing off on acoustic guitars.
8.
Running with the Outlaws
The song: A day in the life. Some folks live without working, though not so
well. This is an attempt to do in songwriting what poets accomplished in the
first half of the 20th century; freedom from the restrictions of formal
verse patterns.
The recording: Buddy, Kat & Jimmy again.
9.
Dealer Don’t Know
The song: A bitter bitch-is-gone-the-hell-with-her thing.
The recording: me on acoustics again.
10.
Close My Eyes
The song: There was a period when I was reading lots of Sufi material and
enthralled with the notion of exalting desperate, senseless, longing.
Inhaling the scent of a woman you hold as you dance.
The recording: Prettiest thing I’ve ever done, with lots and lots of help.
11.
Casey & the Fireman
The song: First two verses were given to me by Pops Overstreet, a blues
singer I used to work with in the late 80s. I added the last two and tried
to give them a setting as close to Pops’s music as I could.
The recording: One chord blues, no drums, early John Lee Hooker. Harp by Bob
Kerswill.
12.
Kelly’s Doing Fine
The song: One of my first sad love songs, with no basis in reality at all.
It once had no rhymes, but a bass player said it needed a bridge.
The recording: features vocals by Melissa Adams, an excellent
singer/songwriter with a fine album out, Firefly. She was a 5th member of
Loky for several months in 2000.
13.
A Love Like You
The song: At the end of the ‘Sufi’ period, my last desperate love song.
The recoding: An experiment in layering acoustic leads, topped off with one
of Jimmy’s trademark flameouts.
14.
Time Passes
The song: Larry Dahl, are you out there? A college roommate had this phrase
in sign on his wall. Maybe the 3rd song I ever wrote. No one will ever hear
the first two.
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