First, if you have not done so, help me name the project here.
With each decision you make you necessarily preclude other possibilities – some temporarily, some permanently.
I was on the phone today with Rebecca – my girlfriend, road manager (and online sound engineer based on a recent UStream Webcast), and even assistant producer. She "helped" me decide on 10 songs to record. When I say help, she threatened me with bodily harm if I didn’t select 10 and focus on them.. and she reminded me that the other songs will still be there.
She remembers the last CD project – where my list of songs kept changing up to – and into recording the final song. In fact, the first CD, "Girls, Songs, and Other Delusions" was originally titled, "Promised Land" – probably a rather cliche and overworked Americana or Country title. But the song Promised Land is still one I am proud of. I’m not sure why it got pushed from the CD – but suffice to say, it has company.
It sounds sort of new-agey to say that each song I write – the ones I am selecting from – are like friends. When I exclude one from "the list" – I feel sad. Actually, I feel guilty!!! I know.. weird.
Now I just keep sending her text messages like this….
"OMG! I am not recording ‘All I Want Is Everything’ for this CD."
To which, she patiently replies, "Don’t worry. Finish the ones you have. Relax…"
So here they are.. the 10 songs plus a bonus song. The bonus song is one I’ve wanted to record for awhile. It was written by Bill Wickham in Arizona – if you are up around New River, you might catch him performing as Wick & Cole.
The song order is yet to be determined…
Where I Belong
I’m On Fire
Everything I Thought I Never Wanted
How It Goes
The One Thing I Can Do
Everyday Lies
My Song
Misty Blue
I’ll Make You Feel
Wait For Me
Here I Go Again (cover – Bill Wickham)
Where I Belong:
I wrote this during a rather tenuous period of mistakes and paying for them. It started as a simple little guitar riff and I had no idea what the song was going to be about but, to me, it sounded hopefully. I wrote the song but did not play it live for almost a year – no particular reason that I know of. Maybe I felt I wasn’t ready to "get back Where I Belong."
Whatever the reason, the song has proven to resonate with a lot of people. I started adding some percussion stylizing to it and a reggae stylized bass.
I’m On Fire:
This song started with Verse #2, a vision inspired by Jess, my oldest daughter. She has unfairly been a big support for me the past few years – and she carries a certain innocence and optimism in spite of dealing with a lot. I don’t think she knows, as of this writing, that verse #2 is hers.
The song is optimistic at its core. The idea being that, even mired in it, life is amazing!
Everything I Thought I Never Wanted:
This is probably the most directly "country" song I play.
It started as a completely unrelated phrase. Doug Bruhnke, a marketing professional in Phoenix, made a comment to me a few days after the "Flood of ’07". If you don’t know about the flood, you can find out here. Summarized, Arizona has a monsoon period. On July 31st, the wash behind my house overflowed during a storm. My backyard filled with 4.5 feet of water and it poured into the house, filling it with more than 2 feet of water.
Virtually everything I owned was destroyed – except, my guitar and laptop.
Doug was visiting a client in the neighborhood the night of the storm and had been stranded for several hours. I had been on TV all the next day, a "reporting live from a home that was destroyed" sort of thing. I had been in the paper a few months prior and on TV prior to that. Doug said, "All the press you ever wanted…"
I replied, "All the press I NEVER wanted"
A few weeks later I was driving around Scottsdale. I had purchased a digital recorder a month or two prior. The digital recorder is a story in and of itself – for a later time.
While running around, the phrase "Everything I Never Wanted" bounced around my head. I thought of getting something you thought you didn’t want and it turns out to be wonderful until it becomes everything you wanted and more.
How It Goes:
This is my first official duet. I wrote this after a relationship that probably should not have started had to end. But there is a hopefulness to the song – and it is near and dear to me.
I connected with songwriter, Andrea Stolpe. At the time, she taught songwriting at the Berklee School of Music’s online campus. She is now with USC – teaching songwriting.
I helped her with a few technical issues on her blog. In lieu of payment, I asked for input and industry knowledge. I sent her the song. She liked what she heard and she and her husband, a sound engineer, recorded the female vocal tracks for the song.
The One Thing I Can Do:
I wrote this song a couple months after my divorce. As I took steps necessary for me to emotionally disconnect, I realized that I could no longer be the person my ex went to with day to day life challenges. We used to lean on each other a lot – co-dependent I guess – I don’t know. But, "Missing you! It’s the one thing I can do."
I recently met Jeff Finlin, a songwriter and producer in Fort Collins Colorado. I sent him the tracks and he laid down some drums and sent them back. At the start of the drum tracks, I could hear the drummer in the studio – obviously listening to my tracks on headphones. He says, "Louder please" – one way or another, that phrase will make the recording.
Everyday Lies:
This is really one of my personal favorites. I had the phrase and the intro guitar part for about 2 years before writing it.
The idea is that we lie in order to protect ourselves and protect the other person in the relationship. It isn’t about it being right – just about it being.
The story on the song, perhaps less obvious, is that of a songwriter/performer, losing his girl to another member of the band; a simple and common premise.
My Song:
"This is my gratitude, this is my sweet goodbye."
Those starting lines became this "sweet" anthem about the contrast that are part of all of our lives. The song has become the proverbial, "hold up a lighter (now cell phone) and sway" – end of show song.
Misty Blue:
I wrote this right after High School. Recently, my friend Danny Vincent – who sang for a band we had after HS asked me to play it at a coffeehouse show. As I played it, I realized how much I still love this song.
I’ll Make You Feel:
When I play this song, I usually announce how writing songs allows you to go places you wouldn’t and also to capture people’s imagination. James Taylor has a song, Handyman, that is viewed as romantic. However, listen to it and you discover that the song is about a guy who is sort of a jerk. He’s telling this lady he can fix her broken heart – and that of all her friends. He’s busy 24 hours a day doing this.
I wanted to write a song that was romantic but was about the same guy. The challenge… Write a song about a schmuck but make it sound romantic.
Wait For Me:
I wrote this in 1986 or 1987. I was leaving for a short- and ill-advised trip to the army. Up until this year I played the song much much different. I love how I am doing it now and still love the words and music.
Here I Go Again – Bill Wickham
I met Bill at a "song tree" at the Glendale Folk and Heritage Festival. I’ll admit it; I am a bit of a songwriting/lyric snob. Lyrics Matter to me. As we went around the circle of 6 or 7 songwriters who were there, I was continuously impressed by this one songwriter. Then he played this song and I said, "I want to start playing that live."
I’ve performed it several times now and kept telling Bill I would record it. It is a beautiful song – both musically and lyrically. Hopefully, I do it justice.
