ANTONYM

When you get through with something you make a judgment in your own head. How did I do? How will it be perceived? How do I feel about it? This song is my definition of striving. We as people can ALWAYS do better and that sentiment is particularly prescient as commentary to this song. There are some sweet spots but overall I could have done it better. But then again, let's follow this to the chorus:

I don't need this any more
The sun that tans the skin
the bark that's broken in
No I don't need them any more.

These are the things I rely on:

My critical voice -ENOUGH!
My hindsight - ENOUGH!
My consistency - ENOUGH!
My aesthetic - ENOUGH!

I don't need them any more.

Production note: I sent this to DMC to listen to via email back when it was being worked on. He commented on it saying he liked the demo - I explained it was not a demo. Maybe I should have taken that comment more seriously. I think there are time when the demo approach works for the finished product: rambling notes (jazz notes as DMC calls them), distant misspoken lyrics, erased and replaced anything - I don't know for certain it does here.

ROADS

What am I against?
Well, what have you got?

The template for my human condition. Rally against, ponder, break free, forget. I am deliberate in my absorption of that condition - trying to feel each pinch and twinge it offers. These terms are to be abided! This is a fault that came up in college though. My friend and professor Ethan warned me about making all of my "art" a reaction against something (or somebody) outside of me. He was right. That is a narrow way to experience the world. Years later, another very wise man had another word for me. This was about that deliberate condition: you have to experience the gritty lows to experience the soaring heights. So I try not to react and I try to accept and take it all as it comes. Here come dusty roads...

When I took a chance,
I ended up on top.
Went from a saunter,
to a trot

NEW NORTH

First put the core of this down after seeing a show of some particularly free folkie stuff. i don't recall who it was, but I do recall thinking I wanted to write something less straight forward folkie and more abstract after I saw that show. But this idea and this expression was a long time coming:

You can blur your worries
into climbing vines
it's only in your mind

Yeah, that's where this gets heavy.

Production note:
Jim Reynolds slide guitar was so real and gritty - perfect. We had recorded this song before. We'd played it live. We'd played it slow. We'd played it fast but never before did we get it down like this. The doubled vocals are a warm oven. So to me this is the definitive version of the song.

DIVORCED

I was pondering the idea of divorce. Not the standard association with the word that we (unfortunately) have, but a different meaning - to remove yourself from, maybe even by force. Two alternate titles come back to me: Divorced Thought and Logic Divorced.

Was the break-up with my thoughts mutual? Or was there a disagreement that swelled and bred resentment forcing my thoughts to pack their bags. A third scenario, though unlikely, was that I became disillusioned with the relationship with my thoughts and kicked them to the curb.

I'm sorry I thought it, I divorced the logic
a portrait of ideas that fail
Wheel that did not touch the rail

NOWHERE

I just found another word for nothing left to lose...

What was I thinking ripping off the lyrical structure of "Me and Bobby McGee"? Could I really be so inspired by that insipid & used song? Can't say. But sometimes I get struck by a concept and I must pursue it till the end.

That is odd - I would like to define what prompts me to write one idea down, plan it out and stamp it a "song", while another (and maybe more viable) idea gets juggled around the brain a bit and eventually gets forgotten. NOWHERE and its loose Kristofersonian ramblings made it; stamp it done.

Windshield wipers shoving rain, I think they've had enough...

Cheers x 1,00,000,000 to Rich for the brillaint harmonica part - a great idea.

Folk Me, Laztana

Around the time "A Sweet Science" was released I got an very nice email from the proprietor of the Spanish micro-label Moonpalace Records. He asked if he could do some CD "distribution" locally. He'd send it to zines (online and print) and make the CD available for sale on his website. I loved this idea and really there was nothing to lose except a few copies of a CD and postage. The worst case scenario would have been there was some con-man taking advantage of an unknown indie-folk artist by using a micro-label as a front - what are the chances of that. He got some great reviews published (and translated them) and I got to further my unknown music in a way that really interested me (in another country!). Our relationship continued through out the years. We'd talked about doing a true Moonpalace release and finally in 2006 the concept came to fruition as "Folk Me, Laztana (a split CD)".

His idea was brilliant. Split the disc with a Spanish songwriter who sings in Basque - Joseba Irazoki. 5 songs me, 5 songs he.

My concept was simple: guitar, piano, vocals. This was the first time I recorded with my friend Rich Brouillet. We did not actually record this in the same room or even the same city. We rehearsed at his house, I went home and recorded the basic tracks and then sent him a disc of the files. He recorded the piano (look at the site banner on the top of the page for the guts of his piano) on his own time and them sent me a disc of the files. I LOVE THIS WAY OF WORKING. Jim Reynolds did much of the engineering and brought some fancy equipment over to my basement - he lent his trained ear to all aspects of the mixing too as well a some slide guitar on one track. Where would I be without this web of friends***....

The songs are a mix of older compositions that never made it to tape and a couple new songs that were hot of my mental press. It was released in 2006 in a limited edition of 100 and sold out after a half a year or so (mostly due to the show schedule of Joseba, to be honest...). This was a great experience and so unique - a proud moment. Oh yes, and Laztana means "my dear" in Basque. Folk Me, My Dear.

***(if you've got it, see "Delving Inward with Brian Roff" for where I'd be.)