The Comeback Trail #2 - Bus Depot Blue

What!?!  Another blogpost!?!  COMEBACK TRAIL, YO.  Here's a song I recorded on my cd Hurtin' Dance Party (2002).  After the fractious demise of The Dogbreath Brothers, I played solo for a couple of years and the initial concept was that this would be a solo album.  However I excitedly invited all kinds of people to play on it, the result being some very fresh live off the floor recordings as we learned and recorded the songs on the fly.  The sessions also acted as the genesis of two distinct combos:  the heavy-hitting and unpredictable Mansmell  and the dreamy and atmoshperic Whelps. 

But I digress here...Bus Depot Blue is a simple narrative C&W song that would have been part of the Mansmell repertoire, but we never performed it live too much because it's kind of quiet and sensitive and Mansmell was anything but.  People wanted the rock, they wanted to see Calvin Dick lose his shit on a set of drums.  The studio version features the Wurlitzer Sideman, a mechanical drum machine circa 1950's.  Playing lapsteel is Tolan McNeil.  Pretty sure we did 3 takes, not sure which one we used.  I remember Tolan not being totally stoked about his part, but I think his snakey intuitive playing makes the song.  Not only did we rarely play the song back when it was current, I never play it now.  Ever.  So it was kind of strange I sat down to play and it popped out.  Here's the version I just recorded and below it is a link to the album version.

Bus Depot Blue, studio recording.

Bus Depot Blue - David P. Smith

Snot-nosed kids with Grandma, knapsacks and sweethearts
seats adjoined row on row all vinyl and chrome
Ghostly figures on the screens of coin-operated TV's
like flickering memories of a time we used to know
This big and modern bus depot is the end of the road
You're riding Greyhound to Saskatoon
you might as well be flying to the moon

And I'm sick with hurt and I'm confused
I'm sick of arguing till dawn
I'm sick with booze and missing you
and you've barely been gone
My heart is in my mouth it might fall out on the floor
and I can still see you walking out that automatic door

Yodel

A hundred mile high prairie sky towers sullen and grey
The night glides in on silent wings sucks the light out of the day
Clouds fall to the ground, rain is all around
you're headed east, I'm headed west, I guess that you know best
Travelling down this highway, my heart filled with regret
a note to myself - remember to forget

Remember to forget the joy that we had
remember to remember the crap that made me sad
there's nothing on the radio 'cept preachers and white noise
but it's better than listening to the echoes of your voice

Yodel

The Comeback Trail: She Thinks I Still Care - George Jones Cover - August 20, 2012

Followers of this blog, if such a thing exists, may have noted the absence of postings over the past few weeks.  Been sucking wind.  Blowing chunks, some might say.  You'll find no litany of excuses here....you wanna know the dreary details?  Drop me a line, give me a call, we'll go for a drink.  I'll fill your glass - and your ear.  I'm attempting a comeback.  My tailor's sewing me a bejeweled lycra jumpsuit with a padded junk pouch.  Keep watching the blog and you might get a peak of that.

In the meantime, here's a George Jones song.  George Jones is such an emotive and absolutely unique vocalist that taking on one of his standards is somewhat foolhardy.  Well call me a fool, and a hardy one at that.  I love this song and have sung it for years.  When I was first getting into C&W I bought this cassette at a drugstore in Three Hills, Alberta.

I had heard of George Jones but didn't know much about him.  There were some Hank Williams songs on the collection I knew, I think maybe a Buck Owens cover too, some other titles I recognized - so I bought it.  I was just out there making exploratory purchases to discover and learn about country.  No one I knew was into the shit.  I've got piles of George Jones now, but for quite a while this was the only George I had.

She Thinks I Still Care was written by songsmith Dickey Lee, who also wrote the oft recorded Patches as well as many other hit songs.  It has been recorded an estimated 1,000 times by different artists including Elvis Presley.  Here's my version of the song.

She Thinks I Still Care - Dickey Lee

Just because I ask a friend about her
Just because I spoke her name somewhere
Just because I rang her number by mistake today
She thinks I still care

Just because I haunt the same old places
Where the mem'ry of her lingers ev'rywhere
Just because I'm not the happy guy I used to be
She thinks I still care

But if she's happy thinkin' I still need her
Then let that silly notion bring her cheer
But how could she ever be so foolish
Oh where would she get such an idea

Just because I ask a friend about her
And just because I spoke her name somewhere
Just because I saw her then went all to pieces
She thinks I still care
She thinks I still care

Here's a couple of George Jones versions, one by Elvis.....and more.  Enjoy!

Young George:  gotta love the guy doing harmonies popping in and out of frame to sing his lines

Classic George live on the Johnny Cash show

Elvis:  this is pretty good.

Beck

Random:  George McGovern

Just one more...The Grand Tour