Going Away Party - What Week Is This!

Goin" Away Party

I've been busy. Here's a great song penned by Cindy Walker.  Thanks to Brad Johnson, Calvin Dick, Eric Gallipo,  and Rachelle Reath.

And here's an excellent reading by Marshall 

Chapman 

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

New Blues #2 - March 5, 2012

Saturday night I went to see Black Valley Gospel, David Chenery's most recent music project.  It was their cd release show and their shit is the good shit, so check it out  http://blackvalleygospel.bandcamp.com/album/black-valley-gospel

At the show Scott Dunlop asked me what song I was going to do for my blog this week and well to be honest, I had no idea, and told him so.  "When are you gonna cover a Dylan song?" he said and seeing as I had spontaneously played I Threw It All Away earlier that day  I told him that I might just take him up on it.  Well I tried. A few times, a few songs.  Wasn't happening, hungover (damn you Chenery and your devil music), wasn't feeling it.  Dylan's like that.  Sometimes you play it and it gets inside you and you're inside it and away you go - other times you feel like some lamely inadequate douchebag at a coffee shop open mike.  

So what's the next best thing?  How about a song I wrote last year during a heavy Basement Tapes listening phase.....New Blues #2. Influenced by, derivative of....somewhere in there.  It's a basic blues form with a yodel turnaround.  Ran the accordion and my vox through a big-ass guitar amp. 

Here it is

New Blues #2

I was waitin' for the rapture watchin' the big game

but Jesus went to Luxton so the rapture never came

Rapture dude said "did I say May, I meant October"

now the whole town is suffering from revelation phobia

The wise man built his house upon a rock

the foolish man built his house inside a clock

The hideous man gazes upon his reflection

I can smell his filthy haunches I can smell his dejection

he's been carvin' up the TV eatin' it for dinner

he should be gettin' fatter but his head is getting thinner

He got a time machine keeps track of the latest trends

he's got a rocket ship to visit his so called friends

I can't get no sleep, it's rainin in my bed

I need an umbrella to keep the dreams off my head

Thing I like about night is it ain't light

thing I like about day is it ain't night

Best things about trees is they don't walk

thing I like about stones is they don't talk

Structurally this song is also very similar (okay, virtually identical) to another song I wrote and recorded many years ago, Grey Yodel #3, found on the Hurtin' Dance Party cd.  This song also felt Dylan-ey to me and the Highway 61 aesthetic was on our minds when we recorded it.    You can listen to that song (and the rest of Hurtin Dance Party) here.  

 HURTIN' DANCE PARTY - Bandcamp

The musicians who play on it were taught the song that night, I think we did three takes.  They did a stellar job, and I believe the spontaneous nature of the session brought a great energy to the recording.  Tolan McNeil's guitar line is pure genius and Clay George lays down a rockin harp solo through an overdriven amp.  Also featured are Calvin Dick on drums and Clark Brendan on bass.  Scott Henderson was the recording engineer.

*****Star Date January 12, 2016
Somewhere along the way in a couple of years of rehearsing and recording the composition order of this New Blues series - there's eight of these nasty fuckers - got tangled.  This one, Yodel Blues, changed from #2 to #3.  So it goes.  I also recorded a version of it incorporating all the lyrics from the song Grey Yodel #3.  I'll post that soon....stay tuned!