Booze Party - December 4, 2012

Actually recorded this a week and a half ago, but haven't got around to putting it up.  Booze Party was a song I first heard through my friend and obsessive music and film collector Gary Field.  It was on a compilation of obscure rockabilly and rhythm'n'blues called Sin Alley and was performed by a combo called Three Jokers and An Ace.  I vowed to learn the song and learn it I did, performing a trashy take on it for a couple of years during my solo accordion period, before recording a pretty fucked up version of it with Mansmell for the album Hurtin' Dance Party.  It was a staple of our live set for many years, half the fun being the chaotic and discordant free noise and screaming at the end of the song.  I don't have a link to it at the moment, but I'll see what I can do....in the meantime, how about a little listen to Three Jokers and An Ace?

 

So after doing a crazed, balls-out version of Booze Party for years, I started to have this hankering to do what in my mind I started to call "The Legion Mix"....you know, a take on this psycho-billy song that you could slip into the middle of your cover band's set when you're playing at the church fundraiser or whatever.  So here's me with Booze Party 2012, The Legion Mix. There's some wicked mic distortion in the middle of the song, but this was the best take.

Crazed Ballz Out Version

click here: BOOZE PARTY - MANSMELL

And here's a totally different kind of Booze Party

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

Whiskey, You Are Not My Brother - New Song - May 1, 2012

Remember that post about a month ago before we played with Black Valley Gospel at Crace Mountain?
Whether you do or don't, the night of that show David Chenery proposed a collaboration of a sorts between us.  He wants to record some of my older material and give it the f*@!#!?! Black Valley treatment!  I was both honoured and excited about the proposal.  Initial song ideas include some Dogbreath Brothers tunes - Stay Away With The Whiskey, Look In Your Heart, and Bent, Broke, Busted 'n' Blue - plus Last Trip To Vancouver from the Eelgirl EP and a heavy version of the instrumental Jackass Path from the Hurtin' Dance Party album possibly with a spoken word piece.  Crazy shit!

I started working on a song this week and it seemed like maybe it could fit this project.    I've keyed it so Chenery could easily do manic vocals an octave above what I'm doing.  This is really a sketch of the song. We'll run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.

Check out the video - my head looks like a sock puppet

******Stardate January 13, 2016:  the collaboration with Chenery did not come to fruition.  However, I did a minor tweak on the lyrics, a major tweak on the arrangement and feel, and went on to record the song with Mike Hall in a combo with drums (Marek Tyler), cello (Hank Pine). Live off the floor don't you know, to fabulous 1/4" reel to reel.  Stay tuned....I'll post it soon!

Whiskey, You Are Not My Brother

Whiskey, you are not my brother
do not stand so near
take your hand from my shoulder
do not whisper in my ear

There is a place
where black is dark
dark, dark blue
where you are misshapen and made obese
by all that does not fill you

Whiskey, you are not my brother
do not stand so near
take your hand from my shoulder
do not whisper in my ear

There is a place
where the river is deep
deep, deep green
the waters are opaque, they are viscous
they appear to be serene


Whiskey, you are not my brother
do not stand so near
take your hand from my shoulder
do not whisper in my ear