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Brown-skinned Woman

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Songs About America Week

Here’s the song I was gonna post yesterday. It’s called Brown-skinned Woman. It’s a song I patterned after the Cater Family song Hello Stranger. Check out the Carter lyrics here.

I wrote this song back in early May of this year. I wrote it about the Great State of Arizona, which is part of the United States of America. That’s why I included it this week. I think it’s a good representation of what America and Americans hold most important. At least in certain places and at least about certain types of people.

The many different shades of color depicting the state of Arizona. Note, no brown-skinned colors allowed to depict the state.Anyway. That’s all I have to say about that.

Here’s one last note. This recording is probably the final version that will end up on the full-length album that I’m working on. It’s now all recorded and mixed. It’ll be sent off in a package to be duplicated by next week (or whenever I get the artwork done). So this is a sneak peek for you.

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Only in America

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Songs About America Week

Since it was the Fourth of July on Sunday, this week is going to be songs all about the country the United States of America. The U.S.A. was established on July 4, I think. They don’t really teach those kind of things in school anymore, so I’m not sure.

Anyway. This week’s new song is called Only in America. I just wrote it tonight, about 30 minutes ago. I had no ideas this whole week. No songs written. I’ve been ferociously working on getting my 2 albums recorded and mixed. That’s my excuse. What’s yours.

Okay, so the song popped out in about 5 minutes or so because I was on deadline, I looked at the clock and it was about 10:15pm and I hadn’t picked up a guitar all weekend other than to play through a mistake-filled and drunken version of God Bless the USA and to install an under-saddle pickup in a guitar I’ll start using in Barehand Jugband shows. (On a side note, did you know that Woody Guthrie wrote This Land is Your Land in answer to God Bless the USA and that the original title and chrous was God Bless the USA for Me. I guess Woody didn’t like songs like God Bless the USA.)

So, I hadn’t played all weekend. Not since performing at the Gallery Cabaret open mike on Thursday. I played these songs: Brown-skinned Woman, I can’t help it, and I have no idea. I needed to try out some of my new songs (and still need to) because I’ve got some solo shows coming up in August. And I haven’t played a solo show in a real long time.

Okay. I wrote this song quick and got it done. I didn’t really know what I was going for. It kinda came out like a talkin’ blues song, which I used to write a lot of but don’t so much anymore. I was even just telling a close friend that I kinda worked my way through em and can’t write em anymore. Oh well. This song, though, is more of a talkin’ blues in the vein of Hank Williams, rather than Woody or, say, Bob Dylan. I’ll have to be honest that when a Hank Williams talkin’ blues song comes up on my radio I usually skip it. They’re really long and they’re usually about sitting by his dying mother’s bedside or about holdin his best gal close. But when I do listen to them I always really like them. He had a funny way of phrasing the lines and, regardless if he wrote them or not, a dry delivery that really emphasized the twist at the end of each verse.

That’s enough talkin’ though. Here’s the song. Hope ya like it. There’ll be more American songs, honoring America throughout the week. Here’s what America looks like on a map.

America, land of people who live there until someone bigger and badder comes along.

 

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Pray to Your Lord

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Blues Song Week

This isn’t necessarily a very old song. I wrote it back in January of this year and posted it as a new song. But it’s a really good example of a blues song, so I figured I just repeat it and ya’ll could hear it again.

It’s called Pray to your Lord. Probably this one could also be in the category of gospel tune, but only if you had a good sense of humor.

I patterned the guitar parts after a progression and melody that Blind Boy Fuller plays in a lot of his songs. Especially a song like “Step It Up and Go.” That’s a really great song. And a really great example of a blues song style. I truncated it a little, so I don’t know if Pray to Your Lord is officially in the blues style, but I also don’t know what the official blue style is, if there is one.

The words are completely made up in this one. It’s not one of those subtle blues songs about some guy getting his lemon squeezed or someone wiping it off. It’s about bending down and giving thanks to the Lord Almighty for what He has giving unto you.

Do you know how to pray to your lord?

 

Bless.

This song (probably) will appear on a full-length album that I just finished recording yesterday. The album will (most likely) feature about 13 cuts…two from about one year ago, one from about 2 years ago, and the rest from the last 6 months. So, if you went back and listened to all the tunes posted in 2010 so far, you’d have a good sense of what the album will be like. It’ll be a companion to the “It’s Chicago!” album I’ve also recorded. Both will come out on the same day. That is to say that I’ll receive both of them in a shipment from some giant CD producer on the same day. Anyway. I hope to have the CDs by August first.

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Post Nasal Drip Blues

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Blues Song Week

Here’s another of my blues songs. It’s called Post Nasal Drip Blues. It has the word blues in the title so it has to be a blues. It sounds a little more ramshackle than that to me though and I don’t think the pattern is really a blues song pattern, but oh well.

I wrote the song a long time ago…about 3 and a half years, back in the winter of 2007, probably in January or February. It’s one of the first songs I wrote. Or, at least, one of the first that I wrote that I felt was pretty good and could get behind singing and liked singing. And then I sung it into the ground, so I don’t sing it anymore. Probably haven’t for a year and a half or so. It hurts my throat to even think about sining a song that way.

Anyway. So I wrote this at the beginning. When I was first starting to go out and perform around the city. I was hitting a lot of open mikes then, in late 2006 through 2007. That’s how I kinda found out what to do up there all alone. I played a lot at the Grafton Pub open mike. That one is gone though. They don’t have it anymore. There’s other things on Monday nights now. Like Jonas Friddle’s Old Time and Jug Band jams. You should check those out.

Okay…the Post Nasal Drip Blues. I wrote it while sitting by the fireplace in the Grafton after downing a couple pints. It was one of those bad-cold, but still wet and sloppy winter nights in Chicago. I wrote the song in probably 3 minutes and then didn’t add or change anything. This recording is from December 2007 (so one year after I wrote it), but it’s still exactly as how I wrote it. It’s not any other melody. Nothing stolen. It’s just fast and choppin along. It’s gettin out of the cold quick and movin to a warm place somewhere.

One side note…I did suffer from post-nasal drip back during that winter and a doctor prescribed some sort of addictive nose spray that I have since discontinued using. Instead, I’ll, from time-to-time, use a neti pot to get that drip a-flowin and a-bubblin. Here’s what post-nasal drip looks like:

 

Diagram of post nasal drip.

See ya, friend.

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Southland Blues

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Blues Song Week

Okay…I know it’s late, but I don’t care…it’s still Monday, officially…so here’s the brand new song. It’s called Southland Blues. It’s in the key of A Major. I wrote it down in Starkville, Mississippi last Thursday. It was God-awful hot, at least to me and my sweat glands. I was just sitting outside, enjoying a beer, noodling around on the guitar box I had down there, and I just started singing this one. It’s not patterned after any song in particular. And I’m not even sure it’s officially a blues song, but I put the word “blues” in the title so that makes it a blues song.

Really, all my songs are blues, or most of them, probably…I’m not counting them up. This is how Blues Song Week is gonna go:

  1. I post a new song on Monday (today) and talk about it a little
  2. I post a song each day following Monday from my archive of recorded songs
  3. Maybe I’ll re-record one or two of those if I deem it necessary
  4. I’ll question whether each of these songs is a blues song or not
  5. I’ll then wait for your responses

So, is this one a blues song?