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Check out the Michael McDermott downloads available here
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620 W. Surf
$8.00
This was the one that started it all. For better or for worse this is the album that most people will remember me by. We recorded this album with Don Gehman( John Mellencamp, Hootie and the Blowfish) and Brian Koppelman in Los Angeles. I was a poofy haired kid who really hadn't a clue about how records were made. We recorded part of it at Captin and Tennille's studio and some at Dave Stewart's ( Eurythmics) house. Bruce Hornsby played some keys on it. Marcy Levy sang back up on it. Denny Fongheiser on drums. Jack Holder doing most everything else.....what an experience....this record is like your first love. I look back on it with fondness and smile when i think of those days.
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A Wall I Must Climb
[5:18]
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Fool's Avenue ( featuring Bruce Hornsby)
[4:55]
wrote this on a paper plate at 620 West Surf. It was on the floor of my apartment for a while....song kind of wrote itself.
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Shadow Of The Capitol
[4:18]
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No. 49
[3:33]
Amtrack has a train line to New York City that i would take from time to time. On one such trip i was coming home and i wrote this lyric in my room of the train. Didn't know what to call it.....saw my train ticket sitting on my bed....it read " No. 49 " THought.....that will work.
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Your Silence I Will Always Admire For Its Being
[9:58]
I had read Herman Hesse's book " Siddhartha" and for whatever reason that book was very present in my mind while writing this song. Not sure how it ended up being almost ten minutes long. If you listen closely you can hear me directing the band, " go to the bridge" is one and i think there is one at the end of the song " here we go " its muted in the main vocal but my guitar mic picked it up.
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Sacred Ground
[4:13]
This was written while we were recording the album. So it was a last minute addition. Written in Los Angeles, in a hotel room, feeling very isolated, lonely and missing my home.
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620 W. Surf
[3:21]
This was written just as an answering machine outgoing greeting. Something beautifully simplistic about it. I wasn't considering it for the album but Brian Koppelman insisted. And lo and behold it became the album title.
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Murder In The First Degree
[4:08]
I often say live that...." This is the first love song i ever wrote" which in part is true.i am fascinated by people that are pushed over the edge. What that breaking point is....and how they process their actions afterwards.
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Death In The Autumn Air
[4:30]
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Mr. Simmons Arkansas Christmas Blues
[3:36]
had read about this guy who killed his whole family and placed them under the Christmas tree. Not sure why i felt compelled to write about it
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Trembling Hour
[7:17]
This was the first song i had written where i thought....." i'm pretty good at this " It was an ambitious tune for someone as young as i was...maybe 17. I may resurrect this one for a show soon.
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Gethsemane
$8.00
Charlotte North Carolina was the site of this recording session. Produced by Don Dixon ( REM, Smithereens, Marshal Crenshaw) done in about 2-3 weeks. We had finished it and then i wrote " Nights Like These " and we went back to record that one. I think we thought it would be a hit. Great time of my life making this record. Hopeful, but yet very anxious, hence the name of the record. " Was originally titled " From Chicago To Gethsemane " but the record company hated that. Maybe not a great marketing idea to name it Gethsemane because the subsequent tours found me in many radio stations with Dj's barely able to pronounce it.
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Eden
[0:46]
this is a slowed down home demo that we reveresed,,...added some audio for a pornographic adult movie, and put some background voices.....seemed like a good idea at the time .....
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Just West Of Eden
[5:36]
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Moonlit Prayer
[4:40]
This song was written on tour for 620 W Surf and played pretty often on that tour. The original name of the girl was Suzie who was my real girlfriend at the time. We broke up and i started dating this beautiful model named Stephanie so i changed it. Sounds clumsy to me now when i hear it and regret changing it from Suzie.
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Need Some Surrender
[4:16]
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Leave It Up To The Angels
[5:02]
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Anything
[3:48]
This song was written for my father. He and my mother met at a water cooler at their work. She thought he looked like Tyrone Power. My dad used to fly small planes. He had pins up on a map on the wall of places he wanted to fly to. He then got too old to fly, always made me sad for him that he never got to fly to those places on the map.
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A Day Like Tomorrow
[4:30]
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Nights Like These
[4:02]
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Lantern
[5:16]
Written after the death of my dear friend Mike Jordan. Mike was killed in a car accident after his gig. I was devestated by his death and was the first person i knew who died suddenly. Unfortunately as you get older, death becomes more frequent. MIke had called me a few days before he died. I never returned his call. A regret i will live with all my days.
You know not the day nor the hour
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Somewhere
[6:29]
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Sailor
[5:02]
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The Idler, The Prophet And A Girl Called Rain
[9:00]
Trinity. It was the main idea. When they speak of the holy trinity, they talk about the father, the son and the holy spirit. An idea that always confounded me. I was then told of the analogy of , Water can be liquid. IF heated can become steam, if frozen it becomes ice. 3 different forms of the same H20. I think there is a little bit of a prophet, a bit of an idler and little bit of a person like Rain in all of us. Also, " Waiting For Godot " by Jean Paul Sartre was also dancing around in my head while writing this. Not sure if it had any effect on it....but my memory tells me it may have.
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Whiskey And Water
[5:08]
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Michael McDermott
$8.00
My last record on a major label. This was made over the course of 3 months down in Memphis Tennessee. made pretty much with just me and Joe Hardy. Was a great experiment, and i think might be the best collection of tunes i had. Was probably too ambitious of myself trying to do everything and that is probably my only regret. Did have Klem and Jack Carpender play on a little bit but was doing more stuff with loops and me banging on things. Hardy is a genius but i think i may have tied his hands a bit wanting to be a one man band. Wrote " Charlie Boy " during recording at the hotel i lived at for the entire stay. Until a crazy girl tried to burn it down with me in it ! Stephen King came down to memphis on that Halloween in 95 or 96? i remember we went to see a new movie called " Pulp Fiction" then to the Rendezvous for ribs. About 5 minutes after we sat down he had a line of ten people wanting autographs. Had never really hung out with a celebrity but that was certainly a night where i got a glimpse of what they go through on a daily basis.
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Bells
[5:31]
The first three songs on this album were actually written after the record was done. I had been down in Memphis for several months....we finished what we thought was the record and i went home to my folks house and in a few days i had written Bells, My Own Little World and Forever. So in what was becoming a bit of a pattern we headed back in to record these three because they HAD to be on the record. Written in Orland Park, Illinois
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My Own Little World
[4:46]
This was written for my friend Amy Koppelman. I had decided to write 10 songs in ten days....most turned out pretty lousy but this one was a keeper. If i recall correctly Amy said something to me on the phone that sparked this song. She was watching a lot of old movies at the time and her telling me about the movies and the characters in them, was like listening to stories about her friends.
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Forever
[5:39]
written at the end of a 7 year relationship
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Forgotten
[5:20]
This is in my top ten favorites of mine. I remember feeling i was entering some new terrain when i wrote this. Did this song on Conan O'Brien show. This one makes me proud. " You sketch your charcoal days with arms that move like you are drowning "
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Say Hey Charlie Boy
[6:24]
was spending a lot of time at the horse track around this time. Was reading William Kennedy's book " Bily Phelan's Greatest Game " and was alone in Memphis.....the stars had aligned for this song at the right time.
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Suzie's Got A Brand New Hat
[4:33]
This song had been around for about 5 years before i finally thought it was ready for record. Imagine that.....
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Summer Days
[4:34]
This was written for my friend Eileen Murphy. Her mother had just died and her father was sick and i talked to her from New York. Wrote the song in about ten minutes after we got off the phone....she was one of my best friends in high school....she was gonna be an actress,...i was gonna be a rock star...etc....sometimes life deal's you some hands you don't really wanna play.
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Deirdre Dances
[5:55]
I recently saw the real deirdre at a birthday party for a friend. It was a rainy Chicago day and i went to see my buddy play music for the Trinity Irish Dancers. Something struck me watching them....like watching a movie unfold in my head, while the rain fell...and Irish music echoed through Grant Park.
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Legendary
[5:22]
This song was used one year as the background music on NBC for the Kentucky Derby. How cool is that?
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Wounded
[6:17]
Its hard for me to even listen to this version of the song. Not sure what i was thinking.....
i do Wounded now live with just a piano.....its much better that way
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Come Around Mary
[5:17]
written in new york .....after spending the night prior in the village.....can't remember much else
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Its Killin Me
[4:32]
Stephen King plays that crazy guitar part at the beginning of the tune.....fun song....wish we had just gotten a live band and turned on the tape machine
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Bourbon Blue
$8.00
This record was recorded in Chicago. During a very dark time in my life personally. I spent the last of my own money to make this with Chris Shepard at CRC studios, with the exception of " Junkie Girl" which i did at my home studio. We tried doing it in the studio but it just never sounded as cool as my demo. I was pretty deep into drugs during this time so my recollections are pretty vague. " Rhythm of The River "" My Sweet Rapier" and " Lady Jack Of Irons" are my faves....just because i think they are representitive of what a dark world i was living in at the time, and its nice to look back on it and be grateful i'm still alive. Hallelujah !
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20 Miles South Of Nowhere (from Knockaround Guys)
[4:11]
I had had the title of this song for about 8 years before i wrote this version. I remember i had been in kind of a songwriting rut and this was a kind of return so to speak. I remember i came up with the line " Jimmy Moran and his one man band " at Calo on the Northside of Chicago. The rest kind of fell into place rather easily.
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My Sweet Rapier
[3:56]
Really like this song. Wanted to write a song that would have been written in the 1700's Ireland......Revenge song.....spooky.....really think we captured that with this recording.
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Jezebel
[3:26]
Had a great demo of this song which we weren't quite able to recapture. Not sure why. I think the recording of it and my dissatisfaction with it, made the song fall out of favor with me. Always wanted Christy Turlington to hear it. Now i'm married, so it doesn't matter anymore.
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Junkie Girl
[4:47]
Tried recording this while making the record but could just never get it to sound as cool as my home demo.....so this is the demo.....i think we may have added an acoustic guitar or something.....
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Hand Of The Hunter
[4:42]
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Murder On Her Lips
[4:42]
wrote this about a girl i met at cafe brazil....in new orleans. Know the owner of this bar named Adae....he introduced me to a gal that worked there.....wild weekend....things got weird....all i'm at liberty to say.
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Rhythm Of The River
[4:11]
written about a stripper in chicago, gal from my hometown, that turned down a dark path i'm not sure she ever really recovered from. I got out....not sure if she did.
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Days That Try Your Patience
[4:50]
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Lady Jack Of Irons
[5:27]
I had read about Jack of Irons in a crack house i was hanging out in. Jack of Irons was a ghost that haunted highways taking souls. I was feeling haunted myself. So i dreamt of a woman version of such a character. Odd tune.....but i like it
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When The Irish Were Kings Of New York
[6:05]
had to do a fair bit of research for this song. Was fun though. Never before or since had i written a historical piece. It felt a little like homework, which i was never much of a fan of however this was a satisfying experience.
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Morning Never Brings
[4:32]
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Ashes
$8.00
This was recorded in Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago. Dan Petty and Joe Hardy were masterful on this album. Mark Clark was instrumental in helping finish this record. Mike Malinin of the Goo Goo Dolls helped out. Jay Belrose (Beck). This is one of my favorite records. Covers a lot of terrain musically. A few of these songs still find their way into my set list nightly, which says a lot. " Dance With Me" made Stephen King's top downloads of the year for " Entertainment Weekly" and it was put in a movie called " Cherry Crush" In Houston we recorded at Foam Box which is Billy Gibbon's (ZZ TOP) studio. Billy's a funny guy. Took some money off me in a dice game. He has one of Jimi Hendrix's guitars, i saw it ....was pretty cool.
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Arm Yourself
[4:50]
My girlfriend Ashley had given me a sword with an inscription that read " Arm yourself with my love when darkness looms " was so beautiful i had to write a song about it.
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One Way To Go
[3:52]
This was mainly inspired by going to jail. There's a moment when you have lost your freedom and its a real frightening experience. I remember looking out of the glass of my cell and thinking how did it come to this? There was only one way to go......was time to get moving
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Hellfire In The Holyland
[3:46]
My friend Andy had invited me to go to Israel and i was planning on going but then there was a violent week and we decided not to take the trip. I thought if Jesus came back and walked around there what he would see, what would he think.....so that's what i did....write about it.
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Baby I
[4:14]
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Dance With Me
[5:14]
Always been at odds with this song. Though i think its my best selling song. I had written and recorded a demo but then my manager had heard it and was pretty insistent about recording it. I kinda don't get it. But people seem to like it so i'll trust they are right and keep my mouth shut.
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Hold Back A River
[4:11]
i had written this for a gal in Chicago, as a romantic gesture. It took her a week to get back to me after i dropped of the cassette at her building. And then after the week she said she hadn't made it all the way through the song but hoped to soon. We never spoke after that.
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Darkest Night Of All
[4:32]
Was driving back and forth to Minneapolis around this time and kept seeing a city called " Black River Falls" and one day i pulled into town. Walked around went into some shops.,...a museum of the town, talked to folks. just to get a feel for it. I hope it comes across in the song. Seemed like there were a lot of stories in the borders of that town. Maybe i'll go back again, and find some more.
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Grace Of God
[3:19]
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Everything I Got
[5:04]
Written and given to Ashley to try and convey certain things i couldn't say when we broke up after 4 years.
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Sword Of Damocles
[3:57]
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Gonna Be Good
[3:28]
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Can't Sleep Tonight
[3:45]
i often forget about this song. I remember being really proud of it when i wrote it. Was a staple of shows for years. Don't think i've played it in several years. Something to revisit i think . Wasnt' getting much sleep during this point in my life.
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Around The World
[4:26]
I remember thinking i was stealing a Fats Domino song with the melody. I hadn't and was greatly relieved by that. This one still holds up. Think i got the idea when i was in Paris, France, but then wrote the rest of it when i came home.
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Noise From Words
$10.00
I recorded an entire record in Brian Wilson's studio in Los Angeles, well Santa Monica technically. After finishing it i knew i hadn't made a great record. I went back to Chicago and with Bobby O'Mullan's help we recorded another batch of tunes, pretty stripped down, pretty bare boned and we put the took the best stuff from the LA stuff and the best of the Chicago stuff and put them together. In that in-between period i wrote " Still Ain't Over You Yet" which Dan Navarro of Lowen and Navarro had said , " you HAVE to record that song, its one of the best songs i've EVER heard " My dear friend Joe Cassidy produced that for me in his house.
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Mess Of Things
[3:09]
This was a song i really didn't think much of, I'd actually written another song that i liked better that was on a disc and when i was playing it for friends.....this one came on after the song i was originally playing for people and when they heard the opening riff of the song they would say....." what song is that?? Let it play " and this happened quite a bit . People really reacted to this song, so i figured ......maybe they're right.....i think they were.
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Still Ain't Over You Yet
[5:33]
I had sent this song to heather to learn and she had written me and said " You're Evil " i happened to mention that to my mom....but it failed to translate and she replied " You're not evil !" i explained to her that it was a compliment, which still failed to translate. This is a song i'll pretty much do every night i play for as long as i can sing. I'm takin' this one with me when i go too.
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Tread Lightly
[3:27]
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The American In Me
[3:27]
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A Kind Of Love Song
[3:36]
THis is a fairly old song. I think it was written before " Ashes" Can't recall why it reappeared. I'm glad it did. I had won a raffle for free studio time....so one snowy afternoon i went in and recorded and mixed it in 3 hours. Kinda feels cold and lonely this recording.
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No Words
[3:15]
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All My Love
[3:40]
This was written with Dan Petty and Michelle Lewis for a Diane Keaton movie. They turned it down but i still really like the song.
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Just A Little Blue
[2:58]
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Broken
[4:38]
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A Long Way From Heaven
[4:00]
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My Father's Son
[4:43]
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I Shall Be Healed
[4:24]
This was written after a three day bender....hadn't any sleep, was almost completely out of my mind. Staggered by a church ....went in.....knelt in a small chapel , was alone...strung out. Looking up at the crucifix i just kept repeating " Say the word, and i shall be healed, say the word and i shall be healed,....i felt it....i was crying, i felt less alone, i felt the spirit, i wrote a song about Jesus, and how He appears and disappears in and out of my life, seemingly like a ghost at times, like a shadow on the street....He's always around....but sometimes it doesn't feel like it.....
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Hey La Hey
$10.00
This was recorded in Nashville with Lex Price, who did a masterful job with Roger Montenot and Lij Shaw who engineered the album. Lex put together a ridiculously good band and we knocked this one out in about 2 weeks if my memory serves me correctly. We had originally not recorded " So Am I " as an uptempo tune but rather just had the ballad. I felt that the album was missing that element that was evoked by " So Am I " as a toe tapper. We reassembled the guys, and knocked it out in a few hours. I'm relieved we have it and that it starts the album. The last two songs written for the record just a few days before we started the record was " Hey La Hey" and " Carry Your Cross" can't imagine this record without those two.
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So Am I
[3:50]
Don't have much of a recollection of when or even where i wrote this. Certain songs are like that, they just kind of appear. This was the second version of this song that we recorded. We had finished the record with the other version but felt something was missing. So we recut this one and now its hard to imagine the record without it.
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Hard To Break
[4:00]
Originally i was going to have a woman sing the verse and i was going to sing the chorus. Kate York was a friend of Lex's . She came in and in about 40 minutes she had a finished vocal. It was so good we just had her sing the whole thing. Its a song that was a farewell song to drugs in fact, hidden in the coat of a love song. That is why i wanted another voice to be the voice of that which we love that is harmful to you. Any kind of addiction really.
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I Wanna Know Why
[3:38]
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Great American Novel
[4:18]
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Room 411
[3:39]
i think i had kind of written this song a few times....Ridin the Spare is one where i was trying to paint a picture of a guy that keeps going town to town, chasing something....a love, a score, is he seeking something, is he fleeing something....is it a woman? is she even real. I think this song got it right.
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The Year It All Went Wrong
[4:33]
This song came pretty quick.. I had a very strange night in Memphis, strange gig, strange conversations, a lot of driving around., a lot of ghosts in that town for me. Ended up losing a grand that night.....most of these things in this song actually happened. Cept' the gun part....but was in a bar in reno where two brothers were shot and killed a few weeks before i was there.
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Hey La Hey
[3:36]
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Dream Come True
[3:47]
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The Ballad Of Johnny Diversey
[4:33]
my father used to park cars on clark and diversey. An intersection in chicago. They called him Johnny Diversey. When he told me that story i knew at some point. Johnny Diversey was going to make an appearance in a song.
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Carry Your Cross
[4:30]
Seems like i should say something about this song. But i think the song kind of says it all. Its a song i'm really proud of. Was a lot harder to get a good version of this than i thought. Quite happy with how it turned out. I hope this song is around long after i'm gone.
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So Am I *Bonus Track (Nashville Version)
[4:49]
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$0.99
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