1. Better This Way
I wrote “Better This Way” in the afternoon of a bright sunny
day with the curtains wide open and a lot of sunlight shining in my piano room.
Ironically, it’s the only song I’ve ever written that made me cry while I was
writing it.
“Better This Way” is a country waltz, and the piano
introduction reminds me of something that Floyd Cramer might play. Back in the
70’s the IRS auctioned some of Jerry Lee Lewis’s belongings to offset his
outstanding tax debt, and my Daddy was highest bidder on his confiscated home
stereo. So, I used to listen to Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date” on a record player
that once to belonged to Jerry Lee Lewis! I was just a wide-eyed piano student,
but I remember how magical it felt listening to Floyd on Jerry Lee’s stereo and
wanting to grow up to be a great piano player just like both of them are.
2. Everybody Already Knows
Secrets are hard to keep in a small town. Everybody knows
everybody, and gossip is a favorite pastime. During a brief love affair years
ago, I hid my affections publicly, yet after only a couple of clandestine
weeks, my secret romance was the talk of the town. To save my reputation
serious damage, good friend and local bluesman Lil’ Bill Wallace whispered into
my ear, “Baby, you’re messing up.” ‘Baby you’re messing up’ was his way of
telling me that I was being foolish, and he was right. My behavior was foolish,
and I abruptly ended the affair. “Everybody Already Knows” is a lighthearted
recollection of romance and rumor in a small town and is inspired by the keen
wisdom of the late Lil’ Bill.
3. Jigsaw Heart
Lots of songs mention broken hearts. My sister Bronwynne’s
“Heartbreaker” asks the name of the game the heartbreaker plays, and my other
sister Jessica’s “Broken Heart” asks “How many pieces does one broken heart
make?” Counting all the pieces of a heart broken in sport was visual and
memorable, and I borrowed that idea from both of them when I started writing
“Jigsaw Heart.”
In my whole life, I’ve never completed a jigsaw puzzle
because every time I tried, some of the pieces were lost or missing. I enjoyed
poetically comparing pieces of a broken heart with pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I
particularly liked juxtaposing the two title words together, “heart” because it
is emotional and “jigsaw” not only because it is intellectual but because it
describes both the puzzle variety and the tool that cuts the whole into pieces.
I liked the aural and visual collision of the two words, jigsaw and heart.
It took some trial and error to harmonize the initial 4-bar
piano motif that recurs throughout the song. I’ve developed it more completely
since the recording, and it will continue to develop as the song matures. The
riff reminds me of the piano vamp in “South Africa,” but in “Jigsaw Heart” the
texture of Dan Dugmore’s pedal steel hangs over the piano part in a beautiful
but haunting way. Incidentally, Dan did some great playing on my sister
Jessica’s album “Deerskin Jacket” about ten years ago. He sure gets around a
lot. Or maybe it just runs in our family!
4. Opportunity
Other than Joan Armatrading’s original, the only recording
I’ve got of “Opportunity” is a solo rendition by Bobby McFerrin. Both are
terrific. The lyric delivers a powerful hard-luck story that plays like a movie
in the mind, like reading a great short story can do. For this song, I recorded
Wurlitzer piano with vibrato for the very first time ever, and it underscores
the lyric with a slightly seedy, ghetto mood. Two of the McCrary Sisters, Ann
and Regina sang groovy background vocals, and Regina played mean tambourine.
I’m pleased with the way it turned out, especially after being a fan of the
song for more than thirty years.
5. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
The first time I heard composer Billy Taylor perform “I Wish
I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” was at a Delta Blues Week concert in the
early '90s. Boogaloo and I were the opening act. The song was an uplifting hit
with the audience that night, and eventually led me to Nina Simone’s melancholy
recording. I hadn’t planned to record it myself until we were a couple of days
into tracking Jigsaw Heart. At one point during the session, I got too far
inside my own head, second-guessing myself and my instincts, and walked outside
to take a break. Wishing I could
just let go and enjoy the studio session as much as I love playing for live
audiences, I started saying to myself, “Why can’t I be free? I wish I could be
free.” Then it came to me. “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.” The
mere thought of the song made me smile, and so I decided to record it.
6. The Last Time
“The Last Time” recalls one of my last visits with friend
and musician George Allen who died in a fatal car accident a few years ago.
Although I recorded the song on piano, I actually wrote it on guitar without
thinking about chord progressions or theory like I do when I’m writing at the
piano. Writing on guitar is frustrating because of my limitations but
liberating since I barely know what I’m doing. It frees the creative process to
just make music without over thinking it.
7. Panther Burn
I recorded Jimmy Phillips’s “Fried Chicken” for Mississippi
Number One, and he also wrote “Panther
Burn.” Whether Jimmy is in town or not, his songs are always on the set list at
Delta get-togethers (which invariably turn into living room jam sessions)
because he writes about the Delta. Around here, everybody with a guitar knows
how to play his songs, and everybody without a guitar knows all the words. So
I’ve performed “Panther Burn” in living rooms and on stages for years. This was
the warm-up song at the recording session, and it’s such a great song, I
decided to keep it. The groove is a straight-ahead rock beat, and Colin plays
perhaps his best guitar solo of the whole album on this one.
8. Let’s Go Ahead And Fall In Love
During preparation for the recording, my sweetheart asked me
if I had written a song for him yet. I hadn’t so I answered “no,” but his mild
disappointment gave me the idea for “Let’s Go Ahead And Fall In Love.” It’s a
risqué blues with predicable melody and chord progression, and I borrowed
classic blues double entendres that are the song’s joy. On a live album Delta
bluesman James Son Thomas introduces “Catfish Blues” by instructing the
audience to “listen to the verses. Don’t listen to the music. Listen at what
I’m saying.” With that in mind I had so much fun jotting down classic, sexy
blues to consider referencing in the song. By the end I had coined a few new
“classics” myself like “bring a little spackling, you can fill my hole!”
9. Tendin’ To A Broken Heart
For Ain’t Got No Troubles I recorded “Beyond My Broken Dreams,” a song co-written by my
Mississippi friend Tommy Polk who is a prolific songwriter with all sorts of
credits. He wrote “Tendin’ To A Broken Heart” with Nashville songstress Joanna
Cotten and the keyboardist Johnny Neel whom I’ve met a few times before. (The
first time I met Johnny was with Boogaloo in Clarksdale.) I wanted to record
one of Tommy’s tunes on this album, and I chose this one because it fit the
“jigsaw heart” theme of the album, and it’s beautifully crafted. It’s easy to
identify a song written by professional writers because you can hear the
craftsmanship in every single line.
10. Locomotive
Daddy went to hear Johnny Cash in 1956 when “Folsom Prison
Blues” was a hit on the radio. Arriving early to the show, Daddy walked up to a
fellow and said, “Hey, man. I heard Johnny Cash was going to play here
tonight.” That fellow looked straight at Daddy and said, “That’s me.”
Immediately Daddy requested his favorite “Folsom Prison Blues.” Johnny Cash
dedicated it to him during the show, and I’ve been singing it with Daddy ever
since I can remember. “Locomotive” has the same country two-step rhythm with a
strong backbeat. It’s the kind of song that’s a lot of fun to drive but hard to
stop without a good plan, which is why we faded the ending. It’s like trying to
stop a runaway freight train or a high-spirited, half-crazy woman who runs over
you and keeps going.
11. Get The Hell Out Of Dodge
Mike Powers at Yellow Dog Records introduced me to Toni
Price singing “Get The Hell Out Of Dodge.” Writing about a romantic break-up as
if it’s an old western shoot-out is wildly clever. What imagination! So
long, partner. This town just ain’t big enough for the both of us. The comparison is hilarious, and the western imagery
is perfect. Words like showdown, ricochet, lonesome dove and swinging doors all
make this a delightful masterpiece, and a perfect moment of levity for the
album.
12. Valentine
When we recorded producer Colin Linden’s “Valentine,”
(co-written with Tom Hambridge) Colin and I were standing next to each other in
the studio with only a microphone between us, very intimate and totally
exposed. I can’t remember if we did one take or two, but the performance was so
honest that when we finished, I was crying. The lyrics are simple and Colin
chose a delicate arrangement of only guitar, bass, string section and voice.
This treatment allows the beauty of the song to reveal itself rather than creating
a grandiose frame to display the song.
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