Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded March 27-29, 2016; Mixed March 30, 2016.

Genesis: When I was learning guitar in the late 1960s I was drawn to country music artists like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and Buck Owens. I had heard a few Hank Williams songs over the years but was unaware of singers from the 1940s and 1950s. When I came home on leave from basic training in December 1971, I saw the movie The Last Picture Show. It is a powerful movie on many levels, including the soundtrack. Set during the Korean War, the film is filled with songs by Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Lefty Frizzell, Pee Wee King, and others of that era. Then in 1972, Haggard released an album of songs made famous by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Western swing grabbed me with its driving swing beat and jazzy fiddle, electric guitar, and steel guitar playing.

Cut to 1977. I read a biography of the crime novelist Raymond Chandler by Frank MacShane. McShane appended to the text a list of unused titles that Chandler had recorded over the years. I came across “Once in Awhile Forever” and knew I had to write a song with it. Somehow in March and April of 1978 I decided to write the song as a tribute to Hank Williams. (A few years ago I used the bridge in another song, Something Borrowed, Something Blue….)

An early recording with two friends sounded like an old timey string band.   This version shifts the feel to country swing along the lines of the music made by today’s Time Jumpers band (including Vince Gill) in Nashville.

Production: Acoustic Bass, Electric Guitar, Steel Guitar, Fiddle, and Drums.

Lyrics

Once In Awhile Forever

I remember more

Than you forgot

You came loose

When we tied the knot

Often times never

Once in awhile forever

 

I asked for loving

And I had my rights

You said no Daddy

Not tonight

Often times never

Once in awhile forever

 

Bridge:

Half of the time I’m falling apart

The other half’s just a blur

I’m tired of singing these lovesick blues

But I can’t seem to find the cure

 

Now love goes up

And loves goes down

Mostly love

Don’t come around

Often times never

Once in awhile forever

Bridge

I remember more

Than you forgot

You came loose

When we tied the knot

Often times never

Once in awhile forever

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved

 

Recording and Mixing Dates: September 26, 2010 and March 23, 2016. Mixed March 23, 2016.

 

Genesis: I came up with the music in 1974 when I moved a simple chord position on the second fret of the guitar to the fifth fret. The progression became the core of the verse music. I then added a simple three-chord progression for the refrain.

I wrote the lyrics in 1975. I am not sure at this point where they came from. They suggest at first glance someone who is in the midst of a bad drug trip, but I know that is not what I was consciously going for at the time. Today, the lyrics make me think of a person who is caught up in an intense situation and realizes there is no way to exit it safely. The night sky imagery plays into the song’s title.

The proper arrangement of the song has bedeviled me for decades. It started out as a solo guitar arrangement, then moved on to two acoustic guitars. Six years ago I worked up a heavy rock arrangement with blasting electric guitars. I finally settled on an acoustic arrangement that features a clawhammer banjo in the background and a fiddle for the solo sections.

Production: Acoustic Bass, Drums, Acoustic Guitars, Banjo, and Fiddle.

Lyrics

Can’t Come Down

Night has come to surround me

It holds me tight and warm

For I have been out traveling

High and mighty in the storm

REFRAIN:

I can’t come down

I’ve come this far to learn

I can’t come down

There is no safe return

 

Once pale in dim reflection

The stars erupt to show

Points of fiery crimson

Hearts of white-hot snow

REFRAIN

 

Arching lines of fire

Carom off the sky

Ablaze in one great fever

They twist and lunge and die

REFRAIN

 

Cut off from all behind me

I take the path towards light

It leads me close to morning

Then bends back to the night

REFRAIN

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded January 17, 18, and February 15, 2010. Mixed March 15, 2016.

 

 

Genesis: In 1993 I read Alan Lomax’s book, The Land Where the Blues Began. Lomax chronicled his field recordings in the Deep South. Somewhere inside that book a bluesman stated that when he made up his blues songs he was “dreaming out loud.” I wrote that phrase in my bedside notebook and on January 27, 1994 I wrote the first draft of this song. I revised the lyrics February 14, 1994, August 7, 2007, and January 10, 2010.

The song contains some autobiographical details along with imagined moments. Songwriting came hard for me. I tried writing songs in college and got nowhere. I didn’t write my first “good” song until 1972, when I was in Saigon. (In retrospect, the song isn’t much but it does have a hook.)  During law school more songs came out of me. Once I connected with Theresa, she became my muse. Some forty years later I am still awed by the workings of the mind. There is a blank piece of paper (or a blank word processing screen) one moment and minutes or hours later, there is something new to the world. To pick up a guitar and aimlessly strum chords and THEN find a melody coming to life, that is amazing. My life truly changed when I began dreaming out loud.

Production: Bass guitar, drums, electric 12-string guitars, organ.

 Lyrics

DREAMING OUT LOUD

He picked up the wood and wire

And tried to make it sing.

He got muffled squeaks and buzzes

And teenage blood on the strings

But he kept on pressing the flesh

Till mind and muscle began to mesh

Then he closed his eyes

Then he closed his eyes

Then he closed his eyes

And turned to a phantom crowd

He committed himself

To Dreaming Out Loud

 

He listened to long-dead bluesmen

And learned to play along

He wrote love songs for his girlfriend

But he knew something was wrong

So he tore up and twisted a phrase

Threaded words through a porcupine maze.

Then he closed his eyes

Then he closed his eyes

Then he closed his eyes

And danced with a distant cloud

He knew that he’d started

Dreaming Out Loud

 

BRIDGE:

Dreaming Out Loud

Revealing your self

Dancing on the high wire

Dreaming Out Loud

Words tumble down

Mind and tongue on fire

 

He keeps a small blue notebook

That he fills with titles and lines

When the spirit comes he hears a hum

Sound and rhythm meet in his mind

He never knows where it will lead

Wild horses in a mad stampede

He just closes his eyes

He just closes his eyes

He just closes his eyes

And sings to a face in the crowd

He’s a million miles away

Dreaming Out Loud

BRIDGE

When he picks up the wood and wire

His hands know where to go

He can make it cry, he can make it moan

Make it whisper soft and low

With the tools and tricks of the trade

Secret tunings and licks that he’s made

But when he closes his eyes

When he closes his eyes

When he closes his eyes

And turns to the waiting crowd

It’s like the first time he tried

Dreaming Out Loud

It’s like the first time he tried

Dreaming Out Loud

 

January 27, 1994

Revised February 14, 1994

Revised August 7, 2007

Revised January 2010

© 2016 by Fred Grittner  All Rights Reserved

 

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded July 17 and September 30, 2010. Mixed March 5, 2016.

 

Genesis: I wrote the music and lyrics on June 23, 1992. I revised the lyrics a week later and did so again in July 1998. The song originally had eight verses. I attempted a recording in 2002 but set it aside. I revised the lyrics on March 23, 2006, cutting the song down to four and one/half verses and adding the “I can feel it” section.

I decided to release the song this week because of the current state of American politics. Congressional gridlock, embarrassing presidential debates, crazy social media, and the sad state of the news media leave me shaking my head. Most of the words to this song were written almost 24 years ago (I did add a few lines during the G.W. Bush administration…), so I can’t pretend things were rosy then. However, I sense that something’s going to give this year.

Production: Bass guitar, drums, electric guitars, organ.

 Lyrics

SOMETHING’S GONNA GIVE

Something’s gonna give

I can feel it in my bones.

Something’s gonna give

Truth won’t need a chaperone

The movers and shakers

Have pulled up lame

From overexertion

In shifting the blame

Something’s gonna give

I can feel in my bones

 

Something’s gonna give

Ugly rumors are in play.

Something’s gonna give

Silent tongues will have their say

Hear that pressure cooker

Way down the line

The fire’s getting hotter

We haven’t got much time

Something’s gonna give

I can feel it in my bones

 

Something’s gonna give

No need to be misled.

Something’s gonna give

Keep the fear out of your head

They’re leaking propaganda

On the ship of state

The captain’s looking shaky

He can’t keep things straight

Something’s gonna give

I can feel it in my bones

 

Something’s gonna give

There’s no hope without belief

Something’s gonna give

Is that a flag or a bloody handkerchief?

The rising tide of justice

Moves through the night

Past the told-you-so prophets

And the talk show lights

Something’s gonna give

I can feel it in my bones

 

I might not know the minute

When the winds begin to shift

I feel the planet moving

The fog is bound to lift

Something’s gonna give

I can feel it in my bones.

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner. All Rights Reserved.

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded April 29, 2015 and September 2015. Mixed February 27, 2016.

 

Genesis: I wrote the lyrics on July 7, 2009. The lines “Some of you are bumblebees, Saving up your stings” had come into my head a week or two before that day. It was an unusual writing session, as I had no idea where the song might take me.

The lyric lay dormant on my computer’s hard drive, as I could not find the right music. Then, in October 2014, I came up with a melody and chord changes that matched the words well.

I always knew the song should take on a bluegrass sound. Luckily, my dear friend and musical collaborator, John August Lee (see photo above), agreed to arrange, play, and sing on the recording. In May 2015 I sent him my vocal and mandolin tracks, along with some placeholder guitar and bass parts. On September 24 he sent me his tracks. John played two banjo parts, a flatpicked guitar part that includes a stunning solo, a bass guitar part, and two harmony vocal parts. I think you will admire his arrangement and recordings as much as I do. If you like what you hear, check out our China Sky album. John’s musical fingerprints are all over this fine album:

 

Production: As mentioned above, bass guitar, banjo, acoustic guitar, and mandolin.

Lyrics

Sometimes I work for money

Sometimes I work for show

Sometimes I work to cure myself

And try to save my soul

I’m a restless dreamer

I am not a detail man

The things we have in common

I rarely understand.

Sure do wonder

Sure do wonder

Sure do wonder why

 

They say I punched her ticket

They say I paid her dues

They say I went and turned my back

On all her threadbare blues

She always had a backup

She always had an out

She double-crossed her two-timed man

Of that I have no doubt

Sure do wonder

Sure do wonder

Sure do wonder why

 

Some of you are wizards

Some of you are kings

Some of you are bumblebees

Saving up your stings

 

Canaries in the coalmine

Drop their wings and sigh

They sure could use the sweet spring air

That waits for them outside

I couldn’t tell the difference

Between her hopes and fears

What went wrong, so deathly wrong?

In her tender years

Sure do wonder

Sure do wonder

Sure do wonder why

 

Some of you are wizards

Some of you are kings

Some of you are bumblebees

Saving up your stings

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded March 31-April 4, 2015. Mixed February 23, 2016.

 

Genesis: I came up with the tune and title refrain on October 12, 2012. Some of the verses came to me later that month while walking. There are times when the rhythm of a song matches my stride and words come more easily. The first verse is based on the oil trains that ship North Dakota and Canadian crude oil to refineries in the east. Concerns had been raised about derailments of these trains and the carnage that would result. These concerns were confirmed on July 6, 2013 in the Canadian town of Lac Megantic. A 74-car oil train rolled down a hill and exploded, decimating the town and killing 47 people.

The other verses are more open-ended.

Production: Bass guitar, drums, Dobro, acoustic guitars, banjo guitar. Thanks to Don Arney for suggesting the Dobro.

Lyrics

NOT GOING DOWN THERE NO MORE

Oil train tore through this town

Blew it up burned it down

We’re all back to common ground

Not going down there no more

Not going down there no more

I’ve persevered in all I tried

Fought my way to the sunny side

Got sent back when the engine died

Not going down there no more

Not going down there no more

Some grab their blues off the rack

Got mine custom all in black

Turned some heads at the sugar shack

Not going down there no more

Not going down there no more

The dice went cold

The deal went down

Fingers pointed all around

Pony up

Clean the slate

When knives are drawn

Time won’t wait.

Rough justice in the park

Bad assassins missed their mark

It’s all over when the screen goes dark

Not going down there no more

Not going down there no more

Whiskey-soaked, stale cigars

Star and stripes, stars and bars

Watching wounds turn into scars

Not going down there no more

Not going down there no more

Not going down there no more

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded February 16 & 17. Mixed February 18, 2016.

Genesis: This recording is a birthday present for my wife, Theresa Lippert, who was born on February 19. Theresa has been the inspiration for many of my songs and is my biggest supporter. She loves this song, so I decided to give it a whirl this week.

Every few years the cottonwood trees in our neighborhood release their seeds in cottony strands. The wind blows them here and there, covering our yards like a dusting of snow. I jotted down the title “Cottonwood Dreams” in the early 2000s. On July 1, 2009 I found some facts about cottonwood trees on the Internet and wrote the lyrics in one sitting. I could not find music to fit the words, so six years ago yesterday I sent the lyrics to my friend Tom Ryan, asking if he could come up with a tune.

Tom stunned me when he emailed an mp3 the next day. He created an evocative melody but he also produced a beautiful arrangement that included acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, and a harmony vocal. (A link to his recording can be found below.)   AND he tightened up the lyrics.

My arrangement is totally acoustic and it has a folky swing feel to it. The mandolin lick that serves as the instrumental glue to the song came to me out of the blue. I harmonized it with another mandolin part higher up the neck.

Production: Acoustic bass, acoustic guitars, ukulele, and mandolin.

Tom Ryan Version

Lyrics

Cottonwood Dreams

Cottonwood snow

On the grass in my yard

Can’t rake it up

It’s much too hard

Have to be calm

Wait for the day

When the rains come down

Melt it away.

CHORUS

Cottonwood Dreams

Blowing over the plains

Pushed by tornadoes

And midsummer rains.

Cottonwood blows

All over the land

From the great North Woods

To the Rio Grande

They live till a hundred

Go 60 feet high

Suck out the water

Till the wells run dry

Cottonwood lumber

It’s cheap and it’s coarse

Like a lover’s apology

No remorse

CHORUS

When the wind rustles

Those cottonwood leaves

The humming bird listens

The mockingbird grieves

I’ve made resolutions

Hatched crazy schemes

They’ve all blown away

With my cottonwood dreams

Cottonwood seeds

On the soles of my boots

Planting new trees

Yes, I’m in cahoots

Old Mother Nature

Sure has her ways

She’s like a good coach

Everyone plays

CHORUS

Copyright 2010 Fred Grittner and Tom Ryan All Rights Reserved

 

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded February 9, 2016. Mixed February 11, 2016.

 Genesis: Sometime in 2003 or 2004 the phrase “Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring” popped into my head. In retrospect, this should not be surprising, because hundreds, if not thousands, of songwriters have written songs about Memphis. One website states that over 800 songs with the word Memphis in them have been commercially recorded. W. C. Handy, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Tom T. Hall, Jesse Winchester, and John Hiatt have written songs with the city in the title, while Johnny Cash and others have referred to Memphis in their songs.

In July 2009 I sat down and tried to write a song using my phrase as the title. I wanted to put together lyrics that were crafted along the lines of songs by Rodney Crowell and Guy Clark. Within a few days I figured out a story about a guy who is pitching a friend a tale about some new invention, musical or otherwise, that he was on the verge of releasing to the world. Who knows if the fellow is legit or simply a con man looking for a mark? I referenced Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the last verse. I had read Peter Guralnick’s two-volume biography of Elvis, which revealed that Parker gave himself the military title and was, all in all, a very seedy character. The listener will have to decide just why the singer wants his friend to assume a similar role.

I had a harder time finding the right music for the lyrics. I came up with a chord progression but changed it in November 2013 when I revised the lyrics. In my mind I could hear the voice of Jesse Winchester singing the tune. I tinkered with a few lines this week before and during the vocal recording session. I am very happy with how it turned out. I send this song out in memory of Jesse Winchester.

Production: bass guitar, drums, electric guitars. I had a blast playing my Fender Telecaster on this tune. It has been a long time since I knocked out an electric guitar solo that I liked.

 Lyrics

Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring

I know you’ve heard the rumors

Dismissed them out of hand

You think you’ve got the answers

But I have got the plan

It’ll turn their heads on Beale Street

It’ll set the world on fire

You can come along my friend

If you so desire

You must clear your mind of all these petty things

Cause it’s Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring

I’ve worked on this all winter

It’s just about to gel

I can’t spell out all the details

For only time will tell

Don’t need a fortuneteller

Don’t need to count the stars

I can feel it’s going to happen

I’ve got lightning in a jar

You must let go of all your apron strings

Cause it’s Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring

It’s not Elvis it’s not Handy

I’m not looking to the past

I have got a great idea

That will take me there real fast

Sometimes you see a light bulb

Sometimes you hear a thud

But I finally made my breakthrough

In the Mississippi mud

You must loosen up your tightly wound purse strings

Cause it’s Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring

It’s coming out of Memphis

I’m not talking through my hat

When you see what I’ve come up with

You’ll ask, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

Colonel Parker was a barker

For a string of carny shows

He sure could speak the language

From his head down to his toes

Sometimes he was just puffing

Sometimes he was for real

He might drive them to distraction

But he always closed the deal

You can do for me what he did for the King

Yes, it’s Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring

Coming Out of Memphis

Coming Out of Memphis

Coming Out of Memphis in the Spring

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved

 

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded February 2, 2016. Mixed February 3, 2016.

Genesis: In February 2008, I joined an Internet songwriting community entitled February Album Writing Month (FAWM). The website is fawm.org. FAWM started in 2004, with the goal of having participants write 14 songs in 28 days. Several thousand songwriters now participate—they write songs, post them at the website, and share their triumphs and travails in a forum. I heard about FAWM in 2007 and collected song ideas—musical, lyrical, quotations (more on that later), etc.—for several months. Because 2008 was a leap year, the goal was 15 new songs.

Though I was juggling my court administrator job along with teaching a law school class one night a week and meeting a freelance legal writing deadline, I relished the challenge. This type of creative pressure does focus the mind. By the end of February I was closing in on meeting the goal. I originally thought of a song entitled Red Ribbon Night. The previous fall, Glen Heffner and his then-wife Kathy, joined Theresa and me for a getaway on the North Shore of Lake Superior. They were from North Carolina and were stunned by the beauty of the shoreline. Glen is a music industry marketing executive. At the time his company was releasing some great microphones. As a thank you gift, he brought an Avantone ribbon microphone that had a red housing. I call it my red ribbon. I thought “Red Ribbon Night” was a great title.

Until I started working on the song… It quickly turned into “Red River Night” for several reasons. There are two Red Rivers in the United States. The one in Texas is known for cowboys and cattle through Howard Hawks’ film Red River. The other Red River flows north through Minnesota and the Dakotas into Canada. It passes through Fargo, North Dakota (you betcha!) and the city on the Minnesota side, Moorhead. I was familiar with those cities and placed the person singing the lyric there, though someone in the Southwest could easily do the same for the Texas river.

I thought of a person who is rescued from deep personal torment by a kind stranger who appears out of nowhere and then quickly returns into the ether. The song is a “thank you” letter to an angel, someone who came upon a lost soul and put that person back on the right track.

The “parlor songs” written by Jimmy Rodgers in the 1930s inspired the music. Rodgers was the first great country recording artist. I didn’t know about him until I bought a Merle Haggard double-album of Rodgers songs in May 1969 called Same Train, Different Time. OMG. Merle’s voice, Merle’s band (supplemented with James Burton on Dobro), and Rodgers’ songs knocked me over. Most of the songs are bluesy country tunes but Rodgers co-wrote or covered some ballads, “parlor tunes,” that include “Miss the Mississippi and You” and “My Carolina Sunshine Girl.” They are sentimental and heart tugging. I can hear in this country waltz echoes of those tunes.

I finished the first draft of the song on February 26, 2008. I revised the lyrics on February 8, 2010. Yesterday, Theresa suggested one word change that was perfect, so I re-recorded that word into the track.

And I DID write 15 songs that February.  Some of you have have heard “Down Old Bailey Road” and “Everything’s a Drum” on my subsequent albums.

 Production: Bass guitar, drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, organ, and fiddle.

 Lyrics

 RED RIVER NIGHT

Lost and downhearted

I was making the rounds

Near the banks of the river

Where the Red comes aground

Turning a corner I saw you pass by

‘Neath a strawberry moon in an October sky

You smiled right out of the blue

On that Red River night with you

 

We talked over coffee

A strange thing occurred

You listened so purely

You took in each word

I swear that you knew me before I was born

You patched up a heart so cold and shopworn

You gave me a new point of view

On that Red River night with you

 

BRIDGE

In the starlight

In the moonlight

Every thought that you shared has come true

Since that Red River night with you

 

We only had hours

We did not have days

We used every moment

Till the parting of ways

I wanted to hold you and not let you go

Would you have stayed? Well, I’ll never know

With a smile you whispered “adieu”

On that Red River night with you

 

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved

 

Recording and Mixing Dates: Recorded January 26, 2016. Mixed January 27, 2016

Genesis: This is a tough one to recall. My typed lyric sheet is dated July 2005. I believe I wrote the lyrics very soon after I came up with the music. I started arranging a demo version in September 2005 and played it once in 2006 for some family and friends. Then I filed it away, probably because it is a dark and melancholic song.  I have found it hard to share songs like this one. So no better time than now to send it on its way.

I believe the title came about as I created the melody. Like last week’s song, lyrics sometimes come out of nowhere when you are working on a tune, and often times I can’t let go of them. The themes of heartache and memory permeate popular music. No matter what we try to do to forget episodes in our lives, there is always that moment where something will trigger their return. In this case, I came up a very dark scenario of  a character who is fighting off a deep hurt and who seems to have no faith in the past or the future. That’s right, not every “I” in a song represents the writer.

Though the tune flirts with country music (and my first arrangements reflected that), I wanted just a hint with this recording.

Production: Electric bass, drums, acoustic guitars, banjo-guitar, electric baritone guitar, and accordion.

Lyrics

IT’S COMING BACK TO ME

At a certain point in life I stopped remembering

I swear I can’t recall just why I did.

But something said tonight

Set off a matchstick light

I pinched it out

My latest casualty

It didn’t stop the feeling.

Yes, It’s Coming Back to Me.

 

I know I took that book and burned the pages.

I stood and watched the ashes blow away.

I locked myself down tight.

With constant oversight

Of any thought

That threatened to run free.

Now the gates are swinging open.

Yes, It’s Coming Back to Me.

 

If I had one wish that I could grant you

It surely wouldn’t be your memories.

For memories will only take you so far.

Then they’ll leave you there

Staring at the stars

 

How do you put the genie back in the bottle?

How do you turn the tide back to the sea?

What happened in the past

Becomes a walking cast

And with each step

A stab of agony

I can start to feel the twinges.

Yes, It’s Coming Back to Me.

Copyright 2016 Fred Grittner All Rights Reserved