{"id":182,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tommypatten.com\/?page_id=182"},"modified":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"about-the-songs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/?page_id=182","title":{"rendered":"About the songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Anthracite.<\/u>\u00a0I was living in Boston in August of`1976 (great place to be for the Bicentennial). Gruesome stories were not the norm on the national news, at least not to extent that they seem to have become. So I paid attention when Sunbury, Pa., was in the headlines; Sunbury is just south of the town in which I grew up. There had been a murder. A young woman was dead and a couple\/few guys had been caught trying to buy a large amount of hydrochloric acid at a local pharmacy, apparently with the intent of making her body disappear up on a slag heap somewhere.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">I\u2019m not from a mining town, but these were my neighbors none the less. The coal region was making the rust belt look like chrome. This song rolled out pretty much in one draft<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">The harmonies were sung by Tom Rosencrans, Jina Gillis Rosencrans, and Kim Reichley.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Hurricane Brewing in the Caroline.<\/u>\u00a0October 1976, in Boston. I really have no memory of making this one up, but I\u2019ve been singing it ever since. Obviously it was after Hurricane Agnes (1972) wiped out a lot of Central Pa.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">\u00a0Originally Joey played bass when I\u2019d perform it, but switching him over to the guitar was a good move. Kimbo plays bass and Steve Mitchell is on drums.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>I Heard the Geese<\/u>. 1973, Lewisburg, Pa. This song had two verses in the middle that needed to be replaced with one better verse. At my grandmother\u2019s wake in Slidell, Louisiana many years later, someone asked me to sing something. I solicited suggestions, and my mother didn\u2019t hesitate in suggesting I Heard the Geese. Not enough years later, I sang it at the memorial service for Mom. Kimbo added some sweet mandolin.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">An original rough take jumped out so strongly at Steve Mitchell \u2013 I think this song was what got him on board to record with me in the first place. For that, I am grateful.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Always Will.<\/u>\u00a0\u00a0maybe 2011? In Watsontown. The basic guitar lick (which is just a world of fun to play) had been part of my noodling catalog for many years. I guess if you play something long enough on the guitar, it expands into a song. Overdubbing the electric guitar part was not difficult. Those notes made themselves evident the night before recording, and I didn\u2019t argue with them.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">I should mention, however, that the basic premise of the song is that once you have loved someone, that\u2019s it. You will always love them. Doesn\u2019t matter what they do or did. You can even roar with hatred or bow your head in disgust. Once you\u2019ve loved them, you will always love them. No way out of it.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">I heard this beautifully articulated by Jimmy Webb during a memorable interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air many years ago. And yeah, the line about the moon being a mistress (though not a harsh one) is a modest homage to JW.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Knee Deep in the River<\/u>.\u00a0\u00a0This is a song for my brother Kit, who lived in exile for ten years. When the wonderful Jimmy Carter pardoned the Vietnam era draft resistors, we reunited in Pennsylvania and spent the first night wandering around old haunts, winding up standing on (in) the eel dam, watching the sunrise from the Susquehanna. I love the way Steve and Kimbo roll in.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Salt Water<\/u>\u00a0June, 1975, in Lewisburg.\u00a0\u00a0Hot summer nights fraught with JJ Cale. For this recording I encouraged everyone to work a bit outside the expected. Joey just blistered the thing while Steve and Kimbo were deep in the pocket.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Got to Be a Dancer.<\/u>\u00a0\u00a0The heart of one winter or another (early 1980\u2019s) in Winooski, Vermont. My father had sent me a poem of his titled Winter Possibilities. It is in his first collection of verse, The Impossible Reaches. It arrived in the mail, quite probably the same day I first heard Frank Zappa\u2019s Watermelon in Easter Hay.\u00a0\u00a0These two works were melded into Got to Be a Dancer. Steve takes marvelous liberties with the percussion. That\u2019s one of the many reasons we love him.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Pledging Myself to You<\/u>\u00a0\u00a0I made this one up on\u00a0<span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_2108399815\"><span class=\"aQJ\">October 11<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">, 1983, in Winooski, Vermont. I have no memory of doing so. Judging by the date, I had met my eventually-to-be wife Kate by then, but marriage must have been a subliminal concept at that moment. I think. Kimbo and Steve assist greatly in keeping it rolling.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>When the Time Comes<\/u>\u00a0was made up in 1972 after Hurricane Agnes (the same one that blew Uncle Jack down to Louisiana). I was living in Pennsylvania. That\u2019s about all I remember. It&#8217;s in Open G tuning with a capo somewhere up the neck. I think Steve\u2019s hand drums are simply perfect.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Doing Its Best<\/u>\u00a0came along on December 5, 1975, in Allston, Mass. I always like doing this one with a room full of folks who are of a mind to SING. And harmonize. It&#8217;s in Open G, though I sometimes tune the guitar down a bit. Working this out with Kimbo, Tom, and Jina was a huge amount of fun. Steve is playing percussion. For working purposes, I recorded the break on a keyboard, as filler. It sounded pretty nice, but in the long run I doubled the part on electric guitar, seriously cranked and distorting, but pulled way back to keep the tone but lose some volume<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Home Safe.<\/u>\u00a0Probably 2014\/15, in Watsontown.\u00a0\u00a0We had a lot of hospice going on around us at the time, and this song is thoroughly entwined with that bubbling kettle full of everything going on. AND it was the first time I lifted a line from my son Penn (\u201cI\u2019m going to punish gravity. I\u2019m going to make something fly.\u201d)\u00a0 I mean, who could resist? It&#8217;s in Open G, and it was wonderfully covered by my dear friend Bruce Milne. When we recorded this, we decided to keep it sparse.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Sing Me to Sleep<\/u>. Don\u2019t recall where or when this popped out. But it is a song tethered to the North Shore of Massachusetts. I must have made it up in the 70s or 80s. Big twelve string song. And the guys just fell into the thing. Kimbo is scatting, doubling his vocal on the bass. Joey gets the tone perfectly (he\u2019s been playing this one for a long time), and Steve is playing just off to one side of center.\u00a0\u00a0Whee Doggies Jethro!<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>The Widower\u2019s Winter<\/u>\u00a0was originally born of being with my grandfather Cameron in his later years. He didn\u2019t play the fiddle (he did play the bass recorder, though), and he did appreciate older wine. He was a mentor, a fishing buddy, a friend, a woodcutter, and a delight. And since he died, I can summon his spirit when I need to borrow some strength. I have always felt fortunate for having known all four of my grandparents. Kimbo plays mandolin, and I put on a single layer of electric guitar. Volume pedals are wonderful things.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">ZERO TO SIXTY IN FIFT NINE YEARS<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>The Breakfast Song<\/u>. I was living with about half of the band Fred on a farm (called the Ranch) outside Lewisburg \u2013 must have been the early seventies. Those were wild times. The band was hotter than a porn shop parking lot on a Saturday night. And breakfast was a sacred event, sometimes starting pretty late in the day. But like my own family, it was a time to convene over great food, great coffee, and a particular sense of leisure that takes work to preserve.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Hair of the Dog<\/u>\u00a0.(January 1, 1984, Winooski) Well, sure enough a younger listener asked about the expression Hair of the Dog. It is ancient, I\u2019m sure. An age-old remedy for repairing a dog bite was to eat some of the hair from the dog that bit you. This probably didn\u2019t help much, factoring in the actual dog. And the bite. We know the expression as it pertains to drinking and drinking too much. The notion that starting off the day with a dose of whatever hootch had been taken in excess the night before must have seemed like a great idea. In Ireland it is called a \u2018cure\u2019. My friend Kitt Cox used to call a nasty hangover \u2018a tomcat\u2019 (\u201cI had a tomcat this morning\u201d). And if the hangover is virulent enough, then \u201cthere ain\u2019t enough hair left on the dog that bit you\u201d (another ancient expression) to be of much help. Depending upon the size, and folical nature of the dog in question, of course. Kimbo is playing bass, and I overdubbed the electric part, slide and all.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>The Ballad of Big Bill\u2019s Wife.<\/u>\u00a0Just a little partially clean fun. It has been a good song to start a set with, figuring if you get having the crap beat out of you early on, the rest is gravy. I don\u2019t remember making this one up, but I do remember laughing myself stupid when \u201cI turned around and there stood a man, he was as big as the gates of Hell\u201d popped out. Sort of sums the whole mess up. Joel Vincent did the drumming, Kimbo played bass and the gunshot guitar, and I snuck in the bits and pieces of electric.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Lost Her to the Guru<\/u>\u00a0(1982, Lewisburg). True story.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Peggy Sue Redux<\/u>. I was out in Terre Haute Indiana, staying with my Cousin Phoebe and her young family. I\u2019d been hunkered down in Nashville for a month or so, trying to figure out how to get my cowboy boot in the door. Any door. I very much needed to get out of there for a while. Phoebe and husband Tom would go to work, and I\u2019d sit down at the dining room table and write songs. I know that Thank You John on 99<\/span><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0Monkey was a Terre Haute tune, and there were two more that were keepers (but I don\u2019t remember which songs they were now). Joey has been playing this one for years, and I think he captured the flavor superbly. Steve and Kimbo turned it into the rock and roll it really is.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Those Perfect Pearlies<\/u>.\u00a0\u00a0I was living in Milton, Vermont, and this song gnawed its way into the world during the spring of 1978. There\u2019s nothing quite like making up a clever song. As the lines roll out, there\u2019s this sense of joy, of spiritual manifestation. Originally I had your face looking like Leon Spinks, and it taking all the Valentino you\u2019ve got left. You know, if you sing a song long enough, it outgrows your audience. Or vice versa.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>The I Love Her She Loves Me and He Wants to Shoot Me Blues<\/u>. No memory of making this one up. It likely evolved from a bourbonated haze. Recording it was extra fun because I wanted to overdub an utterly hilarious guitar solo, and I do believe it came out pretty goofy. I recorded it on a TP Noble Guitar that was shortly thereafter purchased by Bill Burke, from Texas. Bill is a judge, but in his spare time he takes music into prisons and rehab centers and gets the residents singing along. I hope that some of the good cheer that went into that solo will come out where it is really needed. Steve and Kimbo most ably assist.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Pissing and Moaning<\/u>. Again, I have NO IDEA where or when this one came out, but it came out laughing (I was probably living in Winooski, Vermont). Country music is a bottomless source of fun, but it has always annoyed me greatly because the sorrowful songs, the heartbreak songs, never offer a clue about what NOT to do if you want to keep a relationship going. It is just pain, loss, and loneliness. No cause for love\u2019s demise is ever given. Its as if such things are completely irrelevant. And perhaps they are, in art. Country music is totally visceral. Maybe that is its charm, its draw.\u00a0\u00a0I mean, SOMETHING happened to cause a breakup, and it was probably the same things that cause breakups in Jamaica, Tibet, and Finland. Like cheating, fighting, drinking, etc etc etc. Maybe that\u2019s why we love country music; it doesn\u2019t LOOK at anything. It just FEELS. However, when every song seems like the wail of a victim, it can get a little old and desperately needs to be made fun of. Tom and Jina sing harmony, and Joey plays lead guitar. Steve and Kimbo keep it swangin\u2019.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Talking to Ralph on the Big White Phone.<\/u>\u00a0That\u2019s an expression I first heard from my cousin Bill McCloskey. Driving the porcelain bus. Technicolor yawn. Tossing cookies, Blowing lunch. And one of my favorites, from Tom Fladmark: Selling Buicks. I don\u2019t know about this life we lead. Kimbo and Steve are holding it down. Originally I had commissioned members of The Philadelphia Jug Band to add a bunch of their raucous stuff, but the technology between studios was irreparably confusing. This song has been a favorite at jug band gatherings for a long, long time, particularly after the correct quota of Rebel Yell has been consumed.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Sax and Violins.<\/u>\u00a0Must have been the early 1980s, probably in Winooski. I\u2019m sure a certain amount of chortling went along with this. Kimbo is on bass.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Sleeping.<\/u>\u00a0I\u2019m pretty sure I was in Lewisburg when I made up this one. It\u2019s a perennial favorite of narcoleptics the world over, and serves as a good singalong, best late at night. Jina, KJ, and Kimbo are singing along on this version, which was probably recorded late in the afternoon.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">THE NINETY-NINTH MONKEY\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">The title comes from messing around with a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hundredth_monkey_effect\">popular socio-political axiom, parable, or myth<\/a> (take your pick). The original involves two islands, quite far apart and completely out of contact. On Island A, the monkeys are busy doing their monkey things, when one day one of them discovers that he can get juicier grubs to eat if he uses a sharp stick to dig them out of a rotten log. This works so well that he tells his monkey buddy about it, and shows him how it is done. Monkey Number 2\u2019s mind is blown, and he clues in Monkey Number 3.\u00a0\u00a0Soon the monkeys are learning this new trick en masse, and just when the 100<\/span><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0monkey gets it, SHAZAM! A monkey over on Island B figures out that, by using a sharp stick, he can get juicier grubs out of a rotten log. Then he tells his best friend about it . . . .<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">The parable is how good ideas are spread. Direct contact does not need to be made.\u00a0\u00a0It just happens, once enough monkeys (or humans) get the message.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">But what about that 99<\/span><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0monkey? He is SO CLOSE to catapulting the good news, but he just isn\u2019t going to be the guy. Whoever he shows his newfound stuff to is going to be the guy that crosses that line and has his wisdom spread like wildfire. Monkey 99 is just the next to the last link in the chain.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>A Good Day in America<\/u>\u00a0started out years ago as All the Way to Georgia, which rhymed suitcase and cuteface. It wasn\u2019t a bad song. It just wasn\u2019t a very good song.\u00a0\u00a0It was a song written for some anonymous someone in Nashville. Good Day is about the 4<\/span><sup>th<\/sup><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">\u00a0of July in Watsontown, Pa., where the 4<\/span><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0of July is a huge deal. It is a day of true celebration, and we look forward to it every year.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>That Second Kiss<\/u>\u00a0started out as what my son Penn simply called, \u2018The Lick\u2019. Okay \u2013 I did play it a lot before the words tumbled out. I was thinking about how two people interact across a crowd, or in a large open space. Or both. The way two people move in sync, slowly working their way towards each other. Calculated, and yet casual, moves. Positioning themselves in such ways as to always be aware of where the other person is. Its kind of where love begins.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Thank You John<\/u>\u00a0was written in Terre Haute Indiana. I remember the moment I heard that John Lennon had been shot as well as I remember hearing about JFK. Some years later, at the end of 1999, there was a tremendous amount of drivel doing the rounds about what people remembered as the hugest moments in the 20<\/span><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0Century. I heard a couple of people say with conviction that the Space Shuttle Disaster was the biggie, and I somehow knew that they had never heard John Lennon sing Twist and Shout. Now THAT was something to remember. Kimbo and Steve make it move. And Joey\u2019s playing on this one is so great . . . . we used to do this one a lot in various band situations.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Didn\u2019t See It Coming<\/u>\u00a0came out of a discussion with my friend Misha, who told me of a mutual friend having his marriage suddenly dissolve without warning. He didn\u2019t see it coming. It\u2019s an expression we hear a lot, and I can\u2019t prove it, but I think men get to say it more than women (as in, \u201cI didn\u2019t see it coming\u201d). You don\u2019t want to be the person that gets to say that. But . . . .how would you know if you were that person until you DO say it? Ah, life\u2019s conundrums. I overdubbed the Wah Wah guitar, and Kimbo played bass.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>In the Shadow of the Mountain.<\/u>\u00a0This tune was born in 1966, complete with rather sophomoric lyrics about extreme longing and loneliness. I always liked the guitar part (great for twelve string). I updated it in 2014 while contemplating the destruction of the lumber drying kilns at Pennsylvania House Furniture in Lewisburg (there\u2019s an extremely crass looking CVS there now). Those kilns stood for a lot over their many years of service. Pa House workers tended to be family members. Whole clans of people starting there after high school and working until retiring. I hope that the families in China who got those jobs can appreciate that. I doubt that the corporate suits that sent the jobs overseas can. Kimbo and Steve gave it some bottom and swing. That little electric part was firmly stuck in my craw until we recorded it.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>This Time.<\/u>\u00a0Just a little message that giving up is not an option. John Sweeney plays harp, and Kimbo plays Dobro.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Sweet Potato Moon<\/u>\u00a0rose in 2011, I think. Just sort of happened. I\u2019m up to something like 46 verses now (don\u2019t worry \u2013 I perform them in rotation).<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>Rivertown<\/u>\u00a0has quite a genetic code to it. I was living in Vermont, and I stumbled onto the guitar part, and couldn\u2019t find a lyric with a map and a flashlight. So I asked my father, Karl, if he might want to give the thing a try. He readily agreed; I put the lick down on a cassette and mailed it to him. After a suitably polite amount of time, I asked him about it on the phone. Oh yeah , he had listened to the guitar part (I had hummed the melody, or what I thought was the melody). More time elapsed, I focused on other things, and I asked him again. Oh yeah , he was listening frequently. After a couple of months, I asked him again (in my normal cheerful way). Karl said he was having some real trouble with it. I concurred that it was a tough one, adding \u201cThere are three or four different ways to hear a rhyme scheme in this thing.\u201d There was a rather long pause from the other end of the phone, and Karl said, rather hesitantly, \u201cRhyme scheme?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">Probably 35 years later, I was noodling in Open D Tuning, and I relapsed into the lick (I had been doing that all along), only THIS time, I had a capo somewhere around the fourth fret. And Rivertown just rolled out like it had always been there, hiding. I would hesitate to be presumptuous and give advice to songwriters, but here\u2019s a good tip: if you\u2019re stuck, and have been for a while, try changing keys. I do not like capos much \u2013 I never have \u2013 but I much credit the Schubb people for helping with this song.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">The first recording of\u00a0\u00a0Rivertown\u00a0\u00a0had some harmony singing, and it sounded lovely, but ultimately extraneous to me. We rerecorded the whole thing using a trick that came out of nowhere: I switched to the twelve string mid-song. I think of Gene Wilder snatching the chessman from Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles; you wouldn\u2019t believe how fast I made the guitar switch. And the slide lick is probably as close as I\u2019ll ever get to actually channeling George Harrison, the impeccable master of the slide guitar. Kimbo loped in with some wonderful bass late in the song.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>400 Miles Tonight<\/u>. Unresolved. Unfinished business of the deep love type. I had a somewhat different version recorded in 1982, and when it resurfaced in scanning through dozens of songs, I figured that reworking it somewhat would be a good idea. I think it is a bit more mature. I overdubbed the four (I think) electric parts. Volume pedals are wonderful tools.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">I made up the<u>\u00a0London Song\u00a0<\/u>in 1966 and except for a few brief forays into God knows what, I\u2019ve been singing it ever since. It is the oldest of my songs that I will sing, for sure (most of what came before it was half baked teen drivel at best). Folks have always sung along with it. Years ago there was a guy who called me \u201cGWP\u201d, for \u201cGrimey window panes.\u201d Having Tom, Jina, and Kimbo singing on this was just Hog Heaven.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><u>These Fields<\/u>\u00a0is a whole world of fun to play on the guitar. Lyrically it was born driving over the mountain from Jersey Shore to Elimsport in the autumn, when the leaves are gone and you can see for a long, long way to the South. The White Deer Valley has a long, troubled, and mysterious history, but from up there, it sure does look like a crazy quilt (when the leaves are gone). Yeah, it is a clich\u00e9, but I\u2019ll plead the Fifth. Most of the families in that valley have been there for many generations. KJ\u2019s vocals on this are, for me, the high point of the whole shootin\u2019 match. It was a shoe-in as a way to end the CD.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>\u201cHoly S**t! These songs are BEAUTIFUL!<\/b><\/div>\n<div><b>\u00a0I feel like the first human to ever bite into a ripe plum. Sheeeesh!\u201d<\/b><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<b>Bill (His Highness) Irwin, Beacon, N.Y.<\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthracite.\u00a0I was living in Boston in August of`1976 (great place to be for the Bicentennial). Gruesome stories were not the norm on the national news, at least not to extent that they seem to have become. So I paid attention when Sunbury, Pa., was in the headlines; Sunbury is just south of the town in &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/?page_id=182\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;About the songs&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-182","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tommypatten.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}