The Songs

     - MP3s

Mo' Trouble Than Love

Here's another one I wrote shortly after purchasing a shiny dobro-style guitar and right before going into the studio.  I got to hand it to Bob... we spontaneously decided to try it and he called up Tom Knox of the Clam Daddys to play harmonica.  He showed up 15 minutes later and we just jammed the song live.  Then John Magnie and Tim Cook of the 3 Twins showed up.  John took the harmonies I heard right out my head and arranged the background vocals for the guys.  Steve was on vacation so John banged on one of his tin cans.

This one just came into its own...

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I Can't Hold Her Down

My friend, Howard, had a house up in the mountains.  I use to talk about how I should bring up my guitar amps and crank them up!  So we created "Mountain Jam" and had a party.  I remember writing this song as kind of a sing-along that everyone could join in on.

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Down In Tuscany

I spent 5 days in Greve, Tuscany in an old converted farmhouse on a winery.  Each night I'd sit on the wall and play mandolin overlooking these beautiful vineyards.  Hiking through these paths and the hospitality of my beautiful host, Barbara, inspired this song.  I wrote the lyrics in Tuscany, the chords in Rome, and finally, in Greece I heard the mandolin ensemble in my head.  So the weekend I got back from my trip I wrote out all the parts for 3 mandolins, a waldzither, bouzouki, upright bass, mandola and mandocello.  Don't need no stinkin' guitars!

Down In Tuscany

Down in Tuscany

the spring sun rises fast to start the day

and is slow to fall

I’m overlooking the groves of olives and grapes

from an old stone wall

Down in Tuscany

Down in Tuscany

a man tends to every grape and vine

each as his own child

Generations of bloodlines

in harvests of oils and wines

Down in Tuscany

Down in Tuscany

there’s a woman that walked with me

on remnants of a Roman path

We got stuck in the pouring rain

still we just danced and laughed

Down in Tuscany

Come harvest time

I can still feel the Tuscan sun burn on my skin

Sometimes I get a chill

and I know that it will be raining

It’s raining...

in Tuscany

I know that it must be

raining just for me

Down in Tuscany

Down in Tuscany

There’s a belladonna waiting on me

I know that she must be

waiting just for me

Down in Tuscany

Somewhere In Between

I wrote this shortly after moving to Colorado.  I felt totally on my own and had a lot of hopes and doubts.  Within the first month I had hiked through Rocky Mountain, Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.  I knew I had made the right decisions in life, and I actually made a goal (and met it) to visit 12 National Parks that first year.

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Somewhere In Between

For as far back as you remember

To the events that led you here somehow

All you’ve learned from the decisions in between

Don’t seem to help with the matters at hand right now

You’re moving through life using your best judgement

And the best of intentions

And you’re still faced with this problem

Trying to outweigh the consequences

Between another big mistake

And the best move you’ll ever make

All the mistakes in the past

you chalked up to innocence

All of those innocent excuses

have turned into ignorance

You’re either just getting by or living in extremes

And forever searching for the answer

The answer somewhere in between

Between another big mistake

And the best move you’ll ever make

So you grow up and you grow on

You can’t slow up

You can’t slow things down

So you show up each day and you go on

You grow up and you grow on

It’s in the chances that you take

The decisions that you make

It’s the happiness you stake

Sometimes it ends in total heartbreak

Between reality and dreams

The answer’s somewhere in between...

Between another big mistake

Between another big mistake

The answer’s somewhere in between...

Between another big mistake

And the best move you’ll ever make

It's My Turn

Well...  This was a rocker I wrote sitting in front of a fire.  When I wrote it, the sound in my head was much harder - like an old Zeppelin tune with crunchy guitars.  With Magnie on the piano, it certainly changed things.  Bob had added a guitar solo track.  Then once we thought the song was done, we decided to let me improvise a little with the Hawaiian lapsteel and see what came out.  We kept the slide.

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In Your Eyes

One of the great songs of my time.  I had heard a few people cover this song live, and since I've recorded this, there have been several others. 

The CD was already complete, but I had begun playing this song live and the crowd really loved it, and I felt that the arrangement I came up with in open tuning on a Hawaiian Weissenborn guitar was enough reason to put a cover tune on my CD.

Celeste was behind the mixing board feeding me sips from her glass of Irish Whiskey as I sang the song.

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