True crime, outlaws and antiheroes. You can’t get much more American than that. Some of my songs arrive in the form of a first-person narrative by an unexpected character. An outlaw or antihero works for me. I like the grittiness of Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road.” I like a TV series…
When Bobby Darin’s version of “Mack the Knife” hit the charts in August 1959 I had just turned six and was on the cusp of first grade. It’s fair to say that “Mack the Knife” owned the charts that fall and winter, charting for 26 weeks and spending nine of them…
My parents’ record collection was slim pickings when I was a kid. My dad mostly chose the records. He had Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, Mitch (“I hate rock and roll”) Miller, The Harmonicats, 101 Strings, and, although my parents never attended the theater, Carousel, Oklahoma!, Hello Dolly! (so many exclamation points), West…
Ihttps://open.spotify.com/track/4VCneRupMEMbaQGlU7CTnM?si=62bd945b60cf4c60 I wrote this song with my friend and bandmate John Kargacos around 1978 in San Diego where we were playing in the band Streetlife. I can’t exactly remember who wrote what but we called it a 50-50 composition. John sang it. It was many years later, when the song…
I am of the mind of Miller Williams (Lucinda William’s dad) who wrote that it is the purpose of poets not to solve mysteries but to deepen them. And that is exactly where Cohen shines.
Conceiving this record, I only knew of one musician who I knew would be along for the ride–Lenne Klingaman, who sang on my two earlier albums. Everyone else came onboard during the recording, often after lengthy searches and delays, and often after one new contact referred me to someone they…