Here’s a little insight
on each song:
“Sit With Me” is a yearning for an answer to the question of “why,” and about “figuring out” how to “work it out.” There’s nothing like the blues to moan through something tough (Tom Gillam’s electric guitar sings on this one). Sometimes things just need to be talked through no matter how badly it hurts and if you make it till morning, count it a victory.
“A Lot More Texas,” is a friendly jab at the status of contemporary country music through the eyes of a guy caught between two lovers - one in Nashville and one in Texas. There’s no separating Texas and Tennessee. Anyone ever heard of Sam Houston or Davey Crockett and his Tennessee Volunteers? Texans and Tennesseans need each other. Tennesseans helped to create Texas. We (Texans) return the favor by continuing to create great music icons that keep Nashville on their toes – like Lloyd Maines, whose steel guitar set this one on fire. Besides all of that, what could be more fun than being at a saloon in Texas and ending a chorus shouting “I need a lot more Texas… and a little less Tennessee?”
“Did You Ever Think of Me?” pretty much speaks for itself. Mike Atkins’ organ takes you to church. This one is a little too hard to talk about. If I can’t stand to talk about something, the best way to get it out is to just sing it. The first time I ever played this one in public, as soon as I finished, a certain someone stepped right up to the microphone and gave me a passionate kiss in front of God and everybody. I took it as a “Yes.”
“Imaginary Friend” started out as an attempt to put a musical “smile” on a lonely time in my life years ago, and to offer a humorous hommage to the old bartenders who would take the time to share stories to lift your spirits. My producer, Tom Gillam, took the “smile” and turned it in to a gloriously outrageous Mardi Gras. Wailing horn players Alex Meixner and “Fort” Fortunato make this tear-jerker an absolute celebration. Tom, Alex and Fort, this one makes me and my imaginary friend very, very happy.
“I See Blue” is a love song I wrote to my wife. It reminds me a bit of those soft rock tunes from Loggins & Messina in the 70’s that we listened to when we were falling deeply in love. Thanks, David Russell, for the romantic imaginative violin that flowed like blue waves. Karen and the ocean… I’ve never been able to separate the two.
“Fall In Your Arms,” thematically, was the most complicated song to construct. There are way too many stories interlaced in this one – it’s three level chess. So, I’m going to allow everyone to interpret it however they wish, but don’t overthink it – just enjoy this sentimental melody. Thanks again David for the yearning sounds of your violin. I think there’s healing in this one.
“Almost Made It Back Home” is a song about a cattle drive. When I was a little kid, I knew an ancient old man that had been on Texas cattle drives when he was a young teenager. I also had a very old great-uncle that had laid low out west in the late 1800’s following a “high noon” type shoot out in Texas. When I would go back home from college in Ft. Worth to visit him at a nursing home during his feeble 90’s, he was convinced that I was coming back from a cattle drive and would remind me to make sure that my horse was properly tied to the hitching post. I wrote this one with these two men in mind. The chorus came to me after I arrived home one night from a gig to find my wife holding my little dog that had just died minutes before I could get home. Sorry, I know that’s a little much, but it’s true. The musicians really nailed this one. This has the most sentimental twin fiddles that I’ve ever heard – thanks again David Russell.
“It’s Just Me” is one of my personal favorites. I wrote the lyrics while circling the Rocky’s waiting for a thunderstorm to dissipate that had settled in over the Denver airport. A couple of days later I realized that the lyrics worked perfectly with some jazz chords that I had been working on for a few weeks. This one reminds me of the old jazz standards from the 30’s and 40’s that my mother loved so much. Thinking of her, for this song, I played an Ibanez AF-105 “jazz box” guitar through the Fender Princeton Reverb tube amp that she bought me in 1969. In the way of credits, thank you Brett Cline for the simply beautiful piano work, and thank you Karen – my beautiful muse.
I send a special thanks to my producer, Tom Gillam, who took some tunes and turned them in to beautiful songs, and who also laid down some great electric guitar work. Also, I send thanks to my recording engineer and musician, Drew Heaton, and the host of other awesome musicians and singers who played on the album: Randy Armentrout, Lloyd Maines, David Russell, Matt Briggs, Andie Holleman, Kelany Brent, Kayla Jane, Brett Kline, Drew Heaton, Mike Atkins, “Fort” Fortunato, and Alex Meixner. Thank you, Karen Helveston and Randy Armentrout, for your collaboration on the album cover. Also, thanks to Randy and Denise Armentrout, and my family for encouraging me to perform my own original music. Finally, thanks to my wife Karen – the most beautiful and mystifying woman I’ve ever known. Without her, I guess I would have nothing to write about other than drinking beer on the tailgate of a pickup truck.