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RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2022
ALBUM TITLE: Side of the Road
ALBUM COVER ART (click image for a larger, press-ready image, or open http://music.guysmith.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Side-of-the-Road-CD-cover-front.jpg):
ARTIST PHOTO: Back cover photo (click for larger view). For other photos, see the photos page.
TRACKS:
Angel at the Gates of Hell
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A song about a man on a mission of revenge, and who is willing to sacrifice everything for it. Bluesy with southern rock (ala Whiskey Myers) texture.
“At its soul, this song is about making decisions when you bad nature has your full attention.”
I Lost
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A more upbeat tune about the three major music cities in the south (New Orleans, Nashville and Memphis). Odes to the love of music, the downside of decadence, and the rougher side of the music biz.
“I confess, I have been drunk … and disorderly … in each of these towns. One though captured my heart despite its rough exteriors.”
Eli’s
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Pure country, if Tom Waits did country. A “beautiful malady” about two broken people finding one another in a rodeo town bar.
“Waits writes some songs about people who have little hope and find it again. Songs like Invitation To The Blues. This is from that deep well. In this case, an aging and crippled rodeo rider and a heart broken barmaid in a joint down the rode from a rodeo arena.”
Side of the Road
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A tragedy in three parts, and a Tom Waits sounding exploration of human indifference and the pain it causes … to the giver and receiver.
“This is the song that a fan called ‘music to drink whiskey with’. It is slightly darker than Pink Floyd without antidepressants. It tells a story about three people in a chain reaction of indifference and hell.”
Clarksdale
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A song about the infamous Robert Johnson crossroads, and why the “Devil ain’t there anymore”.
“The Robert Johnson ledged is great … until you reach the crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Then you sense that from the start, it was hype. Indeed, if the Devil was there, the he don’t give a damn anymore.”
Quiet Renegade
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About a lovable, local homeless person who sips whiskey at church and disappears unexpectedly. It’s also about how we make the homeless invisible.
“Every town has a homeless character. But why we don’t know who they are and what led them to their condition is a commentary about us, not them. Despite the subject, this is kinda a sweet and upbeat song despite the ending lesson.”
Electric Love
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Originally written at the start of commercialization of the Internet, a song about how being “technology mad” creates barriers, even in romantic misadventures.
“Why Sweet Jesus does a former cowboy like 1970s era prog rock? It might just be a sin, and this sin deals with how the Internet has wrecked havoc on the delightful sin of seduction.”
Wild Horses
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If you have ever seen wild horses galloping across a Nevada prairie, this song needs no explanation.
“The word ‘majestic’ does not begin to describe a wild horse (or a woman in her prime). I’ve ridden among them (the horses … well, and … let’s skip that part) and I also see their open prairies vanishing. ‘Have all the wild horses just faded away?'”
Drinkin’ with the Devil
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Some heartbreaks require copious amounts whiskey and a “good” friend.
“I’ve had a heartbreak or two that would have made Old Scratch weep. So why not crack open a fresh bottle of Jack, and invite him over to drown sorrows and made each other.”
HARD
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Enraged female homicide, and a lesson to men … don’t cheat.
“One fan called this ‘the ultimate female empowerment song’, which worries me a bit. I don’t want to encourage homicide, but we all know that, upon occasion, a woman betrayed will extract more that a mere pound of flesh.”
Steel in her Bones
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Some women are tougher than men can imagine. Here is one of them.
