Shaker Star
   Featuring harmony vocals by Anna-Lynne Williams from Trespassers William, this song was inspired by Linda Pitmon. Linda is the drummer for Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3, as well as some other great bands. "Death Valley Rain", which I keep mentioning in the chorus, is one of their songs, and Linda plays killer shaker on it. So this is kind of a song within a song, although they don't sound much alike! Matt Brown is playing the nice lap steel as well as bass. I am playing keyboards and drums as well as singing (actually I'm doing this on all the songs, so I won't mention it again!) and Paul Austin is playing the crazy trem-wah guitar. Matt recorded and mixed this one.

Your Small Hands
   The first thing I started playing on piano. That's Deb Bartley doing the response part of the call and response chorus. She sang it out in the hallway at Matt's place. Lots of natural reverb in those big warehouse hallways! When people have asked me what this is about, I've said it's about living up to a stereotype. That's what "Straight from Central Casting" means, kicking it off.

Upside Down
   Recorded and mixed by Graig Markel at his Recovery Room studio. He also plays that killer bass. There is another version of this song, in 6/8 time, but trust me... this is the good one. This song was one of the most fun to record, and I hope that comes through when you hear it! (Stream it here!)

Someone Else's Misery
   Wrote this one after having a really, really bad day. Dave Einmo recorded this one at his Pajama Factory studio. That's him doing the supercool electric guitar riffage, and he added the Moog bass as well. The whole song is built on a loop we made of me drumming in our practice room. (Stream it here!)

Coast Is Clear
   This is the exception to my "I played the keyboards" comment... this is Barbara Trentalange on wurlitzer. I couldn't quite pull this kind of thing off at the time, so thanks Barbara! Plus we got to hang with her dogs - they are pretty nutty. Matt Brown added the extra gauze to the mix, which we took even further on the coda version that ends the CD.

The Daredevil Way
   Sometimes you have to be a superhero just to make it through the day. Well, not a real superhero. But pretty close. Do you know the feeling? In spite of what I just said, this is a pretty optimistic song, I think. I started recording this one at Graig's, and finished it at Matt's.

Mulligan
   Second chances. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't. That's pretty much where this song is coming from. Another one recorded at Dave's and finished across town at Matt's. The vocal sounds like that because I sang this song through a microphone made from a telephone... when you use something like that, it really changes the way you sing. A benefit of keeping yourself from getting too comfortable. That's Paul adding all those waves of psychedelic guitar feedback. (Stream it here!)

Bag of Bricks
   This is my garage band song. If you think the drums sound distorted now, you should have heard them before we turned the dials back a bit. It was crazy! I like to picture this song blasting out of someone's car radio on a cheap little speaker. This is the second of the two songs Graig mixed; Matt did the others. It's so great to have friends who can do that kind of thing. Thanks dudes!

Coast Is Clear (Reprise)
   Paul had the idea of twisting the original track and making it into a spooky, whole other thing. We did it for a few minutes and kept three of those minutes to close out the record on what I hope is a dreamy note.