Appeared on Lackey






Matt Maher and I started playing music together in 1987 or 1988. So it is strange that this song, which was one of our first really good collaborative writing efforts, did not come along until 1997 or 1998. We split the lyrics and the music to this song pretty evenly. I think he contributed most of the bridge and I the chorus. Regardless, it was one of the two or three main reasons we were signed to Capitol. The A&R guy Perry Watts-Russell seemed to really like the song. Maybe more than that, he liked the potential he saw in us that the song represented. We never got a good recording of this song in California even though the label called in ringers like the bass player from Pink Floyd. This version was done in a basement studio in Nashville and was meant as a demo. The chorus and title are from a book I was reading at the time called Songlines by the British author Bruce Chatwin. As a traveler and anthropologist, he was convinced that a lot of modern problems are mainly because people just are not, well, walking enough. We are nomadic by way of our DNA, he thought. He pointed to studies that showed how babies are calmed when they are bounced at the pace of what might have been a walking parent carrying an infant a long time ago. Australian aboriginals sometimes just wonder off for days or even years - a walkabout it is called. They can navigate the entire continent by singing one long song that provides directions (a Songline). But it is deeper than that of course. It is the need for adventure and travel. Also, I always liked the lyric in the John Prine song Mexican Home where he says 'heat lightening burnt the sky like alcohol. I never forgot how raw that felt to me the first time I heard it in high school and it sort of found its way into the song I guess.

demo from the basement tapes




This song was never mixed or mastered – this is a rough and unfinished version from a mixing board. Originally, the song was called Adelaide and it had no bridge. It morphed several times and the musical bridge was added by Grey Garner. Grey has a really creative musical mind and his bridge progression/lick is so cool I could listen to it over and over. Admittedly, the song is not very inspiring, but the power chords and sheer energy kind of make it fun.

Appeared on Lackey






This song ended up in a Bill Pullman movie called Guilty. Oddly, I have never seen it, though sometimes I think of renting it. I wrote the song about an episode in the late 80’s when a group of buddies from Wake Forest came home with me one weekend. It was sort of nuts. One guy was over-served and ended up loosing a shoe and a few hours (we called him Vidgit – a contraction of Village and Idiot). Another guy ended up with a broken nose. Years later, I was sitting in a completely empty room in my house in Nashville. It had hardwood floors and echoed like a small concert hall. I played the chord progression over and over again and landed on this song. It talks about what happens when rage is unbridled, when law enforcement folks get a little drunk on their own power, and how bystanders might feel as they watch players on that stage act like fools. This song was always a ton of fun to play live. Hands down, the best performance of this song ever was at the Opium Den in LA one night. We left right afterwards to stay in a hotel in Barstow because we had a gig in New York 48 hours later at a place called Brownies.

Appeared on Lackey






I have had 2 friends commit suicide. The darkness around them must have been terrible, and the pressure immense. And yet both times, it seemed like there was a component of daring to it. Almost like they said, ‘you think that what I said is bad, well that’s not all I’ll do.’ This most certainly does not apply to all people who suffer this end – just my own small experience with it. This song is average I think – but it has its moments. It also has a deeply personal meaning to me.

demo from the basement tapes




Matt Maher began this song with a couplet. I think Grey Garner was a big part of the music as well but I can not really remember. I wrote a lot of the lyrics after a 3 day fever in 1998. The whole thing is fairly complicated from a musical standpoint – and the feel of the song is really unique. I don’t think I am responsible for all that originality – but I do like some of the signature lines I contributed like ‘its like a video fee, cut the parts out you really don’t need’ and ‘sunshine coming in a breakfast room’ or ‘cut the cord and feed me inside, I am breathing.’ I think this song, as well as a few others, were among the reasons we were at times thought of as a ‘band’s band.’ In other words, that is code for ….musicians and members of other bands thought we had a lot of chops – but it was unlikely we would ever have a hit record.