While we were at the studio Chris Wall came to see how it was going. He listened to one of the tracks and said, sounds great. As he started to leave I said, “What about that song about the poet?” He had a cd in the car but I said, “Why don’t you come play it for us?” So he played it TO us, so he may be hidden somewhere in the track. He wasn’t mic’ed, but his spirit’s there.
Charlie John Quarto lyric, Shake Russell melody, Charlie John lived with us for a couple years back in the 70’s out in Oak Hill. I’ve known him since the Greenwich Village scene. His poems were on A Man Must Carry On. I knew about the song. Periodically I get a Charlie John vibe. This might have come by Bill and Bonnie Hearn.
When I knew Robert and Jessie were getting married I felt like having a personal sentiment to toast them on their way. It made it easier to write knowing they were both truly in love.
The first line – somebody really did ask me that question in the first line. I’ve been asked that a ton of times, so I thought I’d address it with a little singing observation.
Every musician that’s been to the Caribbean always comments how wonderful the full moons are. If you’re lucky enough to be there you now have a song to hum while you’re there. And Dennis Wolfe will play it for you – once I teach him the chords.
Finally Jennifer can stop retyping the lyrics for this song. It’s now in concrete. Sometimes the simplest songs, to be stated best, have to be the hardest ones to work on. Leonard Cohen says before the last version, there’s an awful lot of bad re-writes You have to go through all those steps to get there.
This is a Susanna Clark song that I truly f'ed up back in the 70s with Carole King so I felt I needed the opportunity to take another pass at it. With Christine Albert, being the wife and soul mate to Chris Gage who pays guitar we did it.
This song I wrote for my mom and dads 60th wedding anniversary. I made a little demo copy and sent it to them. They said they danced to it 8 times in a row. So when I sing it I always think about them whirling around the floor.
I don’t know how this wound up on this record. All I know is when I get out of the car after a long road trip, as I walk up the driveway I sing hey, its good to be back home again. (since I don’t live on a farm, and hardly anybody does anymore, or if they do they can’t go anywhere because they can’t leave the farm that long), I said this old HOUSE feels like a long lost friend… oh, and I left the first verse off. Sorry. But John Denver did “My Old Man” and he left the last verse off. His guy comes home, my guy leaves. Touché.
