This month's song is Denise, the lead off track for the Progressions album. I wrote this song in 2002 in New London, Connecticut. I was working as a hydrographer at the time, bouncing around the East Coast, towing boats, working long hours, living in motel rooms. I was rarely in my little studio apartment and I had to keep quiet when I was playing the guitar and singing, because my apartment was in a complex and the other guests at motels didn't appreciate late night live music from the next room. Needless to say, I wasn't performing a lot. I occasionally played at an open mic night in New London but I was so rarely there that I wouldn't have considered it regular. I always had my guitar on the road with me but I never found any open mics or performance opportunities. The hours worked on the road were long, and exhausting. I did play one night in the bar at the Ramada Inn in Watertown, New York. We'd been tying a few on and someone convinced me to bring my guitar down and play. It was the kind of drunken fun that you remember for years, yet know no one else who was there.
So how did Denise come about? As I think I've mentioned before, my favorite songwriters are storytellers. Tom Petty, Jimmy Buffett, Arlo Guthrie, they all have the innate ability to tell complex stories in a relatively short song (Okay, Jimmy Buffett's stories aren't usually complex and Arlo did wind on for a bit with Alice's Restaurant, but there are always exceptions in music). I had never really written a story song, or a good one anyway. Denise just kind of flowed out of me. I spent a couple of days revising it, but it pretty much came as it is. I told a story based upon some true events. After I'd written it, I called a friend of mine in New Jersey and she listened to it over the phone and liked it. She knew I'd been trying to write a story song and she thought I'd hit the nail on the head.
This was the first song I recorded on this album. I listened to it over and over again on the late night drive home from where we'd recorded it. It blew my mind. I originally did some high harmony vocals over the top but we could never get them to sound quite right so we cut them out. My falsetto was just too close to the main melody vocals and they didn't jive well together. This is also the first song I ever wrote with a capo. I had been actively avoiding using one for years and I don't know why I used one here. I've since learned to use the capo as a very effective tool, but I use it sparingly. I played bass on this track, as well as most of the others and my friend Kevin handled the percussion. I was working as a surveyor when I recorded this and I remember listening to the original recording and feeling like a musician at last.
Some people might want to know more about the story but there isn't much more to tell. I think I summed it up pretty well in the lyrics. Tom Petty was onced propositioned to turn Into the Great Wide Open into a movie and his reply was simple, "It already is." I feel the same way about the story here. This song has generated some interesting buzz over the past couple of years. I once performed on the Night Show with Danny Cashman. It was an awful performance, as I was really pitchy. I'd like to blame it on the monitor being too loud or the fact that the following day I became sicker than I have in years, but it was just one of those bad performances. It took me three weeks to find out because the show taped three weeks in advance, but it was a great experience. If you've never watched the show, it's hilarious. Danny Cashman comes across as a David Letterman type at first but the humor is very original and very Maine. The night my show aired, in late March of 2011, the Night Show rated higher than Saturday Night Live in the Bangor viewing area. I personally think that's pretty cool, even with my bad performance.
So have a listen, let my lyrics tell you the story, and enjoy this song. I know many people who really enjoy this tune and I hope you do too. I also have an unplugged version of this song on my youtube page as part of the Orange Puffy Shirt series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry0isf9CNA8). Do you have a favorite version?
So how did Denise come about? As I think I've mentioned before, my favorite songwriters are storytellers. Tom Petty, Jimmy Buffett, Arlo Guthrie, they all have the innate ability to tell complex stories in a relatively short song (Okay, Jimmy Buffett's stories aren't usually complex and Arlo did wind on for a bit with Alice's Restaurant, but there are always exceptions in music). I had never really written a story song, or a good one anyway. Denise just kind of flowed out of me. I spent a couple of days revising it, but it pretty much came as it is. I told a story based upon some true events. After I'd written it, I called a friend of mine in New Jersey and she listened to it over the phone and liked it. She knew I'd been trying to write a story song and she thought I'd hit the nail on the head.
This was the first song I recorded on this album. I listened to it over and over again on the late night drive home from where we'd recorded it. It blew my mind. I originally did some high harmony vocals over the top but we could never get them to sound quite right so we cut them out. My falsetto was just too close to the main melody vocals and they didn't jive well together. This is also the first song I ever wrote with a capo. I had been actively avoiding using one for years and I don't know why I used one here. I've since learned to use the capo as a very effective tool, but I use it sparingly. I played bass on this track, as well as most of the others and my friend Kevin handled the percussion. I was working as a surveyor when I recorded this and I remember listening to the original recording and feeling like a musician at last.
Some people might want to know more about the story but there isn't much more to tell. I think I summed it up pretty well in the lyrics. Tom Petty was onced propositioned to turn Into the Great Wide Open into a movie and his reply was simple, "It already is." I feel the same way about the story here. This song has generated some interesting buzz over the past couple of years. I once performed on the Night Show with Danny Cashman. It was an awful performance, as I was really pitchy. I'd like to blame it on the monitor being too loud or the fact that the following day I became sicker than I have in years, but it was just one of those bad performances. It took me three weeks to find out because the show taped three weeks in advance, but it was a great experience. If you've never watched the show, it's hilarious. Danny Cashman comes across as a David Letterman type at first but the humor is very original and very Maine. The night my show aired, in late March of 2011, the Night Show rated higher than Saturday Night Live in the Bangor viewing area. I personally think that's pretty cool, even with my bad performance.
So have a listen, let my lyrics tell you the story, and enjoy this song. I know many people who really enjoy this tune and I hope you do too. I also have an unplugged version of this song on my youtube page as part of the Orange Puffy Shirt series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry0isf9CNA8). Do you have a favorite version?