Get Together

I spent the weekend at Clark County Park in Mississippi along with about 100 of my wife's mother's family. It was peaceful outdoor living and at the big Saturday night get-together I figured this song by the Youngbloods might fit the occasion. I planned to set up the harmonizer and wow the relatives with the ghostly voices that would come at the stomp of a pedal but I had too much to think about just remembering the words. So this is a slightly more competent version of the song than the 100 Hillmans heard me warble on Saturday night.

GET TOGETHER

Jocco Rushing sang a couple of excellent blues/gospel songs and then we fumbled around wondering what to sing and came up with an uninspired Peaceful Easy Feelin'. The next day on the way home I of course thought of a perfect Knees Calhoon song for the occasion that I should have done. This would have gone great with the rainstorm that was going on outside. For the Hillmans who somehow find this page, here's the song I should have sung. Unlike the Eagles song, I actually know the words to this one.

BAD WEATHER 

Casey Jones

Today's song is typical: I recorded it in a couple of hours late one night then went to bed thinking, "Well, that one needs to be done over again with all of the rough spots done right." Then the next day I try to redo some of the tracks and I realize that I'm in a totally different mood and there's no way I could do them better. That's when I decide to just stick the song up at the Ramble and move on.

CASEY JONES

One of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, I actually have a recording of the Mighty Calhoon Brothers doing it at the Las Cruces Inn on September 30, 1978. I have a feeling that it was the only time we ever played it. It must have been a slow night at the bar because judging by the song list for the night, we did a lot of songs that night that I don't remember knowing. Would you believe God Only Knows by the Beach Boys? Play That Funky Music? Mark even sang Funny Little Clown by Bobby Goldsboro. It must have been a hell of a nostalgic night at the Las Cruces Inn.

CASEY JONES (Calhoon Brothers style)

  

Ring on Her Finger, Time on Her Hands

Part of my reason for covering songs on this blog is to make sure that certain superior tunes don't get forgotten in the fog of time. I had almost completely forgotten this song from 1982, but it's really one of the most original songs of its time. It has decent words but where it really shines is in its chords. This song is full of suspended 4ths and 2 chords (both my favorites) and it has an almost mathematical buildup of suspense because of them. In addition, the melody spends less time on notes IN THE CHORD than any other country song I've ever heard. All in all a great melody over great chords.

RING ON HER FINGER, TIME ON HER HANDS

By the way, the main reason I put songs up here at the Ramble is therapy. Nothing makes me feel better after a day of spinning my wheels than a simple music project that takes about 2 hours and ends up with another song.

The song was sung by Lee Greenwood in 1982 and by Reba McIntyre in 1996. It was written by Don Goodman, Pam Rose and Mary Ann Kennedy. 

Hot Dusty Roads

For a change I decided to do an old song that I know. Lately I've been working on some new songs that have videos to accompany them and everything in the video world moves slowly. I bought a new camera today and that should solve that bottleneck. But in the meantime, here's an audio quickie by Buffalo Springfield.

HOT DUSTY ROADS

Knees was probably thinking of this song when he wrote the contrarian tune Midnight Sun back in 1977.

Candy Man Yo Sweets Are Mighty Fine

Credit for this new song should go to Robin Harbron and his Thunder Bay friends for inspiring this song. Robin invited me to join his group, which records and videos songs every month, and the project for April was to do an original song that had somehow fallen through the cracks and never been recorded. I just happen to have a song that fit that description, one that Knees wrote back in 67 or 68 when he was in the army. It was obviously his version of "Waitin' for My Man" by the Velvet Underground, and he gave the song the first melody that occurred to him when he saw the words again after 45 years.

CANDY MAN YO SWEETS ARE MIGHTY FINE

I’m needin a speeding

Don’t let me down candyman

I’m flyin high  now so do the best you can
Comin down time is comin up soon
So open up your bag and shoot me to the moon
Candy Man, yo sweets are mighty fine.
 
I’m sighin while I’m flyin
But tomorrow’s another day
It’s all such a groove
You know it’s the only way
But livin ain’t easy when you’re straight as the man
So lay me five dolls right here in my hand
Candy Man, yo sweets are mighty fine.
 
Candy Man, travel agent
I like what you sell to me
Candy Man, secret agent,
I like what they let me be.
 
I’m flyin high now, flyin up with the birds
Flyin so high I don’t even know the words
My tongue’s keeps tumbling inside my mouth
You came through, that’s what it’s all about
Candy Man, yo sweets are mighty fine.

Sin City

Written by Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons of the Flying Burrito Brothers, this has always been one of my favorite harmony songs. So of course I overdo the harmony in this quickie version.

SIN CITY

Back in the 70s at the Las Cruces Inn, Kathy Delaney used to sing this with us and I happen to have a recording from February 18, 1979 of Kathy and me channeling Emmy Lou and Gram.

SIN CITY ( with KATHY DELANEY)

Look Through Any Window

One of my favorite Hollies tunes, this song was even played at the Las Cruces Inn a few times, but unfortunately was never recorded. I often wonder what visitors to Las Cruces thought about the odd, obscure R&R songs the Calhoon Brothers would play at what was, let's face it, a cowboy bar. Then there was the year we had a strobe light . . .

LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW