Description
Mary January - inspired by a friend of Eveline's whom she brought home with her from work one night. a delightful and lovely woman with that unlikely name. I immediately told her I loved the name and wanted to write a song with it, if she didn't mind. Then I never saw her again. Turns out she didn't. for the next ten years or so I faithfully put the title in every new writing notebook and then never delivered on the title. Nothing would come to me to write about using that name, so I waited. Then one night in Nashville during the National Folk Alliance, I got an idea for it. It would be about this woman that no one knew. She's sort of anonymous, and then she passes away …and Father MacKendzie's wiping his hands as he walks from the grave… Hey, wait a minute. I think that's already been done…and quite well too. So another few weeks passed by and then I thought, "I know, -- I'll write a science fiction song, wherein, MJ is this non descript woman that no one ever really notices until she mysteriously disappears. So you see, it is her very disappearance that makes her noticed. See the irony?I loved it and went write to work, heh heh. One morning in March, I got up, put the lyrics in front of me and picking up my guitar, came up with the melody. I put it on tape and went to check my email. The first message was from an mjanuary. Amazing I thought. I just finished a song called Mary January. Well, imagine my surprise when I opened the post and it was from the very Mary January who had inspired the song. She said that she hadn't thought of me in years, but for some reason I kept popping into her mind during the last two months, so she went on line and checked out my webpage and sent me a post. Then she went on to say that she hoped to sometime in the near future see Eveline and I. Love, Mary January.
p.s. did you ever write that song?
I was floored. I immediately emailed her, copied Eveline and went on to actually call Mary January and incoherently try to tell her how excited and amazed I was. I left all the numbers and the email addys and never heard from her again. Weird. Maybe she found the door, Eveline said.
This Fleeting Moment - was originally written by Tom Dundee, one of the dearest friends of my life, who tragically passed away on April 17, 2006. No fellow has ever been closer to my heart than Tom. We had a memorial concert for him at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago and I was honored to be the host. About fifty artists paid tribute to Tom. It is a song that my old Chicago friend, Haskel Levi told me about and suggested I sing at the memorial. He tried to play me a very distorted and poorly recorded version of it, but it was truly undecipherable. Then he sent me the lyrics, and I hoped Jim Tulio or someone would send me the melody, which didn't arrive until the day I left for Chicago. In the meantime, I wrote another melody loosely based upon what I could remember of the cassette that Haskel played me. I tried to keep it faithful to what Tom would have done, and played it for Cosy Sheridan and TR Ritchie, who told me that Tom told him that the song was a work in progress, so I think I've done right by Tom. It is, at this point, my favorite song of all the songs that I've ever been involved with.
Let the Tree Fall - When my mother passed, it was not a surprise as she had been ill for a few years and was failing. So I thought I was prepared. I couldn't have been more wrong. Her passing hit me so hard that it took six months before I realized that I was depressed. Every flat surface in my office and studio had stuff on it that I hadn't gotten around to taking care of, while I was evidently playing some seven thousand games of solitaire. I just didn't know how much pain and grief was involved in losing a parent. This song came out of that. I didn't want to write a "poor me"kind of song. I wanted to compose a celebration of my mother and a little comfort for all of us. I hope this helps.
Nothing (To Keep You On My Mind) - sometimes you just have to give into your petulant side. This lyric was actually started years ago, inspired by a lovely woman who took my heart and stomped that sucker flat. I wrote this then and quite serpendipitiously found the lyric as I was working on another song at the piano last year. The lyrics were in the piano bench. Amazing. I wrote it in drop d tuning in the hopes that john batdorf and I would perform it on our "all wood and stones"tours. John's favorite configuration is the drop d. He told me that his second Batorf and Rodney album was all written in drop d. That's love.
The Street Where Mercy Died - as I watched the tragedy of Katrina unfold and witnessed the incredible lack of leadership, vision, focus and expertise demonstrated by the Bush administration, this song came out of my rage. The song says it all.
The World We Left Behind - this song has a rather strange nascency. Originally a love song that i wrote as i was finishing up work on the Hamilton Camp CD, Sweet Joy. The chorus went, "do you ever think about me?do i ever cross your mind?" A simple unrequited love song. Hamilton's response was, "why write a song that's already been written hundreds of times. you've got things to say, so say them." this was in the weeks following the Katrina debacle as the inept and incompetent Bush administration floundered. Hamilton left the studio and i sat down and wrote these lyrics and fired them off to him. he wrote back the next day and said he loved the new lyrics. within twenty four hours he was dead of a heart ailment we never even knew about. this is for him. he and i shared many a heated discussion of the bush administration, who have not been able to put New Orleans back together by January of 2007. Meanwhile we can spend hundreds of billions of dollars on an illegal war, founded on lies told to us by a corrupted and misguided regime. I weep for my country. And I weep for our future. Unless we can somehow turn around what Bush and his cronies have created, we and our children will be paying for this for our entire lives. talk to me at the political listerpies site if you want to get into it.
Change - Somehow I still believe in the innate goodness of people and the conscience of the American people, and for that matter, all peoples of the world. My wife believes that the universe will not tolerate unbalance. I hope she's right. And I hope that this song comes true. I wrote it in while trying to channel the beatles, blackbird days, to be exact. i wanted the guitar to harmonize with my voice on the melody.
Change
when are we going to change?
when are we going to live and let be?
when are we going to see
it isn't them, it's you and me;
nobody else can set us free.
when are we going to learn?
what will it take for you and me
to follow the path and find the key
to live here in peace eternally
when are we going to change?
when are we going to change?
when are we going to change?
when will we see not black and white,
but all of the colours shining so bright?
when will we see the light?
as easy to tell the day from the night.
it's easy to see what's wrong from what's right.
so when are we going to learn?
why do we follow helplessly
leaders so blind? why must we be
lemmings who rush into the sea?
when are we going to learn?
when are we going to learn?
when are we going to change
when will we see what we must know
we always reap what we sow
we plant all the seeds and watch them grow
we're moving in faith and still don't know
when we are going to change
INSTRUMENTAL VERSE
i know we're going to change
i know one day we'll live in peace
and will we finally to see
there is no "them", just you and me;
nobody else can set us free.
and we are going to learn
and we are going to see
and we are going to change
Words and Music by: James Lee Stanley
November 5, 2005
Credits:
James Lee Stanley, vocals, guitars, kalimba and marimba
Scott Breadman, percussion
Ken Lyon, bass
Equipment:
I have been blessed with several remarkable guitars, a 1995 Herring Bone Collings D-2, a Martin D-28H, a Taylor 810ce, a David Russell Young Dreadnaught, but for this particular album I mainly used the Taylor with the Expressive System pick up. While i mic'd several things with an akg 414 (modified by Stephen Paul), I frequently just plugged into the board thru my James Demeter Pre amp. The board is a DAyner from D&Ra Dutch company. I've used the board since The Envoy in 1994. I love the sound of it and the ease of use. The computer is a custom built PC and for this project I used the Cubase SX for recording. I have all the outboard gear and plug ins that I can find, buy, borrow, etc. The monitor speakers are my old faithful Yamaha NS10m's. If you can make it sound good on those, it will sound good on anything.