Cherikee Red is a mostly true story of growing up with a father who liked to have a beer with the boys on pay day. My mother would track him down and send me and/or my sister and brother in to get him out. (Guess that’s why I was so good at being a bouncer later in life. I could talk people out of bars and not cause a scene.) However, this story is about sharing in the experience with my dad by having a cherry soda while he enjoyed his beer. He eventually came around to Mama’s way of thinking, but it took time.

I’ve heard it said, you should write what you know. I’ve also heard it said that you shouldn’t write about your dog or a pet. Taking both things under advisement, I wrote, I’m Just Missin’ You. I wrote the song a day after our dog, Quincy, passed away. He was 14 and a great dog who had been with us since he was a puppy. He was like family. Of course, I couldn’t sleep that night and the song kinda documents the emotion of losing a loved one.

I think the song will resonate with anyone who has lost someone close to them. At least, that is my hope.

I love sweet potatoes. My wife, Dana, makes great sweet potato dishes of various kinds. I wrote Sweet Potato Pie mostly as a pencil sharpener-a song written just for the fun of it to keep the pencil sharp and be productive. I had fun with it and I hope you do too. If I make you smile a little, I’ve accomplished my goal with this song.

I think anyone who has ever been lost in the routine of parenthood can relate to this song. We get caught up in the daily routine of life and rarely get to visit with our spouses. There is so much to be coordinated, planned out, paid, delivered, attended and accomplished that we end up boxing out the marriage. This song is a “timeout” call for parents of sorts. “We Have To Start Meeting Like This”

new improved version of Make Room. Changed the second verse and the bridge. The Christmas version was ok, but this version makes it more universal and a year-round song, I think.

So, the photography director where I work, (Jeff Otto) comes into my office one day and tells me he has a song idea-really just a chorus, he says-that might have potential. “If love had a color it would be Farmall Red and if love had a smell it would be baking bread.” He went on to discuss how the idea came to him in conversations with his wife. The idea stuck with me and I split the two ideas into their own verses and added a verse and bridge. I like the way it turned out and invite Jeff to swing by my office with ideas whenever he wants.

A friend of mine was headed to rehab for treatment for her alcoholism. She told me that everything she heard about the place seemed really nice. The only thing she thought she’d be missing was happy hour. Of course, that sparked a thought in my head and I wrote the lyric. It’s taken a while to pare it down to the final version here. 

I Can’t Move - feeling unable to find the energy to go about my daily routine one day, I opened up the Bible and started reading. I found inspiration and started writing until I had the lyric for this song. It’s easy to find energy for living when you consider the source and tap into it daily. He keeps me going when I can’t move on my own.

So Long Blues is sung and co-written by Rosie Flores along with Pat Gallagher. I had the lyric mostly written and I took it to Pat. He came up with a melody and said it would be a good song to finish writing with Rosie. She was just back in Nashville after a trip to London where she had broken her hand in an accident. She had her hand set so she could still hold a pick. Her hand was still in a brace when we wrote this song. We wrote and recorded this song at the kitchen table on a hand held tape recorder. There is a “ghost” track on the recording where Rosie tried to stop and start over, but the song continues.

Make Room is a song I wrote while on Christmas break 2010. I was thinking about the Christmas story and how the season has evolved to include so much that really doesn’t matter in the end and doesn’t pertain to Jesus and his birth. I wanted to cut to the heart of the meaning of Christmas while conducting a self inspection and clearing out my own heart to make room for him. The idea and words came together rather quickly. There has been some tweaking of lyrics here and there. I hope it resonates with you and challenges you to make room.

Just Like Going Home - I wrote this song for Vietta Hoover. She was a treasure. A sweet lady who reminded me a lot of my mother. They were from the same part of Pennsylvania. After my mother passed away, I found myself looking forward to going to church and talking with Vietta during fellowship time. I loved talking with her because it was just like going home. Vietta passed away last week at the age of 84.  I was asked to do a song at her funeral. I wrote this one to honor her and, hopefully, bring some peace to her family.

Alimony is a song I wrote as an exercise-to keep my pencil sharp. I’ve never been nor have any plans to ever be divorced. On the contrary, I love my wife with all my heart and plan to be with her till I kick the bucket.

I heard someone say that paying alimony was like buying hay for a dead horse. The idea stuck in my head and I imagined how the rest of his story must play out. It made sense to give it an old school melody.

Allegheny was originally going to be titled Alabama, but my co-writer, Pat Gallagher suggested that there are too many songs about Alabama and we should build a song closer to the truth anyway. I grew up in Pennsylvania, so we titled the song Allegheny and took it from there. I just had a strong melody in mind with a 4 syllable place name to start with. We drew from some real life experiences I had had to come up with the lyric that made sense. I almost considered having some piano on this and may re-record one day with piano.

Down In Front, is a song I wrote while watching Mad About You tv show. Paul Riser’s character was trying to buy tickets to a broadway show for his wife (Helen Hunt) and he got two front row tickets but they were at opposite ends of the front row. I took some liberties with the location and built a song around a similar idea.

It’ll probably never gain critical acclaim or major label interest, but it’s a song I’m glad I crafted and one I enjoy playing out. Hope you like it too?