drumkit - gerald dowd
bass guitar - mike fredrickson
electric guitar - scott ligon
acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie fulks
backing vocals - k.c. mcdonough and robbie fulks

O'Rourke remarked during mix, "He needs to do an NRBQ tribute record where he plays every instrument." Scott Ligon plays only the guitar on this one, sounding more like Big Al than Rich Little sounds like Nixon. My favorite part of his soloing is the time-busting one-note stutter toward the end. I won't bore the public anymore with boasts of my illimitable fealty to the 'Q.

drumkit - gerald dowd
electric guitar, bass, keyboards - scott ligon
electric guitar solo - grant tye
vocal, acoustic guitar, Casio samples - robbie fulks
backing vocals - k.c. mcdonough

A lot of pretty obvious reference points here, but see if you can spot the Paul Young semi-quote. This was nothing but fun from first draft to last mix, and who knew it would turn out this well.

bass fiddle - john abbey
vocal and guitar - robbie fulks
vocal - kelly hogan
mandolin and fiddle - don stiernberg

Whatever conviction I have given this comes from my love for Dudley Connell's singing and for the state of Virginia, particularly the part of the Blue Ridge Mountains around Waynesboro and Charlottesville where I used to live as a boy (but those Technicolor hues continue up all the way to Washington and southwest toward Johnson City).

vocal and guitar - robbie fulks
vocal and banjo - danny barnes

A profession of love for: the banjo, sitting and picking, sacred music, the Carter Family.

drumkit - gerald dowd
bass guitar - k.c. mcdonough
acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie fulks
electric guitar - grant tye
steel guitar - brian wilkie
other voices - grant tye, jay o'rourke

Man! I feel like a dude.

drumkit and tenor vocal - gerald dowd
bass guitar - john abbey
electric and baritone guitars - grant tye
acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie fulks

A musician friend, angry at another musician for making sexual advances at his female friend, suggested that in his native Texas the concealed-carry law worked to prevent civilized norms from being chewed to shreds by garden-variety satyrs. Made me mentally enumerate all the skinny-chested sexual miscreants of my acquaintance who lacked for nothing except a good hitting; which promptly set me on the path to this Buford Pusser redneck fantasy tale.

drumkit and tenor vocal - gerald dowd
bass guitar - john abbey
electric guitar - grant tye
acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie fulks
fiddle - anne harris

One of those lay-it-on-the-line country tunes that's so uncomplicated it seems silly to try saying more. It seems harmless enough to fantasize about a world in which women are like disposable robots.

drumkit - gerald dowd
bass guitar - mike fredrickson
electric guitar - grant tye
vocal, electric guitar, keyboard - robbie fulks
backing vocals - k.c. mcdonough, ingrid graudins

We in the arts run now and then into people who can't seem to deal normally with us, once they discover our profession. It's hard to tell where admiration shades into contempt. If I am noticing this, down at my level, it must be like immersion in an acid bath for the truly star-spangled. I adopt in this song the voice of the aggrieved non-arts worker and TV watcher (left behind to nurse his wounds in South Bend) not to understand him better, but to kick him.

drumkit - gerald dowd
bass guitar - john abbey
slide guitar - robbie gjersoe
acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie fulks
organ - scott ligon

I wrote this right after Jerry Reed died -- it's one of those where the music and feel were mainly the motivaters, and the words were put down quick and dirty. Going back and forth with Gjersoe was a blast. The scratch vocal, squawked over a 58 from the control room to help the rhythm guys keep their places, sounded good so we stuck with it (I know everyone says that, but there you have it).

drumkit - gerald dowd
bass guitar - john abbey
electric and acoustic guitars and vocal - robbie fulks
organ - scott ligon
backing vocals - steve dawson and ingrid graudins

A young man sets out on an impulsive drive from his home in the metropolitan New York area to Chicago to kidnap his ex-girlfriend from her now-boyfriend, preferably with her consent; and a minor pop classic comes kicking and screaming (or maybe pulsing and keening) into our fallen world.

drumkit - gerald dowd
bass guitar - mike fredrickson
organ - scott ligon
vocal and guitar - robbie fulks
trumpet - b.j. cord
trombone - raphael crawford
sax - nate lepine

A ramble through old times, a little autobiographical only in that it mentions Wake County and a brother; but I think and hope that this sums up a mood that's widespread among the ex-young. Musically it echoes some favorites: Joe South, Jim Ford, Al Anderson.

acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie gjersoe
acoustic guitar and vocal - robbie fulks

One of the best of the fifty, in my opinion, in terms of overall effect of the recorded performance. I frequently seem to find myself headed to the airport in Houston or Dallas at 6PM Sunday morning, bleary and a little melancholy, and I guess that's why I put this sad fellow in that place.

drumkit, turntable and vocal - gerald dowd
bass guitar and vocal - lorne rall
electric guitar and vocal - grant tye
piano, organ, and vocal - joe terry
clavinet - pat brennan
vocal - robbie fulks

This J5 cover is one of my favorites from my rumored Michael Jackson tribute album (circa 2000). Dig Lorne Rall as Marlon!

drumkit - gerald dowd
bass fiddle - john abbey
electric guitar - grant tye
vocal and electric guitar - robbie fulks
organ - scott ligon
backing vocals - gerald mcclendon, scott ligon, gerald dowd, grant tye

Here is one of those songs that, as my wife said, doesn't end at where it seems to be headed. Some film that Penelope Spheeris shot of Ry Cooder singing with Cliff Givens and some others was the inspiration.