#11: Next Time Around(March 3, 2011)

This week's tune is "Next Time Around", and it has been a Bimini Road staple for years, over two decades really. I think of it as a sort of metaphysical corporate rant, if such a thing is possible. I do know it's one of our favorite tunes, and I really hope you'll take a moment to take a listen. We managed to get almost all the Bimini Road personnel in the room at Jason's Pub (Richard was out sick; he had a note from his wife :), and  even though we almost killed Shelley with a falling light fixture, we managed to get a really nice recording. Enjoy.

Lyrics

#14: Marie's Last Line (April 3, 2011)

This week's tune (number 14 in the series) is "Marie's Last Line". Bimini Road has been doing this tune for over a decade. It came to me one day while we were just sitting around, noodling on some music, as we are wont to do. Probably segued out of something in the key of E, and I dropped into this quasi-John Lee Hooker walking blues. A one chord, walking, talking blues is just a lot of fun to play with and see what happens. What happened this time was a tune about a hypothetical girl who has a certain air. "When I ask why she talks to me/ She says, "I don't know. Just because." Ruthie, Clark and Jason help out on the tune, and Shelley plays some (as usual) tasty mandolin.

lyrics

#12: King Blue and Pearly (March 20, 2011)

This week's tune is "King Blue and Pearly". It's a little story about these two people. Well, it's a kind of involved story about these two people.

lyrics

#13: Straight Downhill (March 27, 2011)

This week's tune (number 13 in the series) is "Straight Downhill". I was sitting in Berkeley Bob's coffeehouse back in January, waiting for Claire Lynch to play. Steve Norris came in talking about a gig his bluegrass band (The Overalls) had done recently. He pulled out a $20 bill and said "Some guy in the audience wrote a request on this twenty and sent it up to the band." I said that would be a bad suggestion for me, I probably wouldn't know the song. And just like that, the line came into my head: "You can write a bad suggestion on a $20 bill/ My brother might not do it, but Lord, you know I will". I went to the back of the cafe, and wrote most of the lyrics to Straight Downhill (not the original title) while I was waiting for the music to start. The melody was always just sorta "there", like it so often is always "sorta there."  Ruthie, Clark and Jason help out on the tune. We have a feeling this song is kinda special.

lyrics

#15: Autumn Hurricane (April 10, 2011)

This week's tune is "Autumn Hurricane". Brand new song, written just a few weeks ago. Honed it a little, smoothed it out some. The riff between verses is what drives it, in my mind at any rate. A bit philosophical, admittedly. But you may want to do with that what the song's protagonist does: just don't think about it anymore.

lyrics