Here is the definitive Steve James solo album his fans have been waiting for:
Short Blue Stories
Available from stevejames.com
Song notes by Steve James
The Original High/Low Stomp...The song started it's life late one spring night as a beer-soaked slide mandolin solo and soon morphed into what you hear on this opening track. I overdubbed (that's right. I overdubbed!) the slide guitar and mandolin over the basic guitar and vocal track. The lyrical image is that of a travelling stranger walking into a dark bar in West Texas on a hot afternoon. Was it me? Uh-uh! Nope. Not a chance. Lyrics.
Folk Radio...Dedicated to the jocks who air the "Folkways" program on KUT-fm in Austin; and to folk music programmers around the world. Keep the faith, y'all. Lyrics.
Latex Road...Another slide 12-string instrumental based on a Leadbelly tune; in this case, "Poor Howard" (with a little "Cricket On The Hearth" thrown in). The Latex Road in question crosses the Louisiana/Texas border just north of Shreveport. I go that way sometimes to visit the cemetery behind Shiloh Baptist Church where Mr. Ledbetter is taking his rest.
Worried Blues...This king-daddy country blues was originally recorded in 1926 by Frank Hutchison, one of the greatest of the hillbilly blues cats. His lyrics. My slide guitar part.
Why The Blues Don't Worry Me...I wrote this about 30 years ago, this was eventually recorded by Dave Van Ronk...one of the original standard bearers for the retro-post-modern boho blues army. He said he couldn't play it is good as me. But he could. Lyrics.
Reckon I Did...I sat up late one night in a hotel room at a Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis playing guitar and mandolin and singing with the excellent Jonathan Byrd, who wrote this song. That's how I get my kicks. Thank you, JB.
Slide Mandolin...This short vignette is meant to be played just before the NPR news comes on. For the concept of split-course open tuning for mandolin, I would like to acknowledge my colleague Matt Circely of Port Townsend,Washington. It's a unique sound which should be quite enjoyable...unless you're a cat.
Dough Roller...When I grow up, I want to be like Garfield Akers. He engraved only four titles in 1929/'30...but he sure made every note count. Despite his small recorded output he was pretty famous back in the day (ostensibly taught John Lee Hooker's father to play guitar!). This was, I think, his warrior piece. Took some nerve on my part to cover it, lemme tell ya.
New Precious Five...It's the "Dirty Dozens" again! Del Rey and I did a version of this primal blues insult song on our "Tonight" album, but forgot to include the verse about the chicken, which bugged me. I feel better now.
Birmingham Steel...Here's a duet from the Seattle sessions with Del Rey, who has a knack for coming up with cool harmony parts on both vocal and guitar. I don't write a whole lot of songs, partly because I wish they could all come out like this one. Lyrics.
Sparky's Tune...This was originally supposed to be funny but wound up being the saddest thing I ever wrote. Thanks to my old pal Ana Egge for giving me the musical idea that made a song out of my scribbles; also to my heroes Lonnie Johnson and Scrapper Blackwell whose signature guitar licks I boosted for the turnaround. Lyrics.
Judge Harsh Blues...Ever have something happen to you and not realize exactly how wonderful it was until years later? Well, I got to play with Furry Lewis. That's where I learned this song, among many other things.
The Same Thing Could Happen To You...Only Lazy Lester could write a verse like the one about the toenails in this jailhouse jukeroo. The twin guitar sound is just me and Del having fun.
Factory Girl...Yep, a Rolling Stones song! It's from their "Beggar's Banquet " LP...one of the few bright spots in the pop culture of 1969 which, despite what people my say now, was a pretty grim year.
The Right Thing To Do...Del and I still maintain that "rock'n'roll" was invented by Frank Stokes and Dan Sane. We're acting out on that notion on this country blues with Cajun flavoring.
Why The Blues Don't Worry Me (part two)...Thirty years later, the blues still don't worry me. All's I've got is a somewhat refined idea of why not. That, and a better guitar part.
Recording notes
Work on this album started in August 2007 when Del Rey and I were recording some duet tracks in the studios of the Jack Straw Foundation in Seattle. At one point, Del decided that she wanted the stuff that featured her uke and vocals for her solo "Blue Uke" project (Hobemian HBO12). That left me with with three tracks of twin guitars with me singing lead, including two songs I'd written for the sessions and our arrangement of a tune originally waxed by Lazy Lester. Back home in Austin the following month, I got to work on a new solo record.
A laudable development in that direction was the opening of Rich Brotherton's Ace Recording Studio. It's a compact, sophisticated facility, and Rich, a stellar musician and engineer who I've known for years, mans the board himself. It's also three blocks from my place in South Austin; so I could walk to work and back with a brace of guitars and mandolins bungee-corded to a rolling luggage carrier. Sessions had to be arranged spontaneously around Rich's and my respective tour schedules; and I was a little more into taking my time than I have been on previous projects, so it was June of 2008 before the entire sequence was recorded, mixed and ready for mastering.
The basic recording set-up involved an AKG 451 and a Neumann KM 184 for the instruments; we swapped 'em around a little depending on what kind of guitar or mandolin we were using. A Neumann U 87 served for vocals. For an ambient depth of sound, instead of some kind of digital reverb, we set up an Audio Technica 4481 in the tiled bathroom that adjoins the studio...and tried to remember to leave the door open! Tube pre-amplification augmented the magic of Pro-Tools. Of course, everything "bled" like crazy, which I like, but we wound up getting a good set of mixable signals.
The Jack Straw tracks were noticeably "drier" than what we were getting at Ace, so we moistened them up a little by playing them back at a fairly high volume while recording the "room sound" on the ambient mic in the tub and mixing in that signal. Very high tech!
Since I could run back home at will to get more stuff, and since Brotherton and I are both still pretty childish about guitars, we wound up using a stack of instruments on these sessions (as per the liner notes of the CD). I got a lot of mileage out of my two Collings guitars...a mahogany OM and my trusty old black C-10 custom. Likewise, the wooden Reso-rocket prototype and resonator mandolin from National Resophonic got used a lot. We also snuck in a few vintage pieces and, of course, the big thunder of the long-scale, low-tuned 12 string I got from British builder Ralph Bown.
I know all this technical stuff and bandying about of brand names is of supreme interest to the average listener (and a real chick-magnet to boot!), but I'm going to digress and say a little bit about the actual songs and music on the disc.
Lyrics
The Original High/Low Stomp
(S. James Pork Chop Music/BMI)
The bartender had a henna dye-job, eyeliner and a rat tattoo.
I was gettin’ the hairy eyeball from the boys in the black playin’ pool.
Beer over here if you please I said, and put a couple more on ice
it was a hundred and four when I walked in the door
too hot to be nothin’ but nice
I come a long way to get here (hey) which gave me a powerful thirst
but I ain’t gonna cause no ruction ‘less somebody ruction first
I ain’t slackin’ ain’t packin’ neither would I rob nor steal
but as long as I got your attention, lemme tell you ‘bout how I feel
higher than a colorado mountain, lower than the bottom of the sea
shouldn’t make you no difference. Sure makes none to me
low high high low
whicha way the wind gonna blow?
Oh yeah! Oh no! Good to be here. Gotta go.
Low as the snakes among the cypress knees. Higher than the monkeys in the bo-banana trees.
Talk all you want to the deputies. Just don’t say nothin’ ‘bout me.
Low high high low
whicha way the river gonna flow
oh yeah! oh no! Good to be here. Gotta go.
Folk Radio
(S. James Pork Chop Music/BMI)
I had a good time last friday night
stayed up until half past four
I got up late on saturday morning
turned on folk radio
you can always tell folk radio
dj has such a soft voice
while all the other djs
yell and scream and make a lot of noise
you hear bluegrass and irish music
country blues and and cajun bands
and folksingers who write lyrics
this poor boy can’t understand
these folksingers come to my town
driving tiny fuel efficient cars
they got stickers on their bumpers
peak limiters on their guitars
that’s alright that’s alright
folksinger sing on
sing that one about the sunrise
that’s fifteen verses long
folksingers live up in the mountains
I’m down here in the low down low
I get up saturday mornng
to turn on folk radio
Why The Blues Don’t Worry Me (parts one & two)
(S. James Pork Chop Music/BMI)
Since my baby left me I been drinkin’ and gummin’ cocaine
now I feel so good I hope she never comes back again
some people get the blues and you see ‘em with their head hung down
but when I get the blues you see me kickin’ my gong around
they make beer in milwaukee good whiskey in tennessee
that’s the reason why the blues don’t worry me
Looks like the blues has come back in style
everybody’s got ‘em, even millionaires
over love, work and money, loaded down with cares
not me. I always wear a smile
it’s a sad old world. That’s plain to see
but the blues don’t worry me
some people got the blues about love
goin’ out of their mind ‘cause true love’s so hard to find
not me. I don’t feel so bad.
You can’t miss what you never had
I got here alone, I’ll be alone when I leave
the blues don’t worry me
some people got the blues ‘cause they’re workin’ themself to death.
Stayin’ so busy they can’t catch their breath
not me. I feel just fine. Ain’t had a j-o-b since back in ‘79
a j-o-b can give you the blues you see
but the blues don’t worry me
money and all them fine things
houses, cars and diamond rings
never had much. Guess I never will
but I got enough here to pay my bill.
Keep the change. Can’t you see
the blues don’t worry me.
(S. James Pork Chop Music/BMI)
Waitin’ up one night on the number sixteen
in a station so dark where Willie used to sing
so dark and still it could make you feel
blue as the night and cold as a rail made of birmingham steel
I thought I heard mister henry cry
all the track I laid bulldozed aside
go on home I heard an auctioneer say
the bid is closed everybody knows
how much they’re gonna pay
until the day they tear the good road down
I’ll take my trade from town to town
I don’t care much for the things i see
that’s alright there’s no place else
for people like me
by the seed in the ground and the fish in the sea
and the coal black coal down below my feet
and the faded sign above the station door
when the train leaves town it ain’t coming down
this good road no more
and when it’s gone there’ll be no tombstone
just miner’s blood and fisherman’s bones
and farmer’s sweat and an engineer’s wheel
lower ‘em down with a chain made of birmingham steel
Sparky’s Tune
(S. James Pork Chop Music/BMI)
Why was you born? Do you ever stop and wonder?
Why was you born? When everybody’s havin’ fun but you,
You’re wishin’ you could have some too. But every time
You paint the town, the whole place winds up blue.
Why was you born?
Why are you here? Where is everyone? Why are you here?
What’s become of the sun they said would surely shine today.
It just never seemed to happen like so many things that people
Say. Why are you here?
You made that long, hard climb to find it’s just as sad at the top.
You met your lifelong hero; that drunken loud-mouthed fop.
Why was you born? Do you ever stop and wonder?
Why was you born? That’s somethin’ you may never know.
And maybe it’s better so. You’ll have time to think it over
Tonight when you go home. Why was you born?
The Right Thing To Do
(S. James Pork Chop Music/BMI)
What you gonna do when the blues comes around
Get on the bus go go downtown
Go downtown just to get a lttle taste
Get so drunk you fall on your face
The whole damn thing goes up in smoke
Spin me a yarn tell me a joke
Tell me another one I’ll laugh until I choke
Then I ‘ll tell one back to you
Seems like the right thing to do
Hear me holler hear me shout
Open up the window let the bad air out
Open that window shut that door
Blues stay away trouble no more
May be right may be wrong
May be time to sing another song
Sing me the one about all night long
I’ll sing one back to you
Seems like the right thing to do
Ain’t no need of me workin’ so hard
Cows in the corn chickens in the yard
Taters in the ground ‘maters on the vine
Pass that jug quit your cryin’
Cows in the corn chickens on the loose
All those chickens comin’ home to roost
Fry that chicken cook my goose
Would sing more but it ain’t no use
Cards won’t play money won’t spend
All good things gotta come to an end
All good things gonna come around again
I’m gonna come around too
Seems like the right thing to do
