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Story Tellers
Below is the list of songs on “SWAN Songs 2010, Vol. 1” and the story that is behind it.

Track #1 - Needle and Thread  by Farrel Droke

This song was written as a tribute to my Mother’s incredible talent as a seamstress and a tailor.

 

The first verse describes my Mother sewing when I was very young – Mom sewed pretty much all of her own clothes when we were kids. When I was about to graduate from Engineering School she made me a three-piece suit I wore on many job interviews. My Mom got into the business of manufacturing wedding hats and veils after making my wife’s wedding dress. After orders for hats and veils came in from local bride shops, she opened her own business. At it’s peak she had captured about 10% for the wedding hat business in the US.

 

This song came to me as a chord sequence first followed by the melody. I knew, pretty well, the theme of the song going in and knew I wanted to tie the idea of her sewing and “making my birthday suit.”  I struggled for a long time searching for a great chorus.  “Needle and thread” finally came to me about two weeks later.

 

Track #2 - Big League Robert by Jim Madsen

Up in my adopted home state of South Dakota, there are dinky little farm towns are separated by vast stretches of farm land. And it seems that every little dinky town has a local amateur baseball team. These teams have names like the Canova Gang, Milbank Firechiefs and the Watertown Buzz.

They don’t play for fame nor money - they play because the they love the game. That became apparent one night as I watched one of the Vermillion teams practice. The more I watched them play, the more the idea for this song took hold.

 

Track #3 - Love Can Kill by Bill May

This song just sort of came to me when I was sitting around playing with a slow beat in E chord. I started thinking about opposites, Roses and thorns, sunshine and storms and that led to the whole song. I wish more would come to me that way.

 

Track #4 - Devil Won’t Dance by Gregg Standridge

Devil won't dance is three little snap shots of events in my life that all tie together.

1. Watching late night cartoons while being in a bad frame of mind and thoughts of harming myself begin to set in,
2. Folks visiting my door wanting to save me from eternal fire and damnation and
3. The loss of my younger brother.

 

Track #5 - Patience by Katie Mariah

I was in the parking lot of a Gordman's in St. Charles, Missouri, right outside of St. Louis. I had just finished up some bargain shopping walking out with about $7 of stuff that I didn't need and couldn't really afford. I needed some time to myself and shopping is always one way to do it for me. My last living great-grandmother, Grandma Price, had recently died and I was thinking about her.  We had just gone back to west Texas for the funeral. We visited the old farm house we used to go to as a kid-- maybe for the last time.

 

I have been fortunate enough to know all of my great-grandmothers. Grandma Price died right after I was married, she was the last to go. What always seemed insane to me, especially as a newlywed, was that each great grandmother lived about 20 years longer than their husbands. None of them remarried. I was too young and caught up in my own world to ever ask what that was like for them. I wrote the song in their voice like they were telling me it was okay for them, because I never heard them say that it was or wasn't, but I wanted to believe that it was. Looking back and thinking of their faith in God and strength of character, I believe the song "Patience" is how they would have described their time after my great grandfathers died. I finished most of the song in my car in that parking lot.

 

Track #6 - Frito Chili Pie by Richard “Daddy” Love

As a songwriter I am a student of human nature and write thoughtfully serious songs about life and the human condition. This is obviously NOT one of those! There's not a speck of blues, sadness or sorrow for how life's mistreated you or what you don't have in this song. "Frito Chili Pie!" is a song about being happy and thankful for the good things in your life. Finding happiness in simple everyday things like a "pair of good boots", a "job that pays the bills", family and Frito chili pies is a reminder that 'things' don't really bring happiness at all.

 

Yeah, all that's in there... listen again!

 

Track #7 - No Enemies by Jared Valouch

 

Track #8 - Between You and Me by Gene Mashburn

I often like to think of a particular artist when I write.  Between You and Me is a song I feel fits the style of Ray Price.  Please think of Ray when you listen and see if you can visualize him performing it. If you think it's befitting of his style & worthy of his talent, please forward this to him.  Tell him Gene sent it.

 

Track #9 - A Little Town in Oklahoma by Jim L. Watson

A Little Town In Oklahoma is a song written about the little town of Hitchita, OK which is located on Highway 266 in eastern OK.

 

Hitchita is about halfway between Henyretta and Checotah and is the town where I was born and lived for the first seven to eight years of my life. The words are true and describe how life was for many of us during the late thirties and early fourties. I still have many friends in the area and go back to the little town when I can.

 

Track #10 - Greatest Woman in the World by Michael Bendure

Several years ago, my wife and I spent Memorial Day watching a JAG  marathon on TV. Every commercial break featured a teaser for an upcoming awards show, and my brain started processing the music for it. Soon, I got the commercial’s “hook” entwined in my skull, then I started hearing my own mutated version of it. Once I had a distinctly original hook of my own, the words and melody for the chorus followed. By the time I hit the studio, I knew where all the fills and stops were, complete with horn section stings, and that it would be the first song on my solo album, “One Millionth Thing.” In fact, the entire music for the song was recorded before the lyrics were even finished (the demo version’s verses are just “da da da da”s). Although it’s not the most lyrically-developed song I’ve written, it’s definitely one of the catchiest ones.

 

Track #11 - Ghost in the Making by Tom Crider

The original idea for Ghost's began in the Norman public library with the intent that it would be about the risk takers who jump out of airplanes, scuba dive at night, bungee jump, etc. This changed over breakfast at IHOP with a friend who suggested it be about a long slow breakup. Which is what it ultimately became. This song is special to me because it is the first full demo I have recorded in four years. Thanks to Roy Dickenson and his Channel Something Studios and to Robert, Brittani, Zach and Roy for their expertise and musicianship.

 

Track #12 - Atmosphere and Aether by Russell Kabir

“Atmosphere and Aether” is based on one of my published poems of the same name. While taking a twilight run around campus, I was overwhelmed by a strong sense of the cyclical nature of the world. Being a freshman at the time, I was at a crossroads, forced to choose between celebrating and challenging the accomplishments of my youth.

 

I was asking myself questions, searching for the roots of my pride, uncertainty of ability and subsequent self-consciousness, wondering why I had to begin the difficult process of proving my worth again in a new environment. But it was the world that answered this call. As I did what the poem describes, sitting on benches reading their engravings, discovering the time capsule on the South Oval, passing rows of symmetrical street lamps, I felt my hubris subside in the expanse of time and space, the atmosphere and ether, surrounding me. I was swept by a powerful anagnorisis, that the renewal I was experiencing was everywhere, from the dynamics of the night’s darkness to the sun and its shadows of the day.

 

The sky was stellar, and I became aware of my place among the universe. The etchings and capsule were testaments to the human propensity for wanting to leave some imprint of their existence behind, a hope to find a way to instill some permanence, some significance, upon the earth. I, like those before me, attempted to find it through this poem and song. But more than anything, I did not want to write about myself. I wanted to express the truth, the beauty, I had stumbled upon. I was on a journey to be a smaller man, mentally and physically, and found the answer.

 

Track #13 - On the List by Tim Jennings

The song started out about getting older, middle aged, but through the years it has come to be more of a spiritual On The List.  A lot of people told me this anyway. That's one of my favorite things about writing songs, they mean different things to different people.

 

Track #14 - Nomad by John Houser

Most of my childhood I moved around to a lot of different places and thought about what would happen if that became your entire life. I decided to write a song about someone who was affected by their frequent childhood moving to where they could not settle down later in life. They may encounter points in their life where they want to stay in one spot, but in the end they realize they can’t. It really made me think about how much constantly moving around would affect the relationships we have in our lives.

 

Track #15 - Drinkin’ Til You’re Sexy by Matt Stratton

I get some of my song ideas reading the paper. There are certain words and phrases that catch my eye - such as "had been drinking" or "alcohol was involved." A few years ago I read a story about the folks at Bausch and Lomb who had commissioned a scientific study that concluded that when people have been consuming alcohol they tend to perceive members of the opposite sex as perhaps more attractive than they actually are. I could have saved them some money if they had called. But, they didn't so I wrote a song.

 

Track #16 - Reflections by John Madison

A friend, Tom Lee wanted to get a picture of my old Martin guitar and thought it would look good if I was playing it. He caught perfectly the age and beauty of the guitar and also caught perfectly the age and lack of beauty of the guitarist. I made me reflect on my reflection and hence the song.

 

Track #17 - California Bound by Darden Pierce

This song was never meant to have a serious message. It is just an escapist fantasy. Most of the words came to me during a round of golf. Maybe I just wanted to escape from my golf swing.