Better Life

Better Life (3 Apr 2023) Taken from the simple concept of the Illegal Immigrant crisis. Everyone is seeking a better life. It is the same with the Africans coming to Europe, or my ancestors 400 years ago, leaving Europe to go to America for a Better Life.

No Plan B (02 November 2022) Inspired by a comment made in an interview with a country music newcomer, Lainey Wilson. Her album Bell Bottom Country had just come out, and this was before all the awards. It hit home because that was my own situation when I joined the Navy at 18. I never considered another option because I told myself at 14 that I would not work in a factory or a sawmill, the only two opportunities in my hometown.

Elly And Sam (26 April 2023) The idea for this song came from some TV show or movie I had seen. I wrote the lyrics from memory of that conversation. It was a very powerful scene.

She's One Bridge I Don't Want To Burn (10 Aug 2023-Pullman City Eging) This is the first of two Pullman City songs. Each time I play there, it's always two nights, so on the second day, I write two songs after breakfast in the room before I head out for my first beer. The title and theme were taken from a line in a Merle Haggard song-Too Many Highways from his album “1996”.

What Am I Gonna Do (20 April 2023) Part of this story is true. I walked into a hardware store and saw my Uncle's brother-in-law sitting there. I hadn't seen him in 10 years, but he remembered me. And his wife had just died, and he looked like a "lost puppy." I used a different name out of respect, and I'm kin to some Dollarhites in the county.

Ricky And The Draft (30 April 2023) When I was in the 8^th grade (1968), a fellow in some of my classes was 18. He wasn't stupid, and rumor was he was staying at school to avoid the draft. I joined the Navy before our draft lottery was even chosen. I was in Bootcamp with several guys who had joined the Naval Reserves rather than be drafted by the Army. I was at the same Recruit Training Center when Nixon announced the end of Vietnam, and many guys got their orders canceled to ships in the war zone.

Anybody Here Seen Julie (2 April 2023) I had written down this song title idea several years ago. I was just messing around with a Waylon-style rhythm one evening, and this story flowed out. Several Waylon songs had this change of tempo signature, so I had to wait for Marty Stuart's old drummer Gregg Stocki's visit to Germany in August to get him to help with the track. The shooting of the jukebox comes from an old Jerry Clower joke about Marcel Ledbetter's Talking Chainsaw.

Don't Pay Becky No Mind (21 September 2023): I needed one more song to finish the album. We had been on vacation and I was overdosing on John Prine music and interviews/Videos. I was writing down quirky things that I had seen or heard on the vacation, so when I came back, I took those ideas to try to write a John Prine style song. In the early 70's Tom T. Hall had a song out titled "Pay No Attention to Alice", she's drunk all time….I used to sing it. Always kept in mind as a song idea.

Pilson Boy (10 August 2023-Pullman City) The 2^nd Pullman City Song. It started out from a hook "she stopped crossing the oceans, when he would not even cross the street" BUT that never worked and it got cut from the song. The phase "you made your own bed" was uttered by my Mama many times.

Coming Out (18 August 2022) Got two songs out of this one, but this was the original idea for my Stolen Dreams album. I changed the theme from Coming Out of the Closet to leaving an abusive man and made the song "Packed Up In One Day" was taken from a line of an episode of Stranger Things.

Bob And The Mirror (16 Nov 2022) The two drunks looking a mirror is an old joke I have told for 20 years. Thought it was time to make it a song. It's a coincidence that the name Bob was my Navy roommate and Best Man at my wedding. So I changed the names of two other guys to Dave and Vic, who we all were stationed together in 1973.

Someone Else's Life (20 August 2023-Prague) This actually happened this past summer in Prague just off from the Charles Bridge. I was smoking a cigar and having a drink at our hotel bar. The next night I mentioned the incident to the waitress and she indicated it was not the first time it had happened! I kept thinking about her all the night, figured it warranteong.

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BETTER LIFE

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