MFMS Story

My Friends-My Songs

You are listening to”Tucson” featuring Lonnie Dale-USA”

Texas Has Got It All (May 2015) From the album “On The Road With Merle” featuring Doug Deforest-USA: This song started with a conversation with my wife about two of friends that had moved to Round Rock Texas during the same month. My wife went shopping and an hour later I had written to the song! THINGS TO KNOW..Google "Round Rock Texas" and the #1 attraction is the "Donut Shop"!

Tucson: (September 2004) From the album “The Crooked Road” featuring Lonnie Dale-USA: I was doing a weekend exhibition at a Hyundai Dealer playing 15 minutes every hour for 7 hours (Saturday and Sunday). This was to advertise the new small SUV “TUCSON”. During my 45 minute breaks I was staring at the window looking at the Police Headquarters for Stuttgart and looking back at the new Tucson directly in front of me. This went on for a few hours and I knew there that to be a song in there somewhere. I wrote the song during the breaks and that evening finished the melody and song structure. I played the song the next day! THINGS TO KNOW: The guitar riff is something I stole from a Willie Nelson song, who stole it from some Mexican guitar wizard…actually I’ve heard it in several songs!!

Your Honky Tonk Angel (March 2012) From the album “American Troubadour” featuring Donna Ray-USA: This song was written originally as a "Girl Song".Fellow "Singer of the Year" Gitty Bauersfeld mentioned she needed a duet for an upcoming project, so I re-wrote the lyrics to work as Man-Woman song. I love shuffles and I love Honky-Tonk and I was able to incorporate both into this song! This song has already been released on Obermain's "Das schonest Country Duett" CD in 2013. THINGS TO KNOW: I remember a line from a song about a couple going out to party and agreeing to take off their wedding rings!!

Remember the Alamo: (Sept 2001) From the album “On The Road With Merle” featuring Danny Wünschel-Germany: The title came to me as I leaving work and I wrote the story of the song on the 20 minute drive home. It went thru some wild versions before I cleaned it up a bit. I had to have REAL Mexican’s Trumpets on it. At the time I lived in Stuttgart Germany and there was a group "Mariachi Acapulco” from Guadalajara Mexico that played in a local Mexican Restaurant . THINGS TO KNOW: Nothing about this song is true, but I’m singing about my guitar pickin’ bud, Dan McCoy as my friend that lives 60 miles from San Antonio. I’m proud of the line “they were 2 sheets to wind”. I thought if “3 sheets to the wind” is totally drunk so I made them a bit more sober when we picked them up!!” This song appeared on my "Daddy Was A Factory Man" CD in 2005

Countyline (Mar 2019) From the album “Back Home Again” featuring Daniel T. Coates-USA: Inspired by a line in a Verlon Thompson song, I took an old idea of song to make Countyline.   My childhood home is closer to the Henry County line than to the town of Stuart which is the county seat for Patrick County. Most everybody around home worked in Henry County where all the factories were located. Patrick County was extremely conservative and didn’t have Sunday Beer sales, but every county on its border did! The also had the VFW Hall that had live music every Saturday night, which I went to often starting at 16.   The line about blowing my horn as I crossed into my county when coming home to visit is very accurate.

Time For The Blues (2011) From the album “Ruby’s Cafe” featuring Helt Oncale-USA
I'm not a Blues guy and will never pretend to be. But I've always liked songs like Milk Cow Blues, Lovesick Blues, etc....those songs that go a bit beyond 3 chords. I was trying to learned some blues chord progressions and downloaded a practice track. The more I played it, the more I like it....then I thought I should right a real BLUES song using this old standard blues progression. THINGS TO KNOW: The duet part was offered to 5 different singers before I finally found someone true to their word....Thank You Vivien Searcy!

Airport Love Story: (March 2006) From the album “The Crooked Road” featuring Stan Silver-USA: ONE LINE She was looking down her nose at my cowboy boots”….came to me around January 2006, but I put it in the back of my mind because I wasn’t in a songwriting mood. A couple months later, riding the elevator up to our apartment, the LINE came back…That was a clear message that the SONG was ready to be written. All the rest of song is from an imaginary story of meeting this woman at an airport bar and enjoying a drink with her. Something not to far fetched, plus I did NOTHING WRONG!! THINGS TO KNOW: I wrote two melodies for this song; an up tempo and a ballad. I sent out both demos to about six DJ’s and several other songwriters asking for their advice on which version they liked best. In less than seven days, pen to paper, Roy Cost (DJ Arkansas) played the ballad version on his radio program and the same day Joyce Ramagatie (DJ Netherlands) played the up-tempo version!!. By the way there was a toss-up between who liked which version!!

14 Days (Jul 22) From the album “Stolen Dreams” featuring Vivien Searcy-Sweden
This is pretty much a direct transcription of a conversation over dinner with a sweet young 2^nd cousin. We made Facebook contact a couple of years ago as part of my family tree research. While on a visit to my hometown in May/Jun this year, I invited her to dinner to finally meet her. She was somewhat complaining about her love life, and halfway through dinner, I smiled and told her she was giving me a song.

Down To The Islands: (June 2002) From the album “Ruby’s Cafe” featuring Andy Förster-Germany: We were on vacation to the beautiful Greek Island of Crete. On the airplane ride back to Stuttgart Germany, I was looking at the blue ocean and wonderful weather and I thought about a young man living in Nebraska where the wintertime is long, cold and harsh!...and all this guy wants is some sun! From this idea the song was born! THINGS TO KNOW: The line "Ground Hog Day" comes form the movie by the same name, were everyday was the same!

I Play Country Music: (July 2009). From the album “The Crooked Road” featuring Travis Truitt-USA: I love Country Shuffles…they’re great two steppers and fun to play…but up until now, I had never written one….I wanting to write an introduction kinda song. So I just rolled all the ideas into one…It’s also one of 8 songs I wrote in 2009 at Pullman City’s Eging and Härz on my day off between shows. THINGS TO KNOW: Webb and Ray or course is Webb Pierce and Ray Price, the two kings of the Country Shuffle sound in the 1950’s.!

The Country Store (Sept 2022) From the album “Stolen Dreams” featuring Helmut Limbeck-Germany: This song is autobiographical. It describes my childhood hangout and country boy university. Its all basically true. Things To Know: I repeated the line in every chorus “where I learned to judge the character of men, Because I did!

Thursday Night (Jun 2021) Original Recording from the album “Burning Of Tulsa” featuring Tina Spears-USA: Thursday Night was the maids day off in the Tulsa OK. The could go back to their families for one day a week, as the lived on the white folks’ property and cooked and cleaned for the other six days. Not much was written about, but I found an interesting footnote of “Life in Greenwood”.

Ruby's Cafe: (March 2009) From the album “Ruby’s Cafe” featuring Thomas Schönheiter-Germany: I actually did wake up thinking of the idea of a young man bumming around and getting taken in by a career waitress at a cafe/diner.   Two points. One was finding a typical name for a waitress and I settled on Ruby and "2" was where to locate this guy 20 year later and give a good reason he had not visited again....the answer Key West Florida... THINGS TO KNOW: The "Parkway Grill" was an old beer joint just over the county-line back home!!

Get That Crap Out Of My Country (2012) From the album “Ruby’s Cafe” featuring Andy Keinath -Germany: This is another Country Music Political Statement. I don't like artists and labels screwing with Country music. I spent too many years of my youth defending Country Music, before Country was cool.   When I see new artists like Jason Aldean joining up with a RAP Artist, you know for sure, its just some record exec trying to push him to the POP market and not giving a damn about the Country Fans.   It's not like RAP artist are inviting Country singers on their projects.

On The Road With Merle (September 2016) From the album “On The Road With Merle” featuring Hermann Lammers Meyer-Germany: Haggard's "Sing Me Back Home" is the singular reason I became a country singer. Merle was my main musical hero. I have almost every Album and CD that he ever recorded. I can play a four hour show of pure Merle Haggard songs, totally from memory. Although it was inevitable that someday "he'd be lying in a field of stone", I feared how I would handle the news which came on his 79th birthday. This song is my musical journey with the HAG, as if I was right there with him!

Crooked Road: (September 2007). From the album “The Crooked Road” featuring Norbert Dengler-Germany: Virginia has a designated trail titled “The Crooked Road” to celebrate the musical heritage of Virginia Musicians (Carter Family, Ralph Stanley, etc). The Crooked Road begins in Ferrum Virginia some 30 miles away and runs through Patrick Country. We were visiting my hometown in January 2007 and we staying in the Virginian Motel directly in the town of Stuart. I spent several hours looking out at Bull Mountain. I also got the chance to play at one of the “Crooked Road” venues in Willis Gap on the North Caroline border. I wrote most of the song while looking out the “Bull Mountain watching the Pickup trucks drive by”.

You Ain’t No Country Singer (2012) From the album “Ruby’s Cafe” featuring Andy Martin-Switzerland: Un-inspired by what I saw at a gathering of Country Musicians in Berlin Germany last year, I came home and immediately wrote the song. When someone tells me they like country music (with all the new stuff starting 2006), but they don't like this or that, or when you know they played rock for 15 years and now they're wearing a cowboy hat and boots...but they ain't got a clue who Hank Williams is!! THINGS TO KNOW: The song title was almost Hank No. 4....To me, singers who ALWAYS use playbacks are just Karaoke singers, because they can't do anything but stick to a set track.