1. Planting Moon
Written: 4/98
Wrote this in honor of my grandparents for a family reunion on my ma’s side They were married November 10, 1914 My sister says it’s too romantic for the Stalochs, but there were 11 kids and that sounds pretty romantic to me.
2. Just Sold My Guitar
Written: 8/95
For a couple of years I lived in Comfrey, population 500, and while I can’t say I “never liked” that crazy town, I did quit my job and drive away Any number of young guys m small towns daydream sometimes about doing just that, so I thought it would make a passable “A-side” for a single on the jukebox at my brother’s bar there. But I never made the single, and the bar blew down in the tornado of ‘98, so I guess I’ll never know. (For side B I was thinking of” Let Me Park My Pickup In Your Garage.” Young guys in bars daydream about that, too.)
3. Hello Woman
Written: 10/99 - 6/01
A friend of mine was over showing off on the bass, so I started in with this guitar riff to give him a context. Then I started singing and came up with the first four lines. After he left I started fooling around with it--picked up the tempo, added a chord change, more lyrics. Then it languished. But while making “In Minnesota they call people ‘folks” I realized the story line needed a song that was raw and sounded lusty So I revived, revised and finished this one Jamie added a lot m the studio It’s the only recording on which we played simultaneously, with drums and vocal/guitar, and this cut was the first time we ever tried it.
4. Darlin’ Waltz
Written: spring ‘87
Aside from church organists and high school marching bands the first live music I heard was polka bands at weddings I wanted to write a song in this tradition one a wedding couple could use for their first dance together. The first time I sang it was at my own wedding in 1990, but we were divorced within four years so I’m not sure I can recommend it.
5. Ya Talk a Good Love
Written: 7/97
Got to be friends with a bartender named Jen who was bright, deep, fun and gorgeous I wondered what a guy had to do to have a darlin’ like her. Then I found out her boyfriend was an NFL quarterback! So I decided to write a ‘hit song’, but the best I could come up with was a satire of hit songs’. I intended a female lead vocal, but a friend of mine told me it reminded him of his ex-wife, so I went ahead and did it myself. I love Theresa’s harmony.
6. On a Lakeshore
Written: 9/96
For several months I commuted to ‘the job’ with Maureen. She and her boyfriend couldn’t get things to work, and she seemed to blame herself. I could never find the words to express how much I thought of her, so I tried to joke her doubts away. I hope things are better now. Theresa suggested the haunting run of “oohs”.
7. Baling With Uncle Ira
Written: 2/99
Was at work running the folding machine when for some reason one of the other guys had to run my machine for a while. When I came back he said, “How in the world do you keep up with this thing?” I smiled and said, “Well, when I was a teenager I had to bale hay with Uncle Ira.” The following Sunday morning, with a pot of coffee, I started thinking about one time in particular. There was a pen. There was paper...
8. Insurrection
Written: 7/86
Went to Alaska on vacation. At the end of the road, in the bar in Circle, I talked my way into a job on the riverboat Brainstorm II, and worked with them until fall. The cook, Dan, used to play in country-western bands years before, when he was “hangin’ iron” on the east coast. He told me the lyrics of this song are too fancy. “Thievin’ harlot,” he snorted, with distaste, and a grunt.
9. It’s All Right Now
Written: 1/01
The guitar part pestered me for a month before I groped my way to some lyrics. At the time I thought absolutely nothing was right at all, and I think T might’ve been trying to talk myself out of it And it worked A couple of weeks later I quit my 1ob so I could cash in my IRA and make “In Minnesota they call people ‘folks” Without Jessy’s violin, though, it was only half-finished--she’s fabulous.
10. Just a Story
Written: 7/81 5/99
Wrote the chorus and first verse and a half while wandering around Colorado broke, hanging around with fruit tramps and rail tramps and various other tramps. Started fooling around with it one lovely spring day years later and got interested again. Theresa suggested the flute solo. The rail cars were recorded near the U of M campus in Minneapolis. I told the guys on the switch engine I was going to use it on an album, and they thought that was pretty cool. Here you go, guys!
11. Let Me Park My Pickup In Your Garage
Written: 9/97
I got to the park a little early, so while I was waiting for everyone else to show up I tried to think of an irresistible title for the B-side of a single on a jukebox of a bar m southern Minnesota “I’m the Pitchfork, You Pile of Shit,” seemed a little too aggressive, but “Let Me Park My Pickup In Your Garage” was more playful It was a couple of months before I picked up the Washburn and tried to do something with it. Was fun.
12. Reunion
Written 10/99
Wrote this to sing at my class reunion in Wells. My buddy Gus and I also did a cover version of a Doctor Hook song that we used for an introduction to our program at the Junior/Senior banquet years ago. “Well it’s all a plan to take a stand and show that we been here/and I hate to be a bitcher, but I don’t see out picture on the cover of the Wells Mirror.”
13. Only a Sweet Thing
Written: 9/92 - 2/96
Wrote the first two verses while visiting my brother in Bolivia. I thought it needed an instrumental break and a third verse, but couldn’t find either one for a few years. It took Ben’s solo with its hanging notes to really finish it, though. It’s one of my personal favorites.
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