 Hi People!! .... We listened to the CD at the Yosemite Friends In Recovery Campout in September, 2001, and members there got some of the CDs that I had with me. When I visited with Sara, another member in California, I had my last copy to share with she and Grant, listening to the songs after we had dinner together. There are some mp3 soundclips on their site, that take a while to download, and are LOUD, so turn down your speakers, but they are fun...as Mike says, "I Think 'I'll Quit Drinkin' Today" is mostly just for fun. But there's a few things goin' on here that might bear a second listening, or maybe even a third. If nothing else, the pickin'll getcha'." (Tim really makes the dobro talk and Phil plays the meanest mouth-harp I have ever heard.) Their page has the lyrics of the 12 songs on the CD, a story by Mike of the development and sequence of the recovery story as presented in the songs under the "About the Songs" Button, which I have tagged on below, and if you click the picture on their site, they have bio-data about the band members.. They really are accomplished professional musicians.
Have fun listening to it ... and the clips on their page... What Mike has written ABOUT THE SONGS "I've always thought of the character in these songs as The Guy, as in, The Guy finally decides maybe he's got a drinking problem, or, The Guy decides to take action about his situation. Anyway, The Guy started popping up in all these songs almost accidentally, as if the tunes were already written, and my job was just to physically document them. Irreverence was comfortably coupled with cold hard truth, humor married stark horror, and fear and faith walked happily together hand in hand. The Guy's still partyin' hardy in "Personal Bottom", the alcohol is doing the job, but he knows there's a day of reckoning coming. The t¡tle tune, "I Think I'll Quit Drinkin' Today", finds our hero all done...well, sort of. "Newcomer" is in second person from the viewpoint of helpful souls who've found sobriety and relish The Guy's presence as new blood, fresh meat and a necessary reminder that "there but for the grace of God go we." They've been there too. "I Am The Booze" is the demon in first person. The alcohol announces its intentions in no uncertain terms. In "Sayings On The Wall" The Guy encounters two primary recovery tools: redundance and cliches. And it's all "...startin' to make sense even to a smart guy like myself." He's sober and grouchy, and his new life is "Gloom, Doom, 7-Up & Jesus". He's half in and half out. So The Guy looks for entertainment. The famed 13th Step involves hustling women at meetings. Only trouble is, " Under every skirt there's a slip." Relapse, that is. So he consults a long-term sobriety pal and is coached on character defects, or "The Seven Deadlies". Now The Guy says, "I Got A Choice". Life does not just sort of happen to me. I can drink or not drink, laugh or cry, live or die, be honest or lie. It's up to me. And he finally decides maybe he's not the center of the universe after all ("There Is A God And I Ain't It"), even though he still acts like it a lot of the time. Then comes the gratitude of having discovered the "Last House On The Block". Consistency. Home. Hope. "Two Dancers" is a song that stands for itself. I really can't get literal with it, except to say that it was the obvious choice to wrap up this whole project. Something in it tells the story about the "inside job" we all go through when we wrestle with our demons and the death grip becomes an embrace. I got to learn to live with me. "I Think I'll Quit Drinkin' Today" is mostly just for fun. But there's a few things goin' on here that might bear a second listening, or maybe even a third. If nothing else, the pickin'll getcha'."
Michael Purington
 Love and Peace, Barefoot |
