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John Cowan CUT - by - CUT |
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"Roll Away the Stone" (J. Cowan/K. Greenberg/W. Waldman) This started with some computerized Motown drum loop that Kenny Greenberg had. That's how we wrote the song. But then as we got into recording it we played the loop and added the acoustic instruments on one by one. So it's kind of the ultimate mix of contemporary music and traditional instrumentation. "All I Wanna Feel" (Eric Elliott/Scott Poston) I've had this song forever. It has survived for more than 10 years. I've tried recording it three or four times. When I began 40 work with Wendy Waldman on this album I had this big catalog of music that I'd been performing for the past seven or eight years. Wendy sifted through it and this song kept coming up, over and over again. It's the "Thing That Wouldn't Die." "Gotta Get Go" (J. Cowan/B. Cram) I wrote this with Billy Crain of The Crain Brothers Band. We started jamming together and developed this really cool groove. Remember the Neil Young groove on "Heart of Gold" or Sheryl Crow's groove ~ "Leaving Las Vegas?" That's what I was stealing from. It's a stream-of-consciousness lyric and the chords are really 'out there.' But I left it that way. I didn't want it to make any sense. This one's really fun to play live. "Nothin' But the Blues" (J. Cowan/J.H. Gulley) Did you ever read that book by Jim Rooney called Boss Man? I did, and I always thought that was the coolest analogy that he made between two great icons -- Bill Monroe and Muddy Waters. That's kind of why I wanted to put both of them in this song. Initially, I wanted to write a blues song, but all the great three-chord blues songs have already been written. So that's why it's more jazz than blues, melodically. But the subject matter is blues. "Wichita Way" (J. Cowan/F. Koller) Fred Koller is such a literate co-writer; that's why this has such a great story line. The track was recorded completely live. It was sounding so good that I kind of got lost in it --I started singing eight bars too late. When we listened back, though, that was hands-down the best version of the song. Wendy said, "What should we do?" I drove around for awhile and thought about it. Came in and said, "Well, I have this recitation...." "High Above the Power Lines" (R. Handley) Randy Handley is a really good singer and songwriter in his own right. He was recording his own album here in Nashville and I went in to sing on it. In the studio, I went, "Hey, what are you doing with this song? I want to record it." And that's how I got it. It has a really cool Bruce Hornsby "feel" and I love the lyrics. The picture in my mind is of this old Native American sitting in this chair and dreaming about your soul becoming a bird and flying away. It's a Native-American mantra, to me. "I Want You To" (J. Cowan/T. Littlefield) Tom Littlefield is one of the Nashville songwriting greats. We came up with this based on a relationship that happened before I was married. It's just one of those "something's" that never worked out. "Mississippi Delta Time" (J. Cowan/P. Buchanan/R. White-Johnson) I actually wrote this for The Doobie Brothers, toward the end of 1996. That was the original idea. But it came out sounding more like John Fogerty. Those harmonies on there are Jon Randall and Wendy Waldman. "This River" (J. Cowan/I). Lowery) One of my best friends in the world was a guy who started taking me trout fishing in Arkansas about 11 years ago. After I performed at the Summer Lights Festival in Nashville in 1996, he was on his way home and was hit by a drunken driver. He and his eight-year-old son were killed. Donny Lowery and I were together one day, and there was this friend of his who had just passed away. We were talking about this, about my friend and about our time ~ the river. So this is for my friend, Joe Hughes and his boy Christopher. "My Heart Will Follow You" (J. Cowan/I). Lowery/W. Waldman) This is the most bluegrassy thing on the album and that was our approach when we wrote it. Donny and I came up with the guitar lick - it's a little bit like "Callin' Baton Rouge" from the New Grass Revival days. I felt like I wanted to have something on the album that directly links me to that. "Dark As a Dungeon" (M. Travis) I've been doing this song for 10 years and I've always loved it. It's amazing to me that a lot of people don't know who Merle Travis is - that Doc Watson's son Merle was named for him' that Chet Atkins' daughter Merle is named for him, that Chet's whole style was borrowed from Merle Travis. It's astounding when you look at the classic songs he wrote, including "16 Tons," not to mention the fact that he started this whole style of guitar playing. About eight or nine years ago I was listening to NPR and I heard this report of how diamond miners make the equivalent of $l.35 a week. That's where my second verse comes from; it's not the one that Merle wrote. "Sligo" (J. Cowan/D. Scott) In New Grass Revival I was thought of as the singer and the bass player. Most of the instrumental stuff that the band was known for came from Bela Fleck and the others. But I do that, too. It's a part of who I am as a musician. I heard Darrell Scott's Aloha From Nashville album and wrote him a fan letter. We struck up a friendship and have written a lot of things like this together. I try to sing his praises whenever possible. "The Last Summer Rose" (J. Cowan/W. Waldman) This has Wendy Waldman all over it. I had the chords to the chorus and the melody, but that's all I had. We co-wrote the words, but it definitely has a Waldman quality. She's not only my friend and my producer -- for all practical purposes she's been my manager for the last year and a half. What a gal.
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