Chris Heers New Freedom Grin Press Relese

New music from Chris Heers!

Chris Heers

New Freedom Grin

All songs written by Chris Heers except Harkins Letter which was adapted from a 1915 official letter from Las Vegas, NV Justice of the Peace and Coroner W.H. Harkins.

High Dollar Dog

I got a high dollar dog

I like to take her around

Everywhere we used to go

All over town

Well I don't have you since you said so long

But that’s all right I’m just fine with my high dollar dog

I like to take her to the pub

You never liked to go

She's so happy sitting there

With her Corona in a bowl

And if I drink too many beers

She doesn’t tell me I'm a slob

Hey that’s the difference between a stuck-up bitch and a high dollar dog

I got a high dollar dog

I like to take her around

To the gym and grocery store all over town

Well I don't have you since you said so long

But that’s all right I’m just fine with my high dollar dog

Well she don't have a fake Botox enlightened laser smile

And she's quick with a lick even when I haven't shaved in a while

She won’t ever leave me honey that’s for sure

Only one girl licks my face

Baby you have been replaced

I got a high dollar dog

I like to take her around

Everywhere we used to go

All over town

Well I don't have you since you said so long

But that’s all right I’m just fine with my high dollar dog

Well I don't have you since you said so long

That’s all right I’m just fine with my high dollar dog

I got a high dollar dog

I’m Still Living

Somethin’ bout the way the moonlight smells

When you get some shiny freedom after being locked up in a cell

Just a stretch of rope in front of you

Said the Marshall just this morning but I knew it wasn’t true

I’m still living boots are still on the ground

I got the air in my lungs I got an eye on a horse to get me out of this town

Well you’d think with all these bullets I dodged I would be six feet down

But I’m still living boots are still on the ground

Well I was born like this you see

I tried to ride the straight and narrow

Even had a wife in Tennessee

She tried to mold me like some kind of clay

She even pulled a two-shot pistol as I made my getaway

I’m still living boots are still on the ground

I got the air in my lungs I got an eye on a horse to get me out of this town

Well you’d think with all these bullets I dodged I would be six feet down

But I’m still living boots are still on the ground

Must be some kind of outlaw angel looking over me

Just enabling my nefarious dreams

It’s a beautiful night it’s just a shame

They done built this brand-new scaffold

But I ain’t gonna hang

Cause’ I’m still living boots are still on the ground

I got the air in my lungs I got an eye on a horse c’mon let’s get out of this town

Well you’d think with all these bullets I dodged I would be six feet down

But I’m still living my boots are still on the ground

Well now I’m still living

I’m still living

Last Ride

Well I’ve always lived for freedom and speed

Stars and stripes and leather and good weed

Well the good Lord come and called me home

Guess I’m moving on

Just look at all my friends here gathered round

Come to see me take the last ride out of town

Say a final prayer for me

And light me up with gasoline

Last ride no it’s just the beginning

People don’t cry ‘cause I’ll see you sometime

It’s a big sky I’ll be riding in it

Well that ain’t me that’s why this ain’t my last ride

There’s Harleys made of gold and they all have wings

Gonna fly mine down to Sturgis then Goodsprings

And if you squint real hard through the dirt and smoke

You can see me fly

Last ride no it’s just the beginning

People don’t cry ‘cause I’ll see you sometime

It’s a big sky I’ll be riding in it

Well that ain’t me that’s why this ain’t my last ride

Some people they were born to ride like me

My body’s gone but my soul has rolled on free

Yeah I don’t regret one single day I lived life big and unafraid

Yeah I’ve died I’ve died to ride put me in the ground

That ain’t me that’s why

that ain’t me that’s why

One two three four

Oooh Oooh

Last ride this ain’t my last ride

Last ride that ain’t me that’s why that ain’t me that’s why

That ain’t me that that ain’t me that that ain’t me

That ain’t me that that ain’t me that ain’t me

That ain’t me that’s why that ain’t me that’s why

That ain’t me that ain’t me that ain’t me that ain’t me that ain’t me that ain’t me

This Lever Action

This lever action rolling down the hillside

This lever action cruising ‘cross the prairie

The gravy train has just pulled out

There’s a brand-new sheriff now

It’s this lever action

Yeah this lever action

We sleep out under the trees after midnight

Yeah we sleep out under the stars under the moonlight

Sunrise coffee’s on

Hay for the horse baby then we’re gone

Me and this Lever Action

Yeah this lever action

Don’t try to steal my cows

‘Cause If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker

And this lever action

Yeah this lever action

This lever action keeps me in the saddle

Yeah they pay us good money to ride her into battle

There’s a wanted sketch in my right hand

Brother it ain’t personal she don’t understand

This lever action

Yeah this lever action

Don’t try to steal my cows

If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker

And this lever action

Yeah this lever action

Yeah we track all day in between the Cacti

They say bring em in alive there’s rules that we abide by

Ride fast

Move quick

I’m a nice guy

She’s a bad bitch

Yeah this lever action

Don’t try to steal my cows

Cuz If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker

And this lever action

Cuz If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker

And this lever action

Cuz If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker

If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker

If you do you’ll be blue yeah you’re gonna meet your maker and

This lever action

Fill yer hands

You sonofabitch

The New Texas Dinosaur Band

Earl had a dream every night for a week

He was thirty again and he still had his teeth

And he lived in a bus not a damn nursing home

Played in a band had a life on the road

Well he looked out the window at the dark moonless night

And way off in the distance saw the world shining bright

Squinted his eyes at the time that had gone

Bright lights and stages and rock and roll songs

And he dreamed it was the summer of 1954

Fender guitars and amps on the floor

Ah and every red-blooded girl in those days

They all knew about Earl and the songs that he played

This is the story of a very old man

Back when he rolled with the dinosaur band

Well he picked up his walker and he walked to the floor

The nurse was asleep she had not locked the door

And he escaped down the long road that they wheeled him in

Stuck his thumb in the air with a NEW FREEDOM GRIN

He got dropped at a bar on the far side of town

Not a quarter in sight not a payphone around

The band started playing and he watched the whole set

Then the guitarist came over and sat down next to him

Well I play guitar too said Earl with a smile

But my fingers aren’t calloused it’s been long while

The boy said well feel free to give mine a spin

Never thinking old Earl would take it from him

Ah but to his surprise and to everyone else

Earl got on that stage without anyone’s help

And when he plucked at the strings and put his hands on the gears

He felt something tear like seventy years

A big fog was lifted

His wrinkles erased

And every jaw dropped at the song that he played

Well he finished the song and he jumped off the stage

The whole crowd jumping up and down in a rage

A big silver tear rolled down his face

It had been so long since he felt this way

How familiar it was

How time had stood still

Seventy years just a walk up a hill

He was the last one who still walked the land

The last living member of the Dinosaur band

Well that tip jar got fuller night after week

And ol’ Earl had em all on the edge of their seats

Then one day some national newsmen rolled in

Shot moving pictures of Earl and his grin

and that 54 Strat full of old lightning riffs

Oh what sight it was and it is

When a hundred-year man jumps on the stage

And rips out your heart with the songs that he plays

Ah Leno and Letterman Ferguson too

They Played Jimmy Kimmel put the crowd the roof

Back in a bus touring all fifty states

Strung out on prune juice and jars of Ben Gay

This is the story of a real special man

Out with the New Texas Dinosaur Band

Play it one more time for us Earl

Ah somewhere out near Gallup I think

That old dinosaur finally became extinct

He had his thumb in the air with a NEW FREEDOM GRIN

Off to the clouds to find his old friends

Earl had a dream every night for a week

He was thirty again and he still had his teeth

And he lived in a bus not a damn nursing home

Played in a band had a life on the road

Bright Sun

Well the clouds are floating by 1845 and the sun is sinking low

Mama’s washing dishes by the river outside daddy’s hunting buffalo

They tell me tonight I’m gonna be a man I’m 13 by the crow

Just before he left daddy pulled me outside and he handed me his bow

He said Bright Sun living in the back of my heart

You can find your path when the road is dark

I always want the best for you

May you walk in love but your aim be true

Well they took me up high to the hill in the sky and they tied me to a tree

It’s a vision quest you can do the rest and the rest was up to me

I was there a day and twenty-three hours when I heard a lonesome sound

I opened my eyes and a wolf the size of a bear was staring down

And he said Bright Sun living in the back of my heart

You can find your path when the road is dark

I always want the best for you

May you walk in love but your aim be true

I could hear the guns I could see the smoke but I could not believe

All of the men were a world away and I’m tied here to this tree

Then I saw my little sister running at me with the children all in tow

She cut the rope handed me my bow and then she pointed down the road

She said Bright Sun living in the back of my heart

You can find your path when the road is dark

I always want the best for you

May you walk in love but your aim be true

Bright Sun is coming and the spirit rides with me

The white men laugh when I tell ‘em to leave and they pointed their rifles at me

And then we heard a lonesome sound

Wolves are all around

They’re pulling soldiers down

Yeah the man is back in town

Bright Sun living in the back of my heart

You can find your path when the road is dark

And I always want the best for you

May you walk in love but your aim be true

Yeah I always want the best for you

May you walk in love but your aim be true

Y’all come back soon

DCTABM

She said her last name was whiskey first name I can’t place

She had a bent cigarette hanging out of her face

Things were kind of hazy at the end of the night

So I pulled out my zippo and I gave her a light

There was a Garth Brooks song playing out on the floor

I Let go of my longneck and I went back for more

Well I’m a dangerously close to another bad move I’m out on the dance floor makin’ up moves

I’m a one step away from ma-making the news

I’m a dangerously close to another bad move

Driving to her place wrong part of town

Homies on the corner deals are going down

I’m in the passenger seat without a cop in sight

Am I Billy Graham or am I Walter White?

Before I get a chance to make up my mind

She’s buying cocaine cutting up lines

Well I’m a dangerously close to another bad move

I don’t do drugs I just do booze

I’m a one step away from ma-ma-making the news

I’m a Dangerously close to another bad move

Sirens and helis dogs in the yard

Spotlight on my ass cops are running hard

Well I made it to Jack Jack in the box

I was naked as hell except for my socks

I know what you’re thinking man what would you do?

Three Super Tacos large mountain dew

I was dangerously close (DANGEROUSLEY CLOSE)

Dangerously close (DANGEROUSLY CLOSE)

Man I hope I don’t see my ass on the news

I’m a dangerously close to another bad move

I’m a dangerously close (DANGEROUSLEY CLOSE)

Dangerously close (DANGEROUSLEY CLOSE)

Man I shoulda stopped at one maybe two

Dangerously close to another bad move

Well I made it back home rolled into bed

My girlfriend rolls over says a where you been?

Well I had a half a thought I could tell her the truth Dangerously close to another bad move

I was dangerously close (DANGEROUSLEY CLOSE)

Dangerously close (DANGEROUSLY CLOSE)

Many a man has been killed by the truth

I was dangerously close to another bad move

Well I was dangerously close (DANGEROUSLEY CLOSE)

Dangerously close (DANGEROUSLEY CLOSE)

That’s about it until I see you again

DCTABM

WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

There’s an angel on my shoulder

Likes to follow me around

Must’ve known that I was lonely

Must’ve seen that I was down

I was in between the boulders

I was staring at the ground

Then I saw a four-legged shadow

That’s when you came around

One of these days I’m gonna find out

Yeah one of these days I’m gonna find out

Where did you come from?

We were living in the sunshine

Had the whole world by the tail

We saw it all together

Oh the stories we could tell

We were working on a headline

To thine own selves be true

Nobody knew me like you did

You always saw me through

One of these days I’m gonna find out

Where did you come from?

Well it’s been a dozen years

Best friend I ever found

You always made me happy

But I’m so sad right now

It’s the ending of an era

And they say the time is now

I’ll see you when I get there

I know you’ll wait around

One of these days I’m gonna find out

Where did you come from?

HARKINS LETTER

Telegraph at hand and I hasten to reply to the same

Your brother was working for the mining firm of Yount and Fayle of Goodsprings

From authentic reports he had been drinking a good deal since he quit

And he was gambling most all the time which was anytime that he wished

Well your brother could whip any two men and often he did

When the whiskey was working its way up into his head

From what I am told he was a gentleman when he was dry

But I heard the evidence of everyone who was in the saloon at the time

Well your brother got caught gambling crooked when a fifth ace was found

Don’t think he didn’t get a square deal when he got shot down

They all laid down their hands for an even divide, but your brother didn’t see it that way

He told old Joe Armstrong he’d clean him right out if he did not get paid right away

But old Joe was the houseman just protecting the house

When your brother made a grab for it all

Old Joe pulled his pistol and fired two times through your brother and right through the wall

Well your brother got caught gambling crooked when a fifth ace was found

Don’t think he didn’t get a square deal when he got shot down

As soon as I heard I got the Sheriff, and I got my machine

The body laid there for ten hours before I got to Goodsprings

I did the best human thing that I could the best I could do

You asked me how it happened, and I have told you exactly the truth

Well your brother got caught gambling crooked when a fifth ace was found

Don’t think he didn’t get a square deal when he got shot down

Yeah your brother got caught gambling crooked when a fifth ace was found

Don’t think he didn’t get a square deal when he got shot down

You have my heartfelt sympathy and may God bless and comfort you and yours in this

sad bereavement. Yours sincerely, Coroner W.H. Harkins

The Next Guy

You don’t think you’ll ever fill my shoes

Those are my kids and that’s my wife

She’s got a hundred family pictures on the wall

This one’s Christmas 2009

I don’t know if she’ll ever take ‘em down

Sometimes it seems like I am still around

But you’re the next guy

My youngest boy he’s gonna test you out

But don’t you give in he’ll come around

That’s old Dude don’t let him on the couch

‘Cause there’ll be Hell to pay if she finds out

She’s still got so much left to give

I wish I could do it all again

But you’re the next guy

I know it must be hard living here with them and her and me

But I’ll be moving on it seems

I see they’ll be safe with you

You don’t think you’ll ever fill my shoes

Probably not

But you’ll do

Next guy

Sunset 30722

Your silver hair has replaced the blonde

But like a great Glenn Miller Song

Your eyes still sparkle like when we were young

My belly has grown another size and my left hip don’t work right

But I’m still the same old boy that I once was

Flashback over 80 years

We were both standing there at the very front

A new life begun

Right now, yeah it all makes sense

Watching Sunset 30722

And I still love you

He said with these rings I wed

we didn’t know what was up ahead

Twists and turns and laughs and tears and joy

Wish I do it all again every time I remember when

I introduced our baby girl to you and the boys

Flashback over 60 years

We were all just standing there at the very front

A new life begun

Right then, yeah it all made sense

Watching Sunset 7923

And you still loved me

Ah those years roll by don’t they

Like trumpets on the wind

I still live to wake up with you

Again

Well here we are today another anniversary

With all our children’s children’s children here

You look at me I look at you sometimes I can’t believe it’s true

Can I have this dance with you my dear

Hot damn it’s a brand new year

You and I dancing here at the very front

All these lives begun

And right now yeah it all makes sense

Watching Sunset 30722

And you still love me

And I still love you

DUSTY ROADS

Dusty road and you’re alone a beat-up ragtop Ford

Hair is dirty and wind-blown sun is on your forehead

Dirt and rocks fly from the wheels sideways on the sand

You just love the way it feels to float across the land

Down dusty roads alone

Cattle crossing coming up a wooden picket fence

It’s okay to drive this fast cause nothing else makes sense

I know you can find your way I know you can fly

I know you can find yourself anytime you drive

Down dusty roads alone

Anytime you feel the need old dirt roads are built for speed

Open sky of baby blue cactus in your eyes

Talking to yourself again just makes you realize

Time like this is rare and sweet time when you can see

Everything is still brand new and everything is free

Down dusty roads alone

Dusty road and your alone sun is going down

Shift on back to second gear head on back to town

Dirt to asphalt day to night moon up in the sky

You can face the world again until you need some time

Down dusty roads alone

Down dusty roads

BLACK PINE TREES

The pine trees were painted black with waves of scarlet gold

And everyone was coming home

I hitched my horse and I walked into this bar

Piano player play me one more

‘Cause I been riding too long that's for sure

And that's for sure

I turn nineteen in an hour and you could say my camp is cold as Hell

But that's okay

I’m gonna get as drunk as I can

Cause I just came in from the black pine trees

Piano player play one more for me

And if you play the one about Athenry

Keep ‘em coming if you see me cry

We came here from Dublin four years ago

A long way in a wooden boat

I lost my pa to a Rebel hangman’s rope

Don’t think my mom and sister know

Pa he was a troublemaker that’s for sure

And that’s for sure

If I had a pot of gold you could say that I would try for home

But that’s okay

I’m gonna get as drunk as I can

Cause I just came in from the black pine trees

Piano player play one more for me

And if you play the one about Athenry

Keep ‘em coming if you see me cry

Well the war is over everyone is coming home but I got no place to go

I hear tell there’s a zinc mine to work ‘round here

And I can lift a heavy load

Tomorrow I’ll be sober that’s for sure that’s for sure

I know you’re ‘bout to close and you could say my money’s almost gone

But that okay

Gonna get as drunk as we can

‘Cause I just came in from the black pine trees’

Piano player play one more for me

And if you play the one about Athenry

Keep ‘em coming if you see me cry

If you play that one

keep ‘em coming

Keep ‘em coming

If you play that one

keep ‘em coming

BOUNCING ON

Food or beer it’s a hard decision

When you're a full time bonified working musician

I used to be the guy with the suit and the tie

The fancy car and the day job life

But the gigs get offered and pretty soon you know

you're out on the road and the band is your home

And the nights run together and the ex is pissed

‘cause the gigs you’re getting don’t compare

to the guy you used to be when you had the nametag and the tie

And the fancy car and the happy wife

Ah it's strange these days

My buzz is mounting

I've hit bottom

but I keep bouncing on

Here I am at the Crown and Anchor hoping for four aces to make the payment on the van

that takes me from town to town not too far usually

I don't do hard drugs but I probably would

If It got me rolling got me rolling got me doing kind of good

But the songs in my head ah they led me to this

Gotta get on the road

I gotta write a new hit

Ah it's strange these days

My buzz is mounting

I've hit bottom

But I keep bouncing on

Bouncing on

My guitar player he's as old as my dad

He’s been bouncing for half of the life that he's had

He’s good yeah he's good you know he played with Waylon

You can't get that on a country station

Yeah we play Boulder highway we play down the street

We play for low pay ‘cause there’s buckets of reef

And buckets of Coors and cookies and chicks

We play ‘cause we have to you don't want none of this

Ah it's strange these days

My buzz is mounting

I've hit bottom

But I keep bouncing on

Bouncing on

The most dangerous job in the world is in a country band

In the land in the land of casinos and swag

Swag in the form of shots of Jäger

Women coming at you like party favors

Sometimes you fall in love and it's more than pointless

Man from La Mancha windmills and voices

Voices that beckon ah voices that scream

Jump off of this train while the grass is still green

It's strange these days

My buzz is mounting

I've hit bottom

I keep bouncing on

Bouncing on

From town to town from gig to gig don't even know if I even know what friggin day this is

Hungry buzzed and broke

Could be the most honest song I wrote

Hmmm

Hey, Y’all come up here and buy one of my CD’s the money goes to Coors and cookies and chicks Coors and cookies and chicks Coors and cookies and chicks…

1. High Dollar Dog

2. I'm Still Living

3. Last Ride

4. This Lever Action

5. The new Texas Dinosaur Band

6. Bright Sun

7. DCTABM

8. Where did you come from

9. Harkins Letter

10. The Next Guy

11. Sunset 30722

12. Dusty Roads

13. Black Pine Trees

14. Bouncing On

CHRIS HEERS

NEW FREEDOM GRIN - STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS:

High Dollar Dog

Back when I had a day job, I wandered into my managers office with a cup of coffee. He was consoling one of the other employees, a young man who was heartbroken about his girlfriend who had abruptly left him for a guy who owned his own Jet. Dale, the manager, was a big John Wayne looking guy who happened to be holding a small white furry Pomeranian or Maltese or something. One of those shock of white hair toy show dogs. It was a striking visual. Such a big macho guy with a dog that you might see a Hollywood starlet holding along with her Luis Vuitton and Starbucks. He said, “No big loss kid, she always looked down on us anyways..” or something like that. “Get a dog! No drama!” I asked him about said dog and he told me it cost him several thousand dollars and it had papers. Big Lebowski moment there. “The dog has papers dude!” I said, “Damn Dale, that’s a HIGH DOLLAR DOG!” I wrote the song about a guy who does just that. Takes his new dog “everywhere we used to go”. Bars, gym, restaurants, movies, grocery store…”.

I was happily married at the time and my ex-wife is a spectacular not stuck-up whatsoever woman and is still one of my best friends, so I want to go on record and say that like most all of my songs, I made this shit up out of thin air and the character does not represent any ex’s! Rob McNelley and Steve Hinson on the solo!

“She won’t ever leave me honey that’s for sure. Only one girl licks my face. Baby you have been replaced! I got a High Dollar Dog…”

I’m Still Living

My great friend and longtime co-writer Sammy Steele had a title for a song called “My Hearts Still Running” about a character who is a rambling man and can’t settle down although he tries. I took the title and wrote a western. I think I was watching 3:10 to Yuma or something and wrote a song about a nefarious outlaw who marvels that he is still alive. “You’d think with all these bullet’s I dodged, I would be six feet down, but my hearts still running…”.

As it has happened in a few of our co-writes Sammy wasn’t feeling my western take on his idea so we agreed that we would separate our contributions and go back to the rambling man concept on his original idea on a future co-write. So, I was left alone with this western. I just changed the line to “I’m still Living”. Like many of the songs on this album, the character is no boy scout. He fits right in though.

“I was born like this you see. I tried to ride the straight and narrow even had a wife in Tennessee. She tried to mold me like some kind of clay. She even pulled a two-shot pistol as I made my getaway…”

Last Ride

Some years ago, I receive an email from a fan who was involved in opening a motorcycle driven hearse company. He asked if I could write a theme song for the company website. I had become friends with some actual Sons of Anarchy type bikers from my shows at the Pioneer Saloon, Bike Fest, etc. I think there was another company doing the Harley hearse thing as well. It was a wonderful idea. I wrote the song which in its original form was a bit more family friendly. When I contacted the guy, he apologized and informed me that, after all, the company was not going to happen. I was okay with that because I really loved the song. I had written it on a 72 Guild D25 while sitting on the edge of my bathtub. Not sure why. Sometimes, when you get a new old guitar, a song flies out of it regardless of what room it is in. I re-wrote it to reflect some of the actual bikers I know. This particular guy was a big fan of weed and freedom. It is basically the same exact message as my song “Beyond” from my first album “Western Stars”.

That ain’t me.

“Just look at all my friends here gathered round. Come to see me the last ride out of town. Say a final prayer for me and light me up with gasoline. That ain’t me…”

This Lever Action

I got a call from my 80 going on 50-year-old neighbor Wayne who lives across the street from my house near the airport in Vegas. I feed his cat and water his plants when he and his wife Mary Catherine are out of town and he insists on giving me beef and ammo in return. He said he wanted to look at my ’64 Winchester lever action model 94 to see how the front sight was orientated. He had the same rifle and had ordered a replacement sight for it. Wayne used to run the nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, but this sight installation was eluding him. So, I pulled my rifle off of the rack and walked towards his house. I see him walking toward me with his rifle and he starts spinning it like John Wayne and yelling the classic line from True Grit, “Fill yer hands you sonofabitch.” We were in the middle of the street. Wayne is another John Wayne type who always looks like he is about to embark on a safari. Must’ve been a sight.

That night I was dinking around with a Swart Atomic amp and an old Silvertone electric and this Tom Horn movie happened. The song is about a cattle detective who is just doing his job tracking down rustlers for his clients. It is not personal for him but his rifle, who he must’ve named after a woman, does seem to hold a grudge.

“We track all day in between the cacti. They say bring ‘em in alive there’s rules that we abide by. Ride fast. Move quick. I’m a nice guy. She’s a bad bitch. This Lever Action…”

New Texas Dinosaur Band

One of my favorite songwriter storytellers is Don Schlitz. Don is a big influence. He wrote “The Gambler” and a big bag of other world changing songs. My favorite by far is “Oscar the Angel.” It is a magnificent story about a delusional old man, ostensibly, who rambled on about how everyone will die and go to Heaven and we will all be angels someday. Check it out on his Don for a Dollar live at the Bluebird Café CD. When I lived in Nashville, I used to pay said dollar to see him play it live whenever I could. Best deal in town! I think some Schlitz spilled into this song. Also, some of “The Natural”, one of my favorite movies where an aging baseball wunderkind (Robert Redford) makes a huge comeback. Kind of like my character Earl.

Some of my songs are written in one sitting. This is not one of those. In a file cabinet in my garage there are sheets and sheets of dated handwritten paper with dates of color-coded revisions spanning years. I am too lazy to go out there at the moment, but I am guessing I spent seven or eight years revising it until I thought it was ready. I think it could be my Oscar. Now if I could just get Sam Elliott to record it.

“Well he picked up his walker and he walked to the floor

The nurse was asleep she had not locked the door

And he escaped down the long road that they wheeled him in

Stuck his thumb in the air with a NEW FREEDOM GRIN”

Bright Sun

In 2016 my daughter Sunnie was in Belize for a few weeks. She was doing some kind of volunteer co-op farming type of thing. It was only her and another girl working at this strange farm with an astounding number of cats. We were in communication via we chat or one of those things due to no cell service. She had been hit with sand fleas on the beach and became infected and was not well. Sand fleas are nasty things that lay eggs under your skin and can cause fever etc. I couldn’t get hold of her for two days and I was going out of my mind. Had my passport out.

I know both of my daughters are way tougher than me. They were on a horse most of their childhood. Smart as hell too. That was my consolation. For some reason in my prayer and worry I thought of a young Native American warrior on a vision quest. I knew she would be okay, and she was.

On my last record I have a song called “Pony Express” about a young man who can’t feel his legs but ends up pinch hitting for a Pony Express rider who had been fatally shot with arrows by some Paiutes. This song is the reverse. That actually happened, the rider being shot part anyway, in northern Nevada near Middlegate where that song takes place. Bright Sun doesn’t follow any actual story though. I do know that some bad elements of the US Cavalry did actually attack Native American women and children. One of the black eyes in our history. This story is about a young warrior who takes them on by himself with the help of his spirit warriors.

“Bright Sun living in the back of my heart

You can find your path when the road is dark

I always want the best for you

May you walk in love but your aim be true”

DCTABM

I have a friend called Tristan who was the girl singer in the Irish band Darby O’Gill and the Little People. Her stage name in the band was “Nancy Whiskey”. They did this comedy album where the whole band looked like drunk drugged out train wrecks. Tristan had her eyeliner running down her face on the album cover. Might have had a bent cigarette. I was dinking around with an old guitar one night and I blurted out the line “She said her last name was whiskey first name I can’t place she had a bent cigarette hanging out of her face.” The rest of the song kind of wrote itself.

I picture the whole scene at the old Stoney’s Honky Tonk where I spent much quality time when it was located down the road from my little ranch. This poor drunk soul ends up in a car with this train wreck and gets himself into a real pickle. Things like this can make you quit booze! I was and still am listening to the great storyteller Todd Snider. Check out his album “Storyteller”. I think some of that juju spilled over into this song. I’m no Todd Snider but I try.

“I made it to Jack, Jack in the Box. I was naked as Hell except for my socks. I know what you’re thinking man what would you do? Three Super Tacos and one Mountain Dew…”

Where did you Come From

I wrote Where Did You Come From during the lockdown. The Las Vegas Strip was deserted. There were no gigs. It wasn’t all bad though. One of the good things to come out of It was how much extra time many of us got to spend with our four-legged companions. That and the wine, pizza and Tiger King. I remember some of it. I could see the posts from friends on Facebook. My dogs and cat loved it except for when I actually had covid and wouldn’t pet them because I was afraid I would give it to them. My shaggy black bear dog Sammy was a rescue like my other soul mate, a Pit-Lab called Butters. I remember saying to him “Where did you come from?” As in, what Angels brought you here to me? But also, literally, who dropped you off on the freeway east of Vegas? I knew a bit of Butter’s history, but Sammy’s was a mystery. Of course, they both came from Heaven if you ask me.

When I wrote the song, I cried because you know how all dog songs end. Thankfully Sammy and Butters are still with me, but I have been through it many times and had have been involved with others’ losses because my ex-wife is a Veterinarian. The character I envisioned is a teen girl who is with her dog or cat into adulthood for a dozen years. I based her on my friend Eve Marie who would post pics of her German Shephard Lucy in a montage from her young years into adulthood. Sweet Lucy was way up there for a GS. On her birthday everyone would post “Go Lucy!” I remember thinking about how sad it will be for Eve when she finally goes. Lucy passed shortly after I wrote the song.

The great Lisa Brokop sings harmony on this track eh. We sing the “Out” line in the chorus where it sounds like a howl oooooowt.

“We were living in the sunshine, had the whole world by the tail, we saw it all together, oh the stories we could tell..”

Harkins Letter

I discovered the Pioneer Saloon around 2010 when I was shooting 35mm film photos at an abandoned prison south of Vegas at Jean, NV. I had written Sammy Steele’s debut album “Songs from the Third Cactus” with him and had a vision of barbed wire with this prison blurred in the background for the album cover. The Third Cactus was my little horse ranch. I used to tell people that I was the third cactus from the end of the Las Vegas Strip which was about right. We wrote most of the album there fueled by Jack Daniels and Roberto’s chicken tacos. One of the songs was about an inmate who robbed a gas station and watches through the barbed wire as the cars cry into the night down the I-15. Freedom. Side note, I almost got arrested. Turns out there is an actual operating women’s federal prison next door to the closed prison. Apparently, photos are frowned upon at active prisons. Thank the Lord the officer was a country fan. I still owe her a Sammy Steele album.

I had heard of the Pioneer Saloon which was just 7 miles West of Jean, NV. Another song we wrote, Whiskey Courage, had a 21-whiskey chorus and I needed a cool bar to line up the bottles for the interior shot. The owner of the bar, Noel, wanted to charge me for the shot but when he found out I was a giant country star he hired me to play. Ha. I have been playing there ever since as a solo for many years and now every Saturday when I am not touring with our band High Blue Cactus.

Fast forward a few years. I was in the back room of the Pioneer with Tom Sheckells, Noel’s son and co-owner. We had written a funny song about a Tumbleweed. I told Tom I wanted to write a song about the miner who was shot there in 1915. Tom went into his office and brought me out a copy of a letter dated 7-3-15 from the Las Vegas coroner / Justice of the Peace, one WH Harkins, written to the brother of the deceased in response to a telegram. Basically, the brother was asking, WTF happened to my brother? I’m looking at the letter and thinking, well there’s the lyric! It is a famous story there in Goodsprings. The miner, Paul Coski, was a hard drinking hard fighting character who allegedly had a penchant for cheating at cards. One story has him with a fifth ace, another with him dealing from the bottom of the deck. When they called the game, Coski made a grab for the cash and the bar manager (houseman he was called in those days) shot him dead. The coroner shows up with the sheriff 9 hours later. That drive takes me 30 minutes tops in the Albatross, my 2011 Sprinter tour van. The cars were slow (my machine) and the road to Goodsprings was rough dirt. I wanted to keep as much of the original letter as possible and I did. I wrote it on an old nylon string guitar, so it takes on a Willie Nelson vibe. I love the song.

On a side note, in my research I needed to find the birth date of said Harkins. It was no easy task tracking this guy down. I found out a great deal about him when I did and let’s just say that will be another song. Can’t make this shit up.

“Well your brother could whip any two men and often he did

When the whiskey was working its way up into his head

From what I am told he was a gentleman when he was dry

But I heard the evidence of everyone who was in the saloon at the time”

The Next Guy

One of the greatest friends I ever had, Rhett Hirth, passed away suddenly due to a congenital heart defect. Rhett was a beautiful human. Ex NV Highway Patrol. Military academy kid. He and his family had moved from Vegas to Omaha, NE where he was promoted to a young bank president. His wife, Linda, ran a home-based day care which is how we met. She and Rhett were like second parents to my girls who attended the day care since my wife and I both worked alot to support our horse habit. I am happily recovered now. Rhett and Linda and their three kids were constantly at places like Disney World. They never missed an opportunity to go somewhere as a family and take photos which ended up blanketing the walls of their home. I mean, a lot of framed family photos. A lot!

A few weeks later, I was at a breakfast diner at Parowan, Utah with my wife and kids and some of our kid’s friends. We were about to head up the hill to Brian Head and ski for the day. We were talking about Rhett and Linda at the table. I said to my wife, “I feel sorry for the next guy. Rhett will be a really hard act to follow.” I was referring to the photos on the walls that pointed to what a spectacular father and husband he was. My wife said, “Yes, but there should be a next guy. She still has so much left to give.” I thought that was beautiful. The song started to form on the chair lift. I was thinking about that great movie “Always” starring Richard Dreyfuss in the role of a deceased air tanker pilot who is given the task of showing the “new guy” the ropes. I finished the first draft that day while skiing and singing it into my phone recorder.

This is an old song. This all happened in 2009 �’ 2010 area. It was missing something at first. I shelved it for a long time. I think it was too maudlin on that first draft. I remember crying at the top of chair 2. Like all of the songs I write that actually get finished and make it onto an album, this one would not give up and harped on me until it did. This is also one of my favorite solos. Just perfect how it turns to song into more of a movie.

Sunset 30722

This is one of the 3 old new songs. Dusty Roads is the oldest, Then this one. It is so old that it was originally called Sunset 20722. I realized that my characters needed to be way up there because 60 seems to be the new 30 and there is a Glenn Miller thing going on in the song which puts them squarely into the greatest generation. That’s the way I see it! My characters are in their 90’s, maybe the husband is 100, and celebrating their 80th wedding anniversary. If that is accurate, I would possibly be the first artist to have not one but two centenarians on the same album. “And the winner for best album featuring two centenarians is…”

I used to watch a lot of old Frank Capra movies. Some of that might be spilling into this tune. I was listening to a lot of Glenn Miller at the time. My grandparents’ favorite. I could see this couple dancing. One of those couples who took seriously the words “’til death do us part”. Totally completely devoted. Like I said, the greatest generation.

This song also would not go away until it was right. I got the lines I was missing, the trumpets on the wind, a few years ago while I was sitting in a hot spring at Tecopa in Death Valley. I was out there mountain biking and sleeping in the Albatross. I don’t know what it is about that place, but scattered ideas seem to come together for me there at Tecopa. Some kind of subliminal focus I can’t explain. I get there as much as I can. This is Seth Turner’s favorite song on this album. Seth is the other front man in our band High Blue Cactus. An incredible songwriter himself, he is fond of calling out the song at some loud desert honky-tonk where people are throwing beer bottles at us. Wrong song Seth! He don’t give a f***.

The fabulous Canadian Country Star Lisa Brokop sings the part of the wife on this one. I think I was trying to channel a centenarian in my vocal but thankfully Lisa comes in hard with the talent and saves the song.

“Ah, those years roll by don’t they.

Like trumpets on the wind.

I still live to wake up with you

Again.”

Dusty Roads

When I was a young teenager my dad would let me drive around in his 1970 Jeep CJ. This thing was sun faded rust red. No top. No power steering, shot brakes etc. Dad told me to stay in the dirt of course but I may have bent that rule a bit. I used to bomb it through the desert south of Vegas up into the lava rock hills which are now dotted with golf courses and multi-million-dollar homes. My high school buddies, the fellas, were frequently with me. We would listen to Hank Williams Jr, Don Williams, Willie and Kenny, Quiet Riot, Def Leppard, Beasty Boys and Van Halen and shoot our .22 revolvers at the rusted cans that lined these old dirt roads that wound up through the lava. One time when I was supposed to not be on the pavement, I got cut off by a Cadillac full of elderly ladies which was turning left into a cemetery. I had no choice but to cut into the cemetery and I barreled the old Jeep right through the huge 12-foot Ivy wall into the exit lane and back out on Eastern Ave shedding leaves from my teeth . Between that Jeep and my cousin Shawn’s 5.0 Mustang it is a miracle I survived past my teens. I’m still living.

So I am sitting in my shitbox one room apartment near UNLV trying to figure out how to write a song. I was big into Keith Whitley, Garth, Alan Jackson. I had discovered Townes because Pancho and Lefty was my uncle Mike’s favorite song along with Old Time Rock and Roll and we all wanted to be Mike because he was James Dean. This is just before I moved to Nashville to take the crash course. Dusty Roads was written there on that formica table at the Woodbridge Inn. It’s not Townes but I like the visuals of the open air. Bombing through the desert when you are fourteen with a fourteen-year old’s sense of smell and sight and hearing and feeling a fourteen year old’s butterflies at what lies ahead in life. Adventures to come. Back then, Las Vegas was covered in mesquite trees. It had that wonderful clean desert smell, especially after a rain. Tons of wildlife. Quail and rabbits were everywhere. Owls, iguanas, mule deer, wild horses, burros, tarantulas, gila monsters, bighorn sheep and horned toads too. Dust storms. You can still find some of that, but you just need to go farther down the road. Hopefully in a convertible at high speed. I gave my character a convertible Bronco because my buddy Jason Crosby had one of those and I couldn’t seem to rhyme jeep on that first song I wrote.

“Cattle crossing coming up a wooden picket fence

It’s okay to drive this fast cause nothing else makes sense

I know you can find your way I know you can fly

I know you can find yourself anytime you drive”

Black Pine Trees

I had written Harkins letter about the miner who was shot for cheating at cards. I wondered about his background and how he came to be the hard drinking brawler he was. I thought about writing a prequel for him. As it happened though, this song seemed to evolve to the end of the Civil War instead of WWI. In the original version, the soldier’s father was hanged by a Frisco Hangman’s rope. He was most probably fighting for money as a mercenary and wanted no part of any of it.

As mentioned, I spent much time at the old bar at the Pioneer Saloon in Goodsprings as did the miner in Harkins Letter. Clark Gable was there too but that’s a future song. I envisioned the Pioneer, but the Saloon in this song is probably some other Saloon. I don’t know but wherever it is it is cold and near pine trees. Regardless, the Irish kid in this song does not have enough money to try for Dublin but he has just enough to get good and drunk and worry about a job later. I like his style. Very Power of Now.

I used to date the lead girl singer, Marjorie Delaney, from Brendan Bowyer’s Royal Irish Showband. I am pretty sure Steve Earle must’ve written Galway Girl about her. Dark hair and Irish blue eyes that you could fall into. When I would see her sing “Fields of Athenry” I would melt.

“Cause I just came in from the black pine trees

Piano player play one more for me

And if you play the one about Athenry

Keep ‘em coming if you see me cry”

Bouncing On

I ended up at the Crown and Anchor Pub here in Vegas one night. I was on foot because I had been out with some friends in the area and decided to walk home. No gig that weeknight. I was drinking a lot in those days. I realized that my cards were maxed, and I only had 5 bucks on me. Now, sitting at the bar staring down at a video poker machine, I was faced with the daunting choice of whether to order some fries (chips in the parlance of that spot) or bet the said fiver on four hands of double-double bonus poker. I knew the bartender and the unwritten rule is one drink per $20 but often, if you are a regular, they bend the rules. I bet the five and a foamy Boddington’s Ale appeared. I ended up winning and knee deep in fish and chips. The pity party had already started though.

I grew up in a middle class and sometimes wealthy family. We were always up and down but I was incredibly incredibly fortunate. At that snapshot in time though, being freshly divorced, in a new place and mired in rent, van payment, credit cards, child support, etc. on a full-time non-union musician’s wage was a reality check. It’s not that it was slow. My band was getting great casino gigs and I was doing a lot of solos. Same as now. But now I am not mired in debt thankfully. A few weeks before that, my band, Chris Heers and the Dirt Rich Band it was called at the time, was playing Gilley’s honky-tonk on the Las Vegas Strip. Buckets of Coors kept appearing on stage along with shots. It was one of those sleep in the tour van nights. My guitar player made it to another bar and somehow managed to run himself over with his own van near his house. He called me from the street he was laying in. I asked him, most importantly, who else he had told?

Sitting at the bar at the Crown, I was thinking about how when they talk about hitting bottom, you just can’t get any more bottom than under your own tires. I like to say that we used to call that a “Tuesday”. I won’t even go into our drummer who made us both look like amateurs. That’s a whole album. My buddy bounced right back to the next gig and kept bouncing as did I albeit a few surgeries down the road.

I’m not proud of it. I figure I would be much farther along in my career if I didn’t idolize Hank, Hemmingway, Townes, and Hunter S. Thompson so much. Thankfully we have both come to an arrangement with booze and are doing alright! I wrote Bouncing On on a handful of cocktail napkins. It really is a ranting pity party and not reflective of the many hard working responsible grown-up musicians in this town who do very well compared to other places, but at that particular snapshot in time, for me anyway…. well three chords and the truth.

“The most dangerous job in the world is in a country band

In the land in the land of casinos and swag

Swag in the form of shots of Jäger

Women coming at you like party favors

Sometimes you fall in love and it's more than pointless

Man from La Mancha windmills and voices

Voices that beckon, ah voices that scream

Jump off of this train while the grass is still green"

Stories Behind The songs