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New Album, “Arrivals & Departures” scheduled to arrive on time Wednesday
Arrivals & Departures is scheduled to arrive ON TIME this Wednesday, May 23.
Hello Freep Nation!
We have some exciting news today from our World HQ in Las Vegas. Arrivals & Departures, the new Fearless Freep record, will be released online Wednesday via the bandcamp website: fearlessfreep.bandcamp.com.
The first five songs are up for live streaming already! The entire collection will be available for free download this Wednesday, May 23. Please check out. Otherwise, what in the hell did I spend all of that time for?
A&D is the first FF release since 2010’s 5-song EP, Our (pretend) Relationship. It contains 10 tracks and runs about 36 minutes.
If you follow this blog, some of the material will be familiar already. If you’ve followed Fearless Freep since the beginning, you’ll find some older songs reincarnated here in a new form; Harsh Winter and Both of Us from Dive Right (2007) get new recordings and arrangements, etc.
Other material, including both title tracks, is brand new. I am very excited to see what people think, so long as the reaction is positive, of course.
Tack listing:
Target
Harsh Winter
Both Of Us
Arrivals
Departures (Sunday Morning)
Big Top Show
Sarah
Shorthand
Enough For Me
Showdown At Jericho Hill
Thanks for reading. Now please, go listen! – FF
Both of Us
well it’s blue in the bowl and it’s pink on the wrist
you take a little off the top, take everything
a two-week vacation it comes down to this
you get a waiting room, bag full of magazines
it’s pre-dawn for a car ride
we’re going to get something of your chest
but the boy down the hall got a stuffed superhero
and Smiley won’t ask, but he’ll tell you what’s best
and you’re mad
why you angry
why you angry enough for the both us now
and there’s no sense trying to worry
about something you can’t change anyhow
they wheel you although you could walk it
we’re going to count backward from ten
nine …
eight …
get up and get dressed cause you’re home again home again
and you’re mad …
and all the old women will call on the phone lines
and ask Him to make it all right
but you’re riding shotgun
anesthesia driving
and i’m in the back seat I’m seething
you know I’m mad …
Enough For Me
Here’s 2 minutes and 30 seconds of kick-ass …
Enough For Me
there are some things i’d take back
but most things that i’d give
and there are some days I could crack
but mostly i wanna live
and there are some songs i can’t sing
but no songs i cannot shout
there are lots of girls i think of
but it’s you can’t live without
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
but it’s you i can’t live without
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
there are things i should not say
but i rarely let that stop me
and there are bets i should not take
but c’mon just try and top me
and there are some rules i won’t break
oh but most of them i do
and there are some thoughts i can shake
but i can’t shake the thought of you
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
i can’t shake the thought of you
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
there are things i should not smoke
and drinks that i shouldn’t drink
and there are things that are no joke
but they still seem pretty funny to me
and there are places in this world
that i’ll never get to see
but as long as you’re here with me
girl there’s no place i’d rather be
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
there’s no place i’d rather be
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
there are signs i should obey
and red flags that i should heed
there’s hidden dangers along the way
that i ignore i will concede
that there are dreams i should give up
some things were never meant to be
but in the end if i’m enough
for you girl that’ll be enough for me
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh
yeah that’ll be enough for me
whoa oh-oh, whoa oh-oh … that’ll be enough for me
Shorthand
Link for email subscribers: https://freepmusic.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/shorthand.m4a
I've been adrift out in this desert floating along until I see her distant shores.
Shorthand
she says she don’t need no one to come to her rescue
and that’s good cause I ain’t got no oars
I’ve been adrift out in this desert float along until
I see her distant shores
…
maybe I’m the one needs rescuing tonight
maybe she’ll throw me a line
it’s funny how the more I feel the less I say
the more free my heart, the more my tongue gets tied
but I hope she knows that I’m thinking of her tonight
…
self-park garage, a friendly hug
she takes my hand – there goes the rug
an August romance underneath florescent lights
a nice wine buzz, a rooftop bar
from up here we can so so far
and I’ve become aware that my hand is on her thigh
…
maybe I’m the one …
…
a stolen glass, a nervous kiss
the things that make relationships
the tiny gestures that no one else would understand
you build a language all your own
hand signals, mirrors, inside jokes
and over time they become a kind of shorthand
…
maybe I’m the one … yeah I hope you know that I’m thinking of you tonight
The Big Top Show
Sarah
during our conversation, she mentioned that the prime years ended at 34. i disagreed. and i sat down and wrote this.
Sarah
Sarah looks me in the eye
Asks me if we’re past our prime
Are we only marking time?
I said I didn’t think so …
Sarah orders one more drink
It’s one too many, you might think
For the middle of the week
But she says we deserve it
…
Sarah don’t be sad tonight
Everything will be just fine
I promise you that the best is yet to come
Sarah make a wish and throw your penny on in now
I’d give my wish to you
I hope they both come true, Sarah
…
We stay out ’til 1:30
She talks about her family
She asks me if mine’s as crazy
I say, ‘Hey, isn’t everyone’s?’
When we’re slowly walking back
She’s got my sweatshirt on her back
It’s getting hard now to relax
But I think that I manage it
… (repeat)
Find more music at my Website: fearlessfreep.bandcamp.com
A western mood, a cowboy song
I saw True Grit recently, which a) I thought was incredible and b) put be in a country western mood. This has nothing to do with the movie, but it’s a western story.
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Maybe Jericho Hill looks like this.
Showdown at Jericho Hill
meet me there tonight on top of Jericho Hill
if we don’t make our stand right now i fear we never will
i got nothin’ left to say
i got blood left to spill
on Jericho Hill
we’ll release the horses, they got no part in this
we’ll clean our six guns well, tie our holsters to our hips
i’ll pull my hat brim low
you’ll shove a smoke between your lips
and then we’ll take the higher ground
plan an ambush from it
darlin’ here we go
i got one in my sights
won’t you cover me while i reload?
we might not see another sunrise
but i’m proud to stand with you if this is our last fight
if this is our last fight
now i’m winged in the left shoulder
and it hurts like bloody hell
i’ve done for half a dozen of ’em but i’m runnin’ out of shells
sheriff hollers ‘give it up young man!’
but we both know damn well that i’d take the final bullet
before he’d see me in a cell
and they got a length of rope for me
yeah they wanna see me hung
for a crime i swear to you that i never done
what’s more i think he knows his deputy’s the guilty one
they had to frame me up
so i had to cut and run
partner here we go
this is our last fight
won’t you cover me while i reload?
we might not see another sunrise
but i’m proud to stand with you if this is our last fight
if this is our last fight
they told me ‘come on outta there – hold your hands way up high!’
as you might expect, i hollered down
‘you’ll never take me back alive!’
i hauled leather, my six gun it hammered at the sky
the sheriff fell down dead
i hit him square between the eyes
darlin’ here we go
this is our last fight
won’t you cover me while i reload?
we might not see another sunrise
but i’m proud to stand with you if this is our last fight
if this is our last fight
***
My bandcamp website w/ lots of free music: http://fearlessfreep.bandcamp.com/
A review! 3-out-5 stars for Fearless Freep
Soundscraper says 3-out-of-5 stars. I'll take it!
My music is reviewed in this week’s Vegas Seven magazine, one of the weekly rags covering the weekend scene in the city. An acquaintance at work writes the regular music column. He’s got his own band, a self-described “post-apocalyptic doom death metal band” called Dead Neon, which I’ve seen a few times. I told him about my own DIY hobby a while ago and gave him a copy of This Island Life, which he gently made fun of. When I gave him a copy of YSYIC after a work meeting, I expected much the same result. Certainly, I didn’t expect him to like it. He emailed me about 20 minutes after I gave him the cd, said he listened to some of it on the car ride back to his office and enjoyed what he heard. He wanted to know where people could get the music online. “Why?” I wrote back, genuinely surprised. “You going to write about it?” So that was what prompted my bandcamp Website. I have been patiently waiting for this week’s edition of the magazine ever since, kind of nervous about what he would write. When he told me he put my real name (not just Fearless Freep) in the write-up, I was really nervous. But he was kind, and it feels good to be featured. He likened my voice to Tom Petty’s (yeah!) and he described subjects of my songs as “characters pushed to desperate margins by their thwarted desires and skewed loyalties.” The guitars, he wrote, are “in your face,” which seems funny because this whole thing was recorded with a crappy single 8″ practice amplifier, not a particularly in-your-face rig. Though I think he meant the phrase more in terms of the guitars being so prominent t in the mix – not all that common in an age of synthesized radio rock. In the end, I got 3-of-5 stars on the rating system. Fair … and totally cool! I kept a few copies for posterity.
One Cent: I don’t have any sense!
Toss a penny. Make a wish.
…
girl i’ve counted two times now
you’ve given me the runaround
you don’t wanna put me down before you pick me up
maybe the third time’s a charm
you know i’d never twist your arm
but i swear on this here guitar that i’m not giving up
what do you think? should i heed your advice
and write you out of my life?
it’s all right …
darlin’ if the world was flat
i’d walk you to the edge and back
throw a penny down and down
to see if it would make sound
i’d watch that penny fall
one cent ain’t worth nothin’ at all
it’s never gonna make us rich
unless you make a wish on it
c’mon now, what do you say?
i won’t keep you out too late
or have i made a big mistake …
mistake in asking you?
girl i think you wanna go
yeah i just got this hunch you know
from up above, down below
so i press on through
should i heed your advice
and write you out of my life?
it’s allright …
Dive In … to the past
…
Fearless Freep's stand-in getting ready to take a dive.
This was one of the first songs I ever wrote, Dive Right In, circa 1998. It’s about making music without really knowing how to make music … or play guitar … or arrange a song, etc. The first time I recorded it, I didn’t realize I was swinging the beat in my head – didn’t know what swing time was, in fact. That makes programming drums and software instruments pretty hard. No wonder it never sounded right to me!
I can’t remember if I wrote this song before I started calling my music project Fearless Freep, or after. It was right around the same time. I remember thinking how the lyrics dovetailed with the name, which is an obscure reference to a bugs bunny cartoon. You know the one – Yosemite Sam drafts Bugs at gunpoint into a high-dive act when the real performer, Fearless Freep, fails to show up by curtain time. Hilarity ensures. Of course Bugs gets the upper hand. Later, when I found a band already existed called Fearless Freep, I was devastated for five minutes.
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Dive Right In
But you know I’m gonna dive right in
Cause it’s the best way that I know to begin again
C’mon – it’s easy, believe me, when you dive right in
Right in
There’s no right, and honey there’s no wrong
You can take a left, you take a right, you keep moving on
There’s no wrong turns now
There’s only lessons to learn now
When we dive right in
Right in
C’mon in now, the water’s fine
Forget your towel, you’re gonna drip dry
Sink or swim ’cause there’s no better time than now
C’mon give it a try
And dive right in
Right in
You can live your life by one little rule
You can just dip a toe, you could drown in it too
So c’mon
Do what you will now
But I’ll drink my fill now
I’m gonna dive right in
Right in
Pack my suit I’m leaving tonight
I’m off I’m gonna find out the rest of life
Maybe we’ll meet another time
But now I’m gonna find of a little peace (piece) of (my) mind
But you know I’m gonna dive
right
in
now …
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