During late May the irreplaceable Eric Taylor (lead vocal, acoustic guitar) was joined at Rock Romano’s Red Shack, a recording studio in The Heights of Houston, Texas, by a small, hand picked audience and a coterie of long-time musical associates including, in order of aural appearance Marco Python Fecchio (electric guitar) and James Gilmer (percussion), along with vocalists Lyle Lovett, Denice Franke, Nanci Griffith and his wife Susan Lindfors Taylor. The music business at times is akin to a circus, so it’s appropriate that this good old Georgia boy should open with his travelling carney song, “Carnival Jim And Jean” – in recent years the launch pad staple of Eric’s live shows. “Texas, Texas” follows. All you need to know of the latter is that: “Texas, Texas is a good ‘ol girl man, I think I’ll love her ’til I leave.” To all intents a Texan, following a four-decade residency, Taylor ain’t gonna ‘leave her’ any time soon. Joined by Lyle Lovett they open with “Memphis Midnight Memphis Morning” one of three Taylor originals that appeared on Through The Dark Nightly (1976) a compilation released by Fair Retail Records. As in the legendary, still functioning Houston music venue whose presence – as we’ll see – is woven into the very fabric of this collection. Lovett covered the latter title on his tribute collection Step Inside This House (1998). They follow with “Tractor Song” and “Visitors From Indiana,” a segue that appeared in precisely that order on Eric’s self-titled sophomore disc. Taylor is a storyteller without equal and these are two of his finest – the former recalls a truly enterprising American president and an entrepreneur who mobilized a nation during wartime, while the latter portrays a family who just happened to be in Dallas on a certain fateful day in late November 1963. Anderson Fair, the building, plays host to the “Blue Piano” on which Eric is joined by Denice Franke. There’s no need to expand on the Jack Kerouac / On The Road connection, suffice to say Dean Moriarty is another classic tale that has grown in stature since appearing on Eric Taylor (1995). Here, the writer wrings every molecule of emotion and nuance out of this timeless gem. A fifteen-year plus favourite, my jaw still hits the ground hearing it. Taylor’s next guest is one-time spouse, Nanci Griffith, and they vocalize on a quartet of titles. Griffith was vocalist on Peter Cooper’s rendition of “Mission Door” on his 2008 album of the same name, covered “Dollar Matinee” on her solo debut There’s A Light Beyond These Woods (1978) and included Deadwood on the live in Houston release One Fair Summer Evening (1988). All’s Fair here! This is the first occasion that “Dollar Matinee” has appeared on a Taylor recording, and joined by Franke and Susan Lindfors Taylor, they close with “Prison Movie” – replete with a delightfully layered vocal outro. Part live recording, catalogue retrospective and musical celebration with friends, this disc draws to a close with “Good Times Fickle Friend” a previously unheard back catalogue nugget that doubtless Taylor will air on his forthcoming UK tour. – Maverick
1. Carnival Jim And Jean
Ain’t nothin’ but a guitar, go ahead and play it
Ain’t nothin’ but a high price, go ahead and pay it
Ain’t nothin’ but a goodbye, go ahead and say it
You won’t do any better without me
You won’t do no better without me
I’ll just run this little hustle, honey, keep us fed
Stackin’ up the milk bottles made out of lead
Yeah, I’m a 3-for-a-dollar carney son of a bitch
But you won’t do any better without me
You won’t do no better without me
Chorus
Out on the interstate, runnin’ Louisiana plates
Lord, I get lonesome when I can’t find her
I’ll catch her out of Halletsville, get her back I know I will
Lord, I get lonesome when I can’t find her
She won’t do no better without me
She won’t do any better without me
I’m pretty good with my hands, I can break it, I can fix it
Turn 20 dirty dollars from a two-dollar ticket
Say the smell of cotton candy ’bout to make you sick
You won’t do no better without me
You won’t do any better without me
Her mother was a fat clown little dog act
She used to hit Jean till Jean hit her back
I stole a little red guitar and some gasoline
She won’t do no better without me
She won’t do no better without me
chorus
I’m Carnival Jim and she jus’ Jean
And she’s cold as Minnesota, can’t cook or clean
She can play a little guitar oughta hear her sing
She can’t do no better without me
She can’t do no better without me
chorus
repeat 1st verse
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
2. Texas, Texas
It was a night so hot
Man I’d tell you if I could
How the moon set fire
to the cottonwoods
How the horses called
from the riverbank
How the water boiled
and they would not drink
Texas, Texas is a good ol’ girl man
I think I’ll love her ‘til I leave
It was a night so still
You could hear a dead man say
How he wished he’d fell
the other way
Could hear the stars go ‘round
Could hear a fool make sense
Could see the black-eyed Susans
by the backyard fence
Texas, Texas is a good ol’ girl man
I think I’ll love her ‘til I leave
It was a night so fierce
that I lost my shoes
God in heaven
lost the golden rule
Blue lightnin’ danced
struck the water tower
And the big hall clock
struck the half an hour
Texas, Texas is a good ol’ girl man
I think I’ll love her ‘til I leave
It was a night so long
The kind that gives you time to think
What you might have done
with her turquoise ring
About the note she’d hung
by the front door screen
About what went wrong
with her love for me
Texas, Texas is a good ol’ girl man
I think I’ll love her ‘til I leave
repeat 1st verse
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
3. Memphis Midnight Memphis Morning
The sun went down like a curtain
Memphis looks bigger at night
As all the tattooed boys in uniform
Step in and out of the light
She bought me good whiskey in Memphis
She bought supper and she paid for the room
And the best as I can remember
She paid dearly for lovin’ me, too
Chorus
She said “Hey don’t I know you? Now ain’t you the one?
The one with the guitar boys and all them sad songs
About men in the rain – did you ever miss a plane in Memphis?
We laughed at the strangers we were in bed
Two cigarettes lit up the room
Like two back seat lovers can’t wait to get started
Knowin’ everything’s over too soon
Now Memphis ain’t bad in the mornin’
Good coffee well it’s just hard to find
But let me suggest that you never leave Memphis
With anything on your mind
chorus
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals
Lyle Lovett – vocals, guitar
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
4. Tractor Song
Mama walked that plow John
Mama walked that plow
She just weren’t worth nothin’
Come sundown – down
Daddy walked that plow John
You know my daddy walked that plow
And he just weren’t worth nothin’
Come sundown – down
A white man in a blue suite
John, he comes up to this door
He said, woman, you won’t work sho hard
As the ones before you
As the ones before you do – he said
Chorus
Thanks to Mr Roosevelt and Henry Ford
Won’t have to gee them mules no more
Honey, you’ll be cuttin’ rows
Up to your back yard
Git up John, sit down mule
Let me hear that jinglin’ sound
You can get a new Ford for
Only fifty down – down, down, down
Down, down, down, down
John say – If I pay you fifty
When you gonna ask for more?
Are you gonna take my money?
When you gonna bring my Ford?
When you gonna bring my Ford?
Man say –
chorus
Look ’a yonder comin’
It’s shinin’ in the sun
It looks to be a new Ford
I believe my toilin’s done
I do believe my toilin’s done
chorus
1st verse
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Lyle Lovett – vocals
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
5. Visitors From Indiana
Somebody up there went crazy
Started shootin’ down here below
Other than that I can’t say see
I live up in Kokomo
My wife loved the pretty little pill-box hat
My children thought Texas had snow
I told ‘em life is full of disappointments
We live up in Kokomo
Chorus
If it can happen to you then it can happen to me
Oh, I miss Indiana
And I wish I knew now what I knew then
Oh, I miss Indiana
Got a brother from the Wildcat River
Standing over by the grassy knoll
He’s got a wife that’ll make you shiver
She’s back up in Kokomo
Got a sister that’s around here somewhere
Probably missed the whole damned show
She ain’t been right since he left here
Sittin’ there in Kokomo
chorus
I guess I ought’a call my friends and family
I’m sure they’re listenin’ to the radio
Somethin’ like this can hurt you
All the way to Kokomo
I wonder what that girl is goin’ to do
Left her roses in the car, God knows
We’ll buy her a baker’s dozen
If she ever comes to Kokomo
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Lyle Lovett – vocals
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
6. Blue Piano
Just inside the city, there’s a west Texas girl
No pony, no saddle, just ebony and ivory
Every time she sings one
There’s a kiss from her daddy
Chorus
Hands across the blue piano
A dollar gives you any favorite tune
and the neon screams on down the street
Inside, they ask for somethin’ they can dance to.
Just outside the city, honey, that ain’t the moon
It’s just the dust settlin’ on your new Sunday shoes
Maybe you would sing one
If I kissed you too
chorus
Just inside the city, there’s a young man smokes in bed to a freight train symphony
And he cusses the wheels rattlin’ the ivory on some blue piano’s keys
chorus
repeat last verse
Eric Taylor – vocals
Denice Franke – vocals, guitar
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
7. Dean Moriarty
Dean Moriarty don’t live here no more
He’s off in California, works in a liquor store
Where it’s two packs of cigarettes and one half a pint
Then he’s back to his room on the Mexican side
Says he’s through with the railroad freight-car line
The fight between the moon and the lantern light
Says I’m goin’ cross country but I might come back
Stickin’ to the highway, to hell with the tracks
Chorus
I can’t take what you may give me
I’ve always wanted more
And my Mercury hummin’ road may put me
To sleep outside your door
I got a brand new baby, she’s got a new pair of shoes
He’s drivin’ somebody’s car but he don’t know whose
Been up all night, but it don’t show
He won twenty-five dollars in the hammer throw
It’s a three-fingered guitar, it’s a saxophone that bites
Jack’s been readin’ her poetry, he’s been spillin’ her wine
Her hair’s so pretty, she smells like Juicy Fruit gum
Her old man’s the black guy over on the congo drums
chorus
Maybe he should call her, he just ain’t go the dough
Maybe he’ll slip on outside and check the radio
It’s playin’ her song but it just ain’t his
Man like him’s got no business with a wife and the kids
It’s the last of the red wine from a night full of thrills
It’s a coast to the bottom of a Frisco hill
How can a body begrudge another body a ride?
I didn’t steal your car, man, I just borrowed it a while
chorus
1st half of 1st verse
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
8. Mission Door
Through the mission door
The winos sing hymns for their supper
Blind Sally talks back to the preacher she says
She can’t tell one sin from the other
Chorus
Put your hands on the bible and tears in your eyes
Kneel on the corner and pray for more wine
It’s beans and it’s bread it’s a small price to pay
To hold hands and go dancin’ on the old devil’s grave
Night falls through the mission door
You get a cot with blanket don’t you spit on the floor
Sister Teresa she’s friends with the Lord
No smokin’ in bed no sleepin’ late in the mornin’
** chorus **
Look comin’ through that mission door
It’s Tokay Sam and his best friend Dollar Bill Hines
I ain’t really a preacher I’m Tommy the Frenchman
And I like Lucky Strikes, Jesus and wine
chorus
Now when you leave out through that mission door
If you got any money you better keep it down in your shoes
Every hard luck story from Houston to Hell
Ain’t worth 25 cents towards huggin’ the moon
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Nanci Griffith – vocals
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
9. Dollar Matinee
Ronnie stood beneath the movie marquee
His memories all curled up inside
He was tryin’ to remember was it August or September
Since he’d seen her for the last time
He’d heard that she’d become an actress
She always had the prettiest face
And he stood with his hands in his pockets
and waited for the dollar matinee
Chorus
She’s bigger than life on the screen
and there’s a laugh from the balcony, Good Lord
And the sun will burn you and blind you
When you step back into the street
The theatre smelled so familiar
It was a smokey ol’ velvet delight
Yes and he sat down front just like he’d always done
With his feet hangin’ out in the aisle
He watched her with eyes dis-believin’
He felt something like time on his brain
And he told himself “don’t, now you remember it’s only
just a part that she’s playin’.”
chorus
She stood by some window in Paris
and while the captions translated the scene
Ronnie stared back at her body and breathed
“Christ, it’s the first time I’ve seen it.”
Behind him the people were leavin’
and the buses were hummin’ outside
But Ronnie never went to the movies unless
He could stay and see it twice.
chorus
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Nanci Griffith – vocals
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
10. Deadwood
The good times scratched a laugh from the lungs of the young men
In a deadwood saloon South Dakota afternoon
The old ones by the door with their heads to their chests
Told lies about whiskey on a woman’s breast
Some tell the story of young Mickey Free
Lost an eye to a buck deer in the Tongue River valley
Some tell the story of California Joe
He sent word that the Black Hills were a mountain of gold
Chorus
And the gold lay cold in their pockets
The sun sets down on the trees
They thank the Lord thank the Lord for the land that they live in
Where a white man does as he pleases
Some flat-shoed fool from the East comes runnin’
With some news that he’d read in some St. Joseph paper
And it’s drinks all around because the news that he’s tellin’
Is the one they call crazy has been caught and been dealt with
The Easterner reads the words from the paper
The old ones drew closer so’s that they could hear better
“It says here that Crazy Horse was killed while he’s tryin’ to escape
Sometime last September it don’t give the exact date.”
chorus
The the talk turned back to whiskey and women
Cold nights on the plains and fightin’ them Indians
The Easterner says he’ll have one more ‘fore he goes
He gives the paper to the Crow boy that sweeps up the floor
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Nanci Griffith – vocals
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
11. Prison Movie
Well, you the spotlight runnin’
With legs so long and pale
Learn to cry in the cradle
Learn to lie in jail
Handsome man from Atlanta
Georgia queen of the South
Where you get a little kiss from your mama
And your daddy hits you square in the mouth
Had a little girl named Rachel
We had a little boy named Ray
I killed a little man down in Macon
Who had a mouth too big for his face
Just another white trash cracker
Livin’ on hate and shame
I only pulled the trigger boys
The bullet was to blame
Chorus
In a line, we all walk in a line
While the world outside is spinnin’ ‘round
In a line, we all live in a line
While your moon comes up and your sun goes down
If I could leave here tomorrow
I probably wouldn’t know what to say
I’d probably go live with my mama
And steal all her pocketbook change
I’d take her stupid station wagon
Fill it up with whiskey and gas
Take it on down to Macon
And sit in front of Rachel’s house
They can write a book about me
I can sign a movie deal
And the lawyers can take all the money
As long as Johnny Cash plays me
He can hit the spotlight runnin’
With legs so long and pale
He can learn to cry in the cradle
And he can learn to lie in jail
chorus
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Nanci Griffith – vocals
Denice Franke – vocals
Susan Lindfors Taylor – vocals
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion
12. Good Times/Fickle Friend
Light another cigarette on the stove
the coffee’s cold
Put the guitar in the box
Read a magazine wind the clocks
Dearly beloved Dearly departed
Left me standing in the kitchen
where this thing got started
I’m closing my eyes
I’m dog tired of prayin’
Chorus
Good times Fickle Friend
only comes to visit never plans on stayin‘
Seems we’re always wavin’ Bye
Sayin’ hope to see you again
Room to room, stare in the mirror
and half a smile
Loneliness will make a fool out of you
Twenty dollar bill dollar’s worth of abuse
Sooner or later bad or better
Taken by the twisted and get set straighter
She’s long gone man and there’s nothin’ wrong with you
chorus
Window shade the bed’s unmade
lost to love
All the Johns have come and gone
to a hero’s breakfast in a hero’s home
Seems I’ve got this paper soul
Easy to read if the wind don’t blow
Ah, Jesus Christ, I love this I love this life of crime
chorus
Eric Taylor – vocals, guitar
Marco Python Fecchio – electric guitar
James Gilmer – percussion