So, I've started work on my next album review which is for Chase Rice's Dirt Road Communion, but decided to take a little break from that to start off a new ongoing series I'll be doing. With all the time I've spent doing album reviews lately, I've been thinking a lot about great albums in general and how there's so much music out there that deserves to get heard. I have my reviews to talk about new albums, but thought it'd be interesting to write about older albums every now and then that I feel are worth having. Hence the title, albums worth owning. I already know of a few I'm going to write about at some point in the future, but the choice as to which one to do first was obvious. If you've been reading my blogs for a while and saw the post I did in February about why you should check out the Dirt Drifters, you might remember that I mentioned that my dad is a songwriter. Well, he's a songwriter who has a CD out and available for purchase entitled Thank You Beer. It seemed appropriate for that to be the first in this series.
I don't consider this to be a review; though I will be talking about each song individually after the cut. Focusing on what the song is about. But the idea of doing an actually full out review was just strange to me, given that it is my dad's CD. I'm going to go into some of the basic details about it before the cut, but before that I do want to say that I genuinely like all the songs on it. And I'm not just saying that because it's my dad's CD and he'll be reading this at some point. I really do like these songs. It's a strong, solid album.
Some facts about it for ya. Every song was written by my dad, Dave Alexander, with no co-writers. This album was recorded over four non-consecutive days. Three of those four days were spent in one or both of two of Nashville's fine recording studios with all the musicians (more about them in a second). The last (and bonus) song of the album was done by just my dad and the gentleman who served as the producer for two of those sessions in his home studio. My dad did all the lead vocals himself. Now the musicians? The guys who played on this record are the touring and/or studio musicians who have toured and/or played on the CDs for Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins, Elton John and way too many other artists to mention. Seriously, the amount of artists that this group has collectively toured or recorded or both with is insane! Absolutely insane. Trust me, you've heard them before and in some cases odds are you'd recognize them from the music videos their artist has put out. I'm so happy that I was able to be there for the sessions with them all because it was so interesting to watch them in action.
Which brings me to the announcement of a little mini-series I'll be doing that I think I first brought up in my very first post. Since my dad has decided to get back into songwriting full time, there's been so much that we've learned about the way that the music business works. Some of the inner goings on and I find it all so interesting. And I figure other people might as well. So I'm going to be writing a bit about it, talking about the general steps one has to take when pursuing a career in songwriting, some tips, why fans should respect studio engineers and so on. Have you ever wondered what goes on in a studio session? How the musicians learn the songs and just what the day is like? Well, I'm going to be telling you. My hope is that it'll give you all a greater appreciation for both how songs are created and for the people involved in said creation. I'm really looking forward to writing about that, so stay tuned.
Meanwhile, getting back to this album and more specifically the guys who played on it. We were so lucky and blessed to get the opportunity to have these gentlemen play on this album. They are all such talented musicians and nice people to boot. One of the funny things about the sessions is that one or more of them would constantly go up to my dad between songs and ask if he liked what they'd played. It was cool that they'd ask because it showed how dedicated they were to making the songs the way my dad wanted them; funny because everything they played was always so good. I believe that the songs turned out exactly the way that they were meant to and that's a testament to the talents and abilities of these musicians. Not to mention our engineer who did all the mixing and whatnot. They got it right.
Ha, meanwhile note that I used words like 'we' and 'our' in that last paragraph when the truth is that I nothing to do with any of it. I was just there: listening, watching and acting as my dad's photographer. Though I did get to do the high harmonies for two of the songs, "Broken Heart-String Melody" and "Javu Day". And let me say that getting to record in a real, professional, honest to goodness Nashville studio was both awesome and terrifying. Mostly awesome. I thank God that we had the engineer we had because he's a nice guy who remained patient with me even though we had to do them, well, more than once. I'll leave it at that.
Anyway, the CD is available on iTunes for those of you who prefer to download your music and on CDBaby.com for those of you who prefer having physical CDs. I'll include the links after the cut at the end. But first things first: let's take a little look at each song separately.
"Thank You Beer" Okay, so there's been a ton of songs about beer. About beer and drinking in general. People sing a lot about beer and how much they love drinking it, but has anyone ever thanked beer for all that it does? I think not. Not until now. I kind of can't believe that I hadn't heard a song like this before what with all the drinking songs out there. This basically follows a guy who has found multiple reasons to be thankful for beer throughout his life.
"Bus Driver" This was the first song that got recorded for this album and it was in the morning and this seemed to pep everyone right up. To quote one of the musicians after recording his part, "that'll wake you up!" This one has some definite kick to it. It's about a guy who is doing his best to get home to his girl in time for dinner, but is stuck with a bus driver who isn't driving as fast as he would like. The kicker? After dealing with said bus driver and running the rest of the way home, he finds his girl hanging out talking on the phone and he ends up having to make dinner for them himself. This is a fun one.
"Second Weekend" Time for a mood change with this one. This is easily the saddest song on the album and was inspired by something that my dad witnessed as a teenager. The song comes from the perspective of a guy who is working at a store, where he sees the same thing every second weekend of every month. A mom and her little girl coming in to wait for the girl's father to come take her for his weekend with her and every weekend, the little girl is crying because she doesn't want to go. And her mom is doing her best to convince her that it's going to be okay. This one's a bit of a tearjerker.
"My Margarita" From weekends to Margaritas. Actually one Margarita and that's referring to a woman, not the cocktail. Our narrator loves his Margarita, but he must leave her. Alas, he hears her name everywhere. In the wind howling, in the bird calls and so on. Musically, I'd consider this to be the most unique song of the bunch.
"Javu Day" Okay, so I imagine you're reading this like what in the world is a javu day? Well, it's not to be confused with déjà vu where you feel like you've experienced something before. Rather it's a day that is so amazing that you find yourself hoping that it'll happen again. Hence: javu day. This one has a nice little groove to it. Written with strong harmonies in mind.
"Broken Heart-String Melody" You know what this album needs? A hint of bluegrass. And what do we have here? A song with a hint of bluegrass. Crazy how that worked out, huh? This is one of my favorites actually. This is one of those where it'd be easy to miss the meaning because the music itself is so bouncy. But the lyrics are actually pretty sad when you listen to them. It's about a girl in love with a guy who treats her terribly and has stolen her heart and robbed her of her song. Here's the chorus for you: "Daybreak couldn't brighten/ Oh, and darkness couldn't hide/ The memories she had gathered/ Oh, of all the times she tried".
"Beer Works" The thing about this album is that there's so many different kinds of songs and I feel like there's something there for everyone. This one has a little grit to it, I'd say, kind of a musical meanness. I said I wasn't going to review these songs like I normally do, but I have to say that this song has one of my favorite opening music parts. The guys did a great job of setting the mood from the get go. The message of this song is pretty simple: Love? Well, it's great. But you know what? Beer works too.
"Runaway" This song is without question the second saddest song on the album. My dad is doing the lead vocal, like he did for all of the songs, but he wrote this thinking that it'd be a good song for a girl to sing. It works both ways, but I thought I'd throw that in there. It's about someone who comes from a broken home and all they want is a good home. This place they live isn't a home. So they run away to live on the streets or wherever, always wishing to find a place to call home. They just want to go home. But there's nothing for them but emptiness. Everywhere, emptiness and loneliness.
"Born for This" Oh this song. I have a story about this song, that I'm going to hold onto until I write about the studio sessions. Let's just say that this song proved to be the most difficult. God love the musicians. Basically a song about a guy who was born for the country life and everything that means, they don't need politicians or anyone telling them how to live their life. They like their life the way it is. After all, they were born for this. Just give them a "Loud guitar, deep bass, drums beating like a heart tearin' up the place/ Hot keyboards, steel whistlin', sweet girl dancin' wild/ Take a chance and steal a kiss/ Then you got it/ You were born for this".
"C'Mon In" This is hands down the most traditional country song on the album and I like it because it's about what country truly is, where the heart of the genre is. I've talked about this before; so many people sing songs about outlaw country artists like that's what country is about and while that's part of it, that's not where the heart sits. You want to know where the heart is? It's in the couples, in the duets. Or as the song puts it, "It's Waylon and Jessi, Conway and Loretta/ George and Tammy, it only gets better/ Like Johnny and June/ It's the best that can be/ That's country my friend, c'mon in, you'll see/ That's country my friend, c'mon in".
"Two Seconds" So this song was intended to be more bluegrass than it turned out. This is what happens when you get country rock musicians doing bluegrass, it's as one of them put it, "skinny jeans bluegrass". I'm not entirely sure what that means and yet it's oddly accurate. This one has a kind of Keith Urban-esque flavor at parts. The playing on this is pretty ridiculous. And I say that as a compliment to the musicians.
"I See Rednecks" Remember when Haley Joel Osment saw dead people? Well, I don't want to alarm anyone, but our narrator sees rednecks and you know what? They are everywhere. In the South, in the North, in the Pacific Northwest - I'm telling you, they are everywhere. You could find yourself next to one and not even know it. Or maybe you are one yourself. This is my personal favorite song on this album, hands down. The energy is this is crazy! I'd call it electric even. It even has a jaw harp on it! And speaking of, when everyone was talking about this song, someone said that it needed a jaw harp and the steel player announced that he has one in his truck. A jaw harp in his truck. That's fairly redneck in and of itself. I really love this one.
"Craft Beer Don't Cost Much Money" Okay, so this one is pretty different. It's a spoken, true story about craft beer set to acoustic guitar and featuring a little jingle-like chorus that makes me think of something Big & Rich might record.
And there we go! Those are the track on Thank You Beer. Here's the link for iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/thank-you-beer/id504474788 and for anyone who might prefer a physical CD, here's the link on CDBaby: Dave Alexander | Thank You Beer | CD Baby
I strongly encourage you to please go and check it out and if you like it, buy it! And tell your friends. If you do decide to buy a few songs or the whole thing, please let me know what you thought because I'd love to know. Thank you, as always, for reading!
I don't consider this to be a review; though I will be talking about each song individually after the cut. Focusing on what the song is about. But the idea of doing an actually full out review was just strange to me, given that it is my dad's CD. I'm going to go into some of the basic details about it before the cut, but before that I do want to say that I genuinely like all the songs on it. And I'm not just saying that because it's my dad's CD and he'll be reading this at some point. I really do like these songs. It's a strong, solid album.
Some facts about it for ya. Every song was written by my dad, Dave Alexander, with no co-writers. This album was recorded over four non-consecutive days. Three of those four days were spent in one or both of two of Nashville's fine recording studios with all the musicians (more about them in a second). The last (and bonus) song of the album was done by just my dad and the gentleman who served as the producer for two of those sessions in his home studio. My dad did all the lead vocals himself. Now the musicians? The guys who played on this record are the touring and/or studio musicians who have toured and/or played on the CDs for Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins, Elton John and way too many other artists to mention. Seriously, the amount of artists that this group has collectively toured or recorded or both with is insane! Absolutely insane. Trust me, you've heard them before and in some cases odds are you'd recognize them from the music videos their artist has put out. I'm so happy that I was able to be there for the sessions with them all because it was so interesting to watch them in action.
Which brings me to the announcement of a little mini-series I'll be doing that I think I first brought up in my very first post. Since my dad has decided to get back into songwriting full time, there's been so much that we've learned about the way that the music business works. Some of the inner goings on and I find it all so interesting. And I figure other people might as well. So I'm going to be writing a bit about it, talking about the general steps one has to take when pursuing a career in songwriting, some tips, why fans should respect studio engineers and so on. Have you ever wondered what goes on in a studio session? How the musicians learn the songs and just what the day is like? Well, I'm going to be telling you. My hope is that it'll give you all a greater appreciation for both how songs are created and for the people involved in said creation. I'm really looking forward to writing about that, so stay tuned.
Meanwhile, getting back to this album and more specifically the guys who played on it. We were so lucky and blessed to get the opportunity to have these gentlemen play on this album. They are all such talented musicians and nice people to boot. One of the funny things about the sessions is that one or more of them would constantly go up to my dad between songs and ask if he liked what they'd played. It was cool that they'd ask because it showed how dedicated they were to making the songs the way my dad wanted them; funny because everything they played was always so good. I believe that the songs turned out exactly the way that they were meant to and that's a testament to the talents and abilities of these musicians. Not to mention our engineer who did all the mixing and whatnot. They got it right.
Ha, meanwhile note that I used words like 'we' and 'our' in that last paragraph when the truth is that I nothing to do with any of it. I was just there: listening, watching and acting as my dad's photographer. Though I did get to do the high harmonies for two of the songs, "Broken Heart-String Melody" and "Javu Day". And let me say that getting to record in a real, professional, honest to goodness Nashville studio was both awesome and terrifying. Mostly awesome. I thank God that we had the engineer we had because he's a nice guy who remained patient with me even though we had to do them, well, more than once. I'll leave it at that.
Anyway, the CD is available on iTunes for those of you who prefer to download your music and on CDBaby.com for those of you who prefer having physical CDs. I'll include the links after the cut at the end. But first things first: let's take a little look at each song separately.
"Thank You Beer" Okay, so there's been a ton of songs about beer. About beer and drinking in general. People sing a lot about beer and how much they love drinking it, but has anyone ever thanked beer for all that it does? I think not. Not until now. I kind of can't believe that I hadn't heard a song like this before what with all the drinking songs out there. This basically follows a guy who has found multiple reasons to be thankful for beer throughout his life.
"Bus Driver" This was the first song that got recorded for this album and it was in the morning and this seemed to pep everyone right up. To quote one of the musicians after recording his part, "that'll wake you up!" This one has some definite kick to it. It's about a guy who is doing his best to get home to his girl in time for dinner, but is stuck with a bus driver who isn't driving as fast as he would like. The kicker? After dealing with said bus driver and running the rest of the way home, he finds his girl hanging out talking on the phone and he ends up having to make dinner for them himself. This is a fun one.
"Second Weekend" Time for a mood change with this one. This is easily the saddest song on the album and was inspired by something that my dad witnessed as a teenager. The song comes from the perspective of a guy who is working at a store, where he sees the same thing every second weekend of every month. A mom and her little girl coming in to wait for the girl's father to come take her for his weekend with her and every weekend, the little girl is crying because she doesn't want to go. And her mom is doing her best to convince her that it's going to be okay. This one's a bit of a tearjerker.
"My Margarita" From weekends to Margaritas. Actually one Margarita and that's referring to a woman, not the cocktail. Our narrator loves his Margarita, but he must leave her. Alas, he hears her name everywhere. In the wind howling, in the bird calls and so on. Musically, I'd consider this to be the most unique song of the bunch.
"Javu Day" Okay, so I imagine you're reading this like what in the world is a javu day? Well, it's not to be confused with déjà vu where you feel like you've experienced something before. Rather it's a day that is so amazing that you find yourself hoping that it'll happen again. Hence: javu day. This one has a nice little groove to it. Written with strong harmonies in mind.
"Broken Heart-String Melody" You know what this album needs? A hint of bluegrass. And what do we have here? A song with a hint of bluegrass. Crazy how that worked out, huh? This is one of my favorites actually. This is one of those where it'd be easy to miss the meaning because the music itself is so bouncy. But the lyrics are actually pretty sad when you listen to them. It's about a girl in love with a guy who treats her terribly and has stolen her heart and robbed her of her song. Here's the chorus for you: "Daybreak couldn't brighten/ Oh, and darkness couldn't hide/ The memories she had gathered/ Oh, of all the times she tried".
"Beer Works" The thing about this album is that there's so many different kinds of songs and I feel like there's something there for everyone. This one has a little grit to it, I'd say, kind of a musical meanness. I said I wasn't going to review these songs like I normally do, but I have to say that this song has one of my favorite opening music parts. The guys did a great job of setting the mood from the get go. The message of this song is pretty simple: Love? Well, it's great. But you know what? Beer works too.
"Runaway" This song is without question the second saddest song on the album. My dad is doing the lead vocal, like he did for all of the songs, but he wrote this thinking that it'd be a good song for a girl to sing. It works both ways, but I thought I'd throw that in there. It's about someone who comes from a broken home and all they want is a good home. This place they live isn't a home. So they run away to live on the streets or wherever, always wishing to find a place to call home. They just want to go home. But there's nothing for them but emptiness. Everywhere, emptiness and loneliness.
"Born for This" Oh this song. I have a story about this song, that I'm going to hold onto until I write about the studio sessions. Let's just say that this song proved to be the most difficult. God love the musicians. Basically a song about a guy who was born for the country life and everything that means, they don't need politicians or anyone telling them how to live their life. They like their life the way it is. After all, they were born for this. Just give them a "Loud guitar, deep bass, drums beating like a heart tearin' up the place/ Hot keyboards, steel whistlin', sweet girl dancin' wild/ Take a chance and steal a kiss/ Then you got it/ You were born for this".
"C'Mon In" This is hands down the most traditional country song on the album and I like it because it's about what country truly is, where the heart of the genre is. I've talked about this before; so many people sing songs about outlaw country artists like that's what country is about and while that's part of it, that's not where the heart sits. You want to know where the heart is? It's in the couples, in the duets. Or as the song puts it, "It's Waylon and Jessi, Conway and Loretta/ George and Tammy, it only gets better/ Like Johnny and June/ It's the best that can be/ That's country my friend, c'mon in, you'll see/ That's country my friend, c'mon in".
"Two Seconds" So this song was intended to be more bluegrass than it turned out. This is what happens when you get country rock musicians doing bluegrass, it's as one of them put it, "skinny jeans bluegrass". I'm not entirely sure what that means and yet it's oddly accurate. This one has a kind of Keith Urban-esque flavor at parts. The playing on this is pretty ridiculous. And I say that as a compliment to the musicians.
"I See Rednecks" Remember when Haley Joel Osment saw dead people? Well, I don't want to alarm anyone, but our narrator sees rednecks and you know what? They are everywhere. In the South, in the North, in the Pacific Northwest - I'm telling you, they are everywhere. You could find yourself next to one and not even know it. Or maybe you are one yourself. This is my personal favorite song on this album, hands down. The energy is this is crazy! I'd call it electric even. It even has a jaw harp on it! And speaking of, when everyone was talking about this song, someone said that it needed a jaw harp and the steel player announced that he has one in his truck. A jaw harp in his truck. That's fairly redneck in and of itself. I really love this one.
"Craft Beer Don't Cost Much Money" Okay, so this one is pretty different. It's a spoken, true story about craft beer set to acoustic guitar and featuring a little jingle-like chorus that makes me think of something Big & Rich might record.
And there we go! Those are the track on Thank You Beer. Here's the link for iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/thank-you-beer/id504474788 and for anyone who might prefer a physical CD, here's the link on CDBaby: Dave Alexander | Thank You Beer | CD Baby
I strongly encourage you to please go and check it out and if you like it, buy it! And tell your friends. If you do decide to buy a few songs or the whole thing, please let me know what you thought because I'd love to know. Thank you, as always, for reading!
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