Guitar TABs
The Songs - Without a Bridge
About a year and a half ago I got back from a trip around the world. The trip changed my life in many measurable ways. This record, without a bridge was written largely during that trip. This section is designed to augment the CD jacket and explain a bit about the songs and describe from where they came. I've always, more or less, followed Michael Stipe's policy on not printing lyrics, but I wanted to print a few things and show some of the influences I had while writing the songs on this album. The trip journal is here for those who are interested.
sorry
Running
With the sweeping guitar lick and the powerful drum intro, I felt this would be a great way to start out the album. This will likely be the first I get to do a video for.
I can remember being out for a run one night, listening to just the music from this song, when a melody idea came to me. I was huffing and puffing into the mic on my mp3 player, trying to get capture the idea. I ended up using it in the final version, some years later.
how it feels right now
On Mykonos island with friends
One of my favorite songs from a lyrical standpoint. So many experiences happen over the course of an evening with people who may never see eachother again. This is about a collection of those experiences.
let your guard down, we won't laugh at anything you say...
the last car ride
GIANT pancakes on the Gold Coast
Written about the last day of my trip around the world. I shared a car with a bunch of new friends. There was not a bone in my body that wanted to leave the freedom of traveling and get back to the responsibilities of home. I knew this would disappear like a shadow with the setting sun. Charlie Midnight really helped me explain myself better here lyrically.
wonderful
Another mirror shot...my favorite shots to take
Written for my girlfriend, michelle. She amazes me every day. I met her just days after returning home and wrote this song. It was very slow in coming, but eventually I found the focus to finish it. She had just gotten out of a long relationship, which is something I thing many people can identify with, from either perspective.
...but when her old love ends, she wonders will I, lose a friend.
This is such a tough place to be in, and I wanted to surround that melancholy feeling with a really positive song that looks to the future.
...we said the last goodbyes tonight...
Jack Irons played drums on this song. He was a founding member of Pearl Jam and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was like a child on Christmas morning when I got to meet Jack and we talked about the song. I asked him about what it was like touring with Pearl Jam and about some of the arena experiences. He couldn't have been nicer.
like flowers for the sun
the band Jealousy, circa 1994--that HAIR
Ah, a favorite. This is a song written by the band Jealousy I was in in the mid 1990's. Now and again I would play an acoustic version of this song, and people generally liked it. Once, while traveling, I played this for a few people on Koh Samui island of the gulf coast of Thailand. It was received really well, and it was right then that I thought I should try to get this song out there again, perhaps with an update in sound.
Much of the music is the same. The drums are really different than anything I've ever heard and the bass line really sings to me, so I kept those items. The guitar lines are a little different.
I wrote the lyrics to this song while living in the Black Forest of Bavaria, Germany. It talks to spending lots of time away from home and missing the people who used to be so close. It's also about new beginnings.
Quite a while ago, Lisa Loeb released an acoustic tape. She called it "the purple tape" from its purple cover. Anyway, she used to say the word "sometimes" a lot. I say it in this song because of her. I haven't seen many people as adept at playing acoustic guitar and singing as Lisa.
stay
the hostel bed where the lyrics were written
I began this song in Budapest, Hungary. It took months to finish the words. I'm proud to say that it's been a favorite of quite a few friends. I like the folksy lyrics, as I have always held a special place for coffee-shop, acoustic music :)
For a while now, this has been my favorite song to close a show with. I will occasionally use a looping pedal and sing most of the background parts myself. It's a lot of fun for me.
letting go
Yes, a breakup song. True story.
growing old
my room at Nathan's Villa
I began writing this song in a hostel called Nathan's Villa in Krakow, Poland. I had finished it by the time I made it to Budapest, Hungary, my next stop. There's more about this song on the video page. I have always loved playing this one. It's pretty easy to sing and play.
so slow
the mountain-top lake in Riksgransen
This is one of my favorites. I stalled lyrically on this one and a friend in Australia came through for me. Hamish Wyatt and I exchanged emails for a couple weeks and the song really blossomed. For a singer-songwriter, I feel that's it's so imprortant to be confident in each song for live performance. Hamish helped get this song to that point and really take it a step beyond. The genius guitar work of Peter Atanasoff speaks for itself in this one. I may soon post the original version of this one and the finished version. The colaboration took it so far.
The first few lines and the melody for this song were written while climbing a mountain by myself in Riksgransen, Sweden. I was inside the arctic circle, in a hurry to make it to the below-summit lake (and back) before dark. I hit record on my MP3 player and grabbed the first few lines of this one before I made the lake. It was a wonderful day and the lake was so pacific. It was like a painting from that guy on PBS. You know the one?
with you
keyboard in the studio
This one has gone from a full song of, drums, bass, even electronic loops, to acoustic guitar to what it is here, a piano song. A friend from work, Trevor Gile, sang all the background vocals and really filled it out where it needed it.
I (barely) played the piano for this one after the drum-recording session was done. I saw the piano and Tom (Weir) was nice enough to mike it up for me. I played through it a few times and went home feeling humbled. I'm not much of a piano player, and the big shiney German microphones didn't help my nerves at all! The sustain pedal creaked a LOT and you can definitely hear it throught the song. I like it that way and wouldn't remove it if I could.
This song takes place at the end of a relationship. Perhaps the title is misleading. Maybe without you would be more appropriate.
you always
Cathy
This song is for a dear friend who took her life by jumping off the Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego. Her name was Cathy Larocca.
This was the hardest song I have ever written. I put it off as long as possible. In fact, I mixed it at around 2 am the night it was due. I delivered the master at 2:30 am. It took hours and hours and many many pages of writing to get the lyrics where I wanted them. The singing was especially difficult. I would have to walk away from it because I was just too hard to say the words or even to listen back to decide whether or not the take was any good.
I am proud of this song and I hope it can touch others similarly.
