January 12, 2005; progress Report

Tonight, we worked out the arrangements on two songs, "The End of the Night," and "Texas Cannon Ball."

We'll start with "End of the Night." Here's the lyrics:

Well, it’s early in the mornin

And I come draggin my tired self home

Yes, it’s early in the mornin

And I come draggin my tired self home

Can I come over, baby

Cause I just don’t want to be alone

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I get these warm ole feelins

When the night is through

We had a good time tonight

Everyone had some fun

But I just want to be with you baby

When that long day is done

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I get these warm ole feelins

When the night is through

(guitar solo)

(harp solo = ¾ time)

I don’t want no last-call angel

I don’t want to party with boys

I just want to be with you baby

And get away from all that noise

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I get these warm ole feelins

When the night is through

I gave all my love to the people

Now feel so empty inside

I just need some place

Where I can recharge and unwind

Hey baby,

Can I spend the night with you

You know I don’t feel like sleepin

But I just want to lay down with you

This is a mid-tempo 12-bar blues in the T-Bone Walker style. For a nice over-view on T-Bone, click here. We had this one pretty well finished, just some loose ends to tighten before playing it out.

As this song has progressed, we've added a harmonica solo section that is in 3/4 time and then continues in 3/4 through the next verse, stopping on the word "noise" in the 4th line, and coming back to the 4/4 feel and continuing as usual. For an example of this 4/4-to-3/4-and-back feel, check out The Allman Brothers' version of T-Bone's "Stormy Monday" on their album, Live at the Fillmore. It really adds a cool mood change to the song, and emphasizes the feeling of wanting to go someplace quiet where you can relax. We spent probably one hour on this section, getting the transition from the 4/4 to the 3/4 and back again, and getting everyone satisfied with what they were doing in the 3/4 section.

After tightening that up, Jon suggested a possible bridge idea to join the verses and the solo section using a lyric idea for a song we had worked on some years ago, but never finished and played out, called "I Need a Friend." Although the lyric didn't work with this song, the idea does, and I'll be working on that in the up-coming weeks. This bridge doesn't follow the usual 12-bar pattern of I-IV-V, in that it doesn't stay on each chord for the usual 3 bars and then change. It has more of an "8-bar" feel, like Robert Johnson's "Come On in My Kitchen." I think a bridge is just the ticket to solidify this song, and make it ready to present to our audiences. Now all I have to do is come up with lyrics to it!

As we got these modifications tightened, we committed the new version of the song to tape, via Jon's four-track recorder, and moved on to "Texas Cannon Ball."

"Texas Cannon Ball" is an instrumental that Jon wrote to celebrate two of his guitar idols; Freddie King (known as the Texas Cannon Ball) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (known as the Texas Hurricane). For a brief introduction of Freddie King, click here. This has a real powerful, up-tempo, driving feel to it, and is gonna be a great vehicle to showcase Jon's guitar work. I can't wait til folks get a chance to hear this! In a later post, I'll have Jon go through the inspiration for this tune, and also let him get all technical on you about how the song is structured and such. To me, it is reminiscent of Stevie's "Scuttle Buttin" as far as the main riff goes. Jon plans to have the first solo feature Freddie King-inspired licks, and then the second solo will feature SRV-like guitar work. In between these solos sections, we came up with a pretty cool bridge that brings the listener into that Stevie Ray frame of mind, and winds you up for the next solo section. After that, the end has some powerful punches to draw this powerhouse to a close.

This new arrangement of "Texas Cannon Ball" was also committed to tape, and then we headed for home. All-in-all, a very productive rehearsal/writing session.