"Stanislaus County Kid"

Hi, Constant Listeners.

When I was but small(er), I'd be riding along in the back of my dad's car
(always a Ford, if you're interested) minding my own business, and a
SONG would come on the radio – tinny, one-speaker AM car radio, 50's
style. I mean, a Capital-S SONG that would knock me out.

This didn't happen all that often, but often enough to stick with me
through the 50-odd years that have since rolled (sometimes lurched) by.
One of the first of these was 'Jamaica Farewell', Harry Belafonte, by the
way, my mom's favorite song. You'll be hearing that, too, but not quite
yet.

Jules and Smitty and I picked through an endless list of possible covers
to come up with these 11; some of them have been done to death, for a
reason: they're some of the best songs ever written. I tried to bring a new
reading to each of them.

Now, a few words about Simplicity:
In my experience, you start off, metaphorically, loaded up with a U-
Haul, a roofrack, too many suitcases, and a lot of good intentions. That
would be me in, say, 1978. As you truck on down the road, sometimes it's
a breeze. Sometimes, though, it's a typhoon, and things you carry but
don't really need get blown away (first to go is ALWAYS the U-Haul).

Another way to look at it is the Tale of the Japanese Gardener, who will
spend his entire life perfecting his little patch – moving a stone here, a
plant there, always removing, never adding, until he achieves his goal,
which is Harmony. Or Zen. I don't know that many Japanese, or I'd be
more precise, but I DO understand Simplicity. Well, I'm starting to. It's a
long road.

Another word to describe this is Minimalism – but that's not entirely
accurate. I'd prefer 'just-enoughism'.

Now, that's subjective, of course – one man's glorious Space is filled by
the next guy's 80-voice choir, all overdubbed one-by-one in the studio.

There's an expression I like that started in pre-Christian Rome,
probably by a lawyer/politician named Cicero: You can only spray so
much perfume on a turd – it's still a turd. Great thought, isn't it?

So, what's pop music about? Well, for me, right-here-right-now, it's
about a great song accompanied by 'just enough' to get it across without
weighing it down. I've been getting (but not responding to) quite a bit of
mail lately: 'Where are the rock guitars? Where are the choirs? We're
WORRIED about you!' – that sort of thing. Well, not to worry, friends,
I'm fine. And moving forward.

s a great friend of mine puts it: 'when you stop getting better, you start
getting worse'.

I personally think 'Stanislaus County Kid' is my best work to date -
I hope you do, too.

Stay well.
TC
Germany, February 2010