SE 6, EP5: Violation Podcast: An Interview with Beaver Nelson

On this episode of This Is Vinyl Tap, we do something a little different from our typical fare and interview Austin singer-songwriter Beaver Nelson. 

Beaver Nelson has been on the Austin scene since before he graduated from high school. His talent as a songwriter was almost immediately recognized by some of the finest singer-songwriters at the time, which gave him the opportunity to perform and record with some of the biggest names in the Austin music scene at the time. His songs are full of clever, introspective, and personal lyrics backed by a fantastic array of musicians. We talk to Beaver about some of those songs and stories behind them, as well as his history as a working musician in the Austin scene.

Visit us at www.tappingvinyl.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:01

Violation. Violation. We have a violation. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. This is a violation podcast. We are stepping outside of what we normally do to bring to you something wonderful, something exciting, and something new. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to introduce you to Beaver Nelson.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Would you need me? Would you do me?

SPEAKER_05 1:16

One year later, RCA Victor introduced a 45 RPM single. Listeners now had a choice, but only the hits or the full album. In the last half of the 60s, the best fans realized the potential of the longer format and began to build a cohesive body of music that must be heard unbroken. The arrival of downloadable music has increased the temptation to stay in the shallow end with the hits. This podcast believes every album tells a story. Tonight, we tell one of those stories. That's right, ladies and gentlemen. We are in the Vinegaroon Saloon in Wildwood, Texas, and we are stepping outside of our normal show. Tonight we have a guest. We have one of the uh actual musicians in the Vinegaroon with us. But before I introduce this person, I would like to tell you that you are joining me and PowerPop T. Hey everybody. And Jonathan J. M. Rowe. Good afternoon, Tapsteries. And I'm Doug Cooper. And we are joined today by the artist Bieber Nelson. You're still on the top. They can't see you uh when you nod.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_05 2:38

Well, we're we're glad to have you. Uh Beaver, uh, how many albums do you have out there? Nine released. Nine released, which that sounds like another one's on its way. Well, many were recorded and not released. Oh, yeah. We could have another one. Let me explain a little bit about what we're doing. Um Beaver Nelson is, in my opinion, one of the finest songwriters there is out there right now. He's he's been in Austin playing since he was, I guess he would sneak up in high school and come to Austin to play. So he's been a regular in the Austin scene. And uh he's toured all over, but we'd like to we'd like to get him out there to our audience because we're talking about a very excellent artist that everyone needs to know about. And uh if you don't if you don't like Beaver Nelson, you're gonna go on that list of horrible people. Yeah. Problems with themselves. Yeah. JM, tell us about Beaver Nelson.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Well, Beaver, I believe you were born in, or you're you weren't born in Houston, but you moved to Houston, is that right? When I was seven, yeah. So was that.

SPEAKER_05 3:51

When were your decision or your family's decision?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Uh it it was it was early enough that I'd I let them I let them make the call.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

We weren't weren't quite sure of your judgment then, I guess. But where were you born?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

So the the the should the short answer is from pure Mississippi stock, I was conceived in Lubbock, Texas. Born in Norman, Oklahoma. Okay, was there for a a little under two years, moved to Edmund, Oklahoma? Okay, was there for a short period of time, moved to Dallas, and was there from like three to almost seven. Uh after first grade, we moved to Houston and I stayed there until I got out of high school.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Did your parents uh have somebody dock your birth certificate like other people to say that you're a Texan?

SPEAKER_01 4:41

They did not.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

They did not. But uh just checking when we moved.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Um did they apologize for being bored and Norman?

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Yeah, no, no, they never did. They never did.

SPEAKER_05 4:56

They're always fine with that. At least you're not a swinger fan.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

That's right. We moved from uh, yeah, they when dad was in construction, and so he was he had different projects.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

What was there music playing in your your house growing up?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Sure. Uh also like many, many people, it was it was church choirs and then school choirs. Unlike necessarily a lot of people, then it was it was like boys' choirs, and then I sang with uh Houston Grand Opera.

SPEAKER_04 5:31

Oh what did you do with the opera?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

I did so I was in a couple different ones. So well, a couple with the a couple with the symphony where like the boys choir I was in at Jones Hall sang with uh the symphony and like Faust. Then they did Hansel and Gretel, and so the boys choir were like the gingerbread method. And then and then probably my last like in stage endeavor really was um of any note was I was I was one of the three genies in Mozart's magic flute. Um that was that was just months and months and months of training. How old were you when you were doing this? I was uh uh seventh grade.

SPEAKER_04 6:19

Wow, and seventh grade. I mean that's that's a lot for a seventh it was wild, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

It was three kids singing, singing three-part harmony with no bikes, you know, in a 5,000 seater. It was pretty wild. Yeah. Uh with the old George Washington wigs in the skirt. The the set which you still perform in, right? Absolutely, absolutely, once a year. Um but we we uh the the sets were designed by Maurice Sindak, who did oh cool where the wild things were. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. So it was absolutely amazing. There were, you know, we were in um uh uh uh facsimile of a of a hot air balloon, which you know the genies go around in and in in the magic flute as as as they do. Anyway, so that was it was a totally wild experience. And uh wow after that, it was just not long after that that you know I discovered you know Dylan and writing writing songs and how old were you when you started playing the guitar? Well, it wasn't not it was around that time, but well, it was just a little bit before that. I'd taken a few, a handful of lessons at one point earlier, and it was classical, and I it didn't I didn't I didn't like it. Um then off for a while, and then uh we found a a teacher uh and I tried and I'd had piano lessons off and on um a little bit, was never good, and um uh but I've I had a guitar teacher maybe in like in that seventh, eighth grade range. Um and I took from her for a little bit. She was great, but I just I I never really uh learned how other people do things. I just I I wanted pretty quickly, I wanted to play guitar to write songs. Um and so I I I didn't grow up like a lot of people that end up playing where they know they know a million songs, you know.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

So were your I'm just curious when you see when I mean the fact that you were with the with the opera, did was there any sort of was the classical music what you grew up listening to, or was it no no not at all?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Okay, no, but I mean it was just through like choirs and then boys choir. Uh then was like it was more like hey, you can do this. Do you want to come do this? It wasn't like I wasn't seeking out opera opportunities, uh you know, wouldn't it even occur to me?

SPEAKER_04 9:01

It was just part of what you were doing with the choirs and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, they just the people from Houston Grand Opera came to the boys choir, like boys choirs are all over Houston trying to find trying to find people to audition for their thing. Okay. Anyway, so I had done that and I'd done like some a lot like some musicals and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 9:21

Um so you you decided early you wanted to play guitar. Yeah. You did you ever consider playing the bass? It was no, I did not.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

You can't really write songs on bass really well.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

Yeah, that's correct. Another one bites the dust. That's true. There's the odd exception. Boris the spider. There you go. Yeah. So then you went through puberty. Exactly. Now that's made that changed everything. That made rock and roll very important.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and and uh and my my genie work became a lot less appeal. Um that was mutual. They didn't they they wouldn't have wanted me anymore.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

So what was the 13-year-old Beaver Nelson listening to?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Well, so at that point, that was that would have been like it things changed dramatically not long after, maybe about a year and a half later, but at that point it was still probably it was like it was a mix. It was like it would have been like Journey and uh you know the Beach Boys, the Who, but like the cars and um oh and the The Grateful Dead. Um like that that was I just had like you know, Houston, what was on the radio.

SPEAKER_06 10:59

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

And up until that point, um I should say that I I I went to I went to a summer camp that has been mentioned on this show uh many a time. Um and when I was this summer, I was 15. And uh elephant in the room would be that a couple a couple people in the room here, uh, namely uh Doug and JM. Doug specifically, because he was my my counselor when I was 15, I guess, and then 16, was that I was there for a month that summer, and um I I just got I got turned on to I got turned on to Dylan and Towns Van Zant and the replacements and Lou Reed, Little Feet, Van Morrison, the band, you know, the songwriters. Um and then it kind of animated everything. No Southside Johnny. No, no, no, for sure, actually, sure.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

Um, this is Doug we're talking about. Yeah, yeah, no, of course.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

But you know, in a in a month, that's that's all I could most of what I can handle. And then uh, you know, then went away for 48 weeks and came back and got another good solid dose of that. Um and that just completely altered, you know, from the stuff I was listening to that was like you know, high production bands kind of thing, to like, oh, a guy in a guitar can sit here and do this.

SPEAKER_06 12:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Um, it it changed everything for me. Um and I began writing songs at at that point. Um probably not good ones, but but I got a ton of them under my belt by the time, by the time I'd say like I got out of high school. I'd written many, many songs. Okay. Um which is which was great.

SPEAKER_05 12:55

Well, we usually don't go very far without hearing a song. We should hear a song. All right. What do you you got what's a what's a um you got an early, early uh the first album? Do you got a favorite off of that one? Um you have to look and see what's on it. No, no, no. What's a forget drinking? Is that forget thinking? Forget thinking. Yeah. We'll be a little bit of that. Yeah, just so people can sure. What a beaver Nelson song. I've always liked this one. This is on the last hurrah. Yeah.

unknown 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

And it's my forehead striping.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

Another beer before happy to put me in the mood to drink it. Oh forget another deer sweet side of the moon sweet.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Hey tapsters, in order to provide some clarifications about discussions that occur later in this podcast, Beaver would like to say the following. Due to the nonlinear nature or discussions of my music career, one piece of context needs to be stated. Scrappy Judd Newcomb, one of Austin's best guitarist and a very loyal friend, is mentioned many times, but I never establish his importance to my musical history. In short, he produced my first three albums, we co-produced my next three, and after Macro Micro, which he played on, he produced Positive in 2016. Due to logistical complications, he wasn't involved in a friend from out of town. We toured all over the world together, and I feel fortunate to have had such a great partner in trying to make these thoughts sound right.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

This is a great tune, excellent lyrics. That's what two lines, three lines, four lines, and you can tell you you're dealing with a real uh an excellent songwriter already. And uh so what year did this come out? This is ninety eight, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

When did you leave high school? Well, ninety. So I mean the the a very short version of how that what happened. I I made all those records in high school, all those recordings and stuff that just I would sell on cassettes at camp or whatever. I moved to I moved to Austin. I started coming out during high school, and then another songwriter from who I knew from camp um uh would would take me around, uh, was kind enough to take me all over Austin and introduce me to all these great open mics. So I'd come and do that once or twice a year. And then when I got out of high school, I moved to Austin and started playing and knew a bunch of people.

SPEAKER_05 16:00

So you still it's a long time between Lehman High School and that being recorded.

SPEAKER_01 16:05

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I and I I I moved to Austin and began playing, and very quickly uh I was playing the Chicago House mainly, and uh or most often, and I met the number of people that I met at at the Chicago house. Uh you'd you'd know many of the names, and the some of them are many of them are still lifelong friends, but so this is like 90, 91. And um the Chicago House was uh an open mic venue, yeah. It was between 6th and 7th on Trinity. On Trinity. So downtown Austin, uh when parking was still free and plentiful. And um they had it was it was such a a great open mic that not only did they have open mics on Monday and Wednesday, um, but they opened they had the whole building and they opened upstairs so they could have two open mics going simultaneously on Mondays and Wednesdays.

SPEAKER_06 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

And you would call, you'd call in at a certain time and you'd get your slot and then you'd show up and play. And I did that for a little while, um, just every chance I got. Uh, even when I was, I did like a four-month stent in um San Saba after I got out of high school because there was something up there I wanted to do before I dove in here. And uh I would even come down from that, come down from San Saba, play that open mic, and drive back.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

Yeah, but I can't remember why.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

You just you did I I just wanted you to come up there and see what on earth I was doing.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

I San Saba is a small town northwest of uh Pecan capital of the world. It is the Pecan capital of the world. Not that San Francisco got a beautiful San Saba River.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, yeah. And so anyway, so I was playing those open mics. I quickly fell in, like very quickly fell in with a whole bunch of musicians and songwriters who are older than I was, who just said, like, okay, you're you're with us now. And uh it was really before I even moved to town. I my very good friend Troy Campbell and his his uh uh his his good friend Scrappy Judd Newcomb. I met them at that open mic, and Troy had offered me a gig down the street. You know, my first paying gig was at a place called El Chino on 6th Street that doesn't exist anymore. And and that was before I even lived here, uh I I knew Troy and Judd. And uh, you know, at that first gig, I met David Halley and Chris McKay, Jimmy Dale Gilmore, Joe Carroll Pierce, Rich Brotherton, Robbie Jack. Jeez. I mean, it was like it was it was just instantaneous. Wow, you know, and then the people that I met from from the Chicago house were like Sweet Cleves, um Michael Frasso, David Rodriguez, Betty Elders, Jimmy LaFay. Um I it's about Rosie. I didn't meet her there. We talked about her last uh last episode.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

Is that right? David Albany. Yeah, the date album. Oh, yeah, well, of course, that was a fantastic day duet. She does with her.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

So I I met all of them, and then um I got in the company of some musicians, uh, a guy named Rich Brotherton, a uh a drummer named Don Harvey. They got together, they had an idea. Hey, let's record, let's record you with all these different great Austin musicians, and then we'll go shop that around.

SPEAKER_04 19:55

What when was this?

SPEAKER_01 19:56

How this would this would have been in the okay, so uh I moved to Austin January 15th of '91, the day the Gulf War broke out. And uh for the one semester I was prepared to do at college. And uh so by that was January, and by uh May, um when I got out on like the 15th, or whenever I got out of school, I slept on my friend Bukka Allen, uh Bukka keyboard player, Terry Allen's son, and Bukka um and his brother Bale had a house in South Austin, and I moved in there. I slept on his couch for a month, and uh I I would go down to the Austin rehearsal complex and we would record uh all this stuff um with uh all these really great Austin bands, Double Trouble, um Lucinda Williams, um David Halley, Susan Vells from Poidong Pondering, Jerry Holmes, guitar player. Um uh this was early enough that like I had to convince Rich and and and and Don that like Scrappy and Baka should be able to play on it, you know. It was like that's how long ago it was. Wow. And uh, I mean they knew them, but they're like, are they ready for that? Like, oh yeah, yeah, of course they are. Yeah. Um uh so we did that recording, and then I went to summer camp to work. I was working at that camp. And by the time I got back from that summer, then I moved, yeah, I moved back to Austin and you know, September or whatever, and I had people coming in from both coasts to label people that I'm gonna I'm going to uh I'm gonna flip the tables here just for a minute, and I'm gonna I'm gonna beg your indulgence. Uh huh. Uh y'all remember when I was even more even even more and and say. that uh I I've got a a new feature called I got a new segment called corrections. And uh as you can tell, I have uh I've I listened intently to this podcast.

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Which we appreciate.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

I love it. I speak highly on it. And uh so I I took a couple categories out. Uh mispronunciations. I I mean my yeah I just I I we would have been here all night. Yeah. So so well sometimes five different ways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

I think when we did the Pogues episode in a paragraph. Yeah I think when we did the Pogues episode poor uh Keda Reardon we mispronounced her name at least 17 different ways.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

So uh getting rid of mispronunciation uh I've got this this this is uh uh Doug uh from the the Young Bloods episode uh uh oh great episode uh curious to see what this is gonna be uh Doug said uh that David Freeberg looked like the hippie aliens from the Star Trek the original series episode back to Eden all right the episode was actually entitled The Way to Eden I don't I don't feel that bad about that that's your correction that's that's all I've got oh my gosh that's hilarious that's hilarious the the more important thing is am I right okay I I pronounced the episode wrong but the guy looks like the guy and I've never been able to divide those Star Trek hippies from Jefferson Airplane I guess I can't divide them from uh Quicksilver Messenger either yeah yeah all right well let's hear a thank you but before we go further you talked about the Cotton Club you have a gig there every Saturday night in the uh gallery called the gallery club gallery that's right that's on South First Street so South First South what the hell's wrong with you South First you cross that river it's all the same it's all God's country is what it is when you cross the river the uh you're thinking of Mexican food yeah we I forgot that I moved to the other side of the river we we play upstairs in the gallery just me and a drummer uh who right now is Jake it's it's 8 30 8 30 to 10 civilized almost over and it's the time I'm with there I I paid less than$12,000 to park so it's that's a deal it's uh I've been several times it's great actually it is it's really fun it's kids I'm gonna do yes beaver puts on a great show he's and he's been doing uh he's been doing this for a while now and he's always had a crack band behind him and it's always been a it's always a lot of fun a fun show yeah but we we got a lot of people listening who've never heard uh any beaver songs so we should play some beaver songs pick a beaver song there for us out of our approved uh you don't say chosen you say curated yeah so let's uh give everybody we we we each picked uh four songs that we think are really good beavers we curated four songs that we each like uh made sure we didn't have any doubles right I think we um I think we neglected some of his more well known songs just because we wanted to yeah seem cool which you do when you're talking about an artist oh yeah I liked it before he sold out yeah so anyway so uh we'll we'll go through Doug's songs first his first four or the first four which are Doug's the selling out didn't get me much no you need to sell out some more if you can sell a song for Jimmy Trucks there you go sounds great all right here's the song called I like girls hey girls would you mean the end of the world would you mean I think I like it's a good that was always that was play too much or he's gonna um slew us that's unlikely um what made that song come about well I was actually on on the road probably probably 94 ish 95 somewhere like that I was in the Midwest that was that Giles Nodal and Freed um backing band um kind of between between deals post the major label thing and before I actually make records that came out um it was a song written during that period and um uh relatively you know newly married and missed Miss Bean Home Miss Stephanie um mainly is what that's about and that was it I mean it just kind of started as a joke at the beginning uh between me and the bass player that that first line um because you know it where it starts off where it seems like you're just talking you're talking like to all women you know and then by the end I've layered in enough specifics where it you know I think at least subliminally it's clear I'm talking about like there's only one person you know that would that would fit that would fit the bill did you find out if your steps had touched the same stone that's that's and that's the line um I think where hopefully it was line in the alb are um in that song well thank you that's a great line and I didn't even write it it was well I'll take it I'll take it yeah no that line that um uh it's a voice undertoned by a familiar place been a while since I've been there um uh it's uh this yeah tip of my tongue to watch an artist look uh look at his liner notes to find out his own works terrible I can't believe you're doing this there's uh I didn't even I didn't complain about there not being any catering the green the green room was pretty crappy wasn't it I thought this was on film side my hair and makeup people I spent I spent at least$500 on hair and makeup you need one of those one of those deals where women are making men pay for their date pre pre-date expenses that's on your second album that song yeah yeah yeah what's the tip of my tongue what breath at the tip of my tongue the breath of young lungs would you tell me our feet have touched the same stones so I'm talking about summer camp yeah like down by the river summer camp and that but also I'm in a rock and roll band traveling the country so would you tell me our feet have touched the same stones you know like it's a rock and roll band. Um so that's that's where that came up my friend John Nodal uh I credit him in there as like a thanks for kind of like inspiration not really songwriting credit but it was out of a conversation I'm sure if it was someone in Nashville they there might have been like 12.5% or something out of it.

SPEAKER_05 30:18

If it was Chris Christofferson he would have given them half credit just for giving them the title. Yeah me and Bobby McGee. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Well that's a great one there Baver I appreciate it thank you very good what album is that on that is on that is on uh 2000's Little Brother Little Brother great album who who played on that song so that's Scrappy on guitar it's George Reef on bat oh great cool reef yeah really nice guy man I mean so yeah yeah I mean he was in he was in my band in 91 and when I was playing the black cat when I got done with the Chicago house then there was about a year where I played the black cat every Wednesday. So that was your your rotation and my band yeah it was every Wednesday and uh who was the band that opened that was well that was only for a little bit most of the time it was all three hours were ours the the place was only open from 11 11 p.m to 2 a.m and they wouldn't open the doors until you started playing and it was fun fun my band I was 19 and my band was Rich Brotherson on guitar Mark Patterson on drums George Reef on bass yeah and when they were in town Baka Allen on keys and scrappy on guitar. Wow and you play for three hours with no breaks so every once in a while there was like a rotation of songs they might do so a little fella who might broke break a string or need to pee could go but also then there were there were there were songwriters in the audience you know where like if Bruce Robison was in the house you want to do a song Walter Trager lots of folks would I'd hand him my guitarist I played bass a couple of times I remember yeah you're yeah when Jordan was needing a break.

SPEAKER_05 32:06

It's astonishing the number of people you've played with and your uh all the history with bands that you have and you know there's a lot of talk about you know groupies and girls and all this stuff in the rock and roll world um if you were a betting man and and a band's walking offstage everybody's putting instruments away if there's we all know where this is going.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

This is a slag in the bass player joke but go ahead if there's one member of the band who goes home alone who would that usually be so so I gotta say that I've been in a band with George Reef and cornbread so they run against tight to whatever you're trying to set up George Reeve was a there was there there was never like a a shortage of of interest in in those two okay from the opposite sex.

SPEAKER_05 33:29

Anyway I bought a lot of the song there uh it's not nice dog I did the best crazy eyes left all right anything easy left I think it's nothing good in the world I think it's nothing good in the world and make me feel it time make me feel something every time I feel something feel what's going on with that uh guitar at the is that the verb you got going is that those accents are yours yeah that's I love that that's that's a great touch that's JM playing the uh those little act uh guitar accents yeah they're fantastic I I didn't know that I love every time I screw something up and I'm having to do it over again or I think I'm almost done with the project and I does there anything easy left in the whole damn very such I I don't believe anybody over 40 can't relate to that song.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Just as a personal I remember when you wrote that song and started we I guess we put the the drum part down and then we you you did your guitar part which always amazed me because you could just do the guitar part from your head you never had to sing it. Yeah I remember you you sang the the outline of it and I just remember I I gotta do something on this phone because I absolutely I absolutely love the song so much.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Well that was the nature of of this record my fourth so I'd put out I had put out undisturbed that came out on on September 18th 2001 and every radio station in the country went to all news for like six to eight weeks and when they started playing music again like Dylan and Robert and Ryan Adams and maybe Leonard Cell I'm not sure who all but like the list of like male singer songwriters in that in that radio world had had all put out records and when they started playing music again that undisturbed just kind of got lost I really thought it was my my most cohesive a really great sound record. And because some mistakes had been made in my opinion on the first two records how they were promoted I pushed all my chips in the table on that record to fund like the promotion of it myself and you know it was gone. So I'm not acting like I'm the big victim in that story at all. But um but it really that was the last time that I I I really like I took a band out for long periods of time and and and really like pushed hard. Because it turns out like that the tour went great and and stuff but um but I never I know I never pushed that hard again with a with a band to tour. I did some touring with the band but w maybe when I got back from that tour I I was planning at a show at Egos and Doug and JM came out and they asked me how the record was doing and I said I really I have no idea um it'll be a while before I'll know um because the radio's all messed up and I don't know and I said but I've got almost all the songs for the next record already written this is like maybe six six to eight weeks after that record came out and JM goes well you can just come and demo him at my house and that's how that started I said okay so I went to his house like once a week and it was just me and him for like the first four or five months and then we brought Scrappy in and then he he he helped he helped stand it out um so some of those sessions when you're asking did JM play this or not a couple of those days I wasn't there um scrappy when he would have time he would go to JM's house and we worked on the record and we made it in there. So a lot of the sounds are like are us playing especially the percussion stuff is all like um we're just creating it we didn't have a drum kit in there you know like I would play a I would play I'd play a snare um or you play I remember one time you were playing like a makeup kit or something yeah well I played a tissue box with like a with something it was probably Kleenex but that's got a nice tone Kleenex but then we we put some we had I had a drum machine that we we used and um for the kicks. Yeah for the kicks and like there's hardly a symbol hit on the record.

SPEAKER_00 38:32

Yeah do you notice there's hardly any symbols on it whatsoever page out of uh Gabriel's book yeah yeah kicks are programmed and then all the other all the other percussion was was was live.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Yeah okay so like one thing at the time and we just kind of built them and layered it in this is the first time where I had really been able to spend a lot of time in the studio kind of being creative and over over nine months about nine months. Yeah he he played almost everything on the album so I played a lot of stuff I did bring in I'd you know like Cornbread came in and did some stuff Caroline Herring Caden sang the cello parts did you play uh did you play bass uh I I played bass on a song or two um not as many as the credits make it look like because a couple of them basically I did everything but I just I noted when other people did stuff and there's a song or two where I didn't note that someone Cornbread had played bass and after the record came out he told me he really liked my bass line that we both knew I had not played but it's just it was just a mistake it was an oversight it was not intentional um but um yeah balanced did some stuff on that Patterson Brotherton played the mandolin the government sanctioned Hay Right yeah hilarious song Matt Hubbard played trombone he he he he was like house engineer uh for Willie for a long long time so connection uh and uh uh Giles uh Mount Giles played trumpet and I guess Carolina Herring played on it and um uh Frank Hammerdiner played cello played with Al's band for Alejandro's band for a long time yeah so that was a really fun little inventive record and um I'm I'm glad you pulled that song.

SPEAKER_04 40:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

All right next up is uh Doug's third pick Mad River that's the side of Mad River I would stay if I did not care.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

Well where's Mad River uh so crossing driving to Dayton from the east so driving west driving west to Dayton Ohio and uh to play a place called the Canal Street which is a wonderful place scrappy uh bellons and cornbread in the band and I'm driving maybe all three of them were asleep it was the afternoon I know at least I think Bellons and cornbread at least were asleep and I think scrappy probably was too because I was trying to be quiet I couldn't really make noise um but I had that melody in my head and I it was just as strong as it can be and I had I felt away but I didn't have any words not a single word and I had but I had that melody and it was just running through and the you know the chords in that are it's it's not a it's not a one four five there's a kind of some twisty elements to that but I could hear it chordally and I was really scared I was gonna lose it. So I pulled over on the interstate and uh I I blocked the cords I pulled my acoustic out just on the side of the interstate and I found the cords for it and uh maybe jotted it down maybe not I'm not sure but I I I I was gonna remember it at that point. And put the guitar back in got in started driving across the Mad River into Dayton and then it was I then I just I could see the whole thing. I drove we drove straight to the club the fellas loaded in I went into the green room and I wrote it and then we played it at soundcheck and are you serious? Yeah so wow so there had there I'm not gonna say there were tons of songs like that for me but but that one really and truly was that I I'm curious because we talk a lot on this podcast about songwriters sort of talking about songs coming from someplace else.

SPEAKER_04 43:46

That story right there sounds like it came from someplace else. I mean for you to be able to write it that quickly and know that you had to pull over because there was a danger that you'd lose that.

SPEAKER_06 43:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:56

I mean that's just that's so foreign to me as somebody Who doesn't have any talent when it comes to music?

SPEAKER_00 44:03

It's amazing. That's an amazing story.

SPEAKER_01 44:06

Well, but you have but you have other ideas, you have other things that you do in life where you put in work and then you make you make a leap. Like, right? So people's uh intuition, like even scientists, they don't they don't go step by step by step and follow and follow the scientific procedure to some kind of shocking. They have an intuition and then they work backwards to see if their intuition was correct. Okay. And so these leaps of intuition that we have, it's I'm not gonna say it's not from somewhere else, because I actually do believe that it is. But but it's uh so there's an admonition. I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna get this totally wrong in um, but this is an artist's take on uh on a a a biblical concept that that the worst sin is uh quenching the spirit. And I I have never heard an explanation that I really understood, but the closest I can get to that that is is that when you have one of those intuitions, when you feel very strongly that something has been offered to you that you're either going to make a reality or not. Like it is a job for you to do. This is a thing that you have to participate in, and you don't. You don't pick up the pen, you don't pick up the guitar, and I I'm I'm guilty of this so many times. Um I'll remember that, or yeah, and then you don't. So um being open to that stuff, hearing that stuff, but then dropping everything the way a young man can drop everything and only attend to that until that thing is chased down. Um that I so I know my theology is all wrong on that, but I've but I've applied it at least to this and the to this pursuit. It's harder with age. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 46:38

Now you now you're carrying more and you can't drop it all. Yes. I think that's uh that's not the only reason, but there's so many artists who have like a seven-year run where they can't do anything but put out fantastic music and then boom, it dries up. It dries up. Yeah, and there's very few exceptions. That's interesting. I gotta say, Van Morrison seems to be immune to that. Sure. It may be connected to maybe he has some immunity to responsibility.

unknown 47:18

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 47:19

I can't speak for, but uh uh it is amazing to watch artists who are so prolific lose the ability to uh yeah to do that.

SPEAKER_01 47:30

They have to start doing covers and doing blues albums and then go back to their so this was well so many of the things that ground that that I think I mean you have to work with whatever your situation is, but so many of the things that like that I could I making lemonade, I could say, um like keep me grounded and give me another perspective and you know like keep everything real and visceral and and not all in the clouds. Um then I you could also say, like, well, that's also a distraction. Yeah, yeah. Um, and you just have to well, right.

SPEAKER_05 48:12

That's good. All all these people that we talk about on this show, you would hate their guts when they're in their early 20s, and then you see interviews with them in their 60s and 70s, you go, that's a great guy. I'd love to have a beer with that guy. Yeah, because they change completely.

SPEAKER_01 48:27

Well, also then just also look at you you look at personal lives, and I I won't go into this to this too much, but you know, the young man or a woman, uh like they write what they write, and you know, anyone who can't deal with it, you know, that's your problem. Um and then you get older and then you're you're writing something, and then you realize, oh, like this might really actually hurt somebody.

SPEAKER_06 48:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

Or or yourself. And then and then also then you you get to a point where before you even write it, you go like, oh no, this is one of those. I can't, I'm not I'm not even without the universe anymore. Exactly. And uh, so that's interesting, that's a balance in and of itself. You know, I'm supposed to you're supposed to write, write honestly, and all that stuff, but is it is is it helpful?

SPEAKER_04 49:18

Do you so it sounds to me like you may have songs where you've done that exercise and you're just like I can't do anything with this? Yeah, is that true?

SPEAKER_01 49:26

Yeah, I mean I can think of one in particular that I recorded. Well, one that I wrote way back. I'd love for someone else to cover it, but um and I tried to record it once. I just got a demo of it at one point. Um and and then I just saw it and lose it. I got a demo of it with band plan on it. It was great. I mean, it wasn't releasable, but it was a it was a fun little track. And then uh and then on this last record um that I made with Matt Giles and and Mike Middleton, a friend from out of town, uh actually we worked it up. We did it all the way through, had a mix of it, had it mastered, and uh at the last minute I pulled it off the record. Um uh everyone in my life who that song might have affected was fine with it. There wasn't there wasn't a problem there. Um I just thought it would cost me in some other areas, and so I pulled it.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Very interesting.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

It was a great recording.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

How long has that song been around?

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Uh 15 years. Okay. Um but it'd be great for someone to cover. Michaels Kelly should do it. I covered a I covered a song with them that was like their best uh I think it was their best performing radio. Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_06 50:55

Really?

SPEAKER_01 50:56

Yeah. Robert Earl called me and asked me if I would go right with them. Of course.

SPEAKER_04 51:02

Cool.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

Um, so that was Mad River. That's on the third album you were talking about, right? The one that you pushed that came out what around 911. Yeah. So okay, so the net the Doug's last song is We'll Be Here When You Need Us. Off of an album that we uh we recommended actually on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

That's a very sort of you. That's a very sort of you.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

I will be here within me.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

One of my favorites.

SPEAKER_05 52:16

Where'd that come from?

SPEAKER_01 52:19

Well, I'm always open. I'm happy to hear if anyone else has got has got thoughts about where where they hear it being from. That that's the that's the first full track on um there's a whole intro, interlude at the beginning, prelude, I guess, at the beginning of the record. Um it's a record that came out in 2012 called Macro Micro, which was uh a bit of a concept record in that there was only there was only two breaks in it. It it was all continuing. Yeah, it's a very interesting is that the one you did the multimedia thing for? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so there's all these little interstitial parts, and then there's only a couple parts where it stops, and that was going to present a real challenge. And for me, uh to play it live, um, so we can see into this whole other whole other thing. This is the first album that I'll say uh that I I produced. Um uh because there was no way I don't think anyone anyone else like could have or had the time or whatever. Uh had a really lovely relationship with um the people who own the studio. Um uh John and Mary at Top Hat Studio. It used to be now they're in Knoxville, but um they had a little place off of Old Torf. Um uh and uh they're very good friends, and they would just give me the keys to the keys to the the house, and I would drop the kids off at school, and then I would go and I would get on their piano and um and just start playing. And uh they would they would come they would come in in an hour, hour and a half later, start turning on the lights, turning on, turning on the console, getting everything warmed up, and then they would just give me a signal, and I would pause and then I'd record whatever I had been working on that morning. And we used a lot of those pieces as like the interstitials between songs.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

It's a fascinating record, and it's probably my it's well, it is my favorite record that you you did.

SPEAKER_04 54:37

So thank you. Did the concept come, you had the concept laid out already, or did were there songs that came out, you're like, oh, this seems to fit some sort of grander design?

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Well, there's no there's no characters, there's no one mentioned by name, like that kind of stuff isn't in there. It's it's it's um it's an it's it's just an it's an arc of a life record. I tried to record the songs somewhat, at least in parts of the record, in ways that would signal kind of the time period, the age I would have been when so I pulled in some sounds from records from those time periods. I mean, I it'd have to it'd take a long time to go through, and uh but uh we're not gonna do that, but I I tried to have touches from different time periods, um, but they all just yeah, it just kind of morphs. And so this was the first record where I finally was able to to pull in. There were there were things there were things I threw away when I discovered Dylan and Towns and that whole thing. I just had I'd put a lot of stuff aside and just concentrated on the the the songwriter aspect, and it took me a while, um because I'm not an accomplished musician by by any stretch as a as a as a player. Um and so it took me a while um to figure out how to uh how to incorporate the process and then use certain musical influences from when I was younger. And like the who? Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I mean that and that song you do on that song and it works, yeah, yeah, absolutely. We did another thing on this record that I I was glad that we did, and um but the band didn't know the lyrics, uh so and that was intentional because I didn't want like the sympathetic playing. Well, we had done a little bit of playing around with this when we worked on Legends of the Superheroes at your house, which is a couple records earlier, but where we played around with like like Mark laid down, he laid down that uh that that snare track track with just with the kick. He just laid down like five minutes with a snare. So then I recorded the song on top of that. So like all the fills and stuff are totally like they're in unexpected places and that kind of thing. Um so in this record, there were there was a lot of there was a lot of playing around and them just emphasizing something just because musically that that's where like what they wanted a punch, where they wanted a or a pullback or whatever, and it didn't match the lyrics and it and it and it didn't need to, you know. I knew how the song was gonna go and and um and so there there was a lot of a lot of a lot of that kind of thing on this record. Cool. It was a lot of fun for me, and it's it's just it's an arc of a life. And then we also um a young man uh named young at the time, uh named Steven Henderson. Um he uh and a friend of his named OC um filmed and and edited this thing, and we we created a movie and I remixed the record. Um I remixed it to take my vocals and my main guitars off the record. So it was like just a live, like a live version of this, and then I would perform it, you know, lights off, a screen, and then I would sit with my face in front of the screen at the bottom, and I would hit my laptop and press play, and then I would I had a couple different guitars, I'd go back and forth, and I'd play the record live with that. And it was it ran like 58 minutes, and I did that all over the country.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Yeah, it was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

I did it in the woods, I did it in uh uh in people's houses, I did it in I did it at at the knitting factory, I did it was it was it made me nuts. It made me it made me crazy.

SPEAKER_04 59:20

Do you did you find um because I'm I I'm I'm I'm always interested when an artist sort of changes course because this record doesn't sound like your other stuff. Agreed. Were did you get any weird reactions from people who were big fans of yours? Or did or did that were they on board with it? Or um I've got a good friend who his first his the first album they did was was Rockabilly, and then their second album was a Power Pop album, yeah, and their fans turned on him. Yeah, and I just I'm not saying they turned on you, I just wondered if you got any sort of interesting feedback from from that being such a departure from what you were doing before.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:02

You know when you went electric.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

I didn't know I didn't um you know uh I didn't push this, I didn't bother put push this record to radio at all. So I you know the record did fine. I I did crowdfund this. This is the first time I I did that. I would have had to have done that to make to make the movie. I've gotten the record made, um but then crowdfunded uh to get the movie made and then promote the thing. And I I went and toured on it. I toured on it all summer and and you know had a great time and I I didn't, you know, I got a lot of that's interesting, you know, and or I love this, but I didn't I didn't get the I didn't get the like the negative.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:51

I didn't get a lot of negative I agree with JM, it's a great album.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

I just wonder I always wonder because it's a you know it's a yeah it was a real curiosity to people you know that that saw it. Anyone who wandered in, you know, I I think no one was angry.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:08

Yeah, well that's good. That's good, that's good. All right, well, so we move on to my four songs.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:16

All right. So my first song is Company of Kings.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:19

First song on the first record, looking for me and it's gonna look at it.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

I hate to turn that down before we get to the chorus, but you know, uh he might say yeah. So you uh you play this a lot when I see you.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:31

And it's stuck in my head for days afterwards. It's a great tune. It's such an earworm, it's such a fantastic song.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Thank you. It it's funny. I almost when we were putting songs together for the first record, Matt Esky came over to the house and like, let's figure out what songs. And uh I played him basically all the other songs. And he's like, You got anything else? I'm like, Well, I got this one, but to me it feels like a little bit on the nose, you know, it's kind of like mission statement-y, uh kind of, you know, it might be just too on the nose. And he was like, Well, let's hear it. He's like, Well, what's wrong with that? You know, like, you know, and sure enough, you know, it's first song on my first record. Mission statement. Yeah, yeah. It's so it's uh it's funny. Sometimes the people around us can can can see things, yeah, that that we downloaded or whatever. Um yeah, yeah. Uh so the first uh about the first thing you hear is that's champ hood on on the fiddle. Um and uh that's uh that's Scrappy on guitar, Reef on bass, Patterson on drums, chant. And that's uh Rich Brotherton on the mandolin on that one.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:55

If you play it now, who's who's got the fiddle part? We'll get to that the next song.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

We'll get to that the next song. Yeah. And I should say uh Dynamiser played some percussion on that one as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

Oh, Dana Miser from Cotton Mather. That's right. Yep. Next song, uh next song, a friend from out of town. A song I love, by the way. So that's on your most recent, that's a title track off your most recent album.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:15

That's right. It's the first it's the first song off that record. And uh we kind of intentionally did a callback. Uh this album's really stripped down. It's it was just it was recorded. Um it was recorded at um my friend Matt Giles' house. Um a very unique recording setup. Um it's it's mostly on guitar and uh drums. It's guitar and drums, yeah, and a violin. Well, there's a little bit of color on the record, but mainly, mainly it's just acoustic. No bass.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:52

No, because do you do you feel like this show influenced you on that choice?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:58

It's it's certainly possible.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:00

It's really possible. I'm glad I am I'm really happy. JM stepped out during this song because of that. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

Um so um you know I'd been playing that that duo show in the gallery for a while, uh, and then um which I was finding totally freeing. It was like giving me my whole songbook back because I didn't have to like if I could play it, we could play it. Because he's a number one, he's a great drummer, and it doesn't matter the key, it doesn't matter the chord change, right? And the drummer just has to know how it's supposed to feel, right? And um, and so because I've been playing like the band shows were like dwindling, and so you know, like a few times a year it would do like a handful of shows, and so my the potential set list for songs we all remembered was getting smaller, and and so um that gig just gave me my songbook back, so I just woodshed it and relearned all these songs I hadn't played in a bunch of years. Um, and so then COVID hit, and we you know the continental closed, and that week um I lost the use of my left arm completely, unrelated to COVID, but it was a problem in my neck, and it I couldn't move my left arm at all. And um it's a long story about I end up in I end up in the hospital uh downtown. I had to go like the surgeon who had done a next surge around me five years before couldn't see me. His clinic was closed. He sent me to to an ER downtown and told me to go in and find somebody and I didn't. I had to get admitted, and I was I was stuck in the hospital for for days. I was the everyone was trying to figure out COVID and you know what the policies are now and what the hoops you're gonna jump through to get a you know a surgery because the the state was given different things and it kept changing like hour to hour. And uh so it took me a while to uh so I had a neck surgery, and it was like it was a couple months before I could bend my arm at the elbow. Um like I just completely had a rehab, it was just gone and to jello. And so uh when I started playing guitar again, uh I was having to play, I was using that I I was deter determined to get back to being able to play by the time the Continental opened. Because I didn't want to lose my slot because I really loved that show, and it was a great little marker for me, and I didn't tell anybody, Billy, about the situation, other than Steve, the owner, told him, like, hey, I'm here's the situation. I don't know when you're gonna reopen, but you know, here's my thing, and I'll let you know. And you know, he's like, Okay, great, you know, and but I didn't really want anyone knowing, so um everyone had problems. Um but I rehabbed that arm and I wrote almost all of this record in that in that period of time. When you were rehabbing, rehabbing the arm. And so I'd have to play upside down because I can pull my hand to me up the neck, but certain muscles were so atrophied I couldn't push my hand back towards the headstock. So I was until I got those muscles strong enough, I was I was having to like lay on the couch upside down in place I could pull my hand up and then just release my hand and it would slide back down. Wow. Um and it so I wrote this whole thing uh and then we recorded it. I wanted to do something in the spirit of that gallery show that we'd been doing. And so um, with the two of us, so we made this record just with that being the model, then we added some color, obviously. Um, and this song in particular, um trying to call back to that first record, really kind of sparse and spare. And that's my daughter, Katie, on um and uh so yeah, she takes the champ hood parts now and she plays with us, which is a daunting task, but um that's great. She does great, she's a great little player. Yeah, she is, and uh the strangers.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:36

Well, and I I don't and I don't think I'm saying anything out of turn. I know Mojo Nixon particularly liked this song a lot, too.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:43

Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:45

Yeah, it's a it's a fantastic song. It's a really, really great song.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:49

I owe that to Matt and Mike and um and and Katie for playing on that. And um she plays on like two or three songs, three songs. My son Jack played cello on one of the songs, really, yeah. And um played a very cool little kind of like a four-part cello thing um on uh on one of the songs. It was yeah, and then I had a kind of a whole orchestra on that last song, but um, but that's that was a glorious little little thing, but definitely different from the rest of the record. Um, I owe a lot of gratitude to a lot of people for that, and was able to play live by the time I'm the topic opened. Put out my record and uh and did that. So alright.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:39

All right. Uh now we'll go to uh falling down, right? Yep. It's the next song.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:39

Thank you. What album's that one?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:41

That's on uh that's on Little Brother. That's on Little Brother, that's a second record that came out in uh 2000. I wrote I wrote that one in another song um it's called Scattered, that's on that record as well. I took uh I set up a little stake. Uh I was painting houses I've which I've I've done for for years, and I I've scratched together a little bit of money, and I told Stephanie uh uh I was gonna just hit the road for for a little bit and just go go right. And um basically I drove to uh Bozo City, Louisiana, and uh found a poker room there that if you play if if you played a certain number of hours, they'd give you a like a super cut rate on um on a hotel room. Yeah. And uh so I would do that. I would play I play poker for eight, eight or ten hours, and then and then and then they often would feed you and then give you a hotel room for for next to nothing. And so I did that for several weeks. And uh these two came, these these two were the best things to come out of that.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:57

I still remember where I was the first time I heard that song. I was on I can't remember what it's it's old Highway 66, it's got a different name. It's Amarillo Boulevard now, up in Amarillo. Really? I can still, yeah. Yeah, I can still remember hearing that for the first time saying, Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's that's good. This is a hit, of course. Is that on CD or the radio?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:30

No, I was listening to a C D okay, a little brother C D. Well, that was that was a this the like that was the single on that record, and there was a station up there that would play me every once.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:40

Oh, I remember you came up to play one time. Yeah, I think I saw you there, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:45

Anyone who knows the kind of music I like is not surprised I like that song. That's I mean, that's got me written all over it.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:51

Oh yeah, the strappies thing and the the chords, the chords with the real pop, yeah, pop element with that with that setting. That's yeah, what I like to do.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:01

I love that that drummer.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:04

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Patterson is he's good. He's something else. He's something else.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:11

He doesn't hesitate and he gives it a whap.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:13

Yeah. You can hear also, I haven't mentioned like my affinity for squeeze, but the band squeeze, but like some of those changes, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:24

That does that I didn't think about that before, but you're right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

Try to pull those elements in when I can, when they sound natural.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:32

Right, right. All right, here's my last song. Uh Don't appear to be surprised.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:58

Up down. Up down.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:38

That's another good one. I forgot. I haven't listened to this album at all. What record is this on?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:44

This is on, yeah, Beaver's Austin's exciting opportunity.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:47

Are you double tracking your voice on that?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:49

Yeah. Yeah, it sounds great. And you it does.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:52

Yeah, it's again, if anybody knows what I like, this song is got that in spades. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

That baritone, there's a baritone guitar that Scrappy's playing there. I should say we borrowed from uh South Austin music. Thank you. Great. Absolutely. That's not Ray Hannley. That's not Ray Hell. No, South, not hard to text us. South Austin music. Wearing the hat for something. I'm wearing the South Austin music.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:18

You better cut that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:20

No, Ray was great too. But uh but I've been uh I'm a big big proponent of South Austin music.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:28

Yeah, I wanted to cross that river. Kind of get disoriented.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:33

But they've learned uh they've learned us a lot of instruments over the years um for recordings.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:39

Keys in that song are great too. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:42

That's Boyle. Um David Boyle um on that. He he he plays, he does a lot of interesting key keys uh uh on this record. Um I do have to tell, I do have to tell one story. I was talking to Scrappy on the way over here because I there was a an unrelated piece of information that I want to make absolutely certain I got right. And he um he told me um he he did he confirmed what I what I thought about who was playing on something. But he also um but he said, Are are you gonna tell the Boyle story? Are you gonna tell the David Boyle story? I'm like, I I don't know. He's like, Oh, you have to. Like this guy I've known for like 35 years. He knows I'm going on a podcast, and he says, That's the thing because I have to talk about. So I I guess now that we're mentioning that David Boyle had come in and he'd played keys. So we'd done basic, so like you know, rhythm guitars, bass drums. We all tracked some of the keys with us, and then some of them we were overdubbing after. So he's out there and he's recording on a song. It's his last song that he's working on. Uh I think it was overnight sensation. And he he's he's recording and then he's done. Everything sounds great. So he gets up, he's about to head to West Texas and be absolutely unfindable for for days. In fact, and I know he's camping, he told me, told me the day before because I brought him some camping equipment to loan him. So I know he's like he's leaving the studio in a heading blast and is gonna be not findable.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:26

Off the grid.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:27

Off the grid. And he so he's he's done, and he's loading uh he he walks back in before he tears his stuff down. He goes back in, he sits down, like control room, and there's this kind of a side room. You can hear it from both rooms, and he's just sitting there, like reading magazine and um and he just going through it, and they're listening back through the song. And I walk through. I don't spend now. I'll spend more time in the control room than I used to, but I used to like I would just drive people crazy, and I I would drive myself crazy, so I would go somewhere else. I would just come in every once in a while and listen. But this is kind of around the time when I was spending a lot more time in. So I'm walking to the control room and I hear my name. And I turn around, I had snaps, and no one's looking at me. And I thought, well, that's weird. And but I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know what it was. I go did anyone just say my name? And I'm like, no. Like we were on this like 30 seconds, and they play through, and I hear my name again. And then I'm like, do it again, and no one can hear it but me. I'm the only one that hears it, which is really unusual, because I don't have the greatest ear. But it's my name. And so we we we pinpoint where in the song it is, and now everyone can hear it. And now we're going through, and it's just someone going, bee, and we're going through isolating every instrument trying to find where this happened, and none of us, none of us are thinking that it's David Boyle, because he just sat in the control room and just played his like parts. I think he was on a whirly thing, and we're all looking out the control window at him, like four or five people, you know, as he's tracking, we're giving thumbs up or like you know, whatever. And he's got like I think two mics, like one behind him, one kind of to the side. And he's just sitting there in the control room, I don't know, 45 minutes while we're ISO and we're ISOing every single instrument trying to figure out where this happened. And he's just sitting there, then he starts loading his equipment out. And we finally, we finally, I mean, and we're all like, well, of course it's not that. Yeah, it's not David's part. We finally find it, and it's him, it's him, and he's and he's just sitting there, and we're like, Well, okay, let's just cut it. And it made this huge hole in the song. Oh god. So it's like he had to go back in and recut that part. And I'm just looking at him like, you were about to leave. You watched like five grown men just in just complete consternation, just just increasing levels of aggravation trying to find who said beef in the middle of one of my songs. And he was just like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

That's pretty genius. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:17

It was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:18

I wouldn't have been, I think I would have been pretty that's amazing. Yeah. He was in for the long play. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:30

There's other people that he's worked with that know the story. Yeah. And that people that y'all would know, but when I run into them, that's like as I'm walking up to the go beaver.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:42

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:43

It's an Australian guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:44

That's really fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:47

You know, that's when you're upside down your whole life.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:49

Yeah. So I'm so so anyway, so uh do not appear surprised. Uh-huh. It's just that's lyrically, it's like when you've done something. When you've done something, you've showed up, you've you and then it's some self-reflection on like someone being surprised that you thought of them or that you made that something was important enough for you to be there for, and then they're thanking you, and you're thinking you're thinking like like there is no other place I would be. You know, don't like I don't want you to thank me right for being here, you know, like it was unexpected. You know, uh it it was so I mean there was someone in the hospital, there was there was different events, you know, and uh that I just I placed myself in and it was kind of that the that just thoughts about about about that.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:52

The the other thing I really like about it is the way you place that line, the chorus line, because it's not I mean there's a there's a I don't I don't know the word I can use um the like the the way the way that line is phrased over the song. It's not it's not linear, I guess. There's like a little chop in it, but I like that, you know. I don't know what you'd say again. I'm not a musician, I don't know how to how to describe that in the right way, but I really like that little the way you do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:22

Well, thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:23

Are you gonna keep saying beaver the whole time?

SPEAKER_05 1:25:26

I don't know, it's gonna be hard to stop. Yeah, the uh is it Jonathan JM Rose songs?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:32

Yep, next four are his. All right. We got uh sleep no rest.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

I dreamed I saw a little town mile of dusk away. I walked across a footpath bridge just at the break today. I must have come upon low times I need it nowadays. I look for breakfast open signs. There's no one on the street. The counter seats were empty, uh the table's empty too. The cook said you can seat yourself on nearest chair.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:28

Um this is my favorite song you've ever written. It's I just think I chose it because um I think it encapsulates the reason why you're creative. You know, it's not necessarily for accolades or any sort of uh any sort of you know recognition. It's just like you have to do it. And you and you have to if you're truly creative, you just have to um do it to kind of it's you it's yourself, you're finding yourself and what you're doing. I just absolutely love the song. And I it's kind of surprising because usually I'm not just a guitar and vocal guy, but I mean this that's exactly what this song needs, I think, too. I think we tried this was off of it because it's just off of the album we worked on, but I think we did try adding some more stuff to it and just never really worked.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:21

Yeah. So yeah, I just that recording's really good. That that the that acoustic sounds really great. You didn't know that. Yeah, great guitar.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:30

Um yeah. Was that the guild you used to have? That was yes, that was the guild. Yeah. I think it's after after we recorded this record is when I when I got that Norman, because I went to tour with something that I didn't care if it got snapped in half. Yeah. And uh that's when I started playing that Norman that that I still play. It sounded way better plugged in as well. The guild I had worked on a bunch of times, but I could never get it sounding as good plugged in. Beautiful in a room, but the with the the pickup. I don't work on a number of times, like I said. I couldn't ever get it sounding right. And then for like you know, three hundred dollars or something that that Norman it sounded beautiful plugged in. And if it snapped in half on the plane, well, okay. But it itself turned into an absolutely wonderful sounding guitar just in a room as well. So you know, there's that.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:27

Um so how did where did you come up with it? How did it come into being?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:38

That's one of the few, again, where I just I just I kind of saw it. It was I mean, there's a few kind of maybe a few poetic flourishes, but mainly it's one of my very few attempts at just a linear tale. Now it's it's a dream, so it has some unreal elements to it. Yeah, it's got surreal elements to it, but it's but it's a linear, it's a linear tale of someone walking into a town and not really seeing anyone on the street and going into a restaurant, and there's a huge buffet set, and they're happy that they got there before everyone else showed up, and they said that when they were when they were leaving, and the guy's like, oh no, you're you're the only one that'll be here today. And you're like, Why did why on earth did you do this? Right because I do. Okay, and then I wander into a dress shop, and there's all these, you know, great dresses. And granted, I wasn't shopping for dresses, but I was trying to, but I was, I mean, I was amazed at and I asked the seamstress, like, you know, wow, these are you're gonna make a lot of people happy with those. And they're like, no, they just sit here. Okay, yeah, and then I wander out, and then I wander to the chapel, and I can't see because my eyes, you know, it's it's bright, and I'd step into a dark chapel, and I uh hear someone preaching, and then I you know, I realize some it's just the two of us, and I'm like, I realize this person has been in here doing this thing with no one in the room. And I again I asked them why why are you doing this? And uh because I do.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:23

Um are we on familiar territory with the diamond still in the mine?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:30

Oh, oh, absolutely. Yes, yes, uh a song called Remnant, where it's just it's eight verses of a litany of things that will not last, that will that are that are falling apart, that are insignificant, um, that will be of of of no account, uh folly, uh all the above, and then get to the end, and uh say, you know, but but don't pay any mind. A diamond left in the mind is still a diamond after all.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:06

Yeah. So like the core of the thing is, you know, there's beauty in there, there's there's value, yeah. Uh innate value, yeah. Regardless of someone appreciating it. Yes. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:23

But you put those two things together and then you would say the diamond thanks the miner for extracting it. Right. And for taking it to someone who would appreciate it. So um so thank you all.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:42

Yeah. Yeah, we're we're the miners. Yep. Yep. We uh we do uh we're mining for layers of long players. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:58

All right. So uh your next song is Shadow on the Wall.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:07

You know, really thoughtful lyrics, but just blend them with these melodies and just that I mean it's almost like a big star sounding song to me. Um, you know. Um but I also want to ask another reason why I brought this up, brought this song in is Shadows on the Wall. Are you talking about Plato's Cave? Or is that I mean, I know that sounds pretentious, but it smitten dust and yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:34

So I uh I could say uh I could say yes, uh, but then I would be lying in in a way. Um no, so there okay, so there are certain concepts that I I like to let a lot of things occur to me. I like to discover. And so I there are things that I'm very interested in that are ground that I know other people have done a lot of work in that I don't there's certain areas I don't want to read the work that they've done, I want to discover. I'm like that a lot with music. I uh I gotta have something recommended to me like maybe two or three times, four times before I'll go to it because I whatever. It's some protective thing or something. But my my point being uh there have been other times. There's there's another song where I'm talking about the mind horse loping. Uh it's a song on macro micro, and I'm talking about the mind horse and how it's loping. And you know, uh uh someone who specializes in in in uh psychiatry and psychology, like asked me if I was referring to a thing. Yeah, he's like, because it's and I I had I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was saying that the that um in the in the description of the the the the mind at its most productive that it um that it is described as the mindless loping loping. Uh that that's the most like productive uh rhythm for for a mind, uh for a mind. Uh so uh so this thing, no, I wasn't thinking about Plato's Cave. Uh had not read Plato's Cave at this point, but the concept of of a light that exists before you and after you, and then there's you and then there's a wall behind you, and it it it's a it's it's it's a it's a statement about the ephemeral nature and the non-ephemeral nature, and so trying to come to terms with that, and then also with aging because this uh keep I wrote this when I was pro uh uh early 20s.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:25

So you don't want to seem pretentious and to be referring to a philosopher, rather you're saying that you came to the same conclusion as one of the greatest philosophers in all history, independently.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:44

Well what I'm saying is that his okay. No, but that's but that's the sea I'm swimming in. So I could have been absolutely influenced by that concept without having read it or without being like cognizant that that's in my mind when I wrote this other line.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:04

I'm not it's like reading My Sweet Lord, writing My Sweet Lord.

unknown 1:37:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:10

One other thing I want to say about this. This is this came off your album Little Brother. Yeah. And this was the album where I started going, okay, Beaver is really becoming like the this sounds like a professional record. This sounds like he's really recorded.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:23

It's and it's I I think that's the one I would if Yeah. Someone asked me where to start. I think it's the most accessible.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:32

Yeah, I think so too.

SPEAKER_05 1:37:34

Did anyone pick Little Brother, the song? No, which is the one. That's one of the most accessible songs of all.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:47

It is one of the most it's earwarmy-ish yes, and it's just you you can't get the the visions out of your head when it's when it's like, oh, yeah. Of course I was an older brother.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:00

I wish Charlie Crock could do that song.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:03

Would you tell him?

SPEAKER_01 1:38:04

Oh, I stood about a foot away from him about a month ago, and I I didn't I didn't have the nerve. I didn't have the nerve.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:17

Well, that's a great album. That is. Thank you. That's a great song. JM Pick.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:23

Uh our next JM Pick is Your Subconscious Does the Dirty Work.

SPEAKER_05 1:38:30

This may not be the most accessible song.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:34

But it's a very JM song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:35

I hit my head with a crowbar standing. Your subconscious doesn't dirty work. Your subconscious doesn't dirty work. Just let me know. Your subconscious doesn't dirty work for free back. Just on the ground in the basement. The freedom of move.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:21

This is um, I chose this song because I just think it's one of your most intriguing, I think it's one of your most incredible songs. Um it's just a lot of stuff I like about it. Um I don't know how you came up with the idea of having that kind of stream of consciousness narration going on behind that, and how you even came up with it.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:42

It was his subconscious.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:44

Yeah. Where did this I mean, how did they come up with that idea?

SPEAKER_01 1:39:49

And how did you even, you know, it's just I wrote pages and pages and pages of uh of just stream of consciousness stuff. I did it for a couple different purposes. There was one point before we this developed into a movie, there was the possibility that I was gonna try to pull this thing off as a play, as a one-man play that would have it, but it got too complicated. It was gonna have like someone would have to cue in like music, and it was there was gonna be too too much involved. But I wrote, I just wrote all these spoken word pieces that would have been in that. And so when we got and then when we changed it and went in this other direction, I just I layered in it. This is one of this is one of my absolute favorite tracks. It it it really is. That's me on electric, which was a lot of fun really yeah, it was a lot of fun. I was trying to get that. Yeah, it's got that gig.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:55

Suffragette City was I was trying to get yeah that sound Marshall Stack uh Mick Ronson sound and uh and I I so I just read and it it was hard to do, I gotta say.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:09

I mean, it was hard in front of anybody to do this, but I just read pages of Stream of Consciousness stuff, and then we chopped it up twice, like the length of the song, and then it was they were tracks. Um so when we oh so when we mixed the song, we I had both of them. There were two that went through the whole song, and then there were snippets that we used in specific places. But when you're mixing, you know, you're like you set the drums and the bass at different levels. You got other things that you pull up and down. And we were I was working the faders on these little on that, on that, on those little talking tracks just to pull them up and no, the actual Batman or the actual Batmobile. Does anyone not like Batman? No, the the actual Batman. And this is the this song is the first appearance on one of my records of uh where I mentioned Julie Newmar, and she shows up on the next two records as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:13

She's deserving. Yeah, she's deserving of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:15

She just had a just had a birthday.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:17

Oh, just had a birthday. Just had a birthday.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:19

The single best catwoman.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:21

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:23

I'm glad it's one of your favorite tracks because it's definitely one of mine.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:26

Well, it's almost impossible to play live outside of that the the macro micro kind of presentation. I've done it a few times at the Continental with just electric and drums with with Mike, but without all those tracks and all the all the sounds and stuff. Yeah. Um, it might be fun if I could just with my phone just maybe have one of those going through. But that would that would require something called production. And uh it's just, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:55

Yeah, well, there's not a lot of songs like this in in the world, too. That's another thing reason why I like it. But um, yeah, it's just one of my more intriguing songs that I am familiar with, and it's definitely one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:08

All right, I guess we're gonna wrap this up with your last song, Jam. God's tears.

SPEAKER_05 1:44:01

I really like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:02

It's a fantastic song. It's a great song. And I it's not your one four five progression there, and it's uh it's it's it's really cool. And I love my I love this line. I felt the fire right between my ears. Science is a liar, and those are God's tears. It is I really think that's a really kind of highlights your ability to write some really just intriguing lyrics. So what do you have any what what exactly were you thinking of when you wrote that particular line?

SPEAKER_01 1:44:34

Um so there's there's the I'm gonna get I'm gonna get my terminology all wrong, but um there's the the materialist perspective. There are many subsets in there, but there's that, and there's you know, there's there's the real world, and you know, I wrote I'll quote myself about this song, but uh but you know, someone has to go out and point at the moon and say it's made of cheese. Like someone has to do that every once in a while. Um what we see and touch and feel is all real and all that, but there's it's not complete, it's not. There are other things that are real. And if you were quoting Hamlet, how would you sum this up? Oh, oh, uh, what is the quote? There's There's more and more under heaven, under heaven than we can you could conceive of in the memory bank.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:45

There is more things in heaven and earth Horatio than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:51

Yeah, yeah. So um it's it's it's more it's more just a statement that uh uh so these things the young man is not careful about what he writes, and the older man has you has to constantly try to suppress and kill the editor while they're writing, and then you need the editor again, but you you you try to take him out back and and having separated, he's he's behind the garage while you're writing, and then you know you can get him back out to go through this stuff, but but um uh how to how to how to put this. Um I don't know. I I just can't only write about what's what's tangible, right? And and they're consistent they and it they work together. Um I know it's right. I know that it's rain. Right? So like I get to know that it's rain and I get to know that it's God's tears.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:00

I get I get to know You're fighting the false dilemma of uh two choices. Yeah. You're you're they both can be right.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:11

Yeah, uh Chesterton talks about this a lot, but that the the materialist mindset uh is actually that's the one that's limited. Um because it's it's limited to the tangible, the measurable, the but another mindset um gets to have that materialist perspective, that could be the explanation, or it could be the miraculous. The miraculous could be the ex the the explanation. And you and he doesn't have to choose. You don't have to choose. You can you can set them right on top of one another, and you can say that that's that's exactly how it was it was planned to be. That it it can look, um uh it can look like it makes sense and is measurable and tangible. Um and it can also the exact same thing can look like a miracle, um depending on how you're looking at it.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:18

And you don't you don't have to necessarily have a line between both of them.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:23

Right. I'm trying to keep the line blurry in the writing intentionally.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:30

You're not obliged to c clear it, clarify it. The material is obliged, but you're not. Correct. And I'm glad we ended with the song because this is one of the main reasons. This is one of my favorite songwriters, is I don't have to I don't have to enter someone else's worldview to understand the songs. I don't I'm trying I've been trying to think for 12 minutes now who's the other songwriter that shares my worldview, uh and that I don't need an interpreter for. And one of the my favorite things about Beaver songs is I I don't need an interpreter. And I've always appreciated that. And um anyway, yeah. I I need one for all the other great songwriters I listen to.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:25

Anyway, great song, Beaver. It's it's another one of them. I mean, obviously it's one of my favorites, so I picked it. But the great song. It is.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:33

Well, thank you. And that's uh that's Ian McLogan on the keys. Yeah, it's gonna add who is who is that? That's it's scrappy on the on the electric, and it's also scrappy on the the um the nylon string. Uh and then it's Ian McLaughlin on the keys, and they're just kind of three at those three parts are just kind of weaving on the way out. That's cornbread, cornbread on bass. Uh it is bellons, Stephen Bellins on drums, Mambo John Train. I think this is the last record that he worked on before he died. He plays the percussion, David Boyle on keys. Papa Molly plays an omnicord on it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:17

And you've got. We talked a lot about the lyrics, but you have such energetic uh tunes. Well, so original and so fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:28

And on this last song, I just want to talk about how much I love your vocal performance on it. No, thank you. I love the uh little falsetto thing you do. Uh I just think it's great. It just adds it adds a dimension to it. Um without getting I let you guys get serious and then I'll come in and say the say the other thing. But yeah, I really I've always enjoyed your uh vocal performance on that song.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:50

I try to be playful, you know? Yeah because to me, even even these these concepts, it's like they it's there's gotta be humor, and I find it in I find it in kind of unusual places and try to be playful with concepts. It's uh you know it's great.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:05

Luck is in Master. And they get to hit people. Um what? I said hey, hey and achievements. You are the first three-hour podcasters. This is violent.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:26

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:27

No, it's not your fault.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:29

Yeah, might be.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:30

That was great.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:31

You want to close with Little Brother Blues? That's a great idea. That's a great idea. And thank you all for listening if you still are, and thank you guys for having me. I've uh thank you. No, we've been talking about this for long. I'm glad we finally got it done.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:43

It took us a year to get it done. Yeah, that's how we move around here, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:04

Walking down the path.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:08

Our host, Doug Cooper, Sunday Bay, our co-host Tony Slagle, me, your humble producer, and the great Beaver Nelson reminding you Beaver. Our very big appreciation to our friend Beaver for taking the time out to share some of his insights into his songs and albums. If you're ever in the Austin area on a Saturday evening, be sure to check out Beaver's live show at the Continental Club Gallery with his remarkable son Jack playing drums, and there are often some surprise guests. You'll see us there.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:03

So I was told, Tony, that you and JM, this is the arrangement that y'all were gonna give me$50 apiece for my appearance. And and that I had to pay Doug a hundred. That was what I was told.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:21

That sounds reasonable.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:23

Yeah, that's that sounds about right.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:24

Um yeah, the host always gets the money.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:27

Okay, thank you. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:30

All right, and anyone out there, I I'm there's not any way that I have mentioned everyone who's been really important. So I just wanted that on the record. Like your mom. Like my mama.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:46

So you met your wife at camp?

SPEAKER_01 1:53:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:49

That's interesting. I'll start going on.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:52

You'd be surprised. Uh she's a very beautiful woman.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:56

Why would I be surprised about that? Because she ended up with Beaver or Beaver ended up with her? And they share a birthday. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:07

And they're yeah, same day.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:09

Same stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:10

Yep, that's all right. She's I started going to Kent when I was nine, and she started going when she's 11, but we met when we were 17 on work on work crew.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:17

Cool. She was in my drama class. Yep. I don't know if you were teaching drama then.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:23

I was. I was in y'all's drama class. We did it, we did some some cool skits about how evil Kay was.

SPEAKER_00 1:54:30

K to this day. You turned me into Bruce Nerd.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:34

What's the uh and we don't have to record this or have this on it, but what's the is this on right now? It is. Oh, great. What's the Beaver story about uh there's some story about him coming down a hill?

SPEAKER_05 1:54:47

Oh that's when he was being the space space alien. It's too long of a story. Oh, okay. So I'll fall down.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:56

We caught the canyon on fire.

SPEAKER_05 1:54:59

Second time. Twice. Okay. I asked Bieber to build a spaceship that could come down to stream, and he used from the other side of a river and five bells of hay and everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:12

It probably weighed three tons, and he put it on a little string, and it was it was supposed to slide along the string to the other side of the river and hit this pit. It was on fire. Okay. I lit it on fire. The important part, it was on fire.

SPEAKER_04 1:55:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:32

And I set it on fire.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:34

Weighed more than earth.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:36

And I pushed it, and it just the string immediately snapped, and it just tumbled down the side of the screen. It caught everything on fire.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:47

Cedar trees don't they don't go smoothly burning. Yeah. In the middle of the one scenery after another. It's like their whole job in life is to explode. And Bieber's sitting there. Baver's still the character, and he's still trying to do his job.

SPEAKER_06 1:56:06

Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:07

And everybody else is running around getting fire extinguishers. Trucks are moving everywhere. Bieber's still out there, being the space alien.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:17

Alright, so should we play this?

SPEAKER_05 1:56:19

Yes, we should.

SPEAKER_04 1:56:20

All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:21

Told me not to go. Told me not to go. That's me white dog.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:30

But then I watched you go.