On Tuesday, my friend Katherine played the song for me via a YouTube clip and suggested I cover it. The next day, I got started. After immediately realizing that my voice would not cut it for this song (mainly due to a key change at the last chorus that led to voice cracks a-plenty), my friend Christy came over Friday night to record the vocals. On Saturday, I finished the mix. Here it is, on Sunday. Now I rest.
By the way, this is not a Christmas song. If it were, I wouldn’t have bothered.
The particulars: Me – electric and nylon string guitar, keys, melodica, tambourine, egg, & a barely-audible ‘ooooh’ during the choruses Christy Anderson – vocals
Christy’s vocals can also be heard in the song “YUL” from my Canada 1 EP. Listen to it here.
Everything I’ve released this year (Canada 1, Homeless Songs, Canada 2) can now be downloaded through the Android Market. Hit it up either by going here or by scanning the QR code below:
In October of 2001, two friends and I flew from Tampa to Winnipeg. The next day we flew to Thompson, Manitoba. The next night we took a 14 hour, overnight train ride to the town of Churchill. The day after that, we went out into the tundra to see some polar bears. Then we got drunk and trick-or-treated because it happened to be Hallowe’en. Then we skipped the train and another stay in Thompson and instead flew straight back to Winnipeg. Then I went home, while my two friends headed over to Calgary for a couple days.
This is a song about our journey. It’s called “Remembrance Day” because – while at a Wendy’s / Tim Horton’s in Winnipeg – I noticed a donation box at the counter that was filled with red poppies. They looked like this:
I didn’t know what they were for, so I either asked the cashier or one of my friends, who happened to be French-Canadian. Whichever one I asked (it’s been 10 years, so my memory is sketchy) answered that they were worn for Remembrance Day. Then they explained to me what Remembrance Day was all about. So I put a loonie in the donation box and pinned a poppy to my sweater.
And that’s that. Now let me explain a couple other things about the song:
She enjoyed my Churchill poems Their imagery, meter, and tone But – to her – the best thing was How she factored in each and every one
I wrote one very long poem while at the Churchill Motel on Hallowe’en (yes, I’m spelling it the Canadian way – deal with it). In the week following my return to Florida, I wrote 4 more inspired by the trip. I shared most of these with my friend (the French-Canadian) and she said good things about them.
The story of the northbound train The antics that the cars contained A fourteen hour ride Underneath the stars and northern lights
We first saw the northern lights during our flight from Winnipeg to Thompson. Halfway through the flight, I looked out at the night sky and there they were – green and flowing beautifully. That fourteen hour train ride was the next night. The northern lights returned – we would watch them while smoking in that outside area between the train cars.
Past the tree line, towards the place Where the wind destroys your face As the ice forms on the bay
At one point in the train ride, the trees just disappeared – as if they knew it was foolish to go any further. That was the tree line. The bay in question is Hudson Bay, which is where the polar bears hang out and wait for enough ice to form so that they can get on the ice and start gobbling up seals.
Earlier in Thompson bars Buying drinks for pool hall stars At 55 degrees The latitude that weakened Gordon’s knees
At the time, Thompson, Manitoba was the most depressing city I had ever been to (before I discovered the sad majesty of Steubenville, Ohio) – everyone there just seemed really, really sad and eager to be drunk as often as possible. The northernmost Wal-Mart in North America is there. That’s pretty much the only place to hang out at, too.
Anyways, Thompson is located at 55 degrees latitude. I knew this ahead of time because of a song by The Tragically Hip called “Thompson Girl”. In it, lead singer Gordon Downie sings, “Looks like Christmas at 55 degrees / This latitude weakens my knees”. THIS IS HOW I MAKE LYRICAL SAUSAGE! Neat, eh? Give the song a listen – it’s really good:
Stumbling back to our hotel beds As the lights danced overhead Giving us a complete sense Of our total insignificance
Our lives mean absolutely nothing. Don’t dwell on it too much.
And everyone so generous The cab drivers and Thompson drunks Happy to lend a hand to us
We paid a local cab driver in Churchill to drive us around and show us the sights. She was awesome. This is her:
She took us to the polar bear jail (where the polar bears who sneak into the city are taken after they are caught and tranquelized), the sight of the Miss Piggy C-46 plane crash, and several other places we would never have been able to go without her.
Red plastic poppies on display Pinned to a nation’s chest – they say It’s for Remembrance Day
I explained this part already. Remember – the box at the Wendy’s / Tim Horton’s (this was back in the day when they were owned by the same folks)? Geez, this post has gotten really long. Let’s wrap things up:
Trudging through the ice and snow In boots too big and borrowed clothes Too cold for my Florida bones
Being from Florida, I had absolutely zero winter clothing. Prior to departing, I borrowed a pair of hiking boots from my friend Bryce. Another friend of mine gave me gloves, some heavy sweaters, and a toboggan cap. The temperature hovered around the 20′s (Fahrenheit) for most of the time we were there. That’s not too bad, but it was still the coldest temperatures I had ever been exposed to.
And that’s all you need to know. Actually, you didn’t really need to know any of that – if you’ve listened to the song and have enjoyed it, then that’s all that really matters.
Hey look, it’s Canada 2 – the exciting follow-up to Canada 1. As with it’s predecessor, it features two songs that were inspired by my various trips to Canada at the beginning of the last decade. Unlike it’s predecessor, none of the song titles involve airport codes. Yay, eh?
“Remembrance Day” is about my trip to Churchill, Manitoba to see polar bears. Along the way, I also saw the Northern Lights, discovered the saddest town in the whole wide world (Thompson, Manitoba), learned the meaning of Remembrance Day at a Wendy’s in Winnipeg, and had a wet dream on a train. That last part was cut from the song. You’re welcome.
“Sensing Endings” is a somber waltz inspired by an evening in Vancouver. It’s the second-saddest song I’ve ever written.
You should give it a listen, like RIGHT NOW! Click on the Bandcamp thingy below to start enjoying the Canada-y goodness. Then go to the EP’s Bandcamp page and download it. It’s free, yo!
And hey, if you download the EP through Bandcamp, you get a bonus track! More free stuff! AND if you send me an email (carl@honeybrownblues) inquiring about the saddest song I’ve ever written, I will send it to you. All the bonus material ends up being longer than the EP itself – THAT’S how goddamn nice I am!
I went to my old stomping grounds in Tampa last week – stopped by the small park that is at the end of Lambright Street, my last address before moving to Tennessee – the song below is about that park – it’s about some other things, too – I have no idea when I recorded this – since it says ‘first demo’, I’ll assume it was a while ago.
Tõnis Vint is an Estonian artist. This song was inspired by a 1975 painting of his called Girl In Circle. I can’t find the painting anywhere online (above is a different Vint painting, which you’ll have to make do with) – a picture of it can be found in John McPhee’s book, The Ransom Of Russian Art. Someday, I’ll gently cut out the picture from the book, scan it, and post it online so all can see why it spurred me to write about it.
Anyway, this song is about the painting. It’s also about dissident artists in the Soviet Union and how they had to be very discreet in exhibiting their works. I consider it my ultimate homeless song, as it doesn’t fit into any other project I’m working on.
Words by me. All instruments by me as well. It includes an uncharacteristic guitar solo and some pretty piano. Enjoy.
Wuz bored one night at a Motel 6 with no internet in a New York town called Horseheads. With nothing better to do, I cobbled up a beat using the Burnstudios Audiotool, then whipped out my keyboard to come up with the rest. It’s dance-y, or maybe dance-ish. I don’t know – I like it a lot, though.
This was part of an email I sent to my friend Casey three weeks ago:
I met a gal last night at a bar in Winooski, Vermont – 40 year old PR rep from Manhattan who came into town ’cause she needed to recharge her batteries, get away for awhile, get her groove back, etc. Ran into her again tonight at the same bar and she was dancing her ass off, at a bar which – according to the bartender – does not usually have any dancing, especially on a Monday night.
And this is the song I decided to write about her, as sung from her point of view. The bar was the one pictured above, McKee’s Pub. I recommend it if you’re in the area.
After several false starts, the song was recorded today in Room 27 of the Central Avenue Motel 6 in Albany, New York (which, oddly enough, is the very same room where I recorded this song a month earlier).
For five weeks, I was traveling around the northeast with the above keyboard in my luggage. I had yet to use it because . . . well, I couldn’t figure out how. After a weekend afternoon spent fiddling with it, I finally realized that it wasn’t compatible with the recording program I was using. A couple downloads later, I had a new recording program and was finally ready to go. This song is basically me messing around, getting my brain around the thousands of different sounds I can make with it. All sounds were made with the keyboard with the exception of my mumbly ‘do-do-do’ and the melody that begins at the 16 second mark, which was made using the Burnstudios Audiotool. It was recorded on May 13 in Room 320 of a Motel 6 in Framingham, Massachusetts.
