... the release calendar has been thrown into the trash.
Having said that, it doesn't mean these pieces won't be released at all. It just means I've faced the daunting reality that I've gotten far too fractured and scattered over the last few years to be able to adhere to a strict schedule. And, well, the project is trying to evolve into something grander. Rather than do a first album and book, which would then be followed by an associated album and a novel, I'm thinking about combining the two.
We'll see. It's possible none of this is even possible. It's possible I'll never get far from the one release thus far. But it's possible I just might pull it off. Hey, stranger things have happened.
In the meantime, I'm leaving all this stuff here. While I've thrown out the calendar, I haven't thrown out the projects. All of these things are in various stages of development, and each of them will eventually see the light. I'm just far too damaged now to keep myself on a rigid, disciplined path. There are just too many days when they greatest accomplishment is just making it to the end of the day relatively intact.
Depression, anxiety, and autism are all demanding taskmasters.
“Billy Ray Montgomery” is the only song on the new album that doesn't have an accompanying short story. There's a reason for this. It ties in with another song and its story in ways that are hard to explain. But the other story is the more important one. You'll see what I mean.
"Billy Ray Montgomery" began its life as a riff that popped into my head one morning on the way to work. I couldn't get it out of my brain, and it was on a loop from then on, on the way to work, on the way home from work. At some point I started playing a beat to it on my steering wheel. And, well, as good songs do sometimes, it took on a life of its own. One day as I was driving by a particular house (I remember which one), a lyric and its melody popped into my head.
"There's an old man over there / Sittin' on his porch, he ain't goin' anywhere"
That's how I met Billy Ray Montgomery.
This song introduced itself me one afternoon while doing some work at my brother-in-law's house. It started with one line;
"If I had a dollar and fifteen cemts
You'd be riflin' around in my pockets
To pay your rent"
And we were off and running. Over the course of that summer the song built itself in my head, but I did't really get anywhere on it until a few years later when I'd started a particular job. “Catching Gears” was one of my “steering wheel jam” songs.
Eventually as I worked on other lyrics, I realized it tied in well with an unfinished short story I'd sketched out. That short story was later titled “Dulce”. It could be said the song is from the perspective of one character in that story, and the short story itself is from the perspective of another.
Ah, good ol' Billie. She's been with me for a very long time. I wrote the original short story this song is based upon back in 1992 or so. I won't spoil the story for you or tell you what it's about. But this is about the song anyway, right?
The melody for this song got stuck in my head randomly once day as I was driving to work (you might spot a recurring theme with a long of the songs on this album). It wasn't associated with Billie (the character or the short story) initially, but when the idea for In The Fifth Circle began to take shape, a few lyrics attached themselves to this melody. I realized rather quickly that those lyrics were talking about Billie. From there the song took on a life of its own.
This is one of those songs I'll always be singing loudly when I'm by myself in the car. It has a lot of layers of meaning to me, and it'll always be one of my favorites, because the short story its based on has always been one of my favorites. Me and ol' Billie go back a long, long way, and I'll never get tired of singing about her. She'll always be one of my favorite misfits.
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