SOS#31 Release date 08/19/2016

The Drunkard’s Walk by J.D. Hutchison / J.D. Hutchison Music /BMI
lyrics:
Tell me brother tell me
It’s so hard to understand
Why you forsake your life to be
A drunken hearted man, a drunken hearted man

High life and demon alcohol
Have ruined many men
Tell me my brother
Would you be one of them, would you be one of them

Your family that loves you
Prays for you day and night
You treat them like a stranger
And you shun their good advice, you shun their good advice

Your mouth is full of promises
Just so much empty talk
Your heart is with the bottle
And the lonesome drunkard’s walk, the lonesome drunkard’s walk

When this earthly span has ended
Each must walk alone
To enter darker regions
Or rise to worlds unknown, or rise to worlds unknown

Credits:

Recorded May 9, 2016 at the Butcher Shoppe, Nashville
Sean Sullivan engineer
Tim O’Brien – vocal and mandola

Song notes:

Another fine true-life song from my old friend and hero J.D. Hutchison. This one has a traditional bluegrass gospel feel, though the message of warming is more brotherly than heavenly. I accompany my voice with a wonderful mandola made by Michael Kemnitzer of Nugget mandolins. Nugget and J.D. are old friends too. They met in the early 1970’s in Athens Ohio, where Mike was studying art and was blowing glass. J.D. renamed him Nugget because he was a smallish guy with reddish hair, and he also told him he should make mandolins. Thanks J.D. and thanks Nugget!

Jan Fabricius brought her camera to the session and made a video while I recorded. That’s Conway Twitty and his band playing behind me. Silently.
Video Link: https://youtu.be/nbf04pslMpk

Mandolin players will notice in the video that I seem to be playing in D but the music is actually in G. That’s because mandolas are tuned one fifth lower. That means mandolin players can make music on them but also that they can easily forget what key they’re in! Mandolas are to mandolins what violas are to violins, and musicians make the same kind of jokes about people who play them. Here’s one: Q) What’s the difference between a frog and a mandola player? A) The frog might actually be headed to a gig.

Followers of SOS will know that I’ve recently recorded two other J.D. Hutchison songs and that his first recording in 15 years is in the making. Release on Howdy Skies records is coming soon, and he’s playing a big CD release party on September 24 in Marietta OH, along with his band Realbilly Jive, Jan Fabricius, and myself.

For tickets: http://peoplesbanktheatre.com/event/obrien-hutchison

A crowd sourcing campaign to fund J.D.’s recording ends in a week, so if you like this music, please help at:

www.indiegogo.com/projects/jd-hutchison-realbilly-jive-music#