The album opens with “Borrowed
Time,” a song with an easygoing vibe and a friendly sound to the vocal delivery,
a track that features some nice work by Nikki Grossman on fiddle. “Borrowed time, borrowed time/Pay the balance
somewhere down the line/All you weary wanderers, raise a glass of wine/To
borrowed time.” Indeed! As we are constantly reminded these days, there are
no promises about the amount of time we get. And “The highway is my home” is a line I love, and one that reminds me
of the songwriting of Steve Werner. That’s followed by “Come On Back, Break My
Heart,” which has a fun vibe, sounding like a song played at a country venue where
folks are kicking up their heels on a dance floor that may or may not contain the
odd strand of hay. Also, this one has one of my favorite song titles. “Fools
Were Made To Be Broken” is a slower number with a cool sound (in large part
because of Randy Broughton’s work on pedal steel and Chris Hepola’s work on
piano) and some really nice vocal work. I love their harmonies. And check out
this line: “But I thought just once you’d
treat my heart as if it mattered.” That is one heck of a good line.
“The Flower Girl” is a song
that makes me smile from the moment it starts. I love the sound, which includes
washboard. There is a delightful innocence to both the sound and the lyrics. “She ain’t rich, and I ain’t either/But I buy
daisies just to please her.” And then, when you think it can’t get any more
wonderful, there is a kazoo section. So there. “The Flower Girl” is followed by
“Don’t Think About Tomorrow Tonight,” the album’s title track, a sweet and
completely enjoyable song of desire and heartache, featuring some nice work on
pedal steel. “There’s no one waiting for
me, believe me/I just need to find what’s inside me/So gently, softly hold me
beside you/Don’t think about tomorrow tonight.” Then “Dump Run Rag” is another
track that is a delight from the moment it begins. This one is an instrumental
track featuring Nikki Grossman on fiddle and Patrick Harison on accordion, and
in its second half it contains several little teases that it will end before it
does. It is a wonderful track to take our minds off our current troubles,
something I am thankful for. That’s followed by “Road To Outlaw Bridge,” the
album’s only track to credit another writer. Its lyrics were written by Nikki Grossman,
based on a poem by Milon Peterson. I like the harmonies on this track, the song
telling of a dangerous, winding road. The music has something of cheerful vibe,
particularly the work on bass and drums.
“You Don’t Exist” is a song that
has me smiling like a fool every time I listen to it. The vocals have a
classic, timeless sound, an endearing sound, but the lyrics certainly have a
more modern sense, and that juxtaposition is delightful. Check out these lines:
“You’ll be dead to me when you walk out
that door/You can’t break my heart/If you don’t exist/Because a man who never
was/Never can be missed.” This is one of my favorites. There are a lot of
reasons to recommend this album, but this track certainly stands out among
them. Then “It’s Lonely At The Bottom” is one of those wonderfully sad country
numbers, a song that almost demands you have a warm beer in your hand. It is a
song of despairing one’s current station in life, a song of loneliness and
failure, yet delivered with a hint of humor. “Now that failure and hardship threw dirt in the face of my dreams/I’ve
stopped dreaming, and dreaming was all that I had/Woe is me/It’s lonely at the
bottom.”
“This Song” is yet another track
that makes me smile from its first lines, which are “Oh, how does it go/Well, I just don’t remember/I don’t think that we
played this one since last November/So until we recall it, let’s continue to
stall it/And string ‘em along.” Yes, it’s about performing a song they
don’t quite recall. Hey, it’s okay to fake it, and this song directly
acknowledges that they are, and also that folks probably won’t mind. And we
certainly don’t. There is a section that had me laughing out loud, where they
just make various noises in place of the lyrics that they can’t remember. This track
is just completely bloody wonderful, and I imagine it is one that is requested
a lot during their live performances (do you remember live performances?). There
is a twist at the end, which even includes a plug to purchase the album, which
you should absolutely do.
“Empty Gestures” is a slower,
more serious-sounding number with something of a relaxed island vibe. It is
about a man who is cheating, and a woman who won’t be fooled. “Empty gestures and empty threats/Well,
that’s no way to get, no way to get things done.” That’s followed by “Nashville
Hero,” which opens with the line “I grew
up in a town so small that it hurt,” a line I can relate to. But I can’t
quite relate to the other part, about being a superstar in Nashville. Well, not
yet, anyway. Joe Hart sings lead on this one. The theme of this song, and some
of the lyrics remind me of a Violent Femmes song, “More Money Tonight,” lines
like “I made more on my last song/Than
you’re going to make your whole life long.” My favorite lines, however, are
“Ran into Bobby Sue working at the liquor
store/She looked a whole lot older than when she turned me down before.” This song also includes a humorous little nod
to themselves, to their band in the line “Sapsuckers
in my entourage.” The album concludes with a track not listed on the back
of the CD case, a delightful tune that features some whistling, a good bass
line and some wonderful work on trumpet. “And
now I see that you are waiting/For my happiness to stop/It’s in your eyes, the
expectation/That the other shoe will drop.” And it has a cha-cha-cha ending.
CD Track List
- Borrowed Time
- Come On Back, Break My Heart
- Fools Were Made To Be Broken
- The Flower Girl
- Don’t Think About Tomorrow Tonight
- Dump Run Rag
- Road To Outlaw Bridge
- You Don’t Exist
- It’s Lonely At The Bottom
- This Song
- Empty Gestures
- Nashville Hero
- The Other Shoe
Don’t Think About Tomorrow Tonight was released on March 23, 2018.
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