Part

One of my favorite things about "Part" is the tremelo Stratocaster. I used my brother's Squire Strat -- a Korean made, $179 beginner's guitar. I love it. Who says you need to spend big money to get a good sound? The Strat part was recorded in my Grandfather's basement during the summer I was clerking at the district court in Blackfoot (2006). Lyrically, the song is primarily about believing in a new love -- believing that a new person will be able to "play their part." Towards the end of the song, one of the lover's in the story is unwilling to take a chance on the other and choses a different life. In a way, this song gives me the creeps. It played itself out in my life nearly a year after it was completed. Talk about self-fulfilling prophecy...I've got to knock this off. "If my memory should come to you, in some high desert hotel room, and with your slim legs some new bastard lays just bite your lip and look away." I was determined to sound like Johnny Cash on this recording. This was recorded at a period in time where I was experimenting with my voice quite a bit -- mostly seeing how well I could consistently sing in a lower register. I had been listening to Jay Farrar's album Sebastopal, 2001. The song "Barstow", from that album, has a 6/8 shuffle that I liked. (That song -- "Barstow" -- has some incredible lyrics by the way. "They'll be searching through the landfills, for evidence of our great demise") I wanted to record one of the songs I had been working on with that type of a western waltz feeling to it. "Part" fit the bill. This (by the way) happens quite often. I'll compose a song in a certain time signature (usually 4/4) and tempo and then hear something while playing it (or hear something in someone else's music) that will lead to a change in the original time signature and/or tempo. Because an alternation of the time signature leads to alterations in the melodic phrasing, the overall character of the song evolves. In fact, songs will sometimes feel "dead" and will sit on a back burner until this evolution takes place. Sean Beck sings a great backing vocal on this song.