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Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

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Posts Tagged ‘tiny pilot’

Someone Asked About The Song…

…the Long Beds and I performed at Phoenix Park (with Mary Cutrufello) last week. Specifically, the song about The Joynt, the Eau Claire bar with the big neon sign that says “NO LIGHT BEER.”  The song is called “Harry Was Right,” and it’s a hidden track on the Tiny Pilot album. It’s not available on the digital download version. You can also hear it if you go to The Joynt and play it on the jukebox, which warms our heart indeed. I wrote about The Joynt in Truck (that and other connections between the books and the music here).

Here, Piggy…

Fencing for beefers is progressing, we have a fresh batch of chicks due to arrive in a week or so (thus, actual spring would be nice), and next week we’ll be getting feeder pigs. The photo below was taken of our last batch, fairly early in their career. The wheelbarrow is full of acorns: here’s the story on that, and here’s the story on how some of the acorns were gathered. And here’s the album we were working on when we gathered the acorns.

Tiny Pilot Lyrics Added

Little while back I finally entered the lyrics for most of the songs on Tiny Pilot (excepting the hidden track available only on the CD version).  They’re here.  Of course the label master would want me to tell you that the poster/lyric sheet insert included with the actual CD also includes full-color photos of the recording session (including humorous captions) and little notes giving the background of each song.

Homeboy Harmonies

After I put up this post, a few folks asked about the harmonies on the title song from the Tiny Pilot album.  Most were supplied by Long Beds guitarist, keyboardist, and resident crooner extraordinaire Chris Ramey, who does not always croon.  As for the haunting vocals heard just behind the lines, “Tell me little mother’s son” and “Oh, this short, sharp life,” they were provided by friend, neighbor, and Long Beds guitarist emeritus Justin Vernon, who these days works on some side projects.

Listen: Tiny Pilot – Tiny Pilot

Between the Books and the Music

Sometimes people ask me if the books and the music are connected.  Sometimes, yep.  Amble Down Records compiled the following summary describing the connections from the Tiny Pilot album:

- The opening verse of “Edge of Town” is set on the highway overpasses described on pages 99-104 of Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (HarperPerennial).

- The album’s title song, “Tiny Pilot,” was written in memory of Perry’s nephew Jake, as described in Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting (released in paperback as Coop: A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg).

- “If They Give You Wings” is a song drawn directly from scenes in “Branding God,” the essay found on page 256 of Perry’s book, Off Main Street (HarperPerennial).  The song lyrics also include a Dylan Thomas sample.

- “Harry Was Right” (bonus song available on physical CD version of album only as track #14) is a song set in a real-life bar called The Joynt.  Perry’s readers will recognize the bar and its denizens from Chapter 13 of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial) and may especially enjoy singing along with the bridge, which is a direct quote from the book: No…light…beer!

- Perry wrote the first verse of “Indiana” while driving from Michigan to Illinois on his Coop hardcover tour.  The song makes specific reference to “Seven A.M.,” the Edward Hopper painting that anchors Chapter 8 (beginning on p. 138) of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial).

- The lyrics of “Cissy Moan” invoke Oxford, Mississippi (home of Square Books) and the writers Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, and William Faulkner.  The main character of the song is caught stealing books at “Lemuria” in reference to the actual bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi.

Printable .pdf here.

Tiny Pilot Songwriting Scrap

Came across a notebook page containing early notes toward the song “Tiny Pilot” from the album of the same name.

The lyrics as they were first scribbled out and marked up:

Tell me Tiny Pilot
about your short short stay
     thousand days
threads of thinning clouds
   flyin' around
thinnest thread of cloud
somewhere beneath the [thunder] of the diesel
                                & the smoke
                                is
                sound of the plow
                 rollin' the loam
oh this sharp short life
oh this thousand days
        shiny
oh that yellow airplane
fading over the curve
disappearing over the curve
of the earth

The final recorded lyrics after the jump (plus an explanation of the math):

(more…)

Whad’Ya Know? Show and Long Beds

I’m taking a week to just hang out with my family.  We’re not going anywhere exotic, in fact most days we’re just knockin’ around the farm.  But posts for this week may or may not reflect reality or current events, as I’ve set them up to publish themselves so I can be off splitting firewood or toasting marshmallows or re-inventing myself as the Chicken Whisperer.

During the recent World Tour in support of Tiny Pilot, the Long Beds climbed off their palatial tour buses (we each have our own bus, naturally – it minimizes all the vicious infighting) to appear with Michael Feldman on Whad’Ya Know? The show is archived now.  You can listen here.

We play at the end of the first hour and the beginning of the second.

As we left the stage, there in the wings was my dear friend Frank.  Turns out he was the next guest.  I’ve written about Frank in my books…also if you’ve heard me tell the “billions” story, he’s that Frank.  One of the kindest, smartest fellows I’ve had the pleasure of knowing.  Once his interview gets rolling and he starts talking about Wisconsin milk production, you’ll get a sense of his facility with knowledge.  I especially like his cheese comment.