More info when the podcast is actually available.

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

- 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.

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):

Tiny Pilot

Hello tiny pilot
Can you read me, tiny pilot?
Can you see the North Star where you are?
Are you the blue light blinking?
Tiny pilot
Can you circle ‘round again?

Tell me little farmer’s son
Can you see your daddy tilling?
Somewhere between the rumble
Of the diesel and the smoke
Is the sound of the plow
Rollin’ the loam
Rollin’ the loam

Tell me little mother’s son
Do you see her there?
Kneeling on the ground
Between the tall corn
And a county road
Brushing at the headstone
Smoothing the dirt
Lilacs gone to seed
Somewhere the song of a bird
What’s that she heard?
Lonesome drone
Way up high
On the fade…

Oh this short, sharp life
Oh this thousand days
Oh that shiny airplane
Fading over the curve
Of the earth

Listen here:Tiny Pilot – Tiny Pilot

P.S. This song was written in memory of my nephew Jake.  It appears that the math was me figuring out that he was with us less than 1,000 days. The song is meant also to honor his family, with whom he lives forever.