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The Devil To Pay

by Brett Shady

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1.
I got a friend Gives me advice But I ain’t buying what he’s Selling this time It’s not quite that simple, I say I wish you were right There must be a reason Why I’m up every night For every somebody somebody somebody Somewhere in love There’s somebody else I don’t want perfection I don’t ask for the world I wouldn’t even want it as it is But I’d kill for someone Somebody to take for granted I’ve heard that there’s someone for us all For every somebody somebody somebody Somewhere in love There’s somebody else When all of our nighttimes Start adding up When only half the stars still shine I lie awake and I count All the remaining ones And wonder how many I’ll spend alone For every somebody somebody somebody Somewhere in love Somebody somebody somebody Somewhere in love For every somebody somebody somebody Somewhere in love There’s somebody else
2.
Jerome, AZ 03:41
I’m sorta sad to say But this is where my stay in Hollywood ends Southern California may be lovely If you’re into making friends We’ve all got ideas and opinions Of what it means to be alive I don’t want to add mine to the garbage can I just want to drive So I’m headed for Jerome I was near to victory The moment that I landed in town I don’t want to perish here Before I have a chance to look around Seems that I’ve been fighting for survival Through these endless seven years I just want to be where I can see The horizon bright and clear So I’m headed for Jerome Where I can keep an eye on my home There’s nothing much of mine I could repair But it’ll all be different over there Way up high where God can see me I want a place where I’m free to roam Late at night on the empty roads below And I want a place to call my own And I want to see the world I’ve known So I’m on my way to the hillside of Jerome Where I can keep an eye on my home
3.
Darling 03:37
Darling I’m the one who’s been calling I’m the one who’s been driving all night To sunlight Baby You’re been making me crazy You’ve been making all the stoplights that face me Hazy Driving past signs of the fall If you look real hard you can see them all Darling I’m the one who’s been calling Without you, I’ll continue to Keep falling There’s only two things I can do I can drive on forever or stay with you Darling Oh Darling
4.
Broken window Summer blowin’ Looking down at the heart he’s stolen Way too young To keep it quiet Son, meet heartbreak Can’t go home Can’t go nowhere His warm heart can’t keep the beat in the cold air He stands gutted He stands defeated By the one thing he was living for From snowy streets Followed blindly The broken English smoke signals find me The only light Around for miles But where is it now Does it still shine as brightly Is it still saving souls from a death in the vacant sea ‘Cause some nights I notice Something I brought home with me But let it go, kid No one’s looking at you I know it hurts like hell When she walks away We’ve all had that day Nothing’s worth going back to But let it go, kid No one’s looking at you I know it hurts like hell When she walks away We’ve all had that day Nothing’s worth going back to
5.
I'll Try 02:57
The more I see what the world is about The more I decided to shut it all out But whenever I see faces outside my door I think I know now who to open it for You keep me in mind You keep me in mind, so I’ll try The warnings they gave me are all coming true It took me ten years to decide what to do And I tried to pass on the warning to you I said you might want to think about leaving But you keep me in mind You keep me in mind, so I’ll try You keep me in mind, so I’ll try hard to keep you in mine And some nights I’m not gonna call And I got nowhere left to fall Boy, you’ve done some dumb things in your life But this beats ‘em all You keep me in mind You keep me in mind, so I’ll try You keep me in mind so I’ll try hard to keep you in mine
6.
Come, the wind is blowing A bit too hard tonight I’m not as young as I used to be To try to stay and fight There’s nothing out there calling your name But the world is ending in the place The world, for you, began Whenever things would get too dark You would take me by the hand But once when you were looking my way You looked beyond me And from that sad moment on My fist could stop an army Don’t , please don’t remind me Of things I might have done Here I stand before you a different man A different day’s begun I won’t let him take you away But I kept you in the dark For a reason And without you, my world is cold My lonely heart is freezing I gave you all the warmth that it had And now it’s in the back of your mind One look at who you’re leaving behind And you’re gone Gone Slowly drown away the sorrow Drown away the love I used to feel Drown away the way I’ll feel tomorrow Let this water wash away the emptiness inside I should have known I could never hide anything from you You Oh darkness, take me
7.
Keep all the old days behind you So you don’t have to wonder where they’ve gone Stay where the sadness can’t find you ‘Til the sadness is done Keep looking up for salvation Just in case it passes and what they believed was right Even if all it provides is some sleep for the night There’s a girl in South Carolina Standing in the sweet summer wind A girl in South Carolina That I’ll never talk to again Some east coast landfill is covered In things that we’ve all thrown away And it was just a cup of coffee at the end of the day But there’s a girl in South Carolina Standing in the sweet summer wind A girl in South Carolina That I’ll never stand by again What did she want from me Why does she care I still think of her fondly Does she wish I was there I can’t drink, I can’t smoke I got nowhere to hide Said I can’t drink, I can’t smoke My mind cannot erase My girl in South Carolina Oh my girl in South Carolina
8.
No sorrow inside these walls tonight No shadows to overtake the steady light So sleep, and when the sun is bright I’ll be by your side I’ve learned some lessons I can pass along But there are things that I have done all wrong But every inch of every road I’ve walked upon Has taken me to you All is quiet on a cold, grey morning Sun reluctant to rise How I pray you’ll love what you see When you open your eyes All is quiet on a cold, grey morning Sun reluctant to rise How I pray you’ll love what you see When you open your eyes No one has ever caught me No song I’ve sung has rung so true Do what you will with my love I saved it all for you I saved it all for you
9.
God, change the laws of this world for me I finally decided who I want to be But now all I’m asking’s the time back to me God, change the laws of this world I get the point about not wasting time You’ve made some lives examples, now you’re fucking with mine If it’s true that you made the stars and the Earth God, change the laws of this world I promise I will never ask for nothin’ again Believe me God, change the laws of this mess that you made We fear for the darkness that ends the parade You got our attention, you made us behave Now God, change the laws of this world I promise I won’t ever ask for nothin’ again Believe me I promise I will talk you up to all of my friends Believe me I know in the past I said some terrible things, but they were mainly for laughs If you can prove you were listening I’ll take ‘em all back God, change the laws of this world
10.
Blackened walls and Crooked doorways Muddy streets Ghosts of the old days This is our town we built with our hands He’s a stranger And she’s the one he wants She tries to sleep Inside the room he haunts Lights are flickering, raging midnight He walks the streets Inside an endless fog Searching hard for any tracks From those who’ve chosen wrong Inside, the sound of drunken laughter The booze was flowing Three cheers for me and you A toast to all of us And everything that we do Our yellow light, surrounded by a deep dark sky But later in the night Through the corner of my eye I saw shadows moving by I heard rumbling outside Keep the music going, man We got each other, we’ll be fine And we sang: Never mind the morningtime The morning’s never coming There’s still so much for us to do tonight The spirits in our bottles mix with spirits in our hearts And take us over The wind was howling And we would laugh it off Rain was filling up the streets Mildew and dry rot The silent prowler welcomed everything The day, it broke And woke a tired town Bloodshot eyes looked on our stomping ground They knew this was where it ended The lawmen came around The banners all came down And we left our little town to the angels But time has rotted angels into demons And they’ve tracked me down Time has rotted angels into demons And they follow me around Please, You ain’t got the best of me.

about

The opening track of singer-songwriter Brett Shady’s solo debut is very good (especially for the terrific lyric “For every somebody somewhere in love / there’s somebody else”), but it’s the defeated loneliness of the second track, “Jerome, AZ” that sets the album’s emotional hook. Shady sings of giving up on his big city dream and heading for open skies. But even though he didn’t give up on his own big city dream, his initial discontent with Los Angeles, born of the dislocation and culture shock felt by a gold country immigrant provides much of the album’s emotional fuel.

Shady seems to have finally made himself at home in Southern California, but at the time he wrote these songs, his lack of connection became the locus of his songwriting. Like many lovelorn pop songwriters, he balances himself on the edge of self-pity and self-strength, wallowing in the darkness but mindful that the sun still shines on the other side of his drawn curtains. Shady follows in a long line of rock musicians whose later years led them away from the outward-bound excess of rock and punk to the introspective songwriting of folk and Americana. Dana Gumbiner’s production nicely balances a minimum of studio decorations with Shady’s simple combo of guitar, bass, drums, and banjo, leaving room for the lyrics to be heard and felt.

Shady first latched onto music as a child, and looking back to acts from the ‘50s and early ‘60s in the craft of “Darling.” He suggests the song is seeded in Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby,” which you can certainly hear in the piano figure, but the vocal seems more heavily influenced by doo-wop crooning. Winningly, the production gives the whole song an indie-pop feel, which makes the ‘50s influences play more like ghosts. Shady’s country antecedents can be heard in the shuffle beat of “Red House Plea,” but here again the song takes off in an original direction with strummed guitars, a meandering banjo and an imploring vocal whose high tone suggests Don McLean and the Avett Brothers.

What’s immediately apparent in listening to these performances is the difference between a band album and a songwriter’s album with a band. There’s a singleness of tone here that you don’t often find in collaboratively written material. There’s also a sensibility in the combination of disparate musical influences – waltzing country, folk strumming, pop melodies, 50s balladry, indie-pop – that could only come from a single head full music listening. It all tumbles out so seamlessly as to make it look simple; but making music that’s both familiar and new – catchy to the ear on first spin but without feeling like a rehash of something you’ve heard before – is a nearly impossible trick, and one that Shady has managed on his first solo outing. [©2010 hyperbolium dot com]

credits

released August 10, 2010

Brett Shady: Guitar, lead vocals
Ehren Haas: Lead guitar
Lee Bob Watson: Lead guitars/ piano
Jason Graham: Bass, banjo and backup vocals
David Nicholson: Drums
Adam Kline: Guitar, percussion, backup vocals, piano
Dana Gumbiner: Backup vocals, percussion, etc.
Matt Wedgley: Percussion, backup vocals
Krista Hager: Backup vocals
Alison Schmidt: Backup vocals
Ski Taylor: Backup vocals


All songs written by Brett Shady
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Dana Gumbiner at Station to Station Recording, Grass Valley, CA
Cover photo: Ian Grant Photography - www.distinctphoto.com

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