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LORD DON'T FRAY, JUMP OUT OF YOUR GRAVE, HIP HIP HOORAY, LECTRIC PRAYER................ It's always challenging to delve into your soul and psyche and dare yourself to release the comfort-ability that mocks most of us. A lot of us are just patterns of behavior, regimented in routine which seep-ens our skin and becomes character. We are always fighting the hard and difficult obstacles that beleaguer our aspirations and raid it with an easy fix. Do it the fast and cheapest way, or stuff ourselves in some vice and addiction. Let's just live life the hardest. I guess that's the American spirit. At least that's how it seems now. My last record 10 SONGS OF AMERICA TODAY seemed to be engrossed in a present tense of an America that just screamed for change. Well, dagnabbit, things have changed dramatically....It's not getting any easier, economy on the skids, dollar slipping in value, inflation, and it's tougher and tougher to make what we used to make, a buck. There's only one reason for my new release LECTRIC PRAYER..........It's to raise spirits. A spirit of belief, a spirit of I can, a spirit of I will, a spirit of I must. I'm a living example of it. I dived into a dark lagoon not knowing if I was going to sink or swim. Am I being dramatic? Yeah a bit. I absolutely had no idea what this would sound like when I went into the studio. Thanks to being brainwashed by the producer John Chelew, I just went in blindfolded, no rehearsal, with complete strangers and shazaam LECTRIC PRAYER was born. But I wish upon every songwriter alive that they can embark on such a journey with an ensemble like this. SARA WATKINS on violin and back-up vocals, her brother SEAN WATKINS on mandolin and tenor guitar and back-up vocals, DON HEFFINGTON on drums, SEBASTIAN STEINBERG on stand-up bass and broken banjo. The songs were chosen from a batch that I had written and these were hand selected by John as he felt they 'themed together properly'.............RUNAWAY HELLBOUND TRAIN defines, I think, a sound I had envisioned, a sort of blue-grassy meeting deep Delta, tinged with Chicago Chess.....Oh well, so much for recipes. I have a few open E tuning tracks which PITCHFORK BRIGADE exemplifies. Here I'm on a Telecaster, drone picking, and Calvinising a new day coming. GOOD 'OL CIRCUS DAYS haunts us like a living twilight zone with a slight chromatic half-step that keeps us and it in an unevenness. Don came up with great drum rolls that hinted of the big-top. Sarah's violin couldn't be more psycho-licious......Oh, and how could I not tell the tale about TRAIN TO HEAVEN......After the first day of recording, I was in bed wrestling with sleep and then the song just trumpeted in my mind.....The melody, the verse, all written in my head like some force had swallowed me in a huge melodious-lyricality.....That's unusual for me. I saw that train gliding on them golden tracks...i walked in the studio singing it and two minutes later we recorded it. Sheldon brought in an old broken banjo on a fluke and started pickin' and we knew it was right. And of course the title track LECTRIC PRAYER......Sean and Sarah's distinct Dixie harmonies whistling through my interpretation of a 'lucky to be alive' word collage. Oh well, things will get better, them black crows will empty the skies, and our souls will shine again........ Crosby Tyler March 2nd, 2010.
