Dying To Have A Good Time

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Nobody's Baby	3:26	Play
2		Cissy Bon	3:23	Play
3		Who Do You Think It Was	4:45	Play
4		Reached After Gold	5:16	Play
5		The Queen Of Kentucky	3:59	Play
6		All Hell Breaks Loose	4:23	Play
7		Dying To Have A Good Time	3:56	Play
8		Take My Possessions	3:59	Play
9		Ride Billy Ride	2:57	Play
10		Blue Satin	4:41	Play
11		Old Friends	4:23	Play
12		Lean In A Little Closer	3:21	Play
13		I Never Lost Someone I Loved As Much As I Love You	4:32	Play
14		Trouble On My Side	5:22	Play

Items may be purchased individually.

Contributors

Details

Royalties

See the payment distribution when this media is bought.

Description	Amount
Bitmunk Marketplace Service	USD $0.98
CD Baby Artist Royalty	USD $5.97
CD Baby 9% Digital Distribution Cost	USD $0.54
Bitmunk Download Service	USD $0.78
Bitmunk MicroPayment Service	USD $0.01
Total	USD $8.26

Bitmunk uses a micropayment system that is accurate to 7 monetary digits.
Mouse over an individual amount to see its exact value.

Description

When I was nineteen, I dropped out of school and spent my last eleven dollars on a one-way train ticket to Guelph, Ontario, determined to work in, and learn, about the music business. A couple of nights later I was sweeping the floor at a coffeehouse called The Factory, while a big crowd of college kids was grumping and groaning, waiting for the star performer, Big Mama Thornton, to show up '" she was well over an hour late '" it was a frosty November night, and the uninsulated (insulation ... whats that?) window that I was looking out of, was all steamed up, so I doodled on it, this big round circle face, and wrote, above the face, something like, Big Mama is one big mother... when I felt this vice-like grip on my shoulder. Shes whaaattt? I turned around and there she was, just like Ed Sullivan used to say, Ladies and Gentlemen, the star of our show, the lovely and talented ... BIG MAMA THORNTON! Only she was short, built like a barrel, and royally pissed off at me. So while my one good hand was furiously wiping the window clean, I learned my first lesson in the music business: folks hardly ever like hearing the truth, unless its in a song. Since I hadnt written any songs yet, I just gave Big Mama a big hug and a bigger smile, and before she could say a word, I yelled out at the crowd, like Ed, only louder, Shes here, shes here! Big Mamas here! The crowd erupted in applause and started to swarm her, but not before she gave me a glare and one more hurting squeeze on my shoulder, for good luck I guess. The show was great. Big Mama played every instrument in the band. The crowd loved her. She loved them. Then, long after she disappeared into the night, I swept up the floor, thinking, I love this business, but if I got to bee-ess just to get by, then I better get busy writing me some songs instead.

Now its thirty five years further on down the line '" still riding on that one-way ticket '" a few albums and a few hundred songs later '" and for all of those high-and-mighty reasons Ive given, for why I keep playing and writing and recording, it basically comes back to that first lesson '" and because, just like songwriting, the more you bee-ess, the better you get at doing it.

This new album, Dying To Have A Good Time, took a few years to complete, partly cause of geography (I live in Ottawa while the rest of the band lives in Toronto), and partly cause its way more fun making an album, than completing it. Sometimes, when I listen to it, I twist between thinking, this sounds too simple, wheres the angst, and, omigod '" this is so honest and touching. But the truth is, Im fifty-five and happy. So, honest and touching is what you get. I like all the songs. At one point in time, or another, I probably thought that each one of them, was the best thing ever written; but after fussing and finicking and listening and re-listening hundreds of times, Ive come to moderate that assessment a little. If you love the songs beyond belief, Ill be very happy, but for me, Im just relieved - I can finally listen to them, without trying to fix them.