Unused liner notes for "Flowers & Rockets"
Okay. So I'm listening to the final rockin' mixes of my fabulous new album "Flowers and Rockets" while I write these highly important technical liner notes. I was born a rich white boy in the rolling suburbia of Morgan Hill California. Life has been a peach ever since. I used to pick prunes before school started each year just to feel like one of the crowd, but the extra money I made made me feel guilty, so I moved to Nashville to become a starving songwriter. But it just wasn't meant to be, 'cause not long after I moved, I got a job as a songwriter and instantly got my songs recorded by BIG name acts. Needless to say the money came pouring in so I bought a house and an ex-wife. Still, the way my life had gone up until then, I knew that sooner or later I was bound to fall in true love and live happily ever after. Sure enough I was right!.. again! Molly and I met in various establishments, parks and vehicles in and around the Nashville community until we had my second child...brother of Jessie Rose, Dylan James. Well as you can guess things just got better, what with the glamorous lifestyle of a Nashville star songwriter/daddy/lover extraordanaire. I made a commercially and critically successful album entitled "Wild in the Backyard". It took 8 years for the sales to go through the roof and then simmer to a boil. I realized it might be time to record my next masterpiece. So, here it is "Flowers and Rockets". Congratulations on your highly educated purchase of American music at it's best. Now you have something for that time capsule you've been working on!
Doves and Quiches
Donald Hoyet Henry Jr.
Seriously though, Love and Peace, Live Long and Prosper, May the Force Be with
You, Hakuna Matata and Follow Your Bliss.
Thanks for the inspiration: The Beatles, Randy Newman, Joni Mitchell, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, Harry Nilsson, Guy Clark, Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Webb, Buffalo Springfield, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, The Band, Walt Disney, Eric Clapton, John Prine, Bill Withers, James Taylor, Janis Joplin, Bacharach & David, Richard & Robert Sherman, Joseph Campbell, Roger Miller, Bobby Braddock, John Hiatt, Eagles, Bread, John Denver, Jim Croce, Dave Mason, Gerry Rafferty, Van Morrison, 60's & '70's Pop, Rock, R&B and Country radio!!!!!!!!!!
1. I'VE DONE MY TIME
ON MAPLE DRIVE (Don Henry / Bill
Lloyd)
Bill Lloyd: drums,
piano, electric 6 & 12 string guitars / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Jim Hoke: harmonica
/ Ray Kennedy: bouzoukis, tambourine, cymbal and Thai drum / Chris Carmichael:
violin / Don: acoustic guitar, electric guitar solo, and background vocals
[Lyrics]
I love and admire George Bailey, but I could never stay in Bedford Falls.
Bill Lloyd is MVP of this song...
from the piano riff (which he wrote and played) to the pop guitar/drum groove
(which he stayed and played some more). This was our first co-write together.
To Bill, the Pop-Meister Guru of Nashville: Thanks for validating my ticket
out of Maple Drive.
2. BACK ON THE FARM
AGAIN (Don Henry)
Bill Lloyd: electric
guitar (left) / Pat
Buchanan: electric guitar (right) / Garry Schiera: piano & synth strings
/ Fenner Castner: drums / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Don: acoustic guitar, bass
Casio, dobro and background vocals
[Lyrics]
A song about
falling out of love and moving back in with your folks.
3. LOVE MAKES YOU
RECKLESS (Don Henry / Molly Henry)
Fenner Castner: drums / Charlie Chadwick: bass & bowed bass /
Don: 6 & 12 string acoustic guitars, slide guitars, Casio & background vocals
[Lyrics]
I wrote this with
the woman who makes me reckless. To Molly Pruett Henry: Thanks for the greatest
life I have ever had.
4. WHAT KIND OF GIRL
(Don Henry / Marshall Chapman)
Swan Dive (Bill
DeMain & Molly Felder): background vocals / Catherine Styron: organ / Fenner
Castner: drums / Don: acoustic guitars, slide guitars, bass, tambourine & background
vocals
[Lyrics]
The names
have remained the same to expose the guilty. Ask Marshall... Then than her for
me when you see her. Hell, I'll just thank her myself. Thanks Marshall
Chapman!
5. I WAS A TEENAGE
BRIDEGROOM (Don Henry)
Catherine Styron: organ / Vince Melamed: piano / Garry Schiera:
synth bells / Fenner Castner: drums / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Don: electric
guitar, 12 string acoustic guitar, slide guitars & background vocals
[Lyrics]
Everyone you cross
paths with influences your destination. I tip my hat to you all... Past and
present. I couldn't have landed in a softer or more loving place.
6. STONE IN MY SHOE
(Don Henry / David Womack)
Kim Richey & Bill
Lloyd: background vocals / Catherine Styron: pianos / Mickey Grimm: drums
& percussion / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Don: 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars
[Lyrics]
David Womack lifted
this title out of a telephone conversation we had. Those Mississippi people
are always thinking. Then I wrote the song and gave him a percentage of it.
What a nice guy I am. What a nicer guy he is for picking this title out and
not kicking my ass for writing it before he got there. Thanks, Day-day Wombeenie!
To Jessie. I love you and think of you always, Daddy.
7. IF I WAS YOUR MAN
(Don Henry / Lauren Braddock)
Mickey Grimm: drums, oil can, wood box, ka-sta-sta vocal riff,
shakers, cowbell & tambourine / Nick Pellegrino: wah-wah & fuzz guitars / Catherine
Styron: electric piano & organ / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Jim Hoke: saxes /
Vinnie Ciesielski: trumpet / John Hinchey: trombone / Don: acoustic guitar
[Lyrics]
Lauren
Braddock wrote the first verse when she was seven. Twenty years later she
brought it to me. We set a melody and a groove to it and finished it. Lauren,
thanks for the gift of this song, your talent, and your friendship. Everything
Bobby Braddock creates is brilliant!
8. MOTEL, MOTEL, MOTEL
(Don Henry / Gary Nicholson)
Gary Nicholson: national guitar & electric guitars (eerie intro)
/Chris Carmichael: violins and cellos / Russ Pahl: steel guitar / Charlie Chadwick:
basses / Teyoh Yrneh: trumpets / Don: acoustic guitar, bongos, shaker & background
vocals
[Lyrics]
John Denver
meets Norman Bates. Some people take this song too seriously. We went over the
top on the bridge to be sarcastic. Gary
Nicholson and I grinned and laughed our way through it. I knew he would
be the guy to write this with. Thanks to Gary (Guitar-God) Nicholson for his
fabulous writing, friendship and Ry Cooder impersonation.
9. TRAILER SONG
(Don Henry)
Molly Henry & Kenya Walker: background vocals / Fenner Castner:
drums / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Nick Pellegrino: wah-wah electric guitar /
Garry Schiera: synth whistle / Jessie Henry: trumpet & background vocals / Dylan
Henry: recorder / Trailer Trash: Steve Nelson, Anne Pruett, Shannon Knight,
Kelly Knight, Amy Beth Hale, Peter Fey, Kenya Walker, Charlie Chadwick, Molly
& Don Henry / Don: acoustic guitars, bass casio, casio organ, tambourine & background
vocals
[Lyrics]
I learned
to play guitar and write songs while living in a trailer home when I was fourteen.
I really felt at home there. I'm glad I experienced that piece of Americana.
Thanks to Hoyet and Dolores and to all who have done time in a mobile home.
10. THANKS, I NEEDED
THAT (Don Henry)
Jim Hoke: autoharp / Ray
Kennedy: harmonium & hand drum / Don: acoustic guitars, shaker and background
vocals
[Lyrics]
I wrote
this when I was between songwriting gigs for a few months. She loved me extra
hard till this song popped out. For Molly.
11. THE BREADWINNER
MAN (Don Henry)
Pat
Buchanan: electric guitar / Garry Schiera: clavinet / Fenner Castner: drums
/ Charlie Chadwick: bass / Don: acoustic guitars, electric sitars, handclaps
& background vocals
[Lyrics]
An extra
special thanks to all of you with children who bought this album. How in the
hell did you find the time and the money? This one's for you.
12. SUNDAY MORNING
SCHOOLYARD (Don Henry)
Chris Carmichael: violins & cellos / Ray Kennedy: harmonium &
bass / Don: acoustic guitar
[Lyrics]
I never
could talk to God in church. I just went through the motions and nodded off.
I heard her voice much clearer riding my bike in the Morgan Hill breeze. There
have been small moments in my life when the world seems like a perfect place.
I hope everyone gets a moment like that.
13. DRIVEN TO LOVE
YOU (Don Henry / Lisa Silver)
Angela Kaset: background vocals / Bobby Wayne: Celtic harp /
Lisa Silver: violin / Chris Carmichael: cellos / Pat Buchanan: electric guitar
/ Russ Pahl: steel guitar / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Catherine Styron: synth
timpani / Don: acoustic guitars
[Lyrics]
This one's
about my relentless love for Molly and Lisa's relentless love to find and adopt
her daughter, Olivia (from Bolivia!). Maybe it will mean something different
for you. Thanks, Lisa for your fiddle, giggle, and wonderful songwriting.
14. WE CAN ONLY GO
UP FROM HERE (Don Henry)
Jim Hoke: saxes / Vince
Melamed: electric piano / Catherine Styron: organ / Mickey Grimm: congas & tambourine
/ Fenner Castner: drums / Charlie Chadwick: bass / Don: acoustic guitar and
background vocals
[Lyrics]
I usually
don't get choked up over my own songs, but this one gets to my throat bone.
Molly (there she is again!) thanks for letting me move in with you. "When
you're down this low, there's only one place left to go!"
Produced & Engineered
by:
Don Henry in Nashville, Tennessee at: Sunset Place, The Lakes, Highland Park
and Dave Goodwin's Drum tracks on "Stone In My Shoe" & "If I Was Your Man" recorded
by FETT at: Azalea Studios: Nashville, TN
Mixed By:
Ray
Kennedy & Don Henry at: Room & Board, Nashville, Tennessee
Mastered By: Hank Williams at Mastermix
Album title: Molly Henry
Album Concept:
Linda Crossan & Don Henry
Collage & illustrations: Don Henry
Oil pastel paintings: Linda Crossan
Graphic design: Linda Crossan
For Correspondence Management
& Booking: Email: henrydon@comcast.net
Snail Mail: Don Henry P.O. Box 128003 Nashville, TN. 37212
"Follow Your Bliss" Joseph Campbell
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