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THOSE WHO FORGIVE
(right-click to download songs)
Sending My Love (8.1MB MP3)
My Blue Sea (11MB MP3)
Best I can figure, Andy Wagner must love bad weather. His third record, Those Who Forgive, is a complex meteorolgy of bedroom tsunamis, drunk midnight thunder and unexpected frosts. I imagine him green-screened in front of a map of a seriously busted heart, gesturing at the cold front moving in and explaining that it is only going to get worse. And he is smiling, somehow. These songs take a kind of delight, that is neither cynical nor ironic, in reporting the daily sadnesses we endure, the sadnesses that remind us we are, in fact, truly alive.
Recorded in a week with Matt Dewine at
Pieholden Studios in Rantoul, IL, it is only appropriate that this record was made in tornado country. This time out, Wagner whipped up a band, tracked almost everything live, and whirl-winded, on the strength of Ben Clarke’s bass and Matt Martin’s drums, this collection of songs into being. Songs like “Sending My Love” that range from blustery rock to quiet drizzled ballads in “My Blue Sea,” from gale force to a storm’s eye respite; all story-told with detailed immediacy. Like a field reporter at a hurricane site, Wagner makes poetic the particulars of being lashed by the elements.
Angry lovers and desperate loners populate this Midwestern weather map, sharing a flashlight in the cellar with Wilco, Calexico and Gram Parsons. There is a timelessness to Wagner’s music, it sounds so current and somehow half-remembered. But Those Who Forgive fits perfectly into his discography, following Horse Year’s energy and Departures quiet ballads, this new record marries his impulses in a perfect storm.
All Songs Written and Produced by
Andy Wagner
Copyright 2009
Musicians:
Andy Wagner:
Acoustic Guitars, Electric Guitars, Organs, Piano, Harmonica, Lead Vocals
Ben Clarke:
Bass on Tracks 1,3 and 5
Backing Vocals on 3
Matt Martin:
All Drums and Percussion
Backing Vocals on Tracks 2 and 3
Matt Dewine:
Tamborine on Track 7
Recorded and Mixed by:
Matt Dewine
at Pieholden Studios
Rantoul, Illinois
Cover Art By :
Mark Benson
Lyrics:
TRACK 1
DRIVER’S SEAT
Driver’s seat, I make believe
that I have somewhere left to go
come with me and we will see
if I’m right or if I’m home
And I won’t say sorry babe
but I’ll take you with me when I go
and I can’t be your oak tree
but you can cut me down if I don’t grow
We’ll listen to old time tunes
and sing along to all the words
No one know the songs we know
cause no one hurts the way we hurt
And I won’t say sorry babe
but I’ll take you with me when I go
and I can’t be your oak tree
but you can cut me down if I don’t grow
A thousand roads, a thousand homes
but only one place I can stay
It might be years, might be days
I just don’t know how long it takes
And I won’t say sorry babe
but I’ll take you with me when I go
and I can’t be your oak tree
but you can cut me down if I don’t grow
Driver’s seat, I make believe
that I have somewhere left to go
TRACK 2
LIVE IN A DREAM
If you live in a dream
keep your eyes closed till you know what it means
real life hopes for none of these things
As the days go by
the watchman calls and you learn how to die
and it doesn’t take long before you run out of time
Never mind ‘bout the way it should be done
there’s a servant waitin’ round for everyone
Fill in the holes
open the doors they try to keep closed
it’s easy to hide where no one else goes
Let the bells ring
don’t be afraid to let yourself sing
just follow the song you hear in your heart
Never mind ‘bout the way it should be done
There’s a servant waitin’ round for everyone
In a far off sea there’s water rising
the desert sand will soon be shore
And any more, you can let it take you under
but the voice who calls will never let you go
Safe are the walls
built for the fires that threaten us all
but you’re only free once you watch them fall
Don’t run from the light
be your own force and be your own guide
the ghosts from the past will be by your side
Never mind ‘bout the way it should be done
There’s a servant waitin’ round for everyone
TRACK3
SENDING MY LOVE
You gotta know
that I’m not the one
You gotta know
I’m not your only son
Try to remember
when we first met
You made me a deal
that hasn’t come through yet
Cause there once was a time
when I was the young one
and there was light in your eyes
that suddenly died
So I’m sending my love
to somebody else
Ya I’m sending my love
to somebody else
Here I am walkin’
through the streets like a man
Who hasn’t done much talkin’
who no one understands
I need a savior
I need a gun
I don’t know how I got here
I’m afraid of everyone
TRACK 4
SO LONG
So long, so long
all you famous faces
I don’t belong
in all these unfamiliar places
Can you tell me what you did there with your time?
And if you can will you look me right in the eye?
It’s a sad thing, when you can’t sing
and you lose yourself along the way
Surprise… I’m alive
even though you shot me down
And guess what?
There’s life, way below the underground
Can you tell me what you did there with your time?
And if you can will you look me right in the eye?
It’s a sad thing, when you can’t sing
and you lose yourself along the way
It’s a sad thing, when you can’t sing
and you lose yourself along the way
TRACK 5
MY BLUE SEA
I sit and watch a silent movie
and make up words to pass the time
and then I dream that I’ve been sailing on my blue sea
and it’s all I got to get me by
all I got to get me by
Maybe this is just a bad time
a few more years and I’ll be just fine
keep on sailin’ with a cool breeze on my blue sea
and I’ll see you on the other side
it’s all I got to get me by
I’m comin’ down, I’m comin’ down
didn’t want to feel like this today
and I was lyin’ when I said that I’ve been tryin’
but I didn’t want to let our love die
it’s all I got to get me by
TRACK6
WHAT I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR
Two more hours till the sun will shine
got the future on my mind
left the city in the dark
Something slow on the radio
‘bout a hundred miles to go
had to leave it all behind
just to know what’s left to find
I think I see what I’ve been looking for
and I’ve been looking for all these years
Got this feelin’ in my heart
hopin’ I don’t fall apart
cause it’s happened here before
Soon the stars will disappear
and my view will start to clear
it’s an endless road of dreams,
crossing too much in between
I think I see what I’ve been looking for
and I’ve been looking for all these years
I think I see what I’ve been looking for
and I’ve been looking for all these years
It all comes back to
the man I once knew
whose heart was of the golden kind
lookin’ back in the rear view
fadin’ off in the dark blue
are the pieces of his scattered mind
but it’s all in a life worth living till the end of time
Wanna see my home again
wanna find my long lost friends
wanna feel that prairie wind
There’s a long road still ahead
I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout what you said
and I hope it all was true
if my road leads back to you
I think I see what I’ve been looking for
and I’ve been looking for all these years
I think I see what I’ve been looking for
and I’ve been looking for all these years
DEPARTURES
(right-click to download songs)
Everything I Need (5.7MB MP3)
Perfect Harmony (4.8MB MP3)
On his second full-length release, Departures, Andy Wagner has captured the slant light that drifts across the motel room floor on the morning you’re leaving. These eight songs softly resound with the quietest longing, a bowed bass, a thunderstorm, an evening of too many cigarettes and another day driving when the windows are down and the air is warm. Departures, tells one story so fully, and that story is goodbye.
Recorded in living rooms and garages and kitchens in New Orleans and Chicago, Wagner played guitars, pianos, harmonica, bells, and accordion, all arranged sparsely, with great care. He brought in friends, Mark Benson (of Lying in States) on drums, Jason Eckerson (of the Notes and Scratches) on upright bass, Maria McCullough (of the House Theatre) on violin, and Matt Martin (AKA Samuel Stiles) on guitar, voice, keyboards and bass. Martin also helped craft the arrangements and engineer and mix the record.
But in the midst of all this remarkable musicianship what truly stands out is Wagner’s voice and his songcraft. There is a nearness, a familiarity, an intimacy in his melodies; his full warm voice sounds like he’s whispering in your ear. And the writing is so strong. Wagner knows the language of morning and mourning and how dust kicks up on the highway on the many long miles to home.
A little bit Willie Nelson, a little bit Morricone, a little bit Jeff Tweedy, Departures is a gorgeous folk record of itinerant departures songs, notes from American wanderings. And on it, Wagner has written and captured his best songs to date.
All songs written and performed by Andy Wagner
With Matt Martin, Jason Eckerson, Maria McCullough and Mark Benson as noted below:
Ghosts ::
Matt: change/keys in pocket, shakers
Mark: drums
That Way ::
Matt: electric Guitar, vox
Everything I Need ::
Matt: bass, sk1, piano, vo
Maria: violin
Mark: snare drum
When The Moon Comes Out Tonight ::
Matt: electric guitars, vox, radio fuzz
Darlin ::
Jason: bass
Mark: drums
How To Say Goodbye ::
Matt: electric guitars
Perfect Harmony ::
Jason: bass
Recorded in New Orleans and Chicago
by Matt Martin and Andy
Except for Perfect Harmony which was recorded by Matt DeWine and Andy in Chicago
Produced by Matt Martin and Andy
Mastered by Bruce Barielle
Cover and CD art by Craig Blakeman
Liner image by Nora McCommiskey
Layout and telephone lines by Joshua Dumas
All songs © 2006 Andy Wagner