Rick Jerram

All songs (lyrics, melody, & basic harmony) and CD design are © (P) Rick Anthony Jerram 2021.
All rights reserved except for Creative Commons photos marked thus: ##. 

The album was produced by Rick Jerram & Ty Ford. 

THE MUSIC 

I have a huge THANK YOU to all those who contributed to the album. 

The list is headed by that inimitable producer/engineer, Ty Ford, for his patience, generosity, guidance, and advice -and, on top of all that, for introducing Alan Oresky and Tom Alonso to the project. 

Then come my thanks to the contributing musicians who made such a difference to the album:  

Rick Sambuco - for friendship and support through the years and for his steady rhythmic Guitar on tracks 1, 2, 7, & 12; 
Alan Oresky - for his wonderfully sensitive and gallant Violin & Mandolin on tracks 1, 2, 7, & 12; 
Tom Alonso - for taking tracks 3, 6, & 10 and providing such sensitive and imaginative arrangements, playing all the instruments, and patiently re-playing when things went a little awry. And for adding piano and some midi to the title track 7.  
And thanks to Claire Jerram for her lovely vocals on 5. 
Tracks 4, 5, 8, 9, & 11 are otherwise no one's responsibility but mine. 

THE DESIGN 

I  had a steep learning curve with Photoshop Elements to realize the design I wanted for the CD. 

The front cover would not have been possible without George Adams' (© Stage Left Photography) generous permission to use one of his photographs as a basis for photoshopping. I am not revealing the location of the original motel as it bears no relationship to the carefully anonymous interior I have attempted to craft. 

## The Inside Cover photo of a landing stage and lake is a composite of two heavily modified photos. Both are available under Creative Commons CC BY @ 2.0 licenses as noted below. No rights are reserved for the illustration itself, except that the sources be credited as follows: 

## 'Lake Pleasant NY' by SurFeRGiRL30, which may be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/33143245@N02/36743614315. 

## and 'Rain Over Lake' by Matt's Eye. The photo may be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/22550935@N03/6155789179.

All other photos © Rick Jerram.

NOTES ON THE SONGS FOR NON-AMERICANS

SLOWVILLE

Nothing to add. The song is self-explanatory -isn't it? 

SCHOOL OF THE SACRED HEART

Decades ago I knew a girl who had gone to a convent school in India which, she said, had peacocks in the garden. The song is not about her.

FADED TO BLUE

The song started when I was walking in the street and saw old flyer on the side of a utility cabinet: once colorful, it had faded to a faint blue. Certain later circumstances attached themselves to the song.

CARELESS RIDER

Self-explanatory or impossible to explain. Your choice.

SO EASY WITH YOU

Staying in a lakeside cabin, I noticed how the whiteness of the sunlit dock next door contrasted with a storm-laden sky.

SOMETIME SOON

Big issues, small song.

AT THE MAYFLOWER MOTEL

Written in the midst of post 9/11 war-mongering. I had once spent a night in an apartment rented by graduate students which was out back of a cheap motel with a similar name on El Camino Real in Palo Alto, CA. It was demolished years ago. There's a school on the site now.

GIRL FROM FRESNO

Actually this one is not fiction, although anything in the past slowly becomes so.

CENTER CITY

No comment.

TWO RIDERS IN THE RAIN

The one important thing to know is that Jackson & Lee were Confederate generals in the US Civil War, fighting to maintain the institution of Slavery. Of course the song is not about Lee and Jackson. It is about us.

This song arose out of some strong but mixed feelings prompted by daily walks past the statue of Confederate generals Lee and Jackson that used to stand between Wyman Park and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Considered aesthetically, it is (or was) the only interesting equestrian statue I've ever seen -because the subject is the relationship between two men rather than a 'hero on a horse'. However, the purpose of the statue's commissioning -to glorify the Confederacy at a time when African-Americans were starting to get somewhere in the US- is made only too obvious by the sneaky arrangement on the base of the two men's quotes about each other.  Lee's STRAIGHT / AS THE NEEDLE TO THE POLE JACKSON ADVANCED TO THE EXECUTION OF MY / PURPOSE and Jackson's SO GREAT / IS MY CONFIDENCE IN GENERAL LEE THAT I AM WILLING TO FOLLOW HIM / BLINDFOLDED are manipulated so that PURPOSE SO GREAT are the words facing the street. It was not hard to notice that BLINDFOLDED STRAIGHT forms the reverse of the coin. To statue was removed some years ago.

BAD WEATHER NEAR BUENA VISTA, COLORADO

The song began with the first two lines of the chorus while I was in Arizona a few days after driving down from Boulder to Santa Fe. 

The physical location is precise: US285 approaching the Arkansas River crossing at Johnson Village (at 38.814585, -106.089210). Of greater importance is the location in time -the summer of 2016, with America sliding towards a disastrous election result.

(Buena Vista CO is not pronounced in the usual Spanish manner. But as there are a number of variations in use locally, I ignored them all.)

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY

This began as a contemporary story, but the tune seemed to set it in the past -the 1820s or 1830s?

This collection of songs is offered with particular gratitude to: 
Sue Rickards, Gabrielle Roth, Patrick Carnes, and Claire Jerram.