NEWS

Dan has posted new blogs. Read them and all his blogs on the blog page of this site or at  http://danwilsonblog.blogspot.com.
The National Wildlife Federation has used Dan's song "Free Life" in an inspiring clip about Alaska. Click here to check it out. Read Dan's blog about the clip here.
DW Produced Album
The Dan Wilson-produced Jeremy Messersmith album, "The Silver City" (Princess Records), is now available. Fans of DW's singing will dig Jeremy's voice and music. His album's ten songs about the joys and perils of relationships, daily commuting, and information-age employment form an unexpectedly gorgeous love song to urban life. Plus, "Franklin Avenue" and "Miracles" rock. Click here for Jeremy's site or Click here to buy the album right away
James Morrison co-write
A song DW co-wrote with British folk & soul singer James Morrison, entitled "Once When I Was Little," is on Morrison's album "Songs for You, Truths for Me." Click here to listen!
Co-Write CD Release
Fans of DW's songwriting should be aware that the Gabe Dixon Band has released their CD, "The Gabe Dixon Band," on August 26th. Dan co-wrote three of the songs on the album with Gabe, "All Will Be Well," "Five More Hours," and "Find My Way." This album has been a long time in the writing, making, and waiting - DW fans can relate to that - and it has been worth the work and the wait. Click here for more info
New Carrie Rodriguez Co-Write
A song Dan has written with singer/songwriter/fiddler Carrie Rodriguez, "She Ain't Me," is the first single on Carrie's new album, also titled "She Ain't Me." You can hear the song on Carrie's myspace page. Click here to listen
Live Electric Fetus EP
Dan Wilson's live at the Electric Fetus EP is now available at iTunes, Amazon Digital, Napster, Real Music, and Rhapsody. Features his performances of "Hand On My Heart," "Free Life," "Easy Silence," "Sugar," and "Breathless" at his in-store at Electric Fetus in Minneapolis in October.
Be Free EP
To accompany the release of "Free Life" as a single, DW has created a five-song EP, called "Be Free EP." The download-only record includes Dan's new, unreleased versions of The Dixie Chicks' "Lullaby" and Jimmy Webb's "All I Know." Rounding out the set are "I Can't Hold You," and "Hello Stranger," both tragically cut from the Free Life album. EP available at: iTunes Rhapsody Real Player Music Store Amazon Digital Napster
A Short Film About 'Free Life'
Click here to watch
AT&T Blue Room
Click here to listen to Dan tell the story behind some of the songs from "Free Life" and watch his exclusive performance for AT&T's Blue Room.
New Store Launched
Check out Dan's new online store, featuring new T-shirts for the album "Free Life"!
MAKING OF "NOT READY TO MAKE NICE"
Click here to watch a clip from the Dixie Chicks about the making of the single "Not Ready To Make Nice" with commentary from Dan.
Buy "Free Life"
Get "Free Life" on iTunes or click here to buy the "Free Life" CD from Amazon.com.
Electric Fetus EP
The "Electric Fetus EP," recorded live at Dan's October in-store appearance, is available in all CIMS stores!
Top 10 of 2007
"Free Life" in Boston Globe and NY Daily News lists of top 10 albums of 2007!
Interview with City Pages
Read Dan's interview with City Pages.
And in case you didn't hear...
Dan won a Grammy for "Song Of The Year" in 2007.

BLOG

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Huh? What Happened?
Hello again. I'm back in the pool myself, sort of. I guess I knew adopting a two year old baby girl was going to annihilate my daily routine. (How did I know? My friends all told me, and with great glee.) The immediate upshot: I traded journaling, book-reading, lyric-writing, and, yup, BLOGGING for cuddling, diaper-changing, scrape-prevention, and general silliness. I'm sticking with the silliness and scrape-prevention, but now am going to experiment with squeezing a little blogging and lyric-writing in between cuddles. We'll see how it goes. Although my daily life has been turned upside down again (my first daughter Coco turned our family life upside down for the first time almost 12 years ago), I have little to say about the diapers and sleep interruptions and other little inconveniences. It was pretty funny how many people told me before Lily came that having two kids is "ten times harder" than having one. Really? Maybe it's twice as hard, twice as expensive, etc... But ten times? Why is everyone so eager to complain about children? And these are all people with nannies or day care or babysitters. I can understand (a little) complaining about the first kid; after all, you had no idea what to expect, you don't know what just hit you. But once you go in for a second, it's a little harder to act surprised.

I suppose being a man I am probably not shouldering my full share of child-rearing duties, so maybe I'm not the person to ask how hard it is.

All that aside, though, the thing that's most amazed me about bringing Lily into my life is the love. I guess when you take care of someone, you start to love them. It's automatic, and that's that. She's still a total mystery to me, I feel like there's a tiny stranger in the house and she's taken over the operation. And all that makes sense, she's a baby and her needs are immediate and prior. But how has this love sprung up out of nowhere? Because that's what has happened. Before we went to the Philippines, I was afraid it wouldn't happen, that I wouldn't figure out how to love Lily. Now the big surprise is that it has happened by stealth. I didn't notice falling in love with her, I just fell.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Commencement Speech

MacNally Smith College of Music asked me to give the commencement address to their graduating class this year, which I agreed to without really knowing what I was getting into. It was a very interesting thing to try but way outside my comfort zone.

Here's the text of the speech, not including a few digressions and on-the-fly amendments.

------------

Get in the Pool

Good morning, everyone, and congratulations, McNally Smith College of Music graduates! I hope you had fun, I hope you learned a lot, and I hope you're proud of what you've learned and accomplished.

I'm here to talk to you about what happens next.
I am what you’d call a professional musician and that’s why McNally Smith has asked me to speak to you today. I’m not a professional speaker and I don’t claim to have the last word on the subject of the music business.

I never went to music school, but after enough times around the block a person starts to get an education in the music business anyway.

I spent about 15 years on the road with my bands Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic. During our heaviest touring, I think both of those bands did a hundred and fifty, or two hundred shows a year.

So I’ve played well more than a thousand gigs in my life.

And I still travel for my work: in the past few months I’ve written songs with KT Tunstall in London, Rivers Cuomo in Los Angeles, and Nicole Atkins in Minneapolis.
I’ve performed in Chicago, LA and Minneapolis in the past month.
Here’s something about me that I don’t publicize much: I’ve been signed to or put out records with at least twelve different record labels:

Gark Records
Clean/Twin-Tone Records
A&M Records
Elektra Records
Cherrydisk
MCA
Nettwerk America
American Recordings
Lost Highway
Universal Music
Warner Bros. Records
and
Columbia Records

I might be forgetting one or two.
This is not counting a half dozen other companies that have put out my songs when I was “between labels”, whatever that means.
And it’s not counting the various EP’s and albums that I’ve put out independently without a label at all.

Bottom line is, I haven’t had a day job for a long time, so my experiences are probably pretty relevant to your future plans.

Here’s my main message to you for the morning:
Get in the pool.

Get in the pool.
Join the conversation.
Go straight to the audience.
Start a camp, a crew, a scene, a community. If you can't start one, then join a camp, a crew, a community.
Hit the road if that’s what you need to do to find your community.
Better yet, hit the road with your community! See the fifty states and show them your music.
Keep no secrets.
Don’t save your art, spend it.
Get your ideas out into the world, into your camp, your crew, your scene.
Learn how to say, "How can I help?” and mean it.
Collaborate!
Get in the pool.

I'm assuming that all of you either plan to be professional musicians,
or to work in the music business,
or at least to keep music as an important part of your lives.
Well, you're all at the threshold of a new phase.
Maybe you're wondering what to do next.
Maybe you have a plan you've been dead sure about for years.
Maybe you have a strange and excited feeling that you could become anybody at all, and you’re just waiting to find out who.
Or maybe you have the anxious suspicion that nobody could possibly make a living doing the things you've just learned how to do.
Whichever way, it’ pretty sure that the "training" phase is closing, and the "doing" phase is about to begin.

Some of you feel that the only thing you lack is a magical phone number or e-mail address; all you need to succeed is access; access to some higher-up, some powerbroker, some gatekeeper who, when they hear and see your work, will lift you up into the clouds and make you a star.
Maybe you have decided that your main focus in life is going to be making demo recordings to play for this gatekeeper, when you someday finally meet him or her.

Some of you feel that your music is not ready to show to anyone. As the Talking Heads sang in the song "Artists Only", "I’m painting, I’m painting again… You can't see it til it's finished!"
But the search for perfection can be endless. You might find yourself still feeling this way in five years, or maybe ten. "It's not quite ready yet," you might be saying in ten years, "You can't hear it til it's finished!"

Some of you will worry that if you share your work without the properlegal protections, then somebody will steal your ideas and make millions from music that rightfully belongs to you.
You might end up spending a lot of time and energy keeping your ideas secret until you can unveil them to the world.

Let’s talk about access.
Ever since people started noticing my music I've had a steady stream of beginning songwriters approach me for advice.
Their first question is usually, "Can you show my songs to Rick Rubin?”
They feel that their music is great; the only thing they really lack is access.
Well, try this: think about your musical friends, the people you've studied with and played with.
Think about the people you’re going to jam with and hang out with and record with over the next five years, whether it’s here in the Twin Cities, or somewhere else.
Most of these friends of yours are probably wondering just like you are about whether they will ever "make it."
You might in fact listen to their music at times and wonder the same thing. But at other times you listen to their music and you hear their potential for greatness.
Okay. Picture these friends in your mind.
I'm here to tell you the astonishing fact that these people, the peers you’re going to meet, and jam with and record with over the next five years, the people whose couches you are going to sleep on, whose vans you will ride in, whose equipment you are going to borrow, whose music is sometimes brilliant and sometimes not-so-much, these people are more important to your musical future than any executive in Hollywood or New York.
Why? Because when you start or join an interesting, inspiring and super-creative community of music, access will come to you.
Access will come to you and give you its phone number and its e-mail address. Access will want to be part of the community you’ve created, it will want a piece of the creativity that you are fostering. Access will see money in what you’ve put together, and access will find you.
Get in the pool. Have a camp, a crew, a community.
If you really, really can’t find this community in the town where you live, then move somewhere else. But I believe there are brilliant artists in many unlikely places.

Or, if you can’t find a super-creative music community, then start one yourself.
Songwriters and producers these days are not satisfied to sit in their studios alone and write or record new songs. Everywhere I go, the top writer/producers are trying to gather a scene around themselves. They’re trying to recreate the Brill Building, that office building in New York City which, during the Great Depression, became the birthplace of scores of hit songs.

The writer/producers I’m talking about, people like Tricky Stewart or Martin Terefe, are adding small rooms to their studios, finding undiscovered young writers, and setting them up in the small rooms.
Some call it setting up a writers’ camp.
Get three or four rooms like this going, each with a singer and a producer/engineer, and things start to multiply.
The doors open at lunch time, everyone hangs out in the courtyard, and suddenly people are pairing off with each other and writing extra songs during lunch. Camaraderie, competition, chemistry, all mixed together. So if you can’t find a community, start one yourself.

Don’t Hide Your Ideas. Spend Your Ideas.
“You can’t see it till it’s finished!”
I’ve always loved that song. I started out as a visual artist – after college I went to San Francisco to learn how to be a painter, and ended up getting pretty good at it.
But during those first couple of years, I hardly ever showed anyone my art.
And I met a lot of artists who were the same way – they’d paint their evenings and weekends away on work that no one else ever saw.

Well, at some point you have to come out of hiding. When I started showing my work to journalists, other artists, and collectors, it was as though my growth curve as a painter got super-charged. During the period when I kept my work secret and hidden, I had only one source of feedback: me. But when I started sharing my ideas, I got great feedback from every direction, and I loved it. It got so much easier to tell which works were great and which were okay; and the unexpected part was that sometimes the art I was most attached to and proud of left everybody else cold; and on the other hand sometimes the pieces that I was embarrassed or uncomfortable about were the ones that blew everybody’s mind.
So when I did come out of hiding, I was glad I had – I started to show and sell my paintings right away. I returned to Minneapolis, I found gallery representation, sold a lot of big pictures, and it looked like I was going to be able to make a decent living as a visual artist.

Things were going great, but I realized one important thing about being a painter: it’s lonely.
A visual artist is alone in the studio for 8 or 10 hours a day. Occasionally you’ll be visited by other artists in the warehouse where you rent space. And if you smoke you can chit chat with the other smokers out in the cold near the fire door. I didn’t even smoke so it was really lonely for me.

I think that’s why I eventually chose music. I love hanging out with other musicians. I love collaborating with them. I love the weird way they think. Maybe that’s because it’s the way I think, too.

Which reminds me of something I want to say to the engineers in the room. Engineers: if you don’t already love musicians and the weird way they think and behave, you might want to try to learn.

First reason to learn to love musicians: if this engineering thing goes well for you, you’re about to be locked in a dark room with these people for many years to come. So why fight it? I know too many engineers who find musicians and their non-linear thinking to be exasperating, too many engineers who think of musicians as obstacles getting in the way of making great music.

Second reason to learn to love musicians: as recording engineer, you are a vital element of the creative process, and you must understand the mind and character and needs of your artist just as well as you understand the needs of the machines you use to capture the artist’s performance. You’ve got to see the whole picture.

Third reason to love musicians: if you love them, they will love you back, and you’ll get more work.

Okay, back to my point.
Don’t hide your ideas; spend your ideas.
Get your ideas into circulation. Show people your songs. Teach other engineers or producers your tricks. Trade up! They will show you their techniques in return.

In 2001 I decided I needed to learn how to make my digital recordings sound great. I had figured out that most people in the music business can’t hear the greatness in a song unless the demo sounds like a hit record. Everybody in the music business will tell you that they can hear whether a song is great by listening to a simple guitar and vocal demo. Well, most of them are lying. Unfortunately, the truth is the demo needs to sound like a hit.

So I traveled in Europe and America co-writing with the best producer/engineers I could find. I wrote a lot of songs and asked a lot of questions. During the sessions, I was amazed how willing these people were to share their methods.
Back when I started making records, the analog engineers were ultra-secretive – they’d hide gear under the mixing desk, create secret patches off the patchbay so no one could guess what instrument was going through which compressor. But the digital producer/engineers I was working with just answered my questions. So I kept asking. I learned so much during that year, it was like going to school again. Now I do the same thing that they did. If anyone asks me, “How did you get that sound,” I am really happy to tell them. It’s like an indirect way of paying back the people who taught me.

Don’t save your ideas; spend your ideas. Get them into circulation.

When a young songwriter or recording artist approaches me with questions, another question she often asks is this: “How can I copyright my songs to make sure that no one steals my ideas?” This young songwriter feels that she has written an amazing new song, and she wants to send a demo to a manager, she wants to show it to a publishing company or a singer, but she’s terrified that when she does show it to someone, they will copy it or bite the best part and claim it for their own.

Now there are established ways to copyright your work. These ways are pretty basic and they depend on a certain amount of good faith on your part – when I was coming up the method was either to send songs to the Library of Congress (which I never did), or you could mail your songs to yourself, leaving the envelope unopened when it arrived. If you did this, the idea was that the postmark on the sealed envelope would be your proof of when you wrote the brilliant song, and you could use it in court to establish your authorship.

Well, the dirty secret about copyright law is that legal cases are expensive and people usually settle them based on how expensive they’re going to be rather than who is right, who wrote the song, or who has the sealed, postmarked envelope. Proving you’re right is often just too expensive.

And even if you have all the proof in the world, there’s just no preventing someone from biting your song if they really want to. The only way to guarantee the safety of your copyright is to hide it in your room and never show it to anyone.

So what’s the solution?

If you’re scared to share your idea because it’s too amazing, try this: Always bet that you will have another great idea. That’s what I do. I have come to realize that my job is not to store and protect my existing ideas; my job is to come up with new ones. The reason people come to me is not for my current idea but for the next one I’m going to think of.

And at some point, you just have to take the risk. You have to get in the pool, join the conversation, spend your ideas. Don’t save them. Everybody gets ripped off at one point or another, it’s part of paying your dues. Show people your songs, your recordings, your techniques. The only way to 100% protect your ideas is to never share them with anyone.

I run into musicians who tell me that they’re making an album but they’re not putting their best song on it. “Why in the world would you do that?” I ask. They tell me they’re saving the great song for when they have massive corporate backing so that the great song has a better chance of being a hit.

That’s pretty gutsy, betting that your second best song will launch you to a place where you can use your best one. I always just prefer to use up my best idea today. If I have a writing session with someone, and I have a great new idea, I always show it to them and ask if they want to work on it. It’s a way of betting that I’ll have another better idea tomorrow or next year.

When you make the bet that you will always have another great idea, it gets a lot easier to risk the current one, get it out into the world, put it into circulation.
And when you put that current idea into circulation, it multiplies.
Your idea will get better when other people handle it and give it back to you.
And your community will start to think of you as somebody with great ideas, and they’ll start to ask you for more ideas.
Ideas are like the opposite of money, the more you spend them, the more they increase.

Some final thoughts.
One of the best ways to get in the pool and join the conversation is this:
Go straight to the audience.
Are you half-ready to play live? Then get out and play live.
Don’t wait until you’re completely ready, because you’ll never be completely ready.

Are you micro-refining your sound for a market niche and looking for a corporate partner?
Forget that stuff!
Get your gear down to the bar, or the coffeeshop, or the open mic night, or your church, and play for live souls in a real space.
They will refine your work in the most ruthless and efficient way.

Are you waiting to show your demo recording to a management company?
Stop waiting!
Get out and play a gig! Take whatever crappy gig you can get.
I promise they’ll get better if you stick with it.
Playing for an audience will improve your music a hundred times more than sitting in your studio and asking yourself for your own opinion.

One time-tested way of going straight to the audience is this: make them dance. Don’t laugh: a lot of the greatest composers throughout history have worked extremely hard to make people dance.
Think of Mozart’s minuets, Strauss’s Waltzes, Ellington and Count Basie and Glenn Miller’s swing, The Clash, Prince, Michael Jackson, The Beastie Boys, Kanye West, nearly everything on pop radio today.
Almost every style of music can be traced back to a traditional dance music.

Finally, the question that’s foremost in a lot of your minds: how can I make a living doing the stuff I learned how to do at McNally Smith College of Music?

Making a living in music is not easy, that’s pretty obvious, but we musicians have advantages.
We’re cheap dates.
Musicians are accustomed to living on ramen noodles and sleeping on couches if necessary.
We have a sense of mission: we know what we want to do with ourselves and so we’re willing to sacrifice to make it happen.
We find meaning and joy in our work, so it doesn’t necessarily have to pay us like kings and queens to make us happy.

But since food must be bought and rent must be paid, here are five small but good tricks for making a living in music.

1. No cocaine. No heroin. Cocaine and heroin will eat your lunch money, then your rent money, then it will eat your dream too.

2. Learn how to say, “How can I help?” and mean it. Fill in for bands missing a member and do it for free or for cheap. Mix shows for nothing or for a meal. You’ll get really good. Become indispensable and people will hire you.

3. Find a flexible day job.
I know that’s not quite making a living in music, but a flexible day job that pays okay is way better for a musician than a time- and energy-draining day job that pays more.
You can phase out the flexible day job when you don’t need it anymore.
My personal opinion is that the day job is better if it uses different muscles that the dream uses.
So, for example if you dream of being a recording artist, I’d say don’t produce jingles for an ad agency.
Those music muscles will be so tired by the time you get home that rocking out will be the last thing you want to do.

4. Marry someone who believes in your music enough to share your dream for the long haul.
The minute your girlfriend or boyfriend wants to have a talk about a realistic timetable for either succeeding in music or getting a real job, you are in trouble. There’s somebody out there who will believe in your dream and set no time limits on your pursuit of it.

5: Whatever people tell you about the economy, don’t let them freak you out.
Now is a great time to be a creative person, especially one who is just starting out.
We’re in an economic downturn, and downturns are the time to be in research and development, creating new ideas that will change the future.
So work on your music and your techniques and your community now, and by the time the economy is back on its feet you’ll be ready to participate in the upturn with the great stuff you’ve created during the downturn.
And the best part about this is that during the hard times, you’ll have made a lot of people more happy, more inspired, and more hopeful with your music.

Thanks for your time, good luck in all you choose to do and again: congratulations, graduates.

Thursday, February 26, 2009
This Land is Your Land

I just watched a clip from the presidential inauguration in which Pete Seeger leads that huge crowd of people in a call-and-response version of Woodie Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land." It filled me with such joy to see his eyes gleaming as he intoned the less-familiar verses, the ones about private property, the relief office, people standing hungry, the people "wondering if this land's still made for you and me."

Seeger unearthed the forgotten verses, the ones which not only celebrate our country's beauty and its democratic ideals, but which challenge our country to do better.

One thing that really gratified me about that moment of the inauguration was that a song could once again have such a powerful presence at a public ceremony. Yes, it was fun hearing Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" at Bill Clinton's victory celebration, but I have to admit I found it a bit vapid. I found myself wishing for a song which could hold up its end of the bargain.

I remember reading an interview with Neil Young about a year ago. He said, "I think that the time when music could change the world is past. I think it would be very naive to think that in this day and age."

I'm not sure that "This Land is Your Land" did it quickly, but I am damn sure that it has slowly and inexorably changed the world we live in, and for the better. And if will.i.am's "Yes We Can" didn't help to bring change to our country, then maybe Neil Young is right. But I think it did. Even now, I think other songs are being written and have been written which will change the world yet again, and for the better.

If there's a new "This Land is Your Land" out there, well, I hate to say it, but that song may have to wait sixty or seventy years to be played at a Presidential inauguration. That's fine; it's a mighty big honor for a song and, anyway, a song that great will have the patience to wait.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Star Wars, Muppets, Weddings

At the wedding I went to on Saturday, the processional (isn't that what they call the music played while the bridal party exits?) was, with perhaps some irony but much more glory and happiness, the "Star Wars" theme. The couple are in their late 20's I think. It really was a great way to send them off, I have to admit. If I'd had a hat, I would have thrown it in the air with excitement.

Lewis Hyde, author of "The Gift", (more about that lovely book later,) pointed out in an essay called "Frames from the Framers" that we are all flooded and soaked in a language of imagery and words which are owned by the entertainment and media industry. These phrases and pictures and ideas have now been woven into our consciousness and identity, but they are illegal for us to use for our own purposes. They're copyrighted and the companies that control them are very aggressive in protecting them. I'm not sure but my guess is that the church I was at on Saturday owes the writers of the "Star Wars" theme a royalty for the use of the song.

I guess that's why copyrights expire - a song or book or image belongs to the author at first, but after years pass and it has entered into myth, or in the case of "Star Wars" - religion - it becomes everyone's. (Yes, I like Wilco's "What Light.")

The night before the wedding, I was playing the piano in the living room of the big rental house where my extended family was staying, all 25 of us representing ages from 1 to 82. I was practicing my wedding reception number "You're Still the One," (which is the greatest 10th anniversary song ever written and that's good because the couple were actually celebrating the 10th anniversary of their somewhat private first wedding, this time with family included.)

After I'd run through the Shania Twain song a few times (despite my practicing, I still forgot a few words at the ceremony but that's another story,) I was kind of noodling around on the keys and ended up playing "Rainbow Connection" (from the Muppet Movie, yes, but written by Kenny Ascher and Paul Williams: "We've Only Just Begun," "Just An Old Fashioned Love Song," etc.). By the time I was into the second verse, all of the generation Y-ers in the house had gathered around the piano and were singing along, through the (great, short) bridge and thence to the unbelievably moving last verse (only slightly less unbelievably moving than the faith-defining, -destroying, -and-then-reconstructing second verse) all the way to the end.

I enjoyed the fact that some of them sang in their regular singing voices, but maybe half of them sang in partial or full Kermit the Frog voices.

Now, it isn't news that "Rainbow Connection" is one of the best songs of the past 40 years. But when the night ended and I opened up my computer to say good night to my e-mail, I noticed a window open to an article about Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and I decided to read it. I turned to the second page of the interview, where he was asked who his influences as a singer are. The first singer he names: Kermit the Frog. I think in all seriousness. Or at least as much seriousness as "Star Wars" at a wedding.

"Star Wars" and Kermit are getting more and more substantial as time goes on.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Long Now; the Short Now

The clock is ticking, ticking, ticking on our farewell to 2008. I thought it was a wonderful year. I hope 2009 isn't too bad in comparison (all the advance hype leaves my usual optimism with so little wiggle-room!)

In San Francisco recently, I went down to the headquarters of the Long Now Foundation.

I was excited to see their cool brass-and-stainless-steel clocks and planetary orreries, and the turning of another new year seemed like a good time to visit. Unfortunately, the museum/bookstore/headquarters was closed for the holidays. Since the Long Now Foundation is an organization dedicated to shifting our frames of reference from short-term and local horizons to longer and broader ones, I guess I shouldn't sweat the fact that I'll have to wait until later to visit the Long Now Foundation. I will come back sometime in the next thousand years or so, to contemplate the difficulties and complexities of the long-term protection and preservation of human knowledge and culture.

I've been reading about this organization with much fascination, especially since I've recently learned that it got its catchy name from Brian Eno, who seems to be a board member or some such thing. Another notable involved in the group is the wonderful author Neal Stephenson, whose recent novel "Anathem" was inspired by the Long Now Foundation's "Clock of the Long Now" project.

It's very interesting to think about how music fits in with a super-long frame of reference... I guess my favorite Bach two-part inventions are almost three hundred years old. But most of the music I love is a tenth as old as that, and I have to admit, when I think about who I'm writing for, it's not people three hundred years from now, never mind people ten thousand years from now. If I'm making music for people alive now, then my music is for the Short Now. Time can tell how the Long Now will deal with it.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

My voice on "Your Voices" at Minneapolis Star Tribune

I'm going to be occasionally blogging on the Minneapolis Star and Tribune's "Your Voices" page. It's not going to be much different than this blog so I thought I'd post a link to those pieces when I put them up.

Star Tribune's Your Voices Page

Christmas approaching fast and everything seems under control. Illusion? If so, a lovely one.

Peace and Joy to you all!

December 18, 2008

Set list for Pantages show

Here's the set from the Pantages, for those who asked. Read my reaction to the show on the previous blog.

DW

Solo set 

Hand on My Heart
Turtledove
Across the Great Divide
California
One True Love
Honey Please
Brad Gordon joins
Singing in My Sleep
All Will Be Well

---break---

Band Set 

Breathless
Easy Silence
Against History
Willie the King
Baby Doll
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight 
Secret Smile
She Can't Help Me Now
Free Life
band off
All Kinds

Encore

Everything Green - everyone
Eric & Steve off
John & Brad on pno, then Brad trumpet
Made to Last

Monday, December 15, 2008

Pantages Theater, Minneapolis, 12/13/08

What a night. My favorite show so far. Ever. It felt like the first truly rocking DW solo gig. I did the first set alone & then with Brad Gordon on piano for the last two songs. Then John Munson, Eric Fawcett and Steve Roehm joined in for the second half. The group moved like a school of fish through the dynamics - turning together and not knowing why, just going with it. Brad's clarinet on "Baby Doll" was pure joy. The "Secret Smile" jam still makes me smile.

I snuck in some Bob Dylan in the middle of "Hand on My Heart" and then later in the set sang Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" with the full band in nasty, groovy, greasy stomp mode and it was hilarious. I had never been able to cover a Dylan song but after I spoke at the "Blood on the Tracks" event in November, I got inspired to try again. And this song seems like I can get inside it pretty well.

Did you hear the travelogue in the first four songs? "Hand on My Heart," "Turtledove," "Across the Great Divide," "California." I felt the room was with me all the way. Thank you.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Up to Me, Tangled Up in Blue, Isis

'... The only decent thing I did when I worked as a postal clerk Was to haul your picture down off the wall from the cage where I used to work...' -Up to Me, Bob Dylan I'm still buzzing from the 'Blood on the Tracks' book party/performance I took part in last month. Kevin Odegard, one of the Minneapolis session musicians who played on about half of the Dylan album, wrote a book called 'A Simple Twist of Fate' which details Dylan's fits-and-starts-filled process of making the record.

It's a really fast, fun read, and it's full of unexpected insights into the creative process in general. Recounted as though for the history books, 'A Simple Twist of Fate' is an account of the last stage of the process of making 'Blood on the Tracks', when Dylan came to Minneapolis to re-record many of the songs with a group of young and little-known session players. The album was already finished, the artwork finalized and the musician credits printed up, but the vinyl was not yet pressed, and Dylan, in a last-minute change, swapped in the Minneapolis versions of the songs into the final pressing. The new musicians were never credited for their amazing performances, always referred to in the press as 'a group of Twin Cities unknowns,' or some variation of that. I think this phrase actually became part of the mythology of the album, and that probably removed Dylan's and Columbia's incentive to credit the musicians more clearly.

So Kevin and the most of the rest of the group that played on 'Tangled Up in Blue,' 'Idiot Wind,' 'If You See Her, Say Hello,' and other songs, got up onstage and played those and other songs. Which was beautiful to hear.

What I hadn't expected is for the album to have taken hold of me so powerfully since then. I am neck-deep in the mystery of Dylan and I love it. Not only 'Blood on the Tracks,' but also 'Desire.' If you want to hear what I would dream of being able to do as a songwriter, listen to 'Isis' a couple of times. It'll be worth it just to hear a master yarn-spinner at work.

Griffin House was in Minneapolis last week working on some new songs with me and during a break we listened to 'Isis' together, first the version on 'Desire' and then the live version from 'Biograph,' which is from a Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Is it funny? Sad? Epic? The ground shifts beneath your feet. All I know is I laughed a lot.

Monday, November 24, 2008
Oz & Obama

Just got back from Australia, a short and sweet tour. For a lot of the trip I wore the Obama shirt my brother Matt gave me, a limited edition gift he made for friends and family a few weeks before the election. The shirt shows a victorious Muhammad Ali exulting over his defeated foe (Joe Frazier?) at the end of a boxing match, with the simple title "Obama" over the image. Matt said he saw this photo in the background of a picture of Barack Obama's office in Chicago. To me it's the expression of not only victory but of the toughness and single-mindedness that it took for Obama to win the election.

While I was in Australia, many people asked me about the shirt, both on the street and at the shows. It gave me a chance to talk with Aussies about our election, which I was hoping it would. Even so, I was pretty blown away by how emotional they were about it. During my shows I mentioned Obama's election and how relieved and happy I was about it, and how even some of my Republican-voting friends are kinda excited about it. I also told the people there that I was aware that our country has lately been like a dark cloud on their northeastern horizon, but that the weather hopefully is changing. People cheered wildly.

After my shows, the Aussie fans really wanted to talk more about this, and many of them got tears in their eyes while trying to express to me how much this change meant to them.

Here's me performing on the TV show "Rockwiz" with Matt's home-made Obama shirt.

Sunday, November 23, 2008
Boys

On the flight home from Sydney, I had the leftmost seat in a four-seat row with an irritable Aussie Mom and her two boys aged 11 and 7. They were all blond with very short haircuts. The older one sat down next to me looking pale and peaked and made gagging noises. He turned to me and said in a very cute Australian accent, "I got a piece of lolly THIS BIG stuck in my throat and I'm choking on it." I told him I hoped it came out. He then gagged until he threw up on his brother and his blanket. His mother yelled at him in a harsh Australian accent.

The 11-year-old told me that they were all going to fly to America where they would see their Dad. "My Dad is going to take us to the place where he makes special dune buggies with a Jamaican dude!" he said. "I bet you wish you could have done something that cool when you were my age! Do you ever wish you could turn back time and live your childhood again?"

"Not really," I said."Only a few small things I'd do over."

"When you were naughty," he said, nodding in agreement.

A little while later, after I had told the 11-year-old to stop violently elbowing me during the process of deeply scratching his ass within his pants, he went circling in his seat with his blanket wrapped around him to find a comfortable position to roll up and rest. Literally going in circles like a puppy on a big floor pillow. The vomit spot on the blanket passed me several times, rubbing against our shared armrest each time.

I fell asleep to the sound of the tykes listening to "The Dark Knight" on their in-flight headphones at earsplitting volumes, the two soundtracks slightly offset in time.

A sensation of cool wetness along my right leg woke me up.

"What are you pouring on me?!?" I loudly asked them. Luckily it was a large glass of water which the older boy had spilled, and not orange juice or Sprite. The mom asked the older boy (who somehow was now two seats from me) if he had lost the use of his mind. She then flung her airline blanket across the older one onto the soaked lap of the younger boy, who began wiping off his share of the water. None of them spoke to me as I stood up to find paper towels to somewhat dry my pants.

I fell asleep to the disconcerting flurry of the two boys surreptitiously provoking each other.

I woke up in a drowse to find that my carry-on bag had migrated to a position directly under my feet. I hooked my foot under the bag to shove it back into its place deep beneath the seat in front of me. But it was stuck and didn't move. So I gave it a second, stronger heave, and it gave me a defensive slap. My eyes opened to reveal that my foot was grappling not my bag but the older boy, who had taken up a supine position to sleep under the seats. His little brother's bare feet were resting on his chest, footrest style. I guess that's where my large shod feet had been in relation to his head before I woke up.

The next time I opened my eyes it was to discover the older boy next to me making a tower of drink cups with his full and opened can of lemonade at the top. "I don't want that lemonade on my pants," I said, "So please stop playing with it."

"I'm not playing with it," he objected.

"It looks like you're playing with it. Put it on your tray right now."

"Sorry." (Cute Aussie accent.)

I could go on. The breakfast meal came and both boys ate their scrambled eggs and mashed potatoes with their hands. The excess was wiped on the blankets, but only when their hands were excessively covered with wet food. Their mother said, "I suppose you're going to eat with your hands in the restaurants in America!" They said no, they wouldn't.

Twelve hours into the flight the older boy said, "We've been flying for so long, I feel like I'm in a dream of being on an airplane."

Sunday, November 9, 2008
National Wildlife Federation Clip

The National Wildlife Federation has created a short film about Alaska set to the song "Free Life" which I found to be simple, beautiful, thought-provoking. I was proud that they thought my music could help them get people involved in protecting our environment from harm. I'm not prepared to have a debate with the "climate change debunkers" out there; all I know is that I hope a lot of talented and energetic people will be drawn into the environmentalist movement in the coming years. Look at the pictures in the clip and ask yourself, do I want these beautiful animals and settings to exist only in video clips for future generations to look at? They will be so mad at us if we let that happen!

Friday, October 31, 2008
The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Less than a week before the election, and the world seems to be moving in slow motion. I have been anxious and jumpy about the outcome - will my candidate win but then have the victory stolen? Will my candidate lose and confirm my worst fears about my country? It all seems so crucial and our country seems to balance on the edge of a knife.

Yet the other day I read a newspaper article featuring several small interviews with voters supporting my candidate's opponent. And they were expressing the same fears, the same anxious conviction that the "wrong" decision would lead to disaster, to a country that they no longer understand.

National affairs of recent years have been so discouraging, so vengeful, so muddled, so seemingly guaranteed to emphasize our divisions and differences, and I am no less susceptible to this effect than anyone else. But I have to admit that when I read about the fears of those who oppose my candidate, I felt a pang of sorrow and brotherhood. In that sharp moment I felt a unity with and compassion for them that I rarely allow myself to feel.

I am trying to remember that presidential terms are short, the history of our country longer, and our hope for humankind's future is longer still. As MLK said, "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." The waiting of the next few days is nothing compared to this arc whose slow bending we await and try to hasten, each in our own way.

Peace and Love

Friday, October 10, 2008
Anathem" by Neal Stephenson

Okay, every several years I get sucked into a new Neal Stephenson book and it's happening again: "Anathem," the latest, is chewing up and digesting great chunks of my time and I am very happy about it.

This is all the better because the past several weeks have found me in airports, planes and train stations, with just the right kind of time for escapism. This book is so beautiful; it's like an extended discussion between really smart but also funny and entertaining philosophers, scientists and mechanics, punctuated by occasional bursts of action and violence. It starts out like "The Name of The Rose" but ends up more like "Foundation and Empire." Okay, I'm not going to try to explain any further, just to say I love it.

And, just to warn you, "Anathem" is putting you all in grave danger of me going on another Douglas R. Hofstadter blogging bender, because I can't help but thinking that Stephenson has been reading "Godel, Escher, Bach."

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Went out to see Gabe Dixon at the Varsity the other night - they invited me onstage to sing "All Will Be Well" with them and I was reminded how proud I am of that song. Every once in awhile I write or co-write something that I can listen to with utter unself-consciousness: no self-criticism, no would-a, no should-a; in the case of this song, when I hear it I even forget that I wrote it with Gabe. Everyone likes to get out of themselves, and I'm no exception.

Sunday, August 31, 2008
Me and "Against History" back in love

John Munson and Steve Roehm and I were rehearsing this morning for my set at the ProVention concert on Tuesday. I had figured out the six songs I was going to do, there are lots of performers so we all have to keep it short. Anyway, when I told John and Steve the songs I planned on singing, John said, "You aren't going to play 'Against History'?"

"Your best song," interjected Steve (I'm not sure if he was serious or not, a common experience with Steve.)

I said, I think it's a good song that makes a great point. John liked that comment but he said, "It really would be a perfect song for the ProVention."

Which suddenly struck me as completely and obviously true. So I started playing it in a way very different from the version on "Free Life" and the three of us ran it down a few times. I think I'm in love with the song again. "It's you and me against history; it doesn't have to be the way it's always been. You and me against history; we'll never let it be that way again."

People can never be perfect, we are by nature flawed; but songs can express perfection and righteousness and immortal love, and be the things that we only dream of.

Saturday, July 05, 2008
Connectivity 1 - Douglas Hoftsadter

The past month has been a flurry of connection for me - both musically and otherwise. Once again it seems linked to Douglas Hofstadter, whose "I am a Strange Loop" I devoured in June.

Before I read the book, I had been wondering about immortality. I had been speculating that our minds might be spaces where many internal personalities can reside and interact (a democracy of inner voices?). And I had been thinking that maybe our minds are actually perfectly suited to having several (many?) different personalities in action within them at all times. After all, why should one personality necessarily take all of one's brain to operate? The leftover space might be enough for lots of smaller, mini-personalities to work.

So maybe our loved ones' personalities can slowly become implanted in our own minds, after years of love and what might be called programming. I feel like I can ask my long-passed Grandma Wilson her opinion about things and she will occasionally answer from within my mind. I think she's still there to some degree, separate and yet part of me, and once in a while I can initiate that program which she implanted in me so long ago with her voice, her love, her actions, her attitudes.

I have friends who seem to be able to channel other singers' voices in a way that seems as though the other singers have taken up residence in portions of their minds - I once heard Cory Chisel sing the same story idea in the voice, rhythm and lyric style of 3 or 4 different eras of Bob Dylan!

So I was thinking that in that kind of practical way, we might live on past our own deaths in a very real way - speaking to our loved ones, or perhaps singing to them, from within their minds. Maybe we won't be able to share the consciousness of our personality within their minds, but maybe our personality within their minds is conscious and alive in some way that we just can't quite describe yet.

And so our connections with those we know and love might be active whether or not they are with us, conversing internally, even as we sleep.

Imagine my joy then to find "I am a Strange Loop" in a bookstore and discover that it is about just this stuff. Hofstadter isn't quite on the same crazy train that I am, but his is close. That's a little reassuring.

More on connectivity later.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
London

I took a plane to London the week before last. Rode from the airport to my hotel past the place where, in 2001, MCA/Universal erected a billboard with a giant three-dimensional "All About Chemistry" beaker couple. I still can't believe they did that. I wonder if the Universal staff who okayed it are proud or horrified now. I'm sure it wasn't cheap. I loved it then and still do.

I spent that first day as a tourist, just trying to get some sun and stay awake. Took a bus from my hotel in Shepherd's Bush to Notting Hill, then got out and walked to Trafalgar Square. I ran into some tourists who asked me where Nelson's Column was and I helpfully pointed them to another column, built of dreary concrete-looking blocks, with a somewhat recent and perhaps less-than-heroic king atop it. I slowly concluded that this was not Nelson. I continued around the Institute for Contemporary Arts (knowing that what I wanted was old art, not new), and passed beneath the Admiralty Arch. Whoops! There's Nelson's Column - gleaming in the sun, Nelson high above with great thick cable ropes coiled around his feet. The sight was so inspiring, it almost made me want to join the navy.

Britain's National Gallery my goal. Amazing as usual. Turner's "Fighting Temeraire," Van Eyck's Arnolfinis. Holbein's "Ambassadors," I'm in for all the greatest hits. Closed the place down. All we stragglers, craning our necks into closed rooms, got hustled out by guards accustomed to "one-last-peekers".

The interior stairwell to the front door is a work of art in itself. The guards all gather at the top of the stairs, sheepdogs having herded us down to the threshold. Then as a parting gift, the front door of the gallery reveals Nelson again, symmetrically framed across Trafalgar Square by two columns of the museum's front collonade. I laughed out loud.

Then I walked back through Hyde Park to Notting Hill again, where I caught the bus to Shepherd's Bush.

I'll tell you about the next three days, which were wonderful but very different, soon.

Friday, April 25, 2008
Sitting

Sitting on my own, all by myself... I spent the morning waiting for the phone company to come repair the line. This particular repair "window" was between 8am and 6pm. Isn't that evil? Strange is the way that I can never do anything useful or constructive while waiting for a repairman. I co-conspire in the killing of the time. Why does waiting for a repairman negate the day this way? I could have written a song during this time. But I was waiting for a repairman.

Luckily, waiting for a repairman does allow for the other time- negating activities of life, including answering e-mail, making medical and dental appointments for the kids, calling other utilities and staying on hold for 30 minutes, and perusing the websites of the world.

Particularly exciting is one called "Strange Maps." You really should look at it if you have any nerd characteristics at all.

Luckily he's now come and gone and my life is my own again.
Unluckily, he couldn't find a problem and there is still no phone service.

This weekend I am going to write songs with James Morrison. Wish me luck. He is a wonderful singer. I heard his song "The Pieces Don't Fit" on K-Rock in Los Angeles and had to pull over to the side of the road. It was like an oasis of mournful beauty on the radio. I am looking forward to meeting him.

My stint opening for Kathleen Edwards ended in sheer glory at Mercy Lounge in Nashville. Kathleen and her band were extremely hospitable and kind to me throughout the tour (remind me to open for Canadian artists more often.) So the last night was a little bittersweet. But making up for that were: great audience, who quieted themselves down to my level very kindly at the top of the set; my parents in the crowd, visiting from Little Rock and glowing with pride (who wouldn't love that?); Ruby Amanfu, whose singing with me on "Sugar" brought tears to many eyes in the room; and Kathleen inviting me to sing "Secret Smile" with her during her encore. She played mournful, beautiful violin and traded verses with me, and made me want to re- record the song with her.

The night was particularly sweet as I usually associate Nashville with ultra-talkative crowds crammed with well-meaning but jaded music executives. Instead, there was a general sense of hush and attention that makes a performer want to do better.

Friday, April 11, 2008
Maude Maggart

On Wednesday in New York I went to the Oak Room to see Maude Maggart sing. He show was a collection of mostly very old songs about dreams and rainbows, show tunes mostly, with a few sixties songs by Judy Collins and Joan Baez, as well as Jim Henson's "Rainbow Connection," thrown in. What a wonderful night! It was like a personal reminder of the reasons I love songs, both listening to them and writing them. I might be biased, because many of the tunes are songs that I play for myself on the piano, just for fun: "Isn't It Romantic," and "Over the Rainbow," for example. So to hear these very familiar numbers rendered in luminous tones by such a master interpreter… it was transporting. I wept several times during the last 10 minutes of the gig.

One of the best things about the show was Maude's willingness to expound on the songs she was about to play, or had just played. So her choices of songs felt like they told a larger story over the course of the night. I should also confess that she's very pretty and gestures angelically with her arms and hands as she sings. (There was a two-piece backup band, piano and cello, and they kicked ass as well.)

Now, strangely wonderful was the additional fact that right next to us at a table was Cornel West, famed Princeton professor, author, and sometime rapper. After the gig as we fans were standing around getting autographs, I chatted briefly with Professor West about Maude and her charms. I love the thought that he was digging the same old tunes that I was.

"Rainbow Connection" was a lovely surprise during the gig, as I have been listening rather obsessively to Sarah McLachlan's version of the song for several weeks, and scheming about creating a way for me to sing it at shows too. Just how much earnestness can people take? Well, I sang "Annie's Song" by John Denver at the Hotel Café gig in Chicago a few weeks ago and the people whooped. So I guess quite a bit. If I did it as well as Maude Maggart I think no one would complain.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Easter Blog in Prog

Minneapolis, being once more covered in snow, overcast and gloomy, is challenging my effort at an Easterish awakening of hope. I know, I know, this holiday is about more than just a sunny day, but I for one have the cabin fever blues.

What a month. With the Hotel Cafe Tour and my opening gig for Kathleen Edwards both coming up, and feeling like I would have little time to write while on the road, I organized a ridiculously frenetic stretch of writing. I might have overdone it. Wrote songs with (in no particular order) Emily Robison & Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks both), Cory Chisel, Kara DioGuardi & John Fields, Will Anderson of Sparky's Flaw, John Hermanson (go Storyhill!), Carrie Rodriguez, Mitch Allan, Nerina Pallot, Michael Tolcher, plus worked on an unfinished song I started with Aimee Mann (still unfinished.) If I'm forgetting anyone, it's because my brain is now completely emptied of thoughts and ideas. Oh, and I mixed both the Jeremy Messersmith and New Standards albums I've been producing.

Whew. Glad to be heading out on the road (my stretch of the Hotel Cafe Tour begins on Thursday in Pittsburgh), where a form of pacing is at least enforced by daily shows.

Thank you to various e-mailers and commenters regarding "Escher, Godel, Bach." I'm going to take Jodi's advice, among others, and try to get through the Watson "DNA" book; it seems a likely starting point.

Listened to Yes this morning, "Tales from Topographic Oceans." Thrilling! What did they think they were doing? Who told them it was okay to write so many 9 minute songs? My fave is still "Close to the Edge," but "Tales" is outlandish and occasionally heartbreakingly beautiful. Mainly, though, I find the band's willingness to go way over the top very exciting. And track one, "The Revealing Science of God," might have given me the dose of Easter joy that I was lacking.

"Spoon" has a video for their song "The Underdog," which is another excercise in over-the-topness, (although in the usual dry-as-a-bone Spoon manner), and which I recommend that everyone watch on Youtube. I might like it partly because it reminds me of the video for Semisonic's "Closing Time", but I assure you, that's not the only reason.

Finally, I have been listening at least once a day to "Broken Afternoon," by The Helio Sequence - every day for three weeks, sometimes several times. It's the first Dylan-influenced music I've heard in a long time that I've loved as much as new Dylan. I can't figure out why this song holds such mystery for me. But it's a nice feeling.

Saturday, February 23, 2008
Hoot

I am reading a book called "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid." Anyone who has read it and understands it, I ask you to point me to some other books that might help me to also understand it better. It's blowing my mind, to put it simply. One of the most amazing sections of the book outlines the structure of DNA and the basics of how cells work. I'm sure someone tried to teach me this stuff when I was a kid, but I expect I wasn't listening! I'd really like to learn more about this.

Last night my friend Jim Walsh asked me to come and play at his Hootenanny at Java Jack's in South Minneapolis. If you haven't been there, the Hoot is a weekly (sorta) round-robin of singers who share the stage and take turns singing songs, and also play and sing along with each other's songs. It's a fun way to try out new songs and also to play whatever you want to. I've done the Hoot a few times, it's always a blast, Jim is a unique master of ceremonies, he doesn't hesitate to yell loudly at his fellow performers if he feels the need to correct their actions or adjust their agenda. I managed to dodge that bullet last night but a few of the other singers got some serious whipcracking from Jim a few times.

Two of the other singers on the stage were Craig Wright and Peter Lawton, otherwise known in these parts as The Tropicals. Craig and Peter haven't performed together in Minneapolis for years, I think, so it was sweet to hear their amazing songs and sing along. I have listened to their songs so many times, I was able to join in on guitar to almost everything they played. What a gas.


Saturday, January 26, 2008
Water

My daughter Coco and I try to go swimming every week. I wish we lived near an ocean, but this is Minneapolis, so the pool will have to do. We don't have much of an agenda: splash around, try to stay in the water as long as she doesn't get cold, have fun. The pool we go to is often nearly empty when we're there, and if we find ourselves alone in the water, then we do a lot of yelling and whooping. The ceilings are extremely high, all that tile and glass make for a very reverberant space. Coco wears hearing aids most of the time, but not in the pool; I've always wondered what our echoing whoops sound like to her.

I'm not sure why this would be, but I have the impression that she is a lot smarter for a day or so after swimming. This effect is way more pronounced when we have the chance to swim in the ocean - it is as if the jostling and pushing-around of the waves stimulates Coco's mind through her muscles. I wonder if I'm smarter after swimming, too, but because it's my own brain, I don't notice it.

Does anyone have anything to tell me about this?


Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Happy New Year

I'd say the man in the picture is happy to be singing for you all. Guthrie Theater 12/7/07. Photo Steven Cohen.

Okay, let's get it out of the way - "Free Life" is out! So this New Year's blog entry doesn't have to include any references to "hopefully somehow this year," etc, etc. The CD's out, and I am overjoyed about it.

Now onto 2008. I'm hoping this year's calendar will have a lot of shows on it, so I can get out and play for you all. Lots of shows will also mean chances to unveil some new songs, a scary and exciting prospect. January looks like a good time to do some writing all alone, for the first time in a while.

In February I think the statute of limitations runs out on me casually mentioning my Grammy Award from the stage. Somehow I think I'll figure out other things to talk about.

2008 is a year of round numbers for me - here are some musical ones:

20 years ago this year, Trip Shakespeare released "Are You Shakespearienced?" This was the first LP I'd played on and my first release with Trip.

15 years ago this year, Semisonic played our first show at the 400 Bar as Pleasure - "If I Run," "FNT," "Falling" and several other songs from the Great Divide album already on the setlist.

10 years ago this year, Semisonic released "Feeling Strangely Fine." "Closing Time" came out in February and a lot of things started to happen very fast.

5 years ago this year I was offerred a record deal with American Recordings/Lost Highway, which led (very slowly) to "Free Life" coming out.

What will 2008 bring? Joy? Hope? Something reasonably hard to work on? Maybe even a few things to talk about in 20 years.

Peace and Love DW


Sunday, December 9, 2007
Peace

Last night at the Fitzgerald I kicked off my own Christmas season for the year. I sang a few songs, holiday and otherwise, with the New Standards and a huge cast of guests. The holiday songs and more specifically the Christmas carols we sang last night filled me with joy and hope, as they always do. Those carols are like the greatest hits of western music: only the very very hookiest and best and most beautiful have passed the test of time, and when I sing them, I often thing of the many, many generations of people who sang them before me.

All of these songs share the same message of peace and joy. On a very long, dark, winter night, all of the people got a glimpse of a great light, which filled them with hope. Peace, heavenly peace, is the refrain.

Last night was also the anniversary of John Lennon's death. Peace was so often the refrain of his songs, and although they may not become Christmas carols, a lot of them are getting passed from generation to generation. I like to think that they will be sung for a long time to come.

Now I have to tell you that I am afraid for the prospects of peace this winter. Our government has stumblingly begun its drumbeat for another war. The signs are the same as they were the last time around: the talk of nuclear holocaust, the marshalling of arguments (false ones and true ones) for preemption, the constant mentions of the new enemy: Iran. Last time around, when they started building up the public's anger towards Iraq, it was a mistake, and not only that, it was timed in the most cynical way as a centerpiece for an election campaign. It's happening again. The election approaches and the administration is obligingly cooking up another setting for shock and awe. Those of you who felt obliged to vote for the war in Iraq to support the troops are going to be held to a similar standard again.

I would like to ask you to think about peace instead of war this time around. At least don't let a needless hurry be your deciding factor. Are there any other options short of launching missiles and bombs? Please think hard about alternatives before you cast your vote for another war.

Peace and Love


Saturday, December 1, 2007
Whew

Whoa, that was a trip... The Sondre Lerche tour is over and I am beat. But it was really good. Sondre was what I can only describe as a wonderful and gracious host. And I loved getting to know his music better. What a talent.

It's funny, after all the travelling I've done over the years, and all the touring and performing, I've never even done a week of solo shows, with just me and my guitar, never mind a month of them. For all of you who came, I thank you for your indulgence - I told a lot of stories, I know, and maybe I could have shut up and sung one more song per night. But it seemed right to shoot the breeze a little more than usual. Meanwhile, I send out thanks and respect to those who sang along when the time came. I was actually amazed how willing you were. (And in tune, too.)

Last show, Maxwell's in Hoboken. The bar-iest of the gigs and most mixed in its outcome. I try not to get into it with hecklers - I tend to say things that are actually evil to them, rather than being able to cleverly one-up them. Kinda blows the mood. It's a little like the times I try to join in with masculine locker-room humor; when I interject my joke into the conversation, even the pirates in the room find it revolting.

But everyone survived the slights pretty well and I managed to have a very fun post-rock party with some very beloved friends from all over the country, who just happened to have converged in Hoboken. What a world.

Now there is a snowstorm in Minneapolis and everyone here is actually excited about it. No one will be going out lightly tonight.


Saturday, November 17, 2007
"The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting" by Jim Walsh

I've been on tour in various ways for most of October and November, the most performances I've done in a long time. The traveling is tiring but the shows are exhilarating. Most nights I've been asking folks to sing along to "All Kinds" at the end of the show, and sometimes the crowd raises up such a churchy harmony that this whole crazy life seems to come into focus.

Austin last night was no exception to the singing, but it was also the talkiest crowd yet - I think I've been spoiled lately.

One of the little untold perks of touring is that you get to read a lot. I've been on so many planes in the past 3 months that I've done about 2 years' worth of reading. The most recent: "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy, which scared the heck out of me but I still read it twice; "Bono", an interview biography with you-know-who; "Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid"; and the one I've been most deeply affected by, "The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting," by my friend Jim Walsh.

Anyone who paid attention to music in Minneapolis in the 80s and 90s is intimately aware of the rock four-piece The Replacements. I think awareness of the band is actually increasing these days. "I Will Dare," their most widely-known song, is a standard now, I think. And their brilliance, when they were brilliant, shines through on dozens of great tracks on their albums.

I loved their music. I loved listening to it, and I found it so inspiring that a band from Minneapolis could have won so many fans all around the world. But my impression during those years was that the band also made a maddening practice of making sure they didn't become too successful, of turning away from a larger audience whenever it threatened to embrace them. Jacob Slichter once called the group a "heat-avoiding missile." Drug and alcohol addiction and the chaos and confusion they bring were part of this pattern, but that wasn't all. The Replacements weren't a punk band but they made a great punk show of always biting the hand that fed them.

Jim Walsh's fantastic oral history of the Replacements makes that perverse quality intimately clear. In a way, it was already going to be a grueling read - after all, everyone knows that lead guitarist Bob Stinson died at age 35, a few years after being fired from the group. So I knew that was coming.

But also I guess it was kind of exhausting reading the words of so many friends, fans, and colleagues, all confirming my suspicion that the Replacements consciously avoided the success that we all wished for them. They made damned sure to remain our little secret.


Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Cold in LA

No, it's not cold in LA, I have a cold in LA. So much for the glamour of tinseltown. More like humidifier in your hotel room town.

Somehow the shows manage to be fun through this fog. I hope I get better soon.

Sondre Lerche has been very inspiring to watch and very nice to tour with. He and his sound engineer Atle are from Norway, they look like various Minnesota cousins of mine but their Norwegian accents are stronger.

I'll check in here when my head is clear.

D


Sunday, October 28, 2007
New York was great but the upright bass fell down.

Someone stood the rented upright bass against the wall. It was in its soft travel case, a big black pajama useful mostly for the prevention of dings and scratches. The bass didn't stay upright for long. The bass fell down. The neck of the bass broke. This happened at City Hall, where the act of bringing an upright bass up to the WNYC radio studio was perceived as a security threat of some kind. The security staff brought the bass over to the wall while its legitimacy could be checked. Everyone looked in other directions. Nobody saw it fall, but I'm sure they heard it.

The bass remained in its case, the broken neck flopping now loosely down. It had the cringe-inducing vulnerability of a broken bone still within skin. Nobody in our group knew how much it would cost to put a new neck on a bass but we all had our suspicion that it might be around the same amount as putting a nice new cedar deck on your house.

I guess I have to get writing. That broken bass neck ain't going to fix itself.

Joe's Pub, what a great venue. I think it went great, what a great feeling to leave the city on such a high.

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TABS

Against History

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Against History
Album: Free Life

Intro/verse chords:
A: (x07650)
G: (x05430)
D: (x04230)

Other chords:
Bm/A: (x04432)
Asus: (x07750)

INTRO
=====

    8 bars of melody, then 8 bars of strumming.
    
   e|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|--5---5---5---5-|--5---5---5---5-|--3---3---3---3-|--3---3---3---3-|
   G|6-------7-------|6-------7-------|4-------6-------|4-------6-------|
   D|----7-------7---|----7-------7---|----5-------5---|----5-------5---|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

   e|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|--3---3---3---3-|--3---3---3---3-|--5---5---5---5-|--5---5---5---5-|
   G|2-------4-------|2-------4-------|6-------7-------|6-------7-------|
   D|----4-------4---|----4-------4---|----7-------7---|----7-------7---|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
  
    | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |

    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Give in                 In to the blue sky               In to the...

    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /  Asus /   | A  /  Asus /   |
   ...gold eye               of what is possible

    | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Give in                  One in a million               You be the...

    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /  Asus /   | A  /  Asus /   |
   ...engine                 of what is possible


PRECHORUS
=========

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
             When tomorrow comes we'll be there after all

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             All the oracles are fading

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
             When our odysseys are hanging on the wall

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             And our yesterdays parading


CHORUS
======

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Bm /  Bm/A  /  |
 It's you          and me       against history

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
   It doesn't have to be the way it's always been

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Bm /  Bm/A  /  |
 It's you          and me       against history

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /  Asus /   | A  /  Asus /   |
We'll never let it be that way again   (w/intro lick)


VERSE 2
=======

    | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Sell off              all of your old lives             all of the...

    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /  Asus /   | A  /  Asus /   |
   ...cold lies               and get impossible

    | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Sell off               all of the no ones              we'll never...

    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /  Asus /   | A  /  Asus /   |
   ...be dones                and get impossible


PRECHORUS
=========

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
             When tomorrow comes we'll say it after all

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             All the monitors are ringing

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
             When the cold day dawns we'll be there on the lawn

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             Now another world's beginning


CHORUS
======

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Bm /  Bm/A  /  |
 It's you          and me       against history

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
   It doesn't have to be the way it's always been

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Bm /  Bm/A  /  |
 It's you          and me       against history

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
We're never gonna be the same as them


BRIDGE
======

    | Dm      /       /       /       | Dm      /       /       /       |
                                    And all   of   the   days  of  my...

    | Bb      /       /       /       | Bb      /       /       /       |
   ...life unwind                               like the towers of a...

    | F       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
   ...telephone line                                   alongside the...

    | C       /       /       /       | C      /       /       /       |
   ...interstate

    | Dm      /       /       /       | Dm      /       /       /       |
                                    And   either   direction   is...

    | Bb      /       /       /       | Bb      /       /       /       |
   ...far from home                 The  stars  make  a  line  leading...

    | F       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
   ...from the road               And   I    am    an    arrow    that...

    | C       /       /       /       | G      /       /       /       |
   ...knows           where          to go


GUITAR SOLO
===========

    Chords:
    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
    
    | A  /   /   /   |

    Solo (with slide):
   e|--------12------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|----------------|------------12--|-14-----5-------|-------------7--|
   G|-13-------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

   e|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|-9--------------|----------------|-----8---7------|----------------|
   G|--------4-------|------------6---|-7----------7---|-9--------------|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

   e|----------------|
   B|----------------|
   G|-2--------------|
   D|----------------|
   A|----------------|
   E|----------------|


CHORUS
======

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Bm /  Bm/A  /  |
 It's you          and me       against history

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
   It doesn't have to be the way it's always been

    | E  /   /   /   | E  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Bm /  Bm/A  /  |
 It's you          and me       against history

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
We're never gonna be the same as them


OUTRO
=====

    | A  /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
     (w/intro melody)
    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | A     Asus     | A     Asus     |

    | A              |

All Kinds

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: All Kinds
Album: Free Life

Capo at 1st fret; all chords relative to capo (song is in Ab).

G/B: (x20003)
C:   (X32013)


VERSE 1
=======

    | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
             You've    got                 the kind   of beautiful
    
    | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             Makes the boys   want   to give up running all around
    
    | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
             You       know                the kind of magic spell
    
    | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             Makes the wild, wild       horses lay down  on the ground


CHORUS
======

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful


VERSE 2
=======

    | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
             One       life                 is all we ever get

    | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
         And all we    ev-    er        give up for it  in return
    
    | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
             Is        all                 the ones   we might have been
    
    | Bm /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |
             Just one  kind   of        beautiful   each in our turn
        


INTERLUDE
=========

    | Eb /   /   /   | Bb /   /   /   |
      Innocence    and consequence
    
    | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
    I only hope we      never learn


CHORUS
======

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful



BRIDGE
======

    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
             Hey       now              every little thing you gave to me
    
    | F  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Made the time pass faster than my eyes could even see
    
    | D  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
             You       are                     true improbability
    
    | F  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
    You're the proof of when they say you never know what's gonna be


CHORUS (double)
======

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C    G/B C |
      All              kinds         of beautiful

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
      Run-             ning             all around       all around

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G/B C     C  D |
      All              kinds         of beautiful                     All

    | G  /   /   /   |
      kinds

Baby Doll

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Baby Doll
Album: Free Life

Capo at 3rd fret (song is in Cm).

E/G#:  (4x2400)
C/G:   (332010)
D/F#:  (2x023x)
Bdim7: (x23230)
E7:    (022130)


INTRO
=====

    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              Baby doll                         You've been lonely I've been...
              
    | E/G#    /       /       /       | E/G#    /       /       /       |
           ...out of town                       Playing the unintended...

    | C/G     /       /       /       | C/G     /       /       /       |
           ...circus clown                  Looking for someone just like...

    | D/F#    /       /       /       | D/F#    /       /       /       |
      ...you          girl

    | F       /       /       /       | F       /       E7      /       |
         But now the stars are going out and old familiar halls are...

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
   ...falling off the grid

    | Bdim7   /       /       /       | Bdim7   /       /       /       |
          I wanna get back on your list     and resurrect the things we...
 
    | E       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
       ...did

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              Baby doll                         I've been circling the...
              
    | E/G#    /       /       /       | E/G#    /       /       /       |
           ...whole world 'round                Trying to find the ones who...

    | C/G     /       /       /       | C/G     /       /       /       |
           ...stole my sound                 So I could bring it back to...

    | D/F#    /       /       /       | D/F#    /       /       /       |
  ...you              girl

    | F       /       /       /       | F       /       E7      /       |
      You'll be sashed in satin I'll be purring like  a kitty cat and

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
      You won't sit in silence like you do

    | Bdim7   /       /       /       | Bdim7   /       /       /       |
         Then you can tell me I'm the only one                     You'll...
 
    | E       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
  ...make love to me too


CHORUS
======

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to love           no one else,    to love

    | G       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              no one else     to love           no one else

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to love           no one else,    to love

    | G       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
                                   No I only want to love my baby doll

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |


VERSE 2
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              Baby doll                         I've been melting candles...
              
    | E/G#    /       /       /       | E/G#    /       /       /       |
           ...into wings                     so I can fly up high and...

    | C/G     /       /       /       | C/G     /       /       /       |
           ...buy you things                    diamond rings and pretty...

    | D/F#    /       /       /       | D/F#    /       /       /       |
   ...hors-   es      too

    | F       /       /       /       | F       /       E7      /       |
              It's much less than you deserve but if I don't I'm guessing
    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
      I won't get the chance to make amends

    | Bdim7   /       /       /       | Bdim7   /       /       /       |
      While I'm paying you'll in the ladies making contact with your...
 
    | E       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
   ...friends                Then you'll disappear again


CHORUS
======

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to lose           no one else,    to lose

    | G       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              no one else     to lose           no one else

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to lose           no one else,    to lose

    | G       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
                                   No I only want to lose my baby doll

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
                                                     When I saw you...


BRIDGE
======

    | Gm      /       /       /       | Gm      /       /       /       |
   ...laugh-          ing                    You would shine like the...

    | F       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
   ...sun                                       And reflected in...

    | D7      /       /       /       | D7      /       /       /       |
   ...your lies                                                 I would...

    | E7      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
   ...shine like no one


CHORUS
======

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to love           no one else,    to love

    | G       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              no one else     to love           no one else

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to love           no one else,    to love

    | G       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
                                   No I only want to love my baby...

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...doll                                      no one else,    to lose

    | G       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
              no one else     to lose           no one else

    | F       /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
  and I       don't   want    to lose           no one else,    to lose

    | G       /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
                                   No I only want to love my baby doll

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
                           my baby doll                      my baby doll
                           
    | Am      /       /       /       | Am                              |

Breathless

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Breathless
Album: Free Life

Capo at 2nd fret; all chords relative to capo (song is in F# minor).

NC = no chord


VERSE 1
=======

    |              (NC)               |
     I'm hunting shadows in the...
    
    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...dark                                  In steaming jungles of the...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...world                                 Either to kill or to be...
 
    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...killed                                By creatures never named or...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...heard                                 I'm lifting wishes to the...

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...stars                                 The gleaming satellites of...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...time                                  Orbiting circles over-...

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...head                                  To futures when your love is...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...mine                                  But you were always pretty...


CHORUS
======

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...reckless with your love                Come with the sun and getting...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...restless when it's gone                And when you go you leave me...
 
    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...breathless and alone                   You leave me breathless when you...

    | Em      /       /       /       | B7      /       /       /       |
   ...close the door it feels just like you took the air out of the room with...

    | C       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
   ...you                                   Your voice is echoing...


VERSE 2
=======

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...again                                 Through catacombs inside my...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...mind                                  And I've been dreaming of...
 
    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...revenge                               To make you love me more than...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...even you can try                       All words converge to where you...

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...are                                       If I follow I will...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...surely find                            The horse is gone the fire's still...

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...warm   You've moved on an hour before, You like to keep me just one...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...step behind                            But you were always pretty...


CHORUS
======

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...reckless with your love                Come with the sun and getting...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...restless when it's gone                And when you go you leave me...
 
    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...breathless and alone                   You leave me breathless when you...

    | Em      /       /       /       | B7      /       /       /       |
   ...close the door it feels just like you took the air out of the room with...

    | C       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
   ...you                                                         Breath-...


INTERLUDE
=========

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
   ...less                 Breath-      less                 Breath-...
    
    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | B7 /   /   /   |
   ...less                 Breath-      less
  

GUITAR SOLO
===========

    Solo is over 8 bars of verse chords. Frets relative to nut, not capo.

   e|-14------------------------------|---14-16-17---16---14h16p14------|
   B|---------------------------------|-----------------------------17--|
   G|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   B|-14---------------14h15p14h15p14-|---------------------------------|
   G|---------------------------------|-16------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   
    (Played twice)
    

CHORUS
======

     (Yeah you were always pretty...)

    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...reckless with your love                Come with the sun and getting...

    | G       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
   ...restless when it's gone                And when you go you leave me...
 
    | Em      /       /       /       | C       /       /       /       |
   ...breathless and alone                   You leave me breathless when you...

    | Em      /       /       /       | B7      /       /       /       |
   ...close the door it feels just like you took the air out of the room with...

    | C       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
   ...you

    | Em      /       /       /       | B7      /       /       /       |
     Restless when it's gone

    | C       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
     Breathless and alone                   You leave me breathless when you...

    | Em      /       /       /       | B7      /       /       /       |
   ...close the door it feels just like you took the air out of the room with...


    | C       /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
   ...you                                       Breath-...


OUTRO
=====

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
   ...less                 Breath-      less                 Breath-...
    
    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em             |
   ...less                 Breath-      less

Come Home Angel

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Come Home Angel
Album: Free Life

Capo at 3rd fret; all chords relative to capo (song is in Bb).

D9:  (x00230)
C/B: (x2x010)


INTRO
=====

    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
      Oh               love         the moment that we live now
    
    | Am /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
 Will stay with me forever and ever and ever
    
    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
      Too              good      you're too perfect for this world
    
    | Am /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
    A visitor        a wanderer from somewhere better


PRECHORUS
=========

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
        When they're calling all the angels to a great departure place
                                                         1       3  +
    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C       C  F   |
        Leave us earthly creatures to our fates
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
       I'll be riding cross the desert    trying to find you on your way
                                                                 3  +
    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C       C  C/B |
        Change your mind before they close the gates             And it's...
    
    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   |
   ...too late                 Come home...


CHORUS
======
                                                         1  +     3   +
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   G/B C |
   ...angel                                                       Angel don't...
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   G/B C |
   ...go                                                          Come home...
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am /  Am/B /   |
   ...angel                                                    Angel don't...


INTERLUDE
=========

    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
   ...go


VERSE 2
=======

    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
      Some             nights         I lie up and watch you sleep
    
    | Am /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
  And wonder what places and planets you dream on
    
    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
      Some             day         I'll come to an empty house     They'll...
    
    | Am /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
   ...call you back              your silent celestial beacon


PRECHORUS
=========

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
        When they're calling all the angels to a great departure place

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C  /    C  D   |
        Leave us earthly creatures to our fates
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
        I'll be riding cross the desert   trying to find you on your way

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C  /    C  C/B |
         Change your mind before they close the gates            And it's...
    
    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   |
   ...too late                 Come home...


CHORUS
======

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   C  D  |
   ...angel                                                       Angel don't...
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   C  D  |
   ...go                                                          Come home...
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am /  Am/B  /  |
   ...angel                                                    Angel don't...
  
    | E  /   E7  /   |
   ...go


BRIDGE
======

    | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
They're imaginary people         in a dream of seas and mountains  and the

    | Am /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
    Cities and the towns will all be gone    when     they    wake     up


GUITAR SOLO
===========

    Solo is over first half of prechorus chords. Frets relative to nut, 
    not capo.
    
   e|--------------|-------------|-------------------|------------------|
   B|------3-4-3-4b|6--------4-3-|-4-3---------------|------------------|
   G|--------------|-------------|-----3--3h5-3------|--------------3-5b|
   D|--------------|-------------|--------------5-3--|-5-3--------------|
   A|--------------|-------------|-------------------|-----6------------|
   E|--------------|-------------|-------------------|------------------|


   e|--------------|-------------|------------|--------------------|-----
   B|--------------|-------------|------------|--------------------|-----
   G|7--------b7r5-|--------b7r5-|------------|--------------------|-----
   D|--------------|-3-----------|-1--------0-|-1-0----0-1-0-------|-----
   A|--------------|-------------|------------|----------------3-1-|-1---
   E|--------------|-------------|------------|--------------------|-----


PRECHORUS
=========

    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
         I'll be riding cross the desert  trying to find you on your way

    | Em /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | C  /   C  C/B |
      Change your mind before they close the gates             Before it's...
    
    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   |
   ...too late                Come home...
  
  
 CHORUS
 ======
  
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   C  D  |
   ...angel                   Before it's    before it's too...
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   C  D  |
   ...late                                                      Angel don't...
    
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am G/B   C  D  |
   ...go                                                         Come home...
  
    | G  /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   |Am/C /   /   /  |Am/B /   /   /  |
   ...angel                                                      Angel don't...


OUTRO
=====

    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
   ...go

    | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | E              |

Cry

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Cry
Album: Free Life


INTRO
=====

    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
      One more long and lonely night    left here on my own

    | G       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Do you wanna make me wanna cry?

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
      Lost my baby in the fight       I don't know where you've gone

    | G       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Do you wanna make me wanna cry?


CHORUS
======

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high?

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail I'll never die?

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna set me free we'll override the history

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Turn to find our destiny and never turn away


INTERLUDE
=========

    Chords:
    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   |

    Guitar melody:    
   e|----------------|--/10-8-10-10b12|8h10--8---------|---/8-10-8-10-8-|
   B|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   G|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|


VERSE 2
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
  The devil was an angel once           beautiful like you

    | G       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Do you wanna make me wanna cry?

    | Am      /       /       /       | Am      /       /       /       |
      I don't care how far you fall I'll catch you when you do

    | G       /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Do you wanna make me wanna cry?


PRECHORUS
=========

    | C  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   |
So I close       my eyes       try to hold my head up high             

    | Am /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | Dm /   /   /   |
And I pray       my soul      not to break


CHORUS
======

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high?

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail I'll never die?

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna set me free we'll override the history

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Turn to find our destiny and never turn away

    | Em      /       /       /       | Dm      /       /       /       |
      Do you really wanna say goodbye?

    | Em      /       Dm      /       |
      Do you wanna make me wanna cry?


GUITAR SOLO
===========

   Solo is over 12 bars of verse chords.
   
   bh = bend and hold 

   e|-0-----0------0------0-----0-----|0-------0-0----0-------0-------0-|
   B|/10-------10--10-------10--10/12-|12bh13----13---13br12--10---10---|
   G|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|

   e|-0--------0----0-------0-------0-|-0----0-----0----0-----0------0--|
   B|-10bh12---12---12br10--8----8----|/10-----10--10-----10--10--10----|
   G|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|

   e|-0----0------0-----0-----0-----0-|0-------0----0-0-------0---0---0-|
   B|-10------10--10------10--10/12---|12bh13----13---13br12--10---10---|
   G|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|

   e|-0-----0-------0-------0------0--|-0----0-----0----0----0---0---0--|
   B|-10h12---12----12------10-----8--|/10-----10--10-------/5---5---5--|
   G|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|

   e|-0---0---0---0-----0------0------|-0------0------0-----0-----0-----|
   B|-5---5---5---5----\3------3------|-3-----\1------1-----0-----0-----|
   G|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|

   e|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|-----
   B|---------------------------------|-0h1p0--0h2p0--0h1p0--0h2p0-0-1-3|-5---
   G|-0h2p0--0h2p0-0h2p0-0h2p0-0h2----|---------------------------------|-----
   D|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|-----
   A|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|-----
   E|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|-----


CHORUS
======

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high?

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail no matter why?

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna set me free we'll override the history

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Turn to find our destiny and never turn away from me

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high?

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail I'll never die?

    | C       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
      Don't you wanna set me free we'll override the history

    | Am      /       /       /       | F       /       /       /       |
      Turn to find our destiny and never turn away

    | Em      /       /       /       | Dm      /       /       /       |
      Do you really wanna say goodbye?

    | Em      /       Dm      /       |
      Do you wanna make me wanna cry?


OUTRO
===== 

    Guitar ad lib a la guitar solo.

    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   |
                                                       Do you wanna make wanna...
                                                       
    | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   |
   ...cry?

    | F  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | F              |

Easy Silence

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Easy Silence
Written by: Emily Robison, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines, Dan Wilson
Album: Free Life

Capo at 2nd fret (song is in B).

F#m: (244200)


INTRO
=====

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
    
    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |


VERSE 1
=======

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
      When the call and conversations   accidents and accusations

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
      Messages and misperceptions       paralyze my mind
  
    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
    Busses, cars, and airplanes leaving burning fumes of gasoline

    | C#m     /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
  And everyone is running         and I come to find a refuge in the...


CHORUS
======

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
   ...Eas-        y   silence that you make for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
It's okay  when there's nothing more to say to me

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
And the peace-   ful quiet     you create for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
And the way you keep the world       at bay        from me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
    The way you keep the world       at bay


INTERLUDE
=========

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |


VERSE 2
=======

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
  The monkeys on the barricades     are warning us to back away

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
They form commission trying to find the next one they can crucify
  
    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
  And anger plays on every station      answers only make more questions

    | C#m     /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
      I need something to believe in    breathe in sanctuary in the...
  
 
CHORUS
======

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
   ...Eas-        y   silence that you make for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
It's okay  when there's nothing more to say to me

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
And the peace-   ful quiet     you create for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
And the way you keep the world       at bay        from me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
    The way you keep the world       at bay


INTERLUDE
=========

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |


VERSE 3
=======

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
    Children lose their youth to soon   watching war made us immune
    
    | C#m     /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
  And I've got all the world to lose but I just want to hold on to the...
  

CHORUS
======

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
   ...Eas-        y   silence that you make for me

    | C#m     /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |
It's okay  when there's nothing more to say to me

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
And the peace-   ful quiet     you create for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
And the way you keep the world       at bay        from me

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
  The eas-        y   silence that you make for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
It's okay  when there's nothing more to say to me

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
And the peace-   ful quiet     you create for me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
And the way you keep the world       at bay        from me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A       /       |
  The way you keep the world         at bay        from me

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       /       /       |
  The way you keep the world         at bay


OUTRO
=====

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | F#m     /       /       /       |

    | D       /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |

    | E       /       /       /       | D       /       A               |

Free Life

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Free Life
Album: Free Life

Drop D tuning; capo at 2nd fret. All chords relative to capo (actual song is in
E).

Em:   (2x2000)
G:    (5x0003)
A:    (x03330)
D9:   (000230)
D/F#: (4x02x0)

Intro/end of chorus lick (fingers 2 and 3 hold D9 during bars 3 and 4, frets
are relative to capo):

   e|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   B|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   G|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   D|-----2-----0---2---0-2---2-0---|-----2-----0---2---0-2---2-0-------|
   A|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   E|-2-----------------------------|-2---------------------------------|

   e|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   B|----(3)------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   G|----(2)------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   D|-----2-----0---2---0-2---2-0---|-----2-----0---2---0-2---2-0-------|
   A|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------|
   E|-0-----------------------------|-0---------------------------------|
   

INTRO
=====

    | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |

    | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | Bm      /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               Let's take a little trip          down where we used to go

    | D       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               It's way beyond the strip         a place they call your soul

    | Bm      /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
               We'll sit down for a while        and let the evening roll

    | Em      /       /       /       | Em      /       /       /       |
      (w/intro lick)

    | Bm      /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               Don't worry about the time        we'll find a place to stay


    | D       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               The people 'round here seem       familiar in some way

    | Bm      /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
               Look kind of like we did          before we got so cold

    | Em      /       /       /       | Em      /       /       /       |
      (intro lick)                                      In the air the...


CHORUS
======

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Ques-  tions  hang, will we get to do    some-   thing who we gonna...

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
   ...end    up     being, how we gonna end    up     feeling, what you gonna...

    | Bm /   A   /   | G  /  D/F# /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...spend  your     free   life      on? (intro lick)           Free...
    
    | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
   ...life


VERSE 2
=======

    | Bm      /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               Let's fall in love again          with music as our guide

    | D       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               We'll raise our ready hands       and let go for the ride

    | Bm      /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
               Down into unknown lands           where lovers need and hide

    | Em      /       /       /       | Em      /       /       /       |
      (intro lick)

    | Bm      /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               We got these lives for free       don't know where they've been


    | D       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               Don't know where they'll go       when we are through with them

    | Bm      /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
               Starlight of the sun              dark side of the moon

    | Em      /       /       /       | Em      /       /       /       |
      (intro lick)                                      In the air the...


CHORUS
======

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Ques-  tions  hang, will we get to do    some-   thing who we gonna...

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
   ...end    up     being, how we gonna end    up     feeling, what you gonna...

    | Bm /   A   /   | G  /  D/F# /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...spend  your     free   life      on? (intro lick)           Free...
    
    | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...life                         Free life                      Free...

    | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   |
   ...life


VERSE 3
=======

    | Bm      /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               It seems so long ago              those empty afternoons

    | D       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
               With nowhere much to go           and nothing much to do

    | Bm      /       /       /       | A       /       /       /       |
               Just sit up in my room            and let the world unfold

    | Bm      /       /       /       |               NC                |
                                                        In the air the...


CHORUS
======

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Ques-  tions  hang, will we get to do    some-   thing who we gonna...

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
   ...end    up     being, how we gonna end    up     feeling, what you gonna...

    | Bm /   A   /   | G  /  D/F# /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...spend  your     free   life      on? (intro lick)  In the air the...
    
    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Ques-  tions  hang, will we get to do    some-   thing who we gonna...

    | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   | D  /   A   /   | G  /   /   /   |
   ...end    up     being, how we gonna end    up     feeling, what you gonna...

    | Bm /   A   /   | G  /  D/F# /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...spend  your     free   life      on? (intro lick)        Free...
    
    | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...life                         Free life                      Free...

    | D9 /   /   /   | D9 /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   |
   ...life                         Free life                      Free...
  
    | D              |
   ...life

Golden Girl

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Golden Girl
Album: Free Life

Capo at 5th fret (song is in Dm).

Dm6:   (10020x)
Bdim7: (x23230)


INTRO
=====

    | Am      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |


VERSE 1
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
  The golden girl                               golden fire

    | Am7     /       /       /       | Dm6     /       /       /       |
              golden eyes                       read my desire

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
 I've wand-    ered   through the       world        so long

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Looking for      the gold-          en girl

    | Am      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
        I watched her walk                   across the square   

    | Am7     /       /       /       | Dm6     /       /       /       |
         through the gate                    I lost her there

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Gonna see     my      gold-   en       girl        again

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Gonna see     my      gold-   en       girl

    | Am /   /   /   | E7 /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   | Am /   /   /   |
  Some day                          Some day


CHORUS
======
                                                                4  e
    | C       /       Bb      /       | F       /       F       F  G    |
            I've been waiting a long       time to find     you

    | C       /       Bb      /       | F       /       F       F  G    |
              Out the windows of all       my      dreams

    | C       /       Bb      /       | F       /       /       /       |
          And I've been hoping there's somebody    like    you

    | Bdim7   /       /       /       | A7      /       /       /       |
      In           the world        for me


VERSE 2
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
          I'll be the sun                       burning in space
    | Am7     /       /       /       | Dm6     /       /       /       |
              all to warn                       the golden face

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
 I've wand-   ered    through the       world        so long

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Looking for      the gold-          en girl


CHORUS
======

    | C       /       Bb      /       | F       /       F       F  G    |
            I've been waiting a long       time to find     you

    | C       /       Bb      /       | F       /       F       F  G    |
              Out the windows of all       my      dreams

    | C       /       Bb      /       | F       /       /       /       |
          And I've been hoping there's somebody    like    you

    | Bdim7   /       /       /       | A7      /       /       /       |
      In           the world        for me


VERSE 3
=======

    | Am      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
           I think of her                       all the time

    | Am7     /       /       /       | Dm6     /       /       /       |
        the rest is a blur     but the dream       that I'm...

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Gonna see     my      gold-   en       girl        again

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Gonna see     my      gold-   en       girl

    | F       /       /       /       | G       /       /       /       |
Gonna see     my      gold-   en       girl        again

    | Am      /       /       /       | E7      /       /       /       |
  Some   day                                                      Some...

    | Am                              |
      ...day

Hand On My Heart

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Hand On My Heart
Album: Free Life

C9: (x32033)

INTRO
=====

    | D  /   /   /   | C9 /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |

    | D  /   /   /   | C9 /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
            I heard a song                  come down from a ceiling

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
              Got a feeling    from a long long time before

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
            I hear a voice               sing, "Smile on your brother"

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
     While my mother and her mother     fight about the war


CHORUS
======

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I feel a hand on my heart

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Reaching over so many     years     to me

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I hear a voice in my head

    | G       /       A       /       | G       /       /       /       |
             inging, "Peace is more than a dream"


INTERLUDE
=========

    | D  /   /   /   | C9 /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Hoo...                            Hoo...


VERSE 2
=======

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
            I met a girl                   on a faraway island

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
              Just before she had to leave to catch a plane

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
           Ten thousand miles      from lakes that I played in

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
           But I was laughing like a little boy again


CHORUS
======

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I feel a hand on my heart

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Reaching over so many miles    to me

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I hear a voice in my head

    | G       /       A       /       | G       /       /       /       |
            Singing, "Love is more than a dream"


INTERLUDE
=========

    | D  /   /   /   | C9 /   /   /   | D  /   /   /   | G  /   /   /   |
      Hoo...                            Hoo...                      and I'm...


BRIDGE
======

    | Em /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
     ...fall-      ing      but I'm not   dreaming                  yes I'm...
      
    | Em /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   | Em /   /   /   | A  /   /   /   |
     ...fall-      ing      but I'm not   dreaming    again


GUITAR SOLO
===========

    Solo is over 8 bars of bridge chords. Frets are relative to nut, not capo.

                                                                --------|
                                                                ---10---|
                                                                --------|
                                                                --------|
                                                                --------|
                                                                --------|

   e|-----------10---|-8--------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|-8--------------|-----------10---|-8---6-8--10----|------------10--|
   G|----------------|----------------|--------------5/|7\5-------------|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

   e|-----------10---|-8--------------|----------------|-15-------------|
   B|-8--------------|------------8---|-11----13--15---|----------------|
   G|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|


VERSE 3
=======

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
              I woke up                   under blankets and breathing

    | D       /       /       /       | C9      /       /       /       |
              Someone told me I was     gonna be okay


CHORUS
======

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I feel a hand on my heart

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Reaching over so many years    to me

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I hear a voice in my head

    | G       /       A       /       | G       /       /       /       |
            Singing, "Life is more than a dream"

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I feel a hand on my heart

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Reaching over so many years    to me

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
              Oh      my                     I hear a voice in my head

    | G       /       A       /       | G       /       /       /       |
            Singing, "Life is more than a dream"

    | G       /       A       /       | D       /      Bm       /       |
            Singing, "Life is more"          Singing, "Life is more"

    | G       /       A       /       | D                               |
            Singing, "Life is more than a dream"

Honey Please

Song: Honey Please
Artist: Dan Wilson
Album: Free Life


INTRO
=====

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | Bbmaj7 /   /   | Bbmaj7 /   /   |
    
    | F    /    /    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb7  /    /    | F    /    /    |

    | F    /    /    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb7  /    /    | F    /    /    |


VERSE 1
=======

    | F    /    /    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb7  /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Don't tell  me  so                I                know

    | F    /    /    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb7  /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Don't try  to  fight              hold             tight 

    | F    /    /    | Bb   /    /    | Gb   /    /    | Db   /    /    |
      Don't be  a-  fraid               of   what  we  made

    | Csus7 /   /    | Csus7 /   /    | C7   /    /    | C7   /    /    |
      Love      is     al-       ways   right                 Oh...


PRECHORUS
=========

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...baby    baby    baby              put me  in  my  place       'Cause...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
...if you're gone then I don't wanna see another pretty face, Oh...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
...darling  darling  darling            try   to get   away

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | Bbmaj7 /   /   | Bbmaj7 /   /   |
   Or find a secret place where we can stay                     Honey...


CHORUS
======

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...please                 Honey   wait                     You're the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...only one  who  makes me  wanna  run  away               Honey...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...please                I'll  reveal                      All the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | Bbmaj7 /   /   | Bbmaj7 /   /   |
   ...love I'm trying so hard  to  conceal


INTERLUDE
=========

    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb   /    /    | Ab   /    /    | Ab   /    /    |

    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb   /    /    | Ab   /    /    | Ab   /    /    |


VERSE 2
=======

    | F    /    /    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb7  /    /    | F    /    /    |
      You're not alone                  you're           gone

    | F    /    /    | Bbm  /    /    | Eb7  /    /    | F    /    /    |
      When  I  get  free                we'll            be

    | F    /    /    | Bb   /    /    | Gb   /    /    | Db   /    /    |
      Driving  away                     before the day

    | Csus7 /   /    | Csus7 /   /    | C7   /    /    | C7   /    /    |
      Breaks    the heart          in me                      Oh...


PRECHORUS
=========

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...baby    baby    baby          I'm dying on my own

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   I wait for you to see me     I don't wanna live alone      Oh...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
...darling  darling  darling            meet me on the street

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | Bbmaj7 /   /   | Bbmaj7 /   /   |
      At the time and place where we agreed                     Honey...


CHORUS (double)
======

     | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...please                 Honey   wait                     You're the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...only one  who  makes me  wanna  run  away               Honey...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...please                I'll  reveal                      All the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | Bbmaj7 /   /   | Bbmaj7 /   /   |
   ...love I'm trying so hard  to  conceal

     | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...please                 Honey   wait                     You're the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...only one  who  makes me  wanna  run  away               Honey...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...please                I'll  reveal                      All the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm   /    /    |
   ...love I'm trying so hard    all the love I'm trying so hard   All the...

    | Gm7  /    /    | C    /    /    | Bbmaj7 /   /   | F              |
   ...love I'm trying so hard  to  conceal

She Can't Help Me Now

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: She Can't Help Me Now
Album: Free Life


INTRO
=====
                                        1  2  +          1  2  +
    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |


VERSE 1
=======

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
      I   al-  ways    counted on         my love          to carry me

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
      Al-   ways   depended on           her love     to cover me


PRECHORUS
=========

    | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
  And I     always    had someone  who let me play   the lucky one


CHORUS
======

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now


VERSE 1
=======

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
      She finds the rooftop door    and climbs out    to clear her head

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
      I've fallen     through the floor   my line        has gone dead  


PRECHORUS
=========

    | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
  And I     always    had someone  who let me play   the lucky one


CHORUS
======

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now     (hoo hoo)        (hoo hoo)

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now     (hoo hoo)        (hoo hoo)


BRIDGE
======

    Solo is over 8 bars of verse chords.

    (w/slide)
   e|----------------|-----------3----|-7--------------|----------------|
   B|-----------3----|-5--------------|----------------|----------------|
   G|/4--------------|----------------|----------------|-----------2----|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|

   e|----------------|-----------3----|-10-------------|----------------|
   B|------------3---|-5--------------|----------------|----------------|
   G| 4--------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   D|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   A|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   E|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|


VERSE 3
=======

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
      I   al-  ways    counted on         my love          to carry me


PRECHORUS
=========

    | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | F  /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   |
 But now     I can't turn the page     standing all alone    on the stage


CHORUS (double)
======

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now     (hoo hoo)        (hoo hoo)

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now     (hoo hoo)        (hoo hoo)

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now     (hoo hoo)        (hoo hoo)

    | Em /   /   /   | C  /   /   /   | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
         She   can't   help   me now     (hoo hoo)        (hoo hoo)

    | G  /  C    /   | G  /  C    /   |
       (hoo hoo) 

Sugar

Artist: Dan Wilson
Song: Sugar
Album: Free Life


Intro/interlude melody:

   e|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   G|----------------|----------------|-----0----------|----------------|
   D|-----0---2---0--|-0--------------|-------------2--|-0--------------|
   A|-3--------------|----------------|-3--------------|----3-----------|
   E|-3--------------|-3--------------|-1--------------|----3-----------|

   e|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   B|----------------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   G|-----0----------|----------------|----------------|----------------|
   D|-------------2--|-0--------------|-----0---2---0--|-0--------------|
   A|-3--------------|----3-----------|-3--------------|----------------|
   E|-1--------------|----3-----------|-3--------------|-3--------------|


INTRO (w/melody)
=====

    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    |

    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    |

    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    |

    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    |


VERSE 1
=======

    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | G    /    /    |
You got all       the sugar      you'll ev-           er need

    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm7  /    /    | C    /    /    |
      You're gonna  give some of your   sugar to me

    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | G    /    /    |
      You got all your demons           held          at bay

    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm7  /    /    | C    /    /    |
      You're gonna drive some of my     demons          away


CHORUS
======

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Sweet            sweet            sugar         to me

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when   your kisses       are free

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Red              red              light  in  the   wine

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when you're gonna         be mine


INTERLUDE (w/melody) 
=========

    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    |

    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    |

    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    |

    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    |


CHORUS
======

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Sweet            sweet            sugar         to me

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when   your kisses       are free

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Red              red              light  in  the   wine

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when you're gonna         be mine


VERSE 2
=======

    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | G    /    /    |
You got all      your glory         to find        some day

    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm7  /    /    | C    /    /    |
     Sit down with me      and let the time pass        away

    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | G    /    /    |
      When you're gone tomorrow        ver-         y   far

    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm7  /    /    | C    /    /    |
     You can        remember   me   here     where   we are


CHORUS
======

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Sweet            sweet            sugar         to me

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when   your kisses       are free

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Red              red              light  in  the   wine

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when you're gonna         be mine


INTERLUDE 2 (w/melody) 
===========

    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    |

    | F    /    /    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    |


BRIDGE (w/vocal ad lib)
======

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |


VERSE 3
=======

    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | G    /    /    |
You got all        the sugar     you'll ev-           er need

    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm7  /    /    | C    /    /    |
      You're gonna  give some of your   sugar to me

    | C    /    /    | C    /    /    | G    /    /    | G    /    /    |
      You got all your demons           held          at bay

    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    | Dm7  /    /    | C    /    /    |
      You're gonna drive some of my     demons          away


CHORUS (half)
======

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | C    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Sweet            sweet            sugar         to me

    | Am   /    /    | G    /    /    | F    /    /    | F    /    /    |
      Please  let  me  know when   your kisses       are free

LYRICS

All Kinds

You've got the kind of beautiful
Makes the boys want to give up running all around
You know the kind of magic spell
Makes the wild, wild horses lay down on the ground


Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful
Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful


One life is all we ever get
And all we ever give up for it in return
Is all of the ones we might have been
Just one kind of beautiful each in our turn


Innocence and consequence
I only hope we never learn


Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful
Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful


Hey now, every little thing you gave to me
Made the time pass faster than my eyes could even see
You are true improbability
You're the proof of when they say
You never know what's gonna be


Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful
Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful
Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful
Running all around all around
All kinds of beautiful
All kinds

guitar, piano, vocal: Dan
acoustic guitar, harmony vocal: Bleu
bass, percussion: Ken Chastain
drums, harmony vocal: Eric Fawcett
string machine: Craig Wright

Free Life

Let's take a little trip down where we used to go
It's way beyond the strip a place they call your soul
We'll sit down for a while and let the evening roll


Don't worry 'bout the time we'll find a place to stay
The people 'round here seem familiar in some way
Look kinda like we did before we got so cold


And in the air the questions hang
Will we get to do something
Who we gonna end up being
How we gonna end up feeling
What you gonna spend your free life on?
Free life

Let's fall in love again with music as our guide
We'll raise our ready hands and let go for the ride
Down into unknown lands where lovers needn't hide


We got these lives for free we don't know where they've been
We don't know where they'll go when we are through with them
The starlight of the sun the dark side of the moon


And in the air the questions hang
Will we get to do something
Who we gonna end up being
How we gonna end up feeling
What you gonna spend your free life on?
Free life
Free life
Free life


It seems so long ago those empty afternoons
With nowhere much to go and nothing much to do
But sit up in my room and let the world unfold


In the air the questions hang
Will we get to do something
Who we gonna end up being
How we gonna end up feeling
What you gonna spend your free life on?


In the air the questions hang
Will we get to do something
Who we gonna end up being
How we gonna end up feeling
What you gonna spend your free life on?
Free life
Free life
Free life
Free life

Breathless

I'm hunting shadows in the dark
In steaming jungles of the world
Either to kill or to be killed
By creatures never named or heard


I'm lifting wishes to the stars
Their gleaming satellites of time
Orbiting circles overhead
To futures when your love is mine


But you were always pretty reckless with your love
Come with the sun and getting restless when it's gone
And when you go you leave me breathless and alone
You leave me breathless when you close the door
It feels just like you took the air out of the room with you


Your voice is echoing again
Through catacombs inside my mind
And I've been dreaming of revenge
To make you love me more than even you can try


All words converge to where you are
And if I follow I will surely find
The horses gone the fire still warm
And you've moved on an hour before
You like to keep me just one step behind


You were always pretty reckless with your love
Come with the sun and getting restless when it's gone
And when you go you leave me breathless and alone
You leave me breathless when you close the door
It feels just like you took the air out of the room with you
Breathless
Breathless
Breathless
Breathless


Yeah you were always pretty reckless with your love
Come with the sun and getting restless when it's gone
And when you go you leave me breathless and alone
You leave me breathless when you close the door
It feels just like you took the air out of the room with you


Restless when it's gone
Breathless and alone
You leave me breathless when you close the door
It feels just like you took the air out of the room with you
Breathless
Breathless
Breathless
Breathless

Baby Doll

Baby doll you've been lonely I've been out of town
Playing the unintended circus clown
Looking for someone just like you girl
But now the stars are going out and old familiar halls
Are falling off the grid
I want to get back on your list and resurrect the things we did


Baby doll I've been circling the whole world round
Trying to find the ones who stole my sound
So I could bring it back to you girl
You'll be sashed in satin I'll be purring like a kitty cat
And you won't sit in silence like you do
Then you can tell me I'm the only one
You'll make love to me to


And I don't want to love no one else
to love no one else
to love no one else
And I don't want to love no one else to love
No I only want to love my baby doll


Baby doll I've been melting candles into wings
So I can fly up high and buy you things
Diamond rings and pretty horses, too
It's much less than you deserve but if I don't I'm guessing
I won't get the chance to make amends
While I'm paying, you'll be in the ladies' making contact with your friends
Then you'll disappear again


And I don't want to lose no one else
to lose no one else
to lose no one else
And I don't want to lose no one else to lose
No I only want to lose my baby doll


When I saw you laughing you would shine like the sun
And reflected in your light I would shine like no one


I don't want to love no one else
to love no one else
to love no one else
And I don't want to love no one else to love
No I only want to love my baby doll


No one else to lose no one else
to lose no one else
And I don't want to lose no one else to lose
No I only want to love my baby doll
My baby doll
My baby doll

Come Home Angel

Oh love, the moment that we live now
Will stay with me forever and ever and ever
Too good, you're too perfect for this world
A visitor a wanderer from somewhere better


When they're calling all the angels
To their great departure place
Leave us earthly creatures to our fates


I'll be riding cross the desert
Trying to find you on your way
Change your mind before they close the gates
And it's too late...


Come home angel
Angel don't go
Come home angel
Angel don't go


Some nights I lie up and watch you sleep
And wonder what places and planets you dream on
Some day I'll come to an empty house
They'll call you back
A silent celestial beacon


When they're calling all the angels
To their great departure place
Leave us earthly creatures to our fates


I'll be riding cross the desert
Trying to find you on your way
Change your mind before they close the gates
And it's too late...


Come home angel
Angel don't go
Come home angel
Angel don't go


They're imaginary people
In a dream of seas and mountains
And the cities and the towns will all be gone
When they wake up
Wake up


I'll be riding cross the desert
Trying to find you on your way
Change your mind before they close the gates
Before it's too late...


Come home angel
Before it's too late
Angel don't go
Come home angel
Angel don't go

Sugar

You've got all the sugar you'll ever need
You're gonna give some of your sugar to me
You've got all your demons held at bay
You're gonna drive some of my demons away


Sweet, sweet sugar to me
Please let me know when your kisses are free
Red, red light in the wine
Please let me know when you're gonna be mine


You've got all your glory to find someday
Set down with me and let the time pass away
When you're gone tomorrow very far
You can remember me here where we are


Sweet, sweet sugar to me
Please let me know when your kisses are free
Red, red light in the wine
Please let me know when you're gonna be mine


You've got all the sugar you'll ever need
You're gonna give some of your sugar to me
You've got all your demons held at bay
You're gonna drive some my demons away


Sweet, sweet sugar to me
Please let me know when your kisses are free

Cry

One more long and lonely night left here on my own
Do you wanna make me wanna cry
Lost my baby in the fight don't know where you've gone
Do you wanna make me wanna cry


So I lie alone and I wonder where you've gone
And I dream you're mine wide awake


Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high
Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail I'll never die
Don't you wanna set me free we'll overwrite the history
Turn to find our destiny and never turn away


The devil was an angel once beautiful like you
Do you wanna make me wanna cry
I don't care how far you fall I'll catch you when you do
Do you wanna make me wanna cry


So I close my eyes try to hold my head up high
And I pray my soul not to break


Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high
Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail I'll never die
Don't you wanna set me free we'll overwrite the history
Turn to find our destiny and never turn away


Do you really wanna say goodbye
Do you wanna make me wanna cry


Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high
Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail no matter why
Don't you wanna set me free we'll overwrite the history
Turn to find our destiny, never turn away from me


Don't you wanna make me feel like I'm a thousand stories high
Don't you wanna make me feel I'll never fail I'll never die
Don't you wanna set me free we'll overwrite the history
Turn to find our destiny and never turn away


Do you really wanna say goodbye
Do you wanna make me wanna cry


Do you wanna make me wanna cry

Golden Girl

The golden girl, golden fire, golden eyes read my desire
I've wandered through the world so long
Looking for the golden girl


I watched her walk across the square
Through the gate I lost her there
Gonna see my golden girl again
Gonna see my golden girl someday, someday


I've been waiting a long time to find you
Out the windows of all my dreams
I've been hoping there's somebody like you
In the world for me


I'll be the sun burning in space
All to warm a golden face someday


I've been waiting a long time to find you
Out the windows of all my dreams
I've been hoping there's somebody like you
In the world for me


I think of her all the time
The rest is a blur but the dream that I'm
Gonna see my golden girl again
Gonna see my golden girl
Gonna see my golden girl again
Someday, Someday

Against History

Give in, into the blue sky
Into the gold eye of what is possible
Give in one in a million
You be the engine of what is possible


When tomorrow comes we'll be there after all
All the oracles are fading
When our odysseys are hanging on the wall
And our yesterdays parading


It's you and me against history
It doesn't have to be the way it's always been
You and me against history
We'll never let it be that way again


Sell off all of your old lives
All of the cold lies and get impossible
Sell off all of the no ones
Will never be dones and get impossible


When tomorrow comes we'll sing it after all
All the monitors are ringing
When the cold day dawns we'll be there on the lawn
Now another world's beginning


It's you and me against history
It doesn't have to be the way it's always been
You and me against history
We're never gonna be the same as them


And all of the days of my life unwind
Like the towers of a telephone line
Alongside the interstate
And either direction is far from home
Stars make a line leading from the road
And I am an arrow that knows where to go


It's you and me against history
It doesn't have to be
It doesn't have to be the way it's always been
You and me against history
We're never never never never be the same as them

Get impossible

Honey Please

Don't tell me so I know
Dont try to fight hold tight
Don't be afraid of what we made love is always right


Oh baby baby baby
Put me in my place
Cos if you're gone then I don't wanna see
Another pretty face
Oh darlin darlin darlin
Try to get away
I'll find a secret place where we can stay


Honey please Honey wait
You're the only one who makes me wanna run away
Honey please I'll reveal
All the love I'm trying so hard to conceal


You're not alone you're gone
When I get free we'll be
Driving away before the day breaks the heart in me


Oh baby baby baby
I'm dying on my own
I wait for you to see me I don't want to live alone
Oh darlin darlin darlin
Meet me on the street
At the time and place where we agreed


Honey please Honey wait You're the only one who makes me wanna run away
Honey please I'll reveal
All the love I'm trying so hard to conceal


Honey please Honey wait
You're the only one who makes me wanna run away
Honey please I'll reveal
All the love I'm trying so hard
All my love I'm trying so hard
All the love I'm trying so hard to conceal

She Can't Help Me Now

I always counted on my love to carry me
Always depended on her love to cover me
And I always had someone who let me play the lucky one but


She can't help me now
She can't help me now


She finds the rooftop door and climbs out to clear her head
I've fallen through the floor and my line has gone dead
And I always had someone who let me play the lucky one but


She can't help me now
She can't help me now


I always counted on my love to carry me
But now I can't turn the page standing all alone on the stage


She can't help me now
She can't help me now


She can't help me now
She can't help me now

Hand On My Heart

I heard a song come down from a ceiling
And got a feeling from a long long time before
I hear a voice sing smile on your brother
My mother and her mother fight 'bout the war


Oh My I feel a hand on my heart
Reaching over so many years to me
Oh My I hear a voice in my head
Singing peace is more than a dream


I met a girl on a faraway island
Just before she had to leave to catch a plane
Ten thousand miles from lakes that I played in
But I was laughing like a little boy again


Oh My I feel a hand on my heart
Reaching over so many miles to me
Oh My I hear a voice in my head
Singing love is more than a dream


And I'm falling but I'm not dreaming
Yes I'm falling but I'm not dreaming again


I woke up under blankets and breathing
Someone told me I was gonna be okay


Oh My I feel a hand on my heart
Reaching over so many years to me
Oh My I hear a voice in my head
Singing life is more than a dream


Oh My I feel a hand on my heart
Reaching over so many years to me
Oh My I hear a voice in my head
Singing life is more than a dream
Singing life is more
Singing life is more
Singing life is more than a dream

Easy Silence

When the calls and conversations
Accidents and accusations
Messages and misperceptions
Paralyze my mind


Busses, cars, and airplanes leavin'
Burnin' fumes of gasoline and
Everyone is running and I
Come to find a refuge in the

Easy silence that you make for me
It's ok when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me
The way you keep the world at bay


Monkeys on the barricades
Are warning us to back away
They form commissions trying to find
The next one they can crucify


And anger plays on every station
Answers only make more questions
I need something to believe in
Breathing sanctuary in the


Easy silence that you make for me
It's ok when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me
The way you keep the world at bay


Children lose their youth too soon
Watching war made us immune
And I've got all the world to lose
But I just want to hold on to the


Easy silence that you make for me
It's ok when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me


The easy silence that you make for me
It's ok when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me
The way you keep the world at bay for me
The way you keep the world at bay

BIO

Dan Wilson is renowned in music circles for the elegance of his melodies, the intelligence of his lyrics and the purity of his voice. The onetime member of storied cult band Trip Shakespeare and the critically acclaimed Semisonic is now active as a solo artist, working with a collective of musicians from the Twin Cities and elsewhere. This new phase follows an intense period of songwriting collaborations—in the past few years Wilson has written songs with the Dixie Chicks, Mike Doughty, Rachael Yamagata, Jewel, Jason Mraz and others. Wilson’s recent cowriting work with the Dixie Chicks earned him a “Song of the Year” Grammy® in 2007 for “Not Ready To Make Nice” from the album Taking the Long Way. He co-wrote six songs on the album, which won the Dixie Chicks a total of 5 Grammy® Awards, including “Album Of The Year” and “Country Album Of The Year.”

Wilson's first full-length solo album, Free Life, is now out on American Recordings. The collection of songs began as a self-produced project in Minneapolis, and was finished in Los Angeles by Wilson and executive producer and label chief Rick Rubin.

Free Life features contributions from Sheryl Crow, who provides the harmony vocal on “Sugar”; Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek), who plays the finger picked acoustic guitar on “Free Life” and “Baby Doll;” and Gary Louris (the Jayhawks), who contributes a guitar solos on “Cry” and “Come Home Angel.” Eric Fawcett (N.E.R.D.) plays drums on many of the tracks, and Benmont Tench (Heartbreakers), provides piano on “Against History” and several others. “The best thing about my album, in my opinion, is the incredibly intimate feeling it evokes,” says Wilson. “These songs sound like they already existed, but at the same time, they project the feeling that they’re about somebody’s life.”

While he was writing the songs for what would become Free Life, Wilson was living in a house built in 1903, and the place served both as a subtle influence on the writing and a perfect setting for the recording. “I found a few books of sheet music from that era at antique stores and spent lots of time singing the songs at the piano: chords and melodies the house probably hadn’t heard for a hundred years,” he says. “‘Sugar’ and ‘Honey Please’ both seem to have that spirit, as though they were written by the house as much as by me. When the batch became big enough, I hatched a plan to borrow a recording studio and set it up in the living room and ballroom of the place.

“I’d learned a lot about digital recording over the couple of previous years, but I was determined to use very little of what I’d learned,” Wilson explains. “I had just finished reading the book Shakey, a biography of Neil Young, and his insistence on live recording, capturing the moment, starting with the vocal, avoiding overdubs…all these things inspired the hell out of me.” “For the sessions, I called about 10 musicians whose playing and personalities I love,” Wilson, recalls. “We ended up playing about 20 songs live, vocals were all cut live with the band, and most of the songs on the album stayed that way. I had met with the musicians separately over the weeks before the sessions—taught them the songs, ran through them one-on-one, but never brought the band together until the first day of recording. This made for a great vibe, because the songs were very familiar, but the musicians’ ideas were new to each other. And I think that led to a certain sound of the album—the songs are really about an experience of a bunch of people together in a room. I think that communicates on a more soulful level.”

After hearing what Wilson had done on his own, Rick Rubin enthusiastically agreed to help him complete the project, saying of Wilson, “Dan’s music touches my soul. He is/has the perfect combination of inspiration and songcraft. He is a timeless artist whose music will feel as good in 50 years as it does today.”

“When Rick and I started working together, eight of the songs were already recorded, and several of them needed only a little thing here or there,” Wilson recalls. “Some of his prescriptions were really subtle and helpful. On the other hand, several songs that had puzzled me—’Cry,’ ‘Free Life,’ ‘Come Home Angel’ and a few others—I either re-recorded with Rick or completely revamped with his help.”

When asked about his favorite songs on Free Life, Wilson immediately names “Sugar.” “Writing ‘Sugar’ was everything I love about songwriting—making something profound and emotionally affecting out of almost nothing,” he explains. “That song was the starting point, the song that told me I had to let go of all my assumptions and methods from my bands and do something completely unfamiliar.” Opening with mournful and wide-open chords from Wilson’s piano and guitarist Bleu’s rolling acoustic, the recorded version of the song slowly rises to a glorious bridge. The performance defines a loose, intuitively American sound that is somehow not Americana. It’s a far cry from the tightly structured pop rock that Wilson has been known for in the past.

The recording of the song “All Kinds” exemplified the change to an open and unpredictable recording process. “That track happened so fast, I didn’t know what hit me. One night, after a long day in the ballroom, I told the remaining three musicians that tomorrow first thing we’d record ‘All Kinds,’ and I sang them the song. Bleu, who’d played guitar that day, got a wild-eyed look and announced that we were going to record the song right now. It was late, but we ran back upstairs and put on our headphones. Ken Chastain, our percussionist, picked up a Fender bass. We did three takes of the song, everyone ran out to their cars and the day was done. I didn’t know that anything special had happened until the next morning when I listened back and discovered we’d nailed the perfect version. And we’d done it with the spontaneous, free methods I’d read about in Shakey.”

While Free Life is in some ways a departure from Wilson’s previous work, it also perpetuates certain of his tendencies—the elevated, chill-inducing melodies, the thoughtful yet straightforward lyrics, the striving for honesty of expression. “I’ve always loved songwriting that sounded like truth,” says Wilson, “like first-person confessions, like confidences whispered in your ear. Even if I’m willing to tinker with reality and my own history, I want the song to feel true.”
More than ever before, Wilson has achieved this goal on Free Life, which serves to culminate one stage of his career and initiate the next, as if he were living out the memorable payoff of his song “Closing Time” - “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” There’s no doubting the truth of that.

MEDIA

PHOTOS

VIDEOS

Inside "Free Life"

Dan Wilson (Live) - Performing "Not Ready To Make Nice"

Dan Wilson (Live) - Performing "Lullaby"

Dan Wilson (Live) - Performing "Easy Silence"