It's So Hard To Be Loved 

This was another song I co-wrote with Bradley Cole Smith. Like Pros and Cons, this tune started out as a 45 second instrumental clip meant for a Jimmy Carter Documentary. I took it, glued it onto itself several times, and wrote a song on it.

 

I tend to write first and ask questions later. If my words don’t make sense to me now, they usually mean a lot to me in a couple of years. So what does it mean that it’s “Hard to be loved?”

 

Carson McCullers wrote in The Ballad of the Sad Cafe that most of us would rather love than be loved. As someone who has loved much more than he has been loved (in a romantic way, I mean) I understand this sentiment at too deep a level. This song may have come from that place of longing.

 

It’s an attempt to suggest that maybe it’s not such a bad thing to receive love, even if it’s hard to do so. That puts a sweeter spin on my song than the McCullers book. It’s a very special unrequited love song.

 

https://youtu.be/vMGjfnMEmo4

I Feel Like Making A Mistake 

When I was the keyboardist in The Front Porch Session Players the bass player and I had this running gag. He’d say some nonsequitur and suggest it should be a song, and I’d write the song.

That’s how “Orlando Morning” got written. If it had a strange title, I was going to find a way to make it a song. And I always did.

One day our drummer came in and told us he hadn’t been able to sleep because he’d had fleas in his eyes. I thought that sounded like the best name for a song ever. Some kind of a Shawn Mullins thing…I could HEAR the melody.

So I wrote it. (And my drummer hated it.)

Little did I know, “Fleas In His Eyes,” like so many of my other automatic writing songs, would end up pointing a bony finger right at me, reminding me of shortcomings I didn’t want to face. I thought I was writing a song, but I was trying to get through to myself.

“I feel like making a mistake…” “I think I’ll sabotage myself.” “I think I’ll throw it all away.”

As I listened to the words of the demo recording, I heard myself admitting that I am very good at self-sabotage, that I romanticize it, that I see my failings as somehow noble.

But they’re not. In fact, they’re mostly avoidable. I just have to stop thinking of myself as Napoleon.

A hard song to listen to. But a really easy song to sing. And my wife, who doesn’t give me a lot of compliments on my songs, really liked the way I sounded on this one.

See what you think.

https://youtu.be/lU1zzluvf0I

The Tire Changes Me 

After hours at the dealership I was ready to be on the road. They had parked my car at the end of the lot in this odd space that had low concrete barriers on either side. A voice in my head said, “Be careful.”

 

I wasn’t.

 

I turned too soon and my car ran over the barrier. When I came down, I heard the sound of rapidly escaping air. I got out of my car, looked at the tire, and cursed the day.

 

That meant more time at the dealership, more money spent, more misery. What could I do? I headed back and sheepishly let the dealership know I needed more help.

On the way home, driving on my new tire, I tried to reframe the event.  It was good, I thought, because that was an old tire. No, that didn’t work.

 

It was good, I thought, because that tire could have burst anywhere and it happened where I could get help. Nope. Still depressed.

 

Wake up, I told myself.  Shit happens. You spend your life trying to be safe all the time, to make sure your troubles are as efficient as possible. Now something happened outside your control and you have an opportunity to laugh about it, wake up, realize you’re not dead, you’re fine. The busted tire is that gift to you.

And then this song occurred to me.

 

https://youtu.be/TObxigVA5Pc

Schoolhouse Rock Sung by The J. Geils Band 

 
YOUTUBE.COM
"Do the Math" performed by Adam Cole with the Willow Band live at Waller's Coffeeshop
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 

You Have To Decide Which One You Are 

As a songwriter who can write both words and music, I’ll admit I was possessive of my songwriting process. By the time I realized co-writing was better in every way, it was almost too late. I had to trick myself into collaboration.

My friend Bradley Cole Smith had written seven short instrumental fragments for a public television special about Jimmy Carter. They were well-recorded and well-produced. I asked him if I could try writing songs around them and he agreed.

With some clever Garage-band editing and copying, I was able to turn these 45-second snippets into 2-3 minute backing tracks. I put melodies and lyrics on them and ended up with six songs. Three of them were good enough that I wanted to perform them.

This is one of them, “Pros and Cons.” 

The lyrics hide a story inside of them. They use familiar aphorisms in unexpected ways. I had a chance to sing as a character who was fundamentally different from me.

What do you think? Do you like this guy? Have anything in common with him?

 

https://youtu.be/fIJWBoaXdhk