Released June 2006 on SMA Records
Musicians:
Rich Mattson: vocals, guitars, percussion; drums and bass on "You're Taking Over", "Lakes" and "Be A New Man", bass on "Wherever You've Been"
Greg McAloon: bass
Keely Lane: drums and percussion
Andy Schultz: guitar and backing vocals
Dale Kallman: bass on "Go On Now"
Glen Mattson: drums on "Wherever You've Been"
Jeff Waldeland: pedal steel guitar on "Go On Now"
Recorded & produced by Rich Mattson at Flowerpot Studio, Minneapolis MN and Sparta Sound, Sparta MN. Mastered by Jon Tranberry at OBT Studios. Cover photo by Aimee Rae Mattson.
All songs ©copyright 2006 by Rich Mattson, Esper Music (ASCAP)
Jean Jacket Weather
I don’t know whether or not you know me
Remember, we met a long time ago?
You were dating the last gambling mujician
You’d blow on his dice
Now the jumbotron’s on and it’s so good to see you
The band plays on, you can barely see ‘em
He’s playin’ his heart out for the blind man in the bleachers
The lights go down and it’s so good to see you
I’d love to live where it’s always August
Or late September, just before the snow
With a warm day now and then, just to go swimming
Other than that, jean jacket weather
(Takes me back to a place)
When the classes are back and it’s so good to see you
I’ll carry your books, if you want to, I’ll read them aloud
If it’s allowed
Don’t sass back to your teacher
We’re back to the day and it’s so good to see you
Do you want to know a secret?
I’ve had my eye on you ever since that day
But you or I we were always taken
So much for cheatin’ – we’re just not that way
Nut now we know about the world and its workings
Do you think it’d be okay…
To count the stars and huddle together
I’ll show you constellations that I still remember
C’mon, let’s take a walk – it’s perfect jean jacket
weather
I know it won’t last but I’m a good pretender
And if it’s cold, well you can hold me..
You Can Laugh
Oh my - Seems everybody’s going off the deep end
First I saw it in my new friends, now it’s taking on my near and
dear
I got a worried mind
Some kinda inter-planetary action
I don’t claim to be a mystical hippy
But there’s certainly something trippy to what’s goin’
down
Can’t you see – can you feel?
Do you know what I mean?
You can laugh, you can tease
But the fuse – it’s burning and it’s comin’ round
to getcha
And yeah I’m pretty glad that you’re aware
And yr not gonna run away scared
‘Cause that’s just what they want you to do
Want you to do
Want you to do
These are crazy times
And there’s no doubt about it
And crazy is good, and crazy is bad
I gotta make it the best time that I ever had
Take it in – and take it back to the mother ship
Hopefully to be regarded, don’t want this old soul to be discarded
Oh, nonono
Can’t you see – can you feel?
I can make you a deal:
Walk through glass on my knees just for love
And I know that I can do it with conviction
Can we live – find some peace?
Can we find what’s become of the passion?
Is it gone up in smoke
Like exhaust from a seven-mile freight train
Freight train
Freight train
Freight train
Freight train
I’m Not Worried
It’s been the winning formula ever since day one
No one but me knows how to get the job done
Even when there ain’t no work under the sun
I’ll be toiling away into the morning light
Just smokin’ my stuff, doin’ everything right
‘Til they find me curled up in a blanket laying down on the floor
But you know I’m not worried
If I can’t do it somebody will
You can always find someone else to fit the bill
Sometimes when the timing’s off I gotta flip a coin
I’ll go two out of three if I don’t like where it points
Sometimes the best solution’s just to make up your mind
There ain’t a whole lotta chances I feel I gotta take
There’s a fine line you cross when a fool gets in your way
When you finally decide that it just ain’t worth it
But you know I’m not worried
If I can’t do it somebody will
You can always find someone else to fit the bill
It’s been the winning formula ever since day one
No one but me knows how to get the job done
Even when there ain’t no work under the sun
Country Hilt
It’s a shame yr never there when I wake up
You’ve gone to read the paper down at Coffee Kup
And yr takin’ in the gossip around the local coven
When you could be right here, takin’ in some lovin’
I wouldn’t be daydreaming about that other woman
If you didn’t disregard so much of what I’m feeling
You want me even-keel, cool, calm, collected
But that ain’t me babe, yr gonna be subjected
To my loud voice and my simple ways
Look how much those idiots pay
For their Humvees and plasma tv’s
Come on baby, settle down with me
I wanna build a house around a fireplace
Drop out of the human race
Move out to the country, raise a bunch of chickens
Stay up late with my friends and do some pickin’
I wanna get out my pocketknife and whittle some wood
You don’t see how that’d do anybody good
It’s a shame yr never there when I wake up
I got so much to tell you but you heard enough
Of my loud voice and my simple ways
Look how much those idiots pay
For their Humvees and plasma tv’s
Come on baby, settle down with me
You’re Taking Over
Ignorance is bliss, and I haven’t watched the news
I haven’t read the paper, now I haven’t got the blues
Down to half an acre, I’m pacing back and forth
Still I get out to the corner bar, to have a drink of course
Where I hear all about you
You’re taking over
Yeah that’s big news, baby
At least for the moment
Congratulations are in order!
So I’m a little out of touch, and a step outside the loop
I gotta form a sentence if I wanna get the scoop
And ask some simple questions, like “when will she be back?”
I heard you left town this morning, didn’t even pack
Wanna know all about you
And I got my sources
It’ll sure be alright
And yr secrets safe with me
I’ll protect you from evil forces!
Yeah I heard all about you –
You’re taking over
That’s big news baby
Enjoy the moment
Bottleship
It’s like I’m building a ship in a bottle
Meticulous in every way
I couldn’t be any more careful
I’m gonna finish off my work for the day
Anything I try to get started
Damned if I don’t follow through
That’s why I sit broken hearted
With the open-end memory of you
I punch in at midnight
I’m up until 5
Got a lot of hobbies
While the world is asleep
The world is asleep
While I intricately work with my tweezers
Setting up the mast for the sail
Across the glass sea for the bottle
Protected from the wind, the rain, and the hail
The world is asleep
As long as I stay occupied
I don’t ever have to care about time
I just crawl into my bottle and die
While you wait for your ship to arrive
Wherever You’ve Been
If the president can lie – why can’t I?
Across the fruitless plain
It can be so invigorating, all this acting
And how can I find truth when I’m all alone
With all the emails and the land line and the cellular phone?
Better watch it, watch it watch it watch him watch him
Better watch it, watch it watch it watch him watch him
And if the silence is not deafening, the drums they surely are
I can take out my aggressions like a rock and roll star
I still gotta sleep with the nightlight on and the radio dialed in to
some old song
I know ‘em all so well – I sing along
And it sure is nice to see yuh, when you at last turn up
They caught you down in Texas, way down by Bandera
Out ridin’ on the range with a shotgun in your boot
Who you gonna see there? What you gonna shoot?
And one time when you were found, you were almost dead
They found you ‘neath a cactus, buzzards circling overhead
You said you followed voices you know they weren’t there
You had to follow something – why else were you there?
It’s a lie! Why’d you lie?
It’s a lie! To survive
Be a New Man
I’m gonna trade in my life and be a new man
Don’t tell me that I can’t because I can
A different house, a different bar, a different song, a different dance
Gonna trade in my life and be a new man
I’m tired of waking up on the wrong side of the bed
I’m tired of trying to sleep with all those voices in my head
All the woulda been’s and shoulda been’s and nasty things she
said
I’ll meet you in the middle – gonna be a new man
And it ain’t no threat, no I’m just letting you all know
Just go ahead and ask me, “Richard, where you gonna go?”
Somewhere cool and green and shady, babe, with lotsa room to grow
I’m gonna trade in my life and be a new man
I’ll say it like a mantra ‘til I hold it in my hand
And see it with my own eyes and feel it in my heart
Tomorrow’s the day that it’s gonna start
You’ve seen it all in movies and you’ve seen it on tv
But you never thought it’d happen to a simpleton like me
Just packin’ up a few things and leavin’ the rest be
You see me getting smaller as I amble down the street
You say, “Hey what’s so bad about your life today?”
All I know is there’s nothing that could make me wanna stay
And I’m down to my last penny, so I guess I’ll go away
Diapers
We were all such beautiful babies
Why’d we ever have to grow up?
Grown ups are all so ugly
Doin’ such horrible stuff
Injecting themselves with needles
Smoking them damn cigarettes
Selling guitars at pawn shops
Harboring all that regret
Bombing the shit outta China
Killing their wives-to be
Grown ups are all so terrible
Babies are all so sweet
We were all such beautiful babies
Filled with our mother’s love
Coddled and a-wibblin
Finding such joy in a hug
Suckin’ on a bottle
Sleeping in when they can
Everything’s so exciting
Everything’s so grand
But growing up so quickly
Learning to sneak and to swear
We were all such beautiful babies
And this life just doesn’t seem fair
Lakes
Cherish
Cherish that happiness
Cherish the loneliness
And even the sorrow
You shouldn’t have to get angry
But it enrages me
When I think of tomorrow
And I’m sorry ‘bout it baby
Standing on the front porch stairway
With the dirt bike lunchbox
It’s the first day of school
Riding on the bus with those hippies
Couldn’t lip off to big kids
Back in ‘72
I’m not talking ‘bout you baby
But maybe now I will:
Cherish
Cherish that happiness
Cherish the loneliness
And even the sorrow
I’m gonna love you everyday
And there’ll be kids to play
On this land tomorrow
The Universe
The first card I pulled had something to do with an affliction
And keeping that affliction and loving it and caring for it
Then the second card I pulled was the universe
The second card I pulled was the universe!
Admit it – you like it
Admit it – don’t fake it
If it moves you get out on the floor and shake it!
The second card I pulled was the universe
The second card I pulled was the universe!
Go On, Now
You are only dealt what you can handle
And I think I’ve handled it pretty well, I must say
Poverty, the dregs of society
The things you never tell
But with loving touches, a heart that blushes
A tune that plays itself, I must say
I’ll go where I want, and I’ll take my chances
I only fear succeeding
Break your bone of contention
Float along on suspension
Crumbs they will disappear
Those mice don’t ever look in the mirror
Under completely different circumstances
We’ll find a whole new man with a plan, I must say
He’s up every morning, with his toast and coffee
He’d never be denied
So you’ve been out of the loop for a while
It’s like you’ve tied yourself in a knot, I must say
You’re trying to make things right
It’s just so hard to believe you
Break your bone of contention
You get all kinds of attention
Don’t ever take it for granted
Don’t leave them disenchanted
You let it break your heart
You put it into your art
Don’t take anything for granted
Now that the seeds have been planted you should go on, now