“I tried to run a mile today. I maybe should have walked. My head had the ambition, but my body was all talk. While I’m trying to make some sense of it, the laughter takes a hold, I’m the same age that my father was when I first thought he was old.” Henry has the ability to take the mundane, like growing old, and make it fun. I still remember my dad telling me 20 years ago, “don’t grow old.” Last year he died. 20 years of pain. Well, like Henry, I’ve reached the age when my dad first said that, and boy can I feel it. The presentation is like a friend stopping by for a few beers and playing his latest songs on guitar, down-home & friendly. I also love It’s Called A Heart, a wonderful observation of how those who run businesses treat their employees and the rest of the world. “They say the bosses’ bosses’ bosses are worried about the shares. There’s no traction in the market, and it’s kicking off upstairs. Let’s get keener, let’s get leaner, let’s get meaner from today. We can buy up all the little guys and push them out the way.”
He’s Not Good Enough For You could be taken on several levels – an ex-husband singing to an ex-wife, or a dad singing to a daughter. “The thing that’s really frightening is I think I was just like him, and it hurts.” Ouch. Self-reflection always hurts. So does the recognition that all people are really the same beneath the façade.
The album is called The Chronicles Of Modern Life, and Henry takes a keen, lean, mean look at the substance we call life. Henry Priestman
