Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Calaveras - A City And A Life And A Girl

“Tuesday morning without any coffee, and too many chores to do – along came Sally, backin’ down the alley, to show me her new tattoo.” First, I have to confess that when I lived in a city I never understood language like ‘backin’ down the alley”. Up here in the hills in this small town I now know exactly what’s going on in the song. In fact, I was surprised that the narrator of this song knew Sally. Maybe every town has a Sally. But, back to the real world of music – the music has a jazzy country feel that fits comfortably in my world. The story is fun, the singer sounds like he loves tellin’ the story. They ended up in D’Hanis – you know that place behind the store – “a little speakeasy, down in the shadows, where nobody I know goes.” Well, except Andrew, but that’s to be expected – he kinda makes a living finding these places. Anyway, back to the story, “we got up and danced to an old time record, until I started to fall.” If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Calaveras was there that night, but it sounds like the narrator simply knows how it goes in real time, and these little ‘speakeasies’ must still exist here and there around the world. What’s really scary is that D’Hanis is known mostly for its brick factory – two blocks away from the hidden speakeasy - and the lyricist carefully inserts the line “fall like a brick into the mix of a city and a life and a girl”, followed by a good old fashioned Sabinal fiddle. These folks claim to be from California, but they sure have some good Texas roots showing. And, hey Sabastian, check out the title of the CD – freakout time =:-) Great fun. PS - anyone who clicked on the brick factory link might get a kick outta the link to "old D'Hanis". I challenge anyone to come on out here and find a new D'Hanis - LOL!!! Calaveras