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The New West

by Bill White

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1.
The Day the Earth Changed Its shape 03:21
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i like pancakes in the morning but sometimes i need to feel the sun breaking through after i am penetrated i lie there on the bed with no idea of what im supposed to do so i plug in my 6 track tapedeck and listen to the kings final tape tears start falling as i recall the day the earth changed its shape my wife is in the kitchen she cant stand it when im in my room alone crying over someone who neither she nor i have ever known she doesnt understood how deep im feeling her with every tear that falls and all the pain thats breaking out cannot be contained within these walls repeat chorus tears fall into the river to join the tears that rush into the sea the pain of a king forsaken is a reflection of the pain we cannot see when we were stripped of everything even the tears That watered all our days we were waiting for the sun to rise on the day the earth changed its shape but the sun and moon and stars and all blinked and when black the day the earth changed its shape
2.
The Law of the Railroad Guns 03:02
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Give me the money then back away I dont want to kill you but if i have to ill play it that way i am the bad guy you are the good one but we are both over run by the law of the railroad guns this isnt money its the glow beneath the lid this is power and im knocking out the grid sometimes you have to kill the father if you want to save the son from the law of the railroad guns ve done my share of killing but i never hanged no one its a thin line between right and wrong when the law is a railroad gun saddle up your mule and take these bags of gold we'll cross 1,000 miles of desert before the sun goes cold or i could chew you up and spit you out like a tasteless piece of gum you can lie here dead across the floor while i make my freedom run breaking the stones where is written the law of the railroad guns i
3.
Horses with Iron Feet 02:57
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from the new jersey turnpike to the arizona sands they went looking for america and found a foreign land you can leave the chain gang if you bribe the right police the swamps are no place for hiding unless you are riding on horses with iron feet i havent been back to georgia in many a long long day and wonder if things are really as bad as they all say if merchants own the sidewalks and taxis hog the street if armies of the dead ride west on horses with iron feet. and if you dare to cross the california line you will see ex presidents diddling each others wives the bones of Thomas jefferson are rising from the mud to watch the future presidents drink each others blood on the interstate last night the devil crashed his bike while we filled the gas tank with Carolina moonshine the night runs thick with zombies and the doctor draws the shades but horses with iron feet are knocking down the gates
4.
She Is A Rebel (I am the Cause) 04:17
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Today they took the woman from her cell inside death row walked her to the chamber where the poison gases flow she was innocent of the murder charge but had broken many laws she is a rebel. i am the cause She wasnt even on the scene I strongly testified she was waiting in the car I was the man inside She was my accomplice this never was denied But she had no knowledge That the man I shot had died For me it was a way to make a living For her it was the only way to live for the drugs, the guns, the robberies she thrived on i have only myself to forgive i was the one who taught her how to live outside the law She is a rebel, I am the cause Today her tiny feet took their final steps Though she goes before me, The state will kill me next I was the one who taught her How to live outside the law she is a rebel I am the cause
5.
500 Miles East of Eden 03:57
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500 miles east of Eden I am still looking for a home\But I see no rolling rivers Im in a desert where nothing grows No place to build a cabin No place to sow my seeds 500 miles east of Eden Where can I plant my family tree? 500 miles east of Eden Ive been riding for so long Since \i was thrown out of heaven\ Into a world where I dont belong Give me back my rolling rivers give me back my cotton seeds 500 miles east of Eden Where can I plant my family tree?\ When I walked in pastures of plenty I didnt know what i had Living with the best intentions Until I did something so bad That they sent me away 500 miles east of Eden Not a drop of water in sight All I hear are locusts buzzin All I see is endless night 500 miles east of Eden I can run but I cant be free 500 miles east of Eden No place to plant my family tree
6.
People They Don't Remember 03:26
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Dark matter and old memories Cancel out the rest New ideas are hard to hold As they leak from holes in your chest It is not a question of forgetfullness Or the problem of getting old Its the heat giving way to the cold chorus Your letter fell back to Earth Marked Return to Sender Nobody gives a good god damn For people they don't remember Dark matter casts its shadows Like sunspots on the moon Memories surround you They came for you too soon Playmates from the playground Most are dead, those still alive Are falling through a fiery sky Into the forest of knives repeat chorus Before your hard drive crashes You better back up all your files With every passing day you turn another failing dial like lava from a fissure the blood escapes your brain And every thought you thought you had carves rivers with the rain
7.
If We All Stood Still 03:06
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i do not recognize who you are until you say hello but then you are gone i look for you the next day and the next and the next and the next day but i do not recognize you when i see you again i cant believe we are standing on a world that is turning and i wonder what would happen if we all stood still when you called me from the junkyard I did not realize you were lost and when you followed me home I never thought To lock the door when you kissed me at the station as i was leaving town i never imagined your lips to be so soft
8.
Two Rode Together 03:28
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The sleet has turned to rain, but the cold winds still blow As I ride these broken trails alone My better days have passed into folklore Nobody's driving cattle any more But I remember when you and I crossed the Missouri On step ahead of the thunder's ranging fury Until we fell into the canyons and slept inside the rain Running like horses across the fields and plains Two rode together across the broken ground Then came the day they faced each other as the sun went down In the night we crossed the river to share whiskey and smokes but in the morning we went back to fight with our own folks we lost the mississippi to the union troops who ran off with all our cattle and blocked the escape routes when the war was over they hung the traitors on both sides friends became the enemies of the friends whose friends had died Witnessing the rising of horses with iron feet The two who rode together faced each other in the street its a sorry day in when the best of friends Are on opposite sides of the law waiting for the broken rays of sunset to prove who is the faster on the draw once two rode together Oh the stories the people will tell how one of them rode into heaven and the other rides into hell
9.
The Life of an Outlaw 02:57
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It doesnt matter what you refuse or what you receive When you are this close to death it doesnt matter what you believe Every river you crossed is thick with mud There are no showdowns at sundown on killings in cold blood chorus This is the life of an outlaw as it fades to black You might survive the trail ahead if you dont look back We might find that we have lost when we think we've won None of us knows even a fraction of the evil we have done If you go and dress yourself in your sunday clothes I I will try to show you the sins for which you must atone Once there was a man who claimed to be the way the truth and the life He's the one to guide your soul across the pitiful night Dont get lost among the wandering spirits of the dead Those floundering in outer space refused to listen to what he said will I lose my personaity when i die You better hope so pilgrim or youll never bust out of the walls across the sky forget about who you are before its too late Because the last gasp of an outlaw can be the crying of a newborn babe
10.
The Third Day of Nothing 02:05
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On the first day of Nothing Empty and forsaken All roads were behind me Not a one was taken On the second day of Nothing Heaven and Earth passed away The stars left like disgruntled guests Though I begged them to stay On the third day of Nothing A final lesson learned By fires of hell surrounded And nothing left to burn
11.
Dreams and Ecstasies 05:20
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trusting in the frail bark of my bones i set sail into the storms of dreams and ecstasies of dreams and ecstasies oh what a frightening gale did arise of love and death and birth then in the calm of morning i had lost all sight of earth i had lost all sight of earth your breasts have never been so rounded your lips were never so pale as when you took apollos hand and slipped down the stairs to hell down the stairs into hell if dante could follow beatrice this far and no further what chance had i to stay with you though forests of lust and murder through forests of lust and murder yet i i never left my boat made of the frail bark of flesh as i sailed through the endless storms of dreams and ecstasies of dreams and ecstasies i met my rival in a dream i could have killed him for sure but ther ewas no need when i awoke he was neither here nor there how close to ecstasy ive been in loves inviting dream but i never made the final movie if i had,where would i now be where would i now be she was only the mirror of the unconquerable she

about

“Times are changing. We have to start thinking past our guns.”

So said the mythical outlaw of the American West as the 19th century turned into the 20th.

“We’ve got to start thinking past our guitars.”

With the rise of synth rock in the early 1980’s, the days of the stand up rock band were closing fast. By the turn of the next century, synthetic applications had enabled even non-musicians to make music that sounded as good as what had been on the radio for the preceding 40 years. I was playin guitar in a band at thaty time and,when we were oneparticular song, the enginer suggested that a Clapton sound would work well,and asked if iI would like to try it. I hesitanttly agreed and he plugged my guitar into something he called a pod and presto, I sounded exactly like Eric Clapton.

I remembered back to 1986, when I was writing songs with a guitarist named Julius Borges. One afternoon while rehearsing, he showedme how he figured out how Clapton got his sound. He turned some knobs on his amp and some more on his guitar and presto, he sounded exactly like clapton. But this had been no easy feat. He found that sound the same way Clapton had found it. Not by plugging into a pod, but by searching and experimenting until he got it just right.

Now here we are in 2018. It is very easy to make recordings that sound exactly like the hit records of any past era. Get the apps and dial them in, whether or not you know a single note of music. Start by choosing a random chord progression in the style of your choice. Then have the computer deliver a lyric, and then a melody to fit the lyric.. Now go to band in a box and get your arrangement. You han have the hottest guitars, the wildest saxophones, catchy bas lines and dynamic drums. but now you have to sing it. No problem. Even if you cant sing a note, there is an app that will make you sound like you have perfect pitch.

And so, like the gunfighters and cowboys of the old west, the days are closing fast for the guitar slinging songwriters of the 20th Century. There arent that many of us left. But there are plenty of people writing and recording songs. Tens of thousands of them all around the world. When I started writing songs in Seattle WAs in the early 70’s,there were only a couple dozen of us. Today the membership in the meetup group Songwriters in Seattle exceeds 3500. Many of these people are rod and reel songwwriters, while others can make an album that sounds as good as Jethro Tull or Fleetwood Mac without ever touching an instrument.

So we have to start thinking beyond their guitars.

But not me.

My new album, The New West, is just me with a guitar and harmonica singing anf playing into a one track recorder, no overdubs, no retakes, Everything is just as it was when it came out of me. The songs are loosely based around the concept of bringing the cowboy song into the 21st Century. And a few of the songs are cowboy songs, but not all of them. All share, however, the elegaic tone of the end of the Western era, the end, even of the West. and they look to a New West. Obviously this idea carries political subtexts and it is true that I am writing more about the world of today than the world of 1865, but it is in many ways the same world, the same stories in different costumes.

The recordings on this albums are flawed, and I didnt want to correct the flaws. I wanted to keep it real. If I mispronounced a word, mixed up the verses, hit a wrong cord, coughed, or hiccuped, I kept it. People might call the recording lo fi, and if you compare it to the highly processed sounds of today, it is. But it sounds, to my ear, as good as the folk records I grew up on, and that is the sound I wanted. These are the songs of a real person who has been writing songs and performing them for the last 50 years. But they are songs for now, for today. They are not nostalgic, You will hear traces of all sorts of popular music in them, but the dominant sound is country folk and blues. It is not a record for every body. Its not something to play at parties. But if you are alone at night, you might want to slip on some headphones as listen to these intimate sounds. From me to you. Personal, real , and true.

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released July 4, 2018

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Bill White Lima, Peru

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