I’m posting six videos here from a recent gig at Silvies on Chicago’s north side. We had a Zoom Recorder going that night and captured these songs live, among others. Personnel on the songs are Dorothy McDaniel – bass, Alpha Stewart – percussion, John Temmerman – sax, Me – guitar. Numbers 1, 3, 5, & 6 are originals. Numbers 2 & 4 are covers.
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I Wrote “Jimmy Stu” for all the cosmic cowboys who never thought they’d end up on the daily grind–but did. I’m posting a video of the song, from a show at the Heartland Cafe back when they used to book bands, a performance of it I especially like. For one thing, that night everybody seemed to lock onto the groove. For another, though I always thought of the tune as southern rock/rockabilly, Rudy Negrete soloed on it like a Chicago bluesman, and it worked just fine. If your computer speakers are as lame as mine, I hope you use headphones when you watch this:
Here are the lyrics.
Jimmy Stu (What’s with You?)
You used to live in the country
up in the ozone, one with the wind and sun
Now you live in the city, and man, it’s a pity
how you run
Jimmy Stu, what’s with you?
Yeah, you used to walk slow
You used to talk slow, taking life by the days
Now you get up early, you push you shove,
mind on the future always
Jimmy Stu, what’s with you?
Well, it only goes to show
that you don’t know
what somebody might do
Who thought that you’d get caught?
How’d that happen to you?
“Jimmy Stu” is on the CDs Live at Custer Street by The Kent McDaniel Band and About Timeby Kent McDaniel, both of which are available at www.cdbaby.com. Downloads of the song are available at www.amazon.com and just about everywhere else downloads are sold.
When I was younger, I’ll admit, I imagined peace might prevail in my lifetime. Now I watch the news and wonder what I was thinking. Which is where “May You Still Believe” came from. One evening a while back, I happened on this funky lick in E and kept playing it over and over. After a while, I started singing along with it, and the song flowed right out–bam.
On the recording of the tune (click the icon below to hear it), my wife Dorothy plays flute and bass, and our friends Alpha Stewart and John Temmerman play drums and sax respectively. That’s me on guitar and vocals. The lyrics are right below the playback icon.
MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE
WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG YOU SAID THAT LOVE WOULD FIND A WAY
TO BRING PEACE ON EARTH SURE AS DAWN COMES EVERY DAY
BUT NOW YOU’RE GROWN LOOKING AT THAT NIGHTLY NEWS
AND SEEING HOW THINGS ARE SURE GIVES YOU THE BLUES
(CHORUS)
MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE, MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE
DESPITE ALL THE NEWS YOU RECEIVE,
MY FRIEND, MAY YOU STILL BELIEVE
IN SCHOOL YOU PLEDGED YOURSELF TO THE LAND OF THE FREE,
ONE LAND UNDER GOD WITH JUSTICE AND LIBERTY
NOW ‘STEAD OF BLACK AND WHITE YOU SEE SHADES OF GRAY
WHAT’S JUST AND WHO IS FREE SOME DAYS YOU CAN’T SAY
(CHORUS)
YOU SAY THAT GOD IS WHERE WE GO AND ALL COME FROM
YOU SAY GOD IS LOVE & GOD’S RULE ONE DAY WILL COME
YET MADMEN BATHE IN BLOOD TO APPEASE THEIR GOD
AND ASK GOD TO BLESS THEIR CRUSADE OR JIHAD
(CHORUS)
“May You Still Believe” is available on iTunes.com, Amazon.com, Google Play, and about anywhere else you can download music.
The song is for the idealists out there–past, present, and future. May you still believe.
The video below’s a live version of the classic.
Alpha Stewart on drums, John Temmerman on sax, Dorothy McDaniel on bass, and me (Kent McDaniel) on guitar/vocal. Recorded Saturday, September 20, 2014 at Silvies in Chicago, with a Zoom recorder.
Us.
Here’s video of “He Flies,” recorded last weekend in Chicago. Previous performances of the song are out there, but I think this is the best one we ever got on video. The lyrics are underneath the video:
HE FLIES
LITTLE BIRD SITTIN ON A TELEPHONE WIRE
LITTLE BIRD SITTIN THERE ALL ALONE
HE’S A SINGER & HE’S A HIGH FLYER
HE’S A ROVER FROM PARTS UNKNOWN
TOMORROW AIN’T GOT HIM UPSET
& HE DON’T CARE ABOUT YESTERDAY
HE GOT HERE LAST SPRING I BET
LEAVES TURN BROWN & HE’LL FLY AWAY
HE FLIES. YEAH, HE FLIES.
LITTLE BIRD SINGIN BOUT THE NEW DAY
LITTLE BIRD SINGIN BOUT THE DAWN
HE FEELS FINE & DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY
HE’S GONNA GO WHERE HE FEELS DRAWN
THAT BLUE SKY & HIM GO WAY BACK
& HIM & THAT SUNSHINE SURE DO TOO
HE’S GOT WINGS & GOT THE KNACK
WHEN IT’S TIME, HE KNOWS WHAT TO DO
HE FLIES. YEAH HE FLIES.
LITTLE BIRD DONT KNOW WHERE HIS OWN HOME’S AT
LITTLE BIRD DON’T EVEN CARE
HE AIN’T WORRIED BOUT A BIT OF THAT
IT’S ON BEYOND & HE’S BOUND THERE
HE DON’T KNOW WHAT’S RIGHT OR WHAT’S WRONG
HE DON’T KNOW THE TIME OF DAY
BUT HE KNOWS THE DAY IS LONG
& THE BREEZE FLOWS &, OH, BY THE WAY
HE FLIES. YEAH, HE FLIES.
HE FLIES.
It’s one of our originals.
That’s Dorothy McDaniel on bass & vocals, Alpha Stewart on percussion & vocals, John Temmerman on sax, and me (Kent McDaniel) on guitar & vocals. Recorded on a Zoom Recorder.
Us.
Needed this “cover” for the music download sites.
ABOUT TIME, COVER
I wrote “Time Is A blue Sky” around 1975, and finally got around to recording it (for About Time) in 2000. It was last summer, August of 2014, though, before I ever got around to playing it out. I don’t know why. I work in mysterious ways–like you know who. Anyway, better late than never. I could’ve have played it worse that night, could’ve done it better, but I’m going to post a video of the performance here, because–knowing me–it might be another forty years before I get around to playing it out again. I’m gonna put the studio version up here first, because I think it’s better. For one thing Lee Kromer played some nice harp licks on it, and I dubbed in a little electric guitar that turned out OK. The Lyrics are under the studio recording audio, and the video of the live version is below the lyrics.
TIME IS A BLUE SKY
TIME IS A BLUE SKY WHERE CLOUDS DRIFT,
OUR LOVE A RAINBOW THAT FILLED THE SKY
CHORUS:
THOUGH I LEARNED TO LIVE WITHOUT YOU,
EVERY THOUGHT I HAVE OF YOU GLOWS WITH LOVE
YOU WERE A HEALER, MY FRIEND BY CHOICE
YOU SOOTHED MY FEARS–AND LEFT ONE DAY
CHORUS
MAY PEACE FLOW ALL THROUGH YOUR LIFE
MAY YOUR SOUL GROW ALL THROUGH YOUR LIFE
TIME IS A BLUE SKY WHERE CLOUDS DRIFT,
OUR LOVE A RAINBOW THAT FILLED THE SKY
Video of a song here for my friends down inThe Ohio River Valley, recorded August 4, 2014 at The Acoustic Explosion. The lyrics are under the video.
Ohio River
Like some dark swan on you glide
A long bright train, south you ride
Chorus:
Ohio River so wide and slow
You flow through my dreams
wherever I go
Under a pale moon, or skies of blue
I come to your shoreline to speak with you
Chorus
With friends and family I used to gather on your shore
Then one day I rambled; now I see you no more, but…
Chorus
A studio version of the song is on my album About Time, and I’m pasting in an mp3 of it below, so you can compare the two versions, if you like.
Studio version of “Ohio River” appears on About Time
I’m uploading video of “Dance Till Morning Light,” kind of a roots rock ballad played with just an acoustic guitar. It was recorded August 4, 2014 at The Acoustic Explosion show at Silvies on Chicago’s north side. The lyrics are below the video.
DANCE TILL MORNING LIGHT
WELL YOU WALK THROUGH THE NIGHT
YOU FEEL ALL RIGHT
THOUGH NOTHING IS REALLY REAL
YOU GET AROUND
YOU’RE GETTIN DOWN
YOU’RE SO HIGH THAT YOU HARDLY FEEL
YOU BEEN UP AND DOWN THE STRIP
YOU KNOW THE TRIP
JUST ONE BIG HAPPY CROWD
YEAH, YOU’RE LOOKING FOR LOVE BUT CAN’T TALK ABOVE
THE MUSIC WE PLAY SO LOUD
CHORUS:
SO JUST DANCE CHILDREN DANCE
THIS SOFT ELECTRIC NIGHT
DANCE, DANCE TILL MORNING LIGHT
WELL YOUR LOCAL ROCK STARS
AND OWNERS OF THE BARS
LOVE TO SEE YOU OUT TONIGHT
GO ON, FEED YOUR HEAD
KNOCK YOURSELVES DEAD
YOUR MONEY’S GOOD HERE, IT’S ALL RIGHT
ACROSS THE ROOM
THROUGH THE GLOOM
SOMEBODY CATCHES YOUR EYE
SO YOU WALK THEIR WAY
WHAT CAN YOU SAY?
YOU’RE BOTH REAL HIGH
CHORUS
Here’s how I happened to write this one: When the world was young and I was at SIU, I played in bands on the weekends. After I got out of 
school, rather than face getting a job, I just went from playing two nights a week to playing six or seven. We were known to sometimes work fifteen gigs in fourteen days. (Being young is wonderful.) It was fun, I want you to know. Plus, the last three years I did it, I played with my brother Doug in The McDaniel Brothers Band. I’m gladder than I can tell you to have spent that much time with Doug and made that much good music with him. It makes up for a lot.
After around seven years of all that, though, the kids in college bars started to look like junior high schoolers to me, and I figured it was time to get out. Which I did. That last summer I was playing, I wrote “Dance Till Morning Light.” Weirdly enough, I’d never played it out before a recent show at The Acoustic Explosion. I don’t know why that was, but I’m glad I finally did. Now I’m going to have to get around to recording the song, I guess.
Here a shot from the show at The Acoustic Explosion.
Doc Watson–God rest his soul–made me learn “Summertime.” His recording of it on Elementary Doc Watson has a solo that’s catchy and haunting (a great combo, that). I was thinking about it one evening when I was playing guitar and just stumbled into copping the licks from memory. After that, I played around with the solo a lot, and I mean a lot –especially in summer. Finally, one June, my wife Dorothy got me the sheet music for my birthday.
At that point I played no jazz, and it took several months of wrestling with the sheet music before I had the song down. Then it took Dorothy and me another couple months of playing it together (her on bass, me on guitar) before we got it tight. That happened just in time for us to include the song in a set we were doing for Custer Street Fair…
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I’m uploading video of us doing the above tune at Glenwood Arts Fest. That afternoon was pretty joyous for us, a family affair: That’s me on guitar, my wife Dorothy on bass, our son Paul on drums, and our good friend Josh Davis on harp.
A friend of ours caught this on his camera, and the sound came out nice, but the picture gets a little weird sometimes. Still, I think you’ll get a good idea–a little pixalated–of the performance.
The Glenwood Arts Fest, held every August in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, is a good one. I recommend it. The atmosphere is urban mellow, and there is actual art on display there.
So here’s that video:
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