Feb 2022 country alt-country harmonies
Not sure how to intro this other than it's a bouncy country pop song about clinical depression. So… trigger warning, I suppose? It ends well, if that helps.
The initial feel was supposed to be an old timey radio jingle, like an ad for "Rinso, the detergent with Solium, the sunlight ingredient!" that you might hear on a 1940's radio show, but it sort of evolved into this. For that jingle feel, I brought in Jordan, who loves him some harmonies. We're now in our fourth decade of playing and writing together, I love him like a brother, and he's willing to do weird stuff like this for me on short notice. I appreciate his six tracks of harmony vocals layered over my pedestrian lead.
Lyrically, well… we've all been there, right? ("Actually, no, and you should stop thinking that," says my therapist. But what does she know?) Hopefully you can read this with a sense of laughing at oneself, which is how it's written. Or crying at oneself? One of those.
Oh, and it has mandolin! Mostly in-tune mandolin at that! Everyone loves a mandolin.
VERSE
Eyes wide open at 3am
It's time to deal with depression
Let's down another Clonazepam
It's time to deal with depression
It's been three days since I took a shower
It's time to deal with depression
Think I'll scroll on my phone for another six hours
It's time to deal with depression
CHORUS
Oh, I'm worthless, I'm tired, no one loves me anymore
Oh, why do I alienate all the people that I adore?
VERSE
Let's go cry at the laundromat
It's time to deal with depression
Obsess about the jeans that make me look fat
It's time to deal with depression
I'm restless, I'm cranky, I'm irritable
It's time to deal with depression
Damn, I wrote a lyric I can't find a rhyme for
It's time to deal with depression
CHORUS
Oh, am I failing life, or is it life that's failing me?
Oh, I would get out of bed, but there's nowhere I need to be
BRIDGE
I try not let this state of mind define all that I am
That'd be so much easier if I'd find someone who gave a damn
VERSE
This knot in my stomach won't go away
It's time to deal with depression
Let's find another way to self-medicate
It's time to deal with depression
But I got up this morning despite my fears
It's time to deal with depression
And I'll keep getting up for another fifty years
I'll learn to live with depression
@raspberry33 Feb 2022
Everyone loves a mandolin! This is catchy; the mix is reminiscent of the Lovin' Spoonful, or maybe Frank Zappa. Great production, love that honky-tonky piano. By coincidence, I just posted a song about being awake at 3:33 AM and listening to the clockwork. https://fawm.org/songs/134813/ Not as catchy, though!
@lindarling Feb 2022
I can't believe how much I love this song. I was humming it all day after listening, bobbing my head happily singing about depression. LOVE the harmonies. And ALWAYS love the mandolin.
@richardmasters Feb 2022
Fabulous song - I know the place you're talking about!, I have a loyalty card. What more can I say, the song is there, a real gem
@musicsongwriter Feb 2022
Very nice song, it works as the depression cure! So upbeat, catchy and inspiring. Wonderful collaboration guys!
@bandybum Feb 2022
Fun, clever and quirky. A real delight. Solid writing, musicianship and Jordan's harmonies are just fab. Great work, guys!
@ericdistad Feb 2022
This is too good! Darkly humorous - all too real. This hits hard in it's own quirky way and I'm here for it. (I may have to steal a page out of this book)
Humor disarms and defangs. That is one of it's many jobs. Clearly you already know that. ;)
Very well done indeed!
@spazsquatch Feb 2022
The presentation here makes the message so much more heart wrenching. Well played.
@nahlej381 Feb 2022
This is fantastic. Solid performances well written. Funny with a tinge of bittersweet realism. Felt this in my soul
@mk2021 Feb 2022
Wonderful melody with superb harmonies throughout! Love it! This is a winner.
@nadine Feb 2022
Exactly my kind of humour, thank you! This is catchy as hell and the lyrics have some truth hidden. First I didn't see that it's a collab but I spotted Jordans voice in the background. Great some you two. This has to be on my playlist!
@sapient Feb 2022
Oh, you cheeky scamps.
This is so cheery!
Look over there - it's a bunny rabbit playing on a rainbow! :D
A sepia rainbow.
And the bunny is undead.
And it's at night.
Still, listen to the happy harmonies!
You spoil us, gents, you really do.
@stuartbenbow Feb 2022
This was sooooo good. I had to restart with my speakers to share with the Mrs. Do I feel called out, maybe, was it awesome? Absolutely! Well done!
@standup Feb 2022
damn. an upbeat song about depression. Really fun, love the building harmonies in the bridge.
At least our protagonist sees getting up for another 50 years instead of taking some other way out.
@drewhottmann Feb 2022
This is fantastic!
Sounds like a cutaway on a children’s show. For some reason my brain sees it being played by puppets. I’m getting a kick out of that.
This is a rare FAWM song I will download and share with others outside the community.
The “someone who gave a damn” layered harmonies is my favorite part.
@kenmattsson Feb 2022
This is the happiest song I've heard about depression ever! The bridge is great too. +1 to everything everyone else has said.
@leslie Feb 2022
I love songs about mental health. This is great! Country songs are often full of depression (without calling it that) already, it's a smart pairing. Love the harmonies.
@whispermouse Feb 2022
First off: wonderful recording, everything sounds great, and I DO love mandolin.
The bridge is SO nice, it grabs the ear in just the right way.
The rhyminess and "it's time to deal with depression" refrain are very evocative of something that I think of as a 50s kids radio show theme song, even though I've never heard a kids show from the 50s. You simply nailed it!
@nancyrost Feb 2022
Anyone who can rhyme "3 am" and "Clonozepam" has my admiration. Been there or there-adjacent - a lot of these lines made me laugh with recognition. The arrangement is brill. Very relatable *for me, not everyone!* 10/10 would play this at a 2JN show.
@ductapeguy Feb 2022
At first I thought, "That's just twisted and wrong." This time the juxtaposition between bouncy happy country music and a serious topic seems not to work. But that can be a metaphor for depression-- cheery and bouncy on the outside, burning down on the inside. That is a great collab.
@kahlo2013 Feb 2022
I love the juxtaposition of a serious topic delivered in this bouncy fun light country. The hook is so catchy! Great way to lighten the weight of of depression symptoms that most have experienced sometime on their journeys around the sun.
@celineellis Feb 2022
I love how tongue in cheek this is, but also so close to the bone. I definitely get the old time jingle feel and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing!