Another Album's Tuning

The opening lines from 76 are relics from back when I was writing the songs on Bay to Maples midway through the last decade. I had written Where We've Been, You Won't Burn Me, and Bay to Maples with my guitar tuned to an obscure alternative tuning with a C# and three E's, and before I restrung the guitar I'd also written "I was born in the early morn on a 76 gasoline station convenience store floor, felt like I had been there before." Three years later Peters and I picked it up again and spun it into a reincarnation story about a convenience store clerk and her lover.

Holding The Same Breath

One of first times we played Salt Water live was as a duo on the corner of State and Carrillo during a Thursday night arts walk in downtown Santa Barbara. Half way through, a drunk middle-aged guy came staggering toward us across the street, hollering and flashing the devil's horns. He was stoked for the song and said he'd buy the CD we were selling (Bay to Maples) only if Salt Water was on it. In the end he was uninterested in our merchandise, and when he took off we weren't a tip richer.

I wrote the opening line and sat on it for a while for fear of fucking up a good thing. By the time I brought the song half written to Peters it was melodically and lyrically intense, but not the explosive tidal wave that it grew into. Once Peters dropped his swampy lap steel and under water delay effect on top it started writing itself and all we had to do was let it go where it chose. Salt Water was the reason I got myself a proper amplifier.