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This Side of the Dirt
Check out "This
Side of the Dirt" on YouTube.
Release Date: 12-22-2010
For those of you that may be interested in how or
why these songs came to be …….
RIDIN WITH MY SHADOW
I have always been a big fan of The Mills
Brothers and I tried to imagine them singing this song throughout the
writing process. Thanks to my co-writer, Ken Graydon, and his help with the
lyrics and melody I think that we have a modern take on a song that very
well could have been written in the forties or fifties.
FROM THE GROUND UP
I don’t know anyone born in the fifties or
sixties that didn’t want to be a cowboy or a cowgirl when they grew up. This
song was written for a couple of friends that somehow managed to “live the
dream.”
EVERYDAY’S NEVADA DAY TO ME
Each year on October 31st the State
of Nevada celebrates its declaration of statehood with a holiday and a
parade in Carson City, the state capitol. A few years ago a friend asked if
I was going to the parade on Nevada Day and I replied “everyday’s Nevada Day
to me.” This song is a result of that thought.
RIDIN DAYS
This song is simply a product of the opening
line, “I’ve never been this dirty I’ve never been this cold.” I thought it
would be a good line to use at some point in a song but never expected that
once planted it would take on a life of its own.
THAT BOY
Probably as close to an abstract cowboy song
as I could get. I was thinking one day about what kind of super cowboy I
could manifest if I could combine all the best qualities of the great cowboy
heroes like, John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, and F. Scott Fitzgerald into
one kick-ass, range riding, ballad singing buckaroo. He ended up being…THAT
BOY.
THIS SIDE OF THE DIRT
I don’t remember where I first heard this term
but I recall being struck by how descriptive it was. Everyone knows exactly
what THIS SIDE OF THE DIRT MEANS and it was far too good an idea to let go.
And…the song has a good message that I think we can all appreciate.
WHEN THE BLACKTOP IS IN BLOOM
While returning home from the 49’er Encampment
in Death Valley we encountered a wind storm, a sand storm, a rain storm and
a snow storm, all within a two hour stretch. At one point I remarked that is
was raining hard enough to make the blacktop bloom. I actually had enough
foresight to write that line down and revisit it a few days later.
FOLDED DOWN PAGES
The idea for this song sloshed back and forth
in my head for a long, long time before making its way to paper. Originally
intended as a poem I tried unsuccessfully to interest several well know
cowboy poets to run with the idea, to no avail. I decided to give it a shot
as a song and I guess I’m glad that no one ever took me up on the offer.
Proving once again if you want to get something done you need to do it
yourself.
BREAKAHEART ROAD
Breakaheart Road is the actual name of a
miserable stretch of dirt road heading out onto a dry lake bed just off
Highway 50, east of Dayton, Nevada. It is a bone jarring, dusty, swear word
inducing, trail of fallen off auto parts and canyon sized ruts best suited
for horses or tanks. If you’ve been down it you cannot imagine why anyone
would go back down Breakaheart Road.
R.V. PARK WALTZ
Writing this song was like reading a good book
for me……I did not want it to end. It is the true story (embellished a little
I admit) of two fellow musicians that took it upon themselves to go waltzing
off through the RV park in the midst of the fiddle contest. It was a great
image and of those songs that just seem to write itself.
A FEW MORE ROCKS
As soon as this line popped into my head I saw
how this song would end. It is not always convenient to have an ending
before having a beginning because there is a considerable amount of
backtracking required just to make it comprehensible. However, I will take
‘em any way I can get ‘em and that is just how this song chose to be
uncovered.
OUR TOWN
This song was written for the Jarbidge Arts
Council to help celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the founding of
Jarbidge, Nevada. The song was never intended to be included in this project
but it turned out so well that I thought it deserved to be heard. My thanks
to the Jarbidge Arts Council for allowing it to be included.
ALL THE SONGS ON THIS CD WERE WRITTEN BY RICHARD
ELLOYAN WITH THE EXCEPTION OF RIDIN WITH MY SHADOW. MY THANKS TO CO
WRITER KEN GRAYDON……. WHO HAS FORGOTTEN MORE ABOUT LYRICS AND MELODY THAN I WILL
EVER KNOW.
reseke@hsne50.com
775-721-1354
77Copyright 2001-2009 by Richard Elloyan
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