1 IF I HAD A NICKEL by Eric Brace (Dry Diggin Tunes, BMI) Warren Zevon said to enjoy every sandwich. We’ve tried and failed. Clearly, some of them have been great, and we’ve savored them. Warren was trying to say something about the ephemeral nature of life. But not every sandwich is really enjoyable, unless your standards are low. Peter once ate a sandwich in England that was downright aggressive, and that made a Liverpool gig problematic. 2 UNEASY DOES IT by Peter Cooper (Well Known Music, SESAC) If you’re pacing the floor of a third-floor hotel room Hernando, Mississippi, pondering the ways your over-promises have become under-deliveries, you can drive seven miles to Jerry Lee Lewis’s house and stare for a few minutes at the iron gate that guards a first-generation hero of rock’n’roll. Then you can drive back to the hotel, pull out your Martin guitar, and write down the first thoughts careening through your head. Turns out, they’ll rhyme. 3 HUGH HANSEN by Peter Cooper, Thomm Jutz, & Fred Knobloch (Well Known Music, SESAC; Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music; and J. Fred Knobloch Music, ASCAP) Hugh Hansen is a luthier who specializes in the repair and restoration of fretted instruments. Every day, he’s in charge of nothing short of resurrection. One time, he brought Fred Knobloch’s little old Martin back to life. We used that Martin to write this song. 4 HARTFORD'S BEND by Thomm Jutz & John Hadley (Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music, and Hadley Six Music, BMI) When he wasn’t reimagining American roots music with a fiddle and banjo, John Hartford often piloted riverboats. And when he wasn’t doing that, he was at home, above a Cumberland River turn that is now called Hartford’s Bend. Every day, riverboat captains blow their whistles when rounding that bend, in tribute to the dear friend that most of them never knew. 5 AWFUL LOT LIKE ME by Peter Cooper (Well Known Music, SESAC) What have we all got in common? Not politics or religion or sports team affiliation or income level. Ah, but there is commonality in courage, frailty, and discomfort. That’s the stuff that unites presidents and pawns, soldiers and soccer moms, Cardinals and Cubs. 6 ANGELS' SHARE by Thomm Jutz & Kim Richey (Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music, and Chrysalis Songs, BMI) Whiskey is aged in wood barrels, and the aging process is what gives flavor to the whiskey. But as with many things, there’s a trade-off. Once in the barrels, some of the alcohol is quickly absorbed into the thirsty wood. And then a small portion goes through the grain every year and disappears into the atmosphere. The missing whiskey is called the “Angels' Share.” If there’s nothing left in your glass but the Angels' Share, there’s nothing left in your glass. 7 LITTLE OLD TOWN by Thomm Jutz & Peter Cooper (Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music, and Well Known Music, SESAC) Jefferson, Tennessee, was a lost river port, a place abandoned to progress. This song was written under the powerful influences of author Ron Rash’s One Foot In Eden and Country Music Hall of Famer Tom T. Hall’s entire catalog. 8 B&O MAN by Eric Brace & Peter Cooper (Dry Diggin Tunes, BMI, and Well Known Music, SESAC) There was once a time when railroads didn't exist. There will come a time when railroads no longer exist. Good thing people aren’t like railroads, right? Right? Wait… oh. Dang. 9 LONESOME AND ALONE by Peter Cooper & Thomm Jutz & Peter Cooper (Well Known Music, SESAC, and Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music) Sometimes we all must pause and contemplate what Willie Nelson might be thinking. He has endured a lifetime of triumph and loss with uncommon grace and a bevy of dirty jokes. Susanna Clark painted the cover of Willie’s Stardust album. This song imagines Willie looking at Susanna’s painting, thinking about Paul Buskirk… and Waylon… and Poodie… and the Bee Man… and all the rest. 10 MY SALLY by Eric Brace (Dry Diggin Tunes, BMI) Near Front Royal, Virginia, there's a road leading up into the hills called Dismal Hollow Road. Geologically speaking, a hollow is a kind of depression, but this one is apparently darker and sadder than most. The fellow in this song lived on Dismal Hollow Road, then got his heart broken. How much can one man take? 11 PARKERSBURG BLUES (FOR PAUL BUSKIRK) by Peter Cooper & Thomm Jutz (Well Known Music, SESAC, and Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music) Paul Buskirk was a musical genius who had to travel a thousand miles from his birthplace just to find his home. Lord, he hated West Virginia. He carried that hatred not only to the grave but proclaimed it on the grave. You can look it up. 12 TRANQUILITY BASE by Eric Brace (Dry Diggin Tunes, BMI) On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Many years later, Armstrong heard this song and declared it a "fine composition." What he didn't do is answer any of the dozens of questions that make up the fine composition. Neil was heroic, but not loquacious. 13 NEWBORN WILDERNESS by Thomm Jutz, Peter Cooper, & Robert Hicks (Thomm Songs, SESAC, admin. by Bluewater Music, and Well Known Music, SESAC; and Palladio's Tower, ASCAP) Robert Hicks is a best-selling author and a preservationist and a whiskey-maker and the former owner of Roy Acuff’s last tube of Super Poli-Grip denture adhesive creme. Now he’s a songwriter too. He wrote a book called The Orphan Mother, about shame, violence, prejudice, and transcendence. In the book, former slave Mariah Reddick lives on after the murder of her son. In the song, former slave Mariah Reddick lives on after the murder of her son. 14 HENDERSONVILLE by Eric Brace (Dry Diggin Tunes, BMI) If you’d gone to Johnny Cash’s gravesite at Hendersonville Memory Gardens back before they put up the permanent headstone, in the few days when it was just-turned dirt, you might then have gotten in your van, driven east on I-40 and north up I-81, and written this love song.