Nurse the Hate: Whiskey Daredevils Back To The Studio

We are heading into the studio this weekend to work on the 13^th Whiskey Daredevils full length.  It is hard to believe we have made 13 full length records.  Tack on the Cowslingers 9 full lengths, and this will be the 24^th time that Leo and I have made a full length release together.  That is either a really great accomplishment or a sad testament to a couple guys that won’t give up no matter how much the world shits on them.  It might be both.

I had an original goal of when I got with The Cowslingers to play out on a stage once, just to say that I did it.  After I discovered that a) it was harder than it looked and b) really fun, I got hooked on it.  It also helped that I could write songs fairly easily.  Soon enough we were chasing the dragon of trying to make a good record.  With 24 releases with an average of 11 originals on each one, that means I have been involved with writing 250+ songs with the various deviants that have been members of The Cowslingers and Whiskey Daredevils.  Please note, they haven’t all been masterpieces.  In fact, there is a friend of mine that I run into once a year.  Each and every time I see him he says the same thing.  “How’s the band going?  Hey, what was the name of that one song?  Dirty Sanchez?  Yeah…  I never liked that one.  Do you still play that?”.

Look, with 250 songs, they can’t all be hits.  Cut me some slack.  It was 16 years ago when “Dirty Sanchez” came out.  I was playing 110 shows a year and working a “real” full time job.  I didn’t have time to sleep much less be relied upon to come up with album’s worth of material with a sliver of depth.  There were song ideas in the van that sounded amazing that didn’t come off exactly like we had hoped.  The drummer from Man or Astroman? talked some shit about “Hogtied” in an interview once too.  I am not saying he didn’t have a valid point about the song being annoying.  Give me a break.  It was the third song I ever wrote.  I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was trying to please The Chief with it.  I should have followed “my muse”, but I don’t think I had found “my muse” at that point.  Having a “muse” is sort of like having a really good hair stylist.  You can have a good one, and then suddenly they’re gone without warning.  It’s not easy to find a muse.  Look it up.

With the sheer repetition of writing and playing, I think we’ve gotten to be pretty decent at it.  Every once in a while, a really good one comes out and the basement comes to life.  Everyone will exchange glances when we finish it for the first time and someone will say “Hey…  That’s pretty good…” to which Leo will inevitably say “Yeah man, it’s great!  This next record is going to be our best one yet!”.  A secret insider tip about the Cowslingers/Daredevils in the studio…  After each take, Leo will say “Yeah!  That sounded perfect.  I know I didn’t make any mistakes…”  Then someone might say something like “I think it got a little wobbly on the corners”.  That’s when Leo will say “OK.  I will do it again.  I don’t know if I can do it any better than I just did…”  Then we do another take.  Chances are, it might be better.  We all sit on the couch in the control room and listen to it.  Everyone looks down at the floor absorbed in their own part listening for flaws.  There is a silence after the tape stops.  Leo will say “This record is going to be really good.  I think it’s our best one yet!”  That’s the key to it.  Tricking yourself into thinking the best is yet to come.

You know what?  This time, I think he might be right.  (insert winking smiley face emoji here)