For me, songs come from life experience and life experience is recounted in stories. The stories behind the songs may be complex or they may be as simple as a stray thought that came knocking. Regardless, the stories and lyrics follow. Make of them what you will...
The Bridge – Mark J. Pistrang
After a wonderful long weekend at the Strawberry Music Festival in the Spring of 2002 we decided to prolong our trip by camping several days at Joshua Tree National Park. This decision proved to be a good one…. A few days later while trying to make up for lost driving time we began seeing signs for a detour off the interstate in eastern Oklahoma. No problem… if you’ve driven across the country you are used to these minor inconveniences…. usually off at one side of an exit and right back on the other. When we got to the detour exit though, we saw otherwise. The road we had been detoured to went off at a 90 degree angle from the freeway as far as the eye could see. And as far as the eye could see there was a slow, steady line of cars. It didn’t take long for the typical driving frustrations to set in…. “why is that guy going so slow?” “where in the world is this road taking us?” “We’ll never make it to Arkansas by dark”, “will you kids SETTLE DOWN back there!!”. As we plodded on through tiny farming communities, I was hypnotized by the sights and sounds of rural America. It looked as though time had stopped in these towns 50 yrs ago. Kids were lining the road just watching the cars go by…. and people had set up yard sales on every other corner trying to capitalize on the sudden influx of “tourists”. Most simply stared straight ahead and drove on through. Two hours later we got back to I-40 and by what we could tell from the map, had only gained about 15 miles toward our eventual destination. Two days later, back at work, a co-worker asked how the trip had gone. “Incredible” I said, “But there was this huge detour in Oklahoma that we never could figure out.” “What do you mean?” he said. “Didn’t you hear about that bridge?”. As it turns out, a barge had gone out of control and hit the bridge pilings on a large span that crosses the Arkansas River. Car after car had plunged into the murky waters below, unable to discern that there was any problem before it was too late. When it was all done, fourteen people had died. My reaction to that story was this song. My frustrations related to the inconvenience of the two hour detour came back and slapped me in the face. How petty that I should worry about travel time when others had just lost their lives. The song features two emotions… the verse contains my feelings of frustration that day… the chorus takes the “don’t worry, be happy” approach. Enjoy life!!
Bull Durham - Mark J. Pistrang
It was 1985 and I had just moved to Durham, NC to attend graduate school at Duke University. One of the first nights there a bunch of students were heading off to a “Bulls Game”. What’s that I wondered? Turned out to be minor league baseball at it’s best, complete with a recorded version of Doc Watson flatpicking “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” during the 7th inning stretch. Sam Bush, a baseball fan and one of my favorite musicians, has recorded an instrumental version of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. Don’t you think he needs this song?? For the record, this song was written before the movie….
Four Out Of Five - Mark J. Pistrang
My friend Meg and I stay in touch via e-mail. We have been known to go for long periods of time without corresponding and it was after one of those long silences that I received a note that simply said “What do you suppose the fifth dentist was thinking?” Pretty mindless stuff really, but good fodder for a song!! There have been a bunch of TV commercials lately depicting that legendary fifth dentist and I kinda feel like Meg and I really beat them all to the punch!
Job For The Money - Mark J. Pistrang
Finally, a simple song with a simple tune that really doesn’t have any deep meaning or purpose! In college my friend Pete Chadwick and I always joked about selling everything we had, buying a van, and heading off to Mexico. The funniest part about that was…. We had nothing to sell!!! In this song, those thoughts are transposed to the workplace.
Oh Boy, Oh Girl - Mark J. Pistrang
As we grow older we put up barriers and cease to make friends like we did when we were kids. For two years we camped next to the same people at the Strawberry Music Festival without hardly saying hello. It was our kids that “forced” us all to become the good friends we are today. This is a simple tune about simple times that we should hold on to like life itself!!
Mississippi Moon - Mark J. Pistrang
Gulfport Mississippi is one of the strangest places I’ve ever visited. I was down there for a conference and was completely taken aback by the whole place. Apparently the only thing that goes on down there is gambling and work associated with the shipping industry. The beaches were polluted and vacant. There were no quaint little shops and restaurants. Just a bunch of giant casinos, warehouses, and bail bond offices. About the third day down there I hooked up with some people who had a rental car and we drove down the coast a few miles until we found a restaurant that was not affiliated with a casino. The place was called “The Fish and Bones”. We sat out on their deck under an ink black sky with a crescent moon. As the waitress brought yet another beer, we loosened up and began to tell stories about our past. Somewhere in there I was lost in the moment watching some poor, hapless fisherman trying to get his boat up onto his trailer with no-one to help him. The song was mostly written before I made it back to the hotel room.
Nights In Georgia Days In Tennessee - Mark J. Pistrang
In 1993 I took a job with the Cherokee National Forest in Cleveland, TN. I had been working in Athens, GA and Wendy was working in Gainesville, GA, but now we were in a spot…. We looked at a map and found the town of Ellijay, GA roughly halfway between our two places of employment. Ellijay was a really neat, small mountain town, but we only saw it by the light of day on the weekends….. This is the story of our commute!!
Sixteen Years - Mark J. Pistrang
We travel a whole lot… sometimes by car, sometimes by plane. The plane is great when you need to get somewhere quick but you miss so much in between. After one of our cross country car trips I started thinking how it seems like you gain almost a year’s worth of memories from one day on the road. This song is based on that concept and loosely chronicles our 16 day trip from Tennessee to California and back.
Strawberry Jam - Mark J. Pistrang
There is a tradition at the Strawberry Music Festival that involves arising early in the morning and waiting in line to place your chairs on the meadow. After a late night of frolicking and rambling from camp jam to camp jam, 5am comes like a shock, yet there I go…...
Two Shots A Day - Mark J. Pistrang
Christopher Jay Pistrang was Diagnosed with Type I Juvenile Diabetes on March 13th, 2000. At the time he was 20 months old. We’ve come a long way in our ability to manage his diabetes including switching from daily injections to an insulin pump, but he still deals with the dramatic swings (highs and lows) of blood sugars. It’s easy to get depressed in these situations but the guiding light for having a positive outlook is Christopher himself. He has such resilience and refuses to let the disease keep him from being a fun loving kid. This song came to me while listening to Kathy Mattea perform “Love at the five and dime” on the Strawberry Stage. I don’t remember a whole lot about her show because I was too busy processing this song. Song writing is that way sometimes….. This song is a testimonial to Christopher’s resilience and refusal to let the disease slow him down. Christopher Jay Pistrang…. Cured (date here).
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