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nz rowman / tug of war

by the salt wells

supported by
Samuel Sturdivant
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natebreeding
natebreeding thumbnail
shane patrick boyle
shane patrick boyle thumbnail
Nathan James
Nathan James thumbnail
/
1.
"no such thing as a vampire" 06:18
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2.
hunger-like sadness 05:07
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3.
#homefires 04:31
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4.
i thought you told me 03:17
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5.
a beer to laugh, cocaine to cry 04:21
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6.
keys to the kingdom 05:20
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7.
#homefries 03:57
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8.
sand in the eye (of g-d) 04:51
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about

the songs on 'tug of war' bridge a difficult period of time. these are the
songs that have kept me going until i was able to lay them down. may
that you have a source of creative force or object in your life as well...

the year was 2005. the winter was a cold one. too cold to be walking
with nowhere to go. too cold to be driving after dark. this was before
i ever read 'if on a winter's night a traveler ...', before darkness ended.

it wasn't long before i found myself alone. it wasn't long before i'd lost
what i believed i wanted. it was long before i knew of the differences
between fantasy and dream. or maybe i knew the difference, but just

didn't want to know. i am really not sure now. these songs are not so
irreparable, just concrete examples of what happened once creative
momentum was lost. may that it not happen like this for you. may that

your perpetual inner torque carry you beyond the coals & fire, beyond
the ones who secretly harm you, beyond the lost incident on 47th St.,
beyond whatever it is that haunts you, threatening what you will be.

let's make our friendship about winter. let's make our encounter about
what is good for you & me. let's build snowmen until we are older than
45 and not ever worry we're not acting our age. let's live not die. let's..

________ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ ________


a poem i wrote in college (with notes from my professor, Ralph Burns):

_ _ _


let’s call
winter
‘despair’

_ _ _


R.B. _ (Daniel, I like the way you handle these short lines, and the
"argument" as it mounts. I have to say, though, that I don't think
the title and reference to Cthulhu is helping you. Right now it
seems extraneous.)

_ _ _


the birdseed
we scatter
‘hope’

despondence
‘ice
in coffee’

having no foot-
hold
‘nil’

a broken
empty
cup
‘half empty’

or
‘a room
for improvement’

_ _ _


R.B. _ (Right here, beginning with you meditation on "lack" and its
associations, I think you strain. You might need more here, or a
clearer argument.)

_ _ _


and the lack
the lack

let’s call the lack for
‘a better word
than love’

_ _ _


R.B. _ (This close almost seems to want to lean on something more
personal, an event or memory. Not something private,
understand, something personal.)

_ _ _

_ _ _


thank you each and everyone

credits

released April 22, 2016

these songs all go back to the nz rowman days or before. many of
them were not recorded until much later. hence, the record title 'nz
rowman / tug of war' ... it is similar to 'laurel canyon incident' in this
way.

_ _ _

tracks 1 -8:
_ _ _

'no such thing is a vampire' borrows its title form a richard matheson
story and is basically a rewrite of 'hunger-like sadness' i did in 2013.
i recorded it in 2015 in an attic in argenta.

'hunger-like sadness' is a song i wrote in the summer of 2005. it
originally was arranged for piano. i was overseas in 2007 and
transcribed it there for guitar. i also added a bridge. this was recorded
on vine st. in nlr in 2015.

#homrfries goes back to the song pieces days (2002 - 2004), and is the
way i originally recorded it in a block2loft in 2003.

'i thought you told me' goes back to the song pieces days as well. the
music was written in 2003, and the lyrics come from a notebook i kept
notes for an intermediate french class in. this was recorded in 2013 in
in a parlor apartment in macarthur park.

'a beer to laugh, cocaine to cry' is a rip on the bob dylan song 'it takes
a lot to laugh, it takes a train to cry'. no pun intended. this was the last
song i recorded with my original tascam. it was the last song for a lot
of things. it was recorded in 2005 at kent & steve's in stifft station.

'keys to the kingdom' was a song i wrote in the fall of 2005 & spring of
2006 on a borrowed guitar. this was recorded on vine st. in nlr.

#homefires was written sometime in 2008. it was recorded in an attic
in argenta in 2015.

'sand in the eye' was another song i originally arranged for piano. the
idea for the song came to me in a dream. i think it was in 2006. it took
me a while to transcribe it to guitar due to it having no tonal center. it
is a slippery slope of a song. i recorded this in the winter of 2013 with
a headcold in a parlor apartment in macarthur park.

_ _ _


the bonus material (9 - 14) consists of three reworkings of two of my
songs (9, 10, & 14) & one reworking of a beatles song (11) i recorded
in 2014, one of the song pieces from 2003 (13), and a yoko ono song
i recorded in 2015 as part of a 25 songs in 25 days challenge.

_ _ _

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the salt wells Arkansas

the salt wells began as a homerecording project in 2002. this came to include freak out improvisations, spontaneous compositions, & collaborative songwriting with stacy hartoon, greg wallace, junko hayashi, & alex moomey. by 2004 more than two cassettes had been produced and the salt wells included contributions from mikey hayes & david simpington, again with jessie floyd & sophia ramone in 2010. ... more

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