I was thrilled to have my guitar buddy John Bacon ask me to join him on this classic John Prine tune. Prine wrote this song for his father and included it on his debut album back in 1971. Hope you enjoy it.

It’s been a while since I posted an original, so here’s one. “Sweet Summer” was originally written as a metaphor for love gone wrong, but for all our friends in the northern hemisphere who have had enough of winter you might take the words a bit more literally. This song first appeared on my sister Nancy Tabb Marcantel’s “Lagniappe” album back in 1976. Hope you like it.

“Lay Me Down (Roll Me Out to Sea)” is my favorite “Barry Manilow” song. I put his name in quotes because since I first heard him perform it back in the ’70s I have wrongly credited him with its authorship. In fact, this great song was written by Larry Weiss and released by Weiss in 1974. It was then covered by several others, including Glen Campbell and Manilow. It was written for piano and every recording I’ve heard of it has been piano-driven (except Campbell’s), so I tried to adapt it for guitar as best I could to suit my own playing style and abilities.

A few weeks back I watched the Willie Nelson 90th birthday special and there was a great moment when Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson performed a duet of this beautiful Kristofferson song. “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” has been covered by plenty of people, but I went back to one of Kris’s earliest performances of it to try to perform it the way he first envisioned it. Hope you like it.

“Willin'” was written by Lowell George and released by his band Little Feat in 1972 and then covered by Linda Ronstadt in 1975. While Ronstadt was an incredible singer, I still have trouble picturing her as the “drunk and dirty” truck driver who is the protagonist of this song. This is another collaboration with my great band of brothers from my online guitar group. John Bacon took the lead on this one, handling the lead vocals, rhythm acoustic guitar, and audio and video production. Ben Robert Eastman played electric baritone guitar, Gary Schoolcraft played drums, and Steve Urbi played lead electric and did the final audio mastering. I’m on keyboards and bass. Gary, Ben, and I all sang backup. Hope you enjoy this one.

Here’s a campfire song from John Denver. Denver wrote the music and Joe Henry wrote the lyrics to this fine little number and it appeared on the Windsong album in 1975. While I like to keep looking ahead, all of us of a certain age tend to get nostalgic and turn our gaze to the road behind us. Nothing fancy here, but you aspiring songwriters out there might take note of the interesting use of the alternating D and Dmaj7 chords to soften the “cowboy chords” feel of the song. Thanks for listening!

It’s very possible that you’ve never heard this great Jimmy Webb song because it’s never charted for anyone, but “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” has been covered by Glen Campbell, Judy Collins, Joe Cocker, Pat Metheny, and the incomparable Linda Ronstadt. Webb appropriated the key phrase from the title of a science fiction book (he asked permission from the author, first). In a concert I attended, Webb explained that the moon in the song actually represented two things to him. He had been through a difficult breakup with a lover and he was also going through a rough career patch, so the “harsh mistress” could represent his former girlfriend and it could also represent the pursuit of success and fame.

I wrote this little ditty sometime around 1976 and it turns out that it was pretty good advice for my future self. Here’s a little Carpe Diem song from a 20-something me who didn’t know much, but at least knew that “These Are Ours Today.” Seize the Day!

It’s the season, so I thought I should prowl onto the scene with something appropriate. According to the Songfacts website, Warren Zevon wrote “Werewolves of London” as a lark long before it was released on an album. His friend Jackson Browne liked it and started singing it in concerts and eventually produced Zevon’s Excitable Boy album that included the song. What can you do with three chords and some quirky lyrics? Well, this became Zevon’s only top-40 hit as a singer. I decided to add a drum loop to this one to help push the beat. Dim the lights and turn up the music. Better lock the doors first, though.

As a tribute to the late, great Jimmy Buffett some friends (Roger Lisenko II and Gary Schoolcraft) and I from my online guitar group have been performing a number of his songs. We decided we should do a true “party finale” by inviting a bunch of our online group to join in on the song that launched a billion-dollar empire. Turn off the news, grab your flip flops and salt shaker, and escape with us for five minutes to “Margaritaville”!