We set up a couple of cameras and a couple of mics. I warmed up, dressed up, then sat down in front of the lights and played a few songs from Maheekats first release, God Has a Cadillac Too.
It was challenging because there really wasn’t much else besides me and a song. These aren’t cover songs either. They are the creations that Craig and I have released years ago.
The background videos and imagery were added for extra interest. The first one, for the song Reading Into Stuff, features icebergs, sending a message that I’m breaking the ice in this series.
For the second song, I chose to do Stone. It’s one of my favorite songs from the album because it features Craig singing on it as well as his own lyrics.
Background imagery includes footage of Glacier National Park, a mountainous and rocky region.
Finally, the third song chosen for this series was Mr. Radio Man. It’s a song that was written in my poetry reading days. You can really hear how well the Baby Taylor plays in this song. It is my favorite acoustic guitar to date.
The background shows footage of the beatnik era. I think I’m a beatnik!
Have you ever seen a painting called Ascent of the Blessed by Hieronymus Bosch? It’s a sixteenth century painting which expresses the journey of souls towards a light at the end of a tunnel. Angels help the souls on their way to Heaven. You can read more about it here: http://www.hieronymusbosch.net/ascent-of-the-blessed/
I first learned about Hieronymus Bosch’s work from a song called Garden of Earthly Delights by XTC. If you haven’t seen that one, here’s a picture of a puzzle I put together of it.
If you haven’t heard the song, you should listen to it now…
I had an experience one evening, as I pulled the wet curtain and stepped out of the shower; I started to see through a tunnel. It was happening while I grabbed my towel. Dripping hair and all, the only thing I could do was gently wrap the towel around my vulnerable body and sit down. My throat swelled and tears started flowing. I could see it, but more than that, I could feel it. There was an indescribable color of light. It was a tunnel without walls, but you knew which way to go. I didn’t go anywhere. I was grounded yet so incredibly high. It was extraordinarily beautiful. The experience lasted for about a minute, if that. I didn’t want it to end, but I knew it had to. It gently and ever so slowly drifted away.
This wasn’t the only experience I’ve had like this, but this was the strongest.
I love recalling this memory and there are a few other Maheekat songs that incorporate a description of the feeling. The Emptiness and Eureka are two of them.
With Indigo, we tried to describe just the color and the associated feeling.
The original song didn’t include the narrative in the bridge. I told Craig what the song was about, he has experienced similar other-worldly states. One time he experienced something while surfing huge waves at Rincon. He could see through the veil of reality… or should I say… what people call reality in their cars going up and down freeways. People tend to hide from nature, protect themselves from it. That lifestyle is not true reality. Nature is. It’s in the way the earth is alive. A being of its own moving through the solar system.
Like me, this wasn’t Craig’s only experience. He’s had many more than I.
The narration was performed and recorded by Barry Somers of 10Radio in England. Listening to 10Radio is a completely different story, one we’ll most likely write about in a future post.
As usual, Craig played most of the instruments on the recording, including the slide guitar lead, which is one of my favorite parts of the tune. It really brings in the dreaminess element on top of a well-grounded groove.
The cover of the album was from a picture I had taken at a small Sierra Mountain lake. There are Fae folk that live around there. It’s a really beautiful place.
Lyrics:
Looking up I lifted my arms to the sky
As if I couldn’t know
I didn’t know that magic was real and I cried
Threw my hands to the ground
Hold on I think that I get it
I never believed it true
Just when I think that I get it
I’m left in the trust of you
Indigo, Indigo, Indigo, Indigo, Indigo, Indigo
Indigo, I reached through my mind to let go
Dusting off the love that I found on the edge
What a find intertwined
Hold on I think that I get it
I never believed it true
Just when I think that I get it
I’m left in the trust of you
With hues of blue
Indigo, Indigo, Indigo, Indigo, Indigo, Indigo
We live here but we’re disconnected
We hide within ourselves
So distant in our little boxes
Making ourselves foreign to the landscape
Cliffs, hills, giant waves on the ocean
Disipating into nothing right on the beach
Nature is reality
We’re just these little organisms running around on the surface
Domicile I’m thinking of
Holds the truth of long ago
Ahh
This song is about a feeling I had when an employer of mine moved away. After work, we used to sit and have tea and biscuits on her back patio which overlooked her lovely flower garden. At times I felt frustrated with the work, so I would hurry up and finish early so I could sit and chat with her. I learned so much. In the end, life moved on to find another bread & butter job and I felt broken by process.
I didn’t want the last line to have a true rhyme because I wanted to give the feeling of floating and not wanting to fall.
Lyrics…
When it breaks, it breaks me down
Down Oh!
Cold water under the bridge
Icicles upon the hedge
If you go far away
Away
Swirling wind under your throne
So much ringing drone
When it breaks, it breaks me down
In the middle of the end
Floating on a razor’s edge
“The Pretenders influenced ‘Without Horizons’ acts as the EP’s biggest step into straight-forward alternative rock, not that’s a bad thing. The riffs featured on the song once again highlight the wide and talented vocals of Maheekats and the quality of the production (and mixing) are of a fantastic quality. The greatest element of ‘Without Horizons’is that it features some of the EP’s most well-written lyrics. These lyrics read as poetry and arise as the songs ultimate feature after each listen. Musically it sounds like a seventies inspired heavy rock song but practices a subtle hint of nineties era alternative/garage musical expansion which propels it to be greater after reading (or in this case listening) into it.” READ MORE
Lyrics:
Without horizons there’s a girl beside the road
And like a diamond she is rough around the soul
Go, yeah, go
Time is standing so still around you now
Time is bending a curve around you now
Facing a mirror there’s a man who goes to hell
And like an angel he is fighting with himself
Go, yeah, go
Time is standing so still around you now
Time is bending a curve around you now
They say I’ll get there when I wake up
But when I wake up I’ll be dreaming
And in my dream I’ll watch the time
Time is standing so still
Time is standing so still around you now
Time is bending a curve around you now
