Trainwreck

Here in Paradise was Loky’s debut CD, put together to display the band’s unique sound. While together they played two to three times a week, usually for three to four hours a show. Most of their songs are set up to allow for some stretch-out room, but the jamming is always there to serve the song, because they’re as much about songwriting as they are about playing.

The title song, “Here in Paradise”, leads off the album with an acoustic guitar groove and Jimmy’s distinctive lead. David sings about grownup loneliness.

“Lost in Houston” is Jimmy’s take on the country-boy-lost-in-the-city story, played at Ramones pace and accented by David’s 90s version of classic Chuck Berry licks.

The next two songs are variations on the lonely guy theme. David’s “Houston to New Orleans” is an old-fashioned “she’s gone” song with some simple harmonica accompaniment and Jimmy’s guitar impersonation of early Neil Young. Jimmy’s “Escargot” is a ballad featuring some clear harmonies and David’s meditative guitar solos.

While it sounds pretty topical at the moment, “Waiting for the President” was written in the early years of the Clinton administration as a comment on the general wierdness of power and the powerful, set to a retro rock beat. The pointed monologue was added just before recording. “Impeach this, Senator Pissant” indeed.

The twelve bars in “Twelve Bar Blues” are Houston music clubs Jimmy played during his his musical life before Loky. All the stories are true, except the ones he made up. A B3 organ resident to the Sugar Hill studio was used to add some extra color to this version.

The great pop hope on this CD is “Her Boyfriend’s Shirt”, a catchy tune inspired by a late night trip to the grocery store, the first verse and chorus written on the way home. What we really want to know is why they call it cross-dressing when a guy borrows his girlfirend’s skirt.

Jimmy’s “New Orleans” is folk funk jam tune with extended solos by both guitarists and a story about one of “those” Mardi Gras experiences back in the late 70s.

David wrote “Trainwreck” as an experiment in music and spoken word, using blues instead of the jazz/poetry beatnik thing. The contrast in Jimmy and David’s guitar styles is well displayed in the intro and in the closing guitar section.

In “Carl Brown”, Jimmy tells a man’s life story as pieced together from pictures and letters found discarded in a trash bin. “I Can’t Cry Anymore” begins as a stark litany of grief and resolves with one of David’s better guitar workouts.

Billed in concert as a “theology song”, “Angels in My House” uses layered percussion to drive a tongue-in-cheek tale of near-revelation.