Lemonade is a bunch of songs I wrote while living under the highway overpass of life. Couple of people helped me out on sax and drums, they are named in the brief liner notes. This CD is produced in the best homegrown tradition, and while I am no Kid Charlemagne, I can guarantee they will create pleasure channels in your mind.
'I Have Found a Door' is about leaving home, and when you come back and feel like you're visiting.
'Robin Hood' is one of my childhood heroes. This tune has been called a real crowd pleaser, and it pleases me to recall when this kid threw stones at my dog so I shot an arrow into his door. Life imitates Art.
'Something ' is about May, and visiting the local music store with the loose screen door, where they also fixed bicycles. And now that I'm not a kid anymore, there is someone who can make me feel that way with her smile.
'Listening to the Radio' kept me sane through school. Talking AM band here, with the goofy sounds which came from waves bouncing off the ionosphere,
bringing in stations from NYC, Troy, Chicago, even New Orleans, whole different worlds far away from homework.
'Holdup - Lemonade' is two songs. 'Holdup' is a tune which compares holding up a train with being hopeful. 'Lemonade' goes from hopeful to couldn't care less, which is sometimes the only way out. I had a 'friend' who always came around telling me how much my playing sucked, and how I needed a singer. One day
I just started playing guitar over his talk. It didn't stop him, but I came up with this great tune. When I played it for a friend she said, "you made lemonade!"
'Flying' goes from my first plane flight at 8 in a Piper Cub, to the time I learned to fly, but the magic did not go out of it.
'Knight's Woods' kept the countryside against the spreading cities and suburbs, until only a small parcel survived, with a strange power to resist.
'Swimming Hole' is simply about a swimming hole in Texas, but on another level it is about a giant tsunami that hits the East Coast -- which shows, you can have too much off a good thing. The lead here is played on electric dulcimer, and is very relaxing, for something made up on the fly.
'Fading Away' is also about escaping from one place and suddenly appearing in another. The song explains it.
'Masterless Men' were Newfoundlanders who escaped from the slavery of the coast and lived in the interior, then they sent for their families. Anyone who could handle the winters there was welcome to stay, but no one who came looking for them was allowed out.
'Destiny Days' was written with the idea that some destiny would take care of the future, but Destiny can often be seen running through the railyard switching the tracks.
'Kodiak' --I fished there, worked there, it's a great place, but humbling to discover that the fish were smarter than me.
'Mrs. Mason's Beach.' was near the home of a friend of my Grandmother. They talked on the beach while i nearly drowned then got hammered by round rocks moving in the undertow ditch, but I kept going back in, so they figured there was nothing wrong with me. It was noisy down there, but the beach was peace and quiet, like the background of this song.
Well that about does it. I hope you enjoy the CD.
Happy Listening,
Alan Fontana
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