Album Notes

Raised on country and American folk, baptized as a youth in 70s "Southern rock" (Skynyrd, Tucker, Outlaws, Hatchet, ZZ Top, Allmans, etc.), then rounded out as an adult by artists as diverse as Joe Satriani, Collective Soul, Los Lobos, Nightnoise and Loreena McKennitt, Coke Newell has been playing the guitar since 1974. But as a widely published author (see Amazon or Google or www.cokenewell.com), and composer of all his songs, Coke focuses as much on the lyrics of a song as he does the music.

"There are lyrical phrases, word selections, lengths and intonations that fit a song, and there are those that don't," he says. "I'll sit and play a tune for hours, for days, for weeks until I discover the story it's trying to tell. Sometimes a guitar riff will suggest the story, the lyric, and sometimes it's the other way around.

"Take 'Hot Guitars' off this album, for instance. One day at work... my real job... I was in a cantankerous mood and I just blurted this out: I thank the Lord and my lucky stars for warm-hearted women and hot guitars. Everybody looked at me and laughed, but I knew I had a song. And that the song would have some sass."

Married to his childhood sweetheart, and father of seven children, Coke's sass and style are mature and practiced, but his material is never offensive lyrically. Most of his tunes are, in fact, "love songs," many to his wife. "I'm not angry, and I'm not out to thrash anyone," he adds. "This is just good, spicy, ragged rock and roll. I'm having fun."