mojo monkeys
blessings & curses
1.bodacious
for the kickass girls
2.enough
for america... and red blooded american girls
3.can't say no
for the bad girls
4.girl might do
for the mystery girls
5.beating dead horses
for the little conservative in all of us
6.baton rouge
for west texas
7.in the wind
for artists everywhere...blessings on y'all. keep on keepin on
8.californialabama
for the bad boys
9.monkeythumb
may all your curses be blessings in disguise
10.she'll be alright
for the gigsville girls
11.dirty money
for our fair city
12.our curse
for the broken ones
13.the mockingbird song
for the birds and the sirens in the city of the angels..keep on singing
mojo monkeys:
billy watts: guitars, mandolin, banjo, dobro, vocals
taras prodaniuk: bass, vocalsœœ
david raven: vocals, drums, percussion, bad accoustic guitar & harmonica on "baton rouge"
additional musicians:
phil parlapiano: hammond organ
terry wilson: additional bass and keyboard on "girl might do"
doug pettibone: pedal steel on "in the wind"
lee thornburg: trumpet on "our curse"
marvin etzione: accoustic guitar, piano, harmonica, on "the mockingbird song"
medikull records
songs by raven, prodaniuk, and watts, except:
"girl might do" by raven, watts, prodaniuk, terry wilson
"can't say no" by raven, watts, wilson
"baton rouge" and "the mockingbird song" by raven
all songs mojomonkeymusic.bmi
recorded at honky abbey by michael dumas, david raven
except "californialabama" basic track recorded at rekordio by matt quave
mixed at honky abbey by david raven
mastered by todd herfindal at hi point studios los angeles
photos by beth wimmer, kessia embry
cover art by david raven
design/layout by buck a.e. downe
mojomonkeys.com
in memory of hurricane jake fitzgerald
blessings & curses liner notes.
we decided to make our cds in small eco wallets, so there wasn't room for me to write all the stuff i wanted to write.
blessings & curses was a long labor of love. after we'd written about 25 songs and recorded about 20, we tried to make it into an album. the title seemed to be the only theme that ran through the whole project. a lot has happened since we started that record. these songs are all pure expressions of moments, and some are so different, they didn't seem to belong on the same record. after wrestling with it for a few months, we said, ok, we like all these 13 songs. we put them in the order that we liked listening to them,
like always with mojo monkeys, we never fought. we have disagreements over things, but we talk like adults, and we always come to a consensus. i've never been in a band, or a family for that matter, with the kind of solidarity, mutual respect, and love as this band. i would say we're like brothers, except brothers always fight.
we started about 20 years ago. our musical chemistry was the most natural thing. our writing process is as follows:
we show up at a studio.
we start playing music.
sometimes an arrangement happens the 1st time we play the idea.
sometimes, we whittle and mold it into an arrangement.
i mumble a melody into a microphone.
i take like 3 years trying to write some lyrics, then they fall out of the sky, and i put them in the song.
then overdubbing, mixing, editing, post pro blah blah blah.
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