Empty Wallet

This song is one of my favorites of Joe’s, and this recording is, I think, one of the best I have made yet.

We were very fortunate to have many superlative local musicians appear on The Right Place: and Leslie Alperin on Cello.

This song features David DiGiuseppe on mandolin, and Bill Hicks on fiddle. The interplay between their parts is just remarkable. I wish we had thought to put them together on more of the cuts!

Enjoy.

I Just Want To Pray Alone

This song was another one of the batch of three we began working on in late 1997. I had not played a lot of this kind of country gospel before (being a New York Jew after all), but my years spent listening to Jerry Garcia paid off and I took right to it.

I remember throwing in the chorus part during the break right before mixdown to surprise Joe.

To me the pure spirit of songs like this transcends any particular religious doctrine or ideology or even identity. There is something at the core of a song like this, or I’ll Fly Away (another song I learned from Joe that I love) that is common to us all.

Monica

This song was one of the most fun to record of all the songs I've done with Joe because of its bouncy beat. It was also fun being the only other instrumentalist than Joe. Working with the guest players on The Right Place was a rare treat and honor, but there was something really neat about the tracks we did just the two of us.

A light, fun track about “a chubby hippy wearing Kmart blue jeans.”

He Ain’t Crazy

At the point we were working on this song it was the second batch of songs Joe had brought to me. In early 1997 we had done two songs together, basically with me just recording a demo. But I had offered to play guitar, and it has worked well. Now at the end of 1997 he had three more songs.

It was early in our relationship still, and I heard electric guitar parts for Joe’s songs. Joe, on the other hand, insisted on keeping it all acoustic. But we did use electric bass, and for this song I play a very un-acoustic sounding backup to Joe’s performance. This blend of mostly acoustic instruments and music with an electric rock sensibility became a big part of the synergy that developed between Joe and myself in the years that followed.

The Sheriff

The Sheriff is another wild west type of story that Joe likes to work with. This song’s hero is in the unenviable position of having left behind, but remaining haunted by a past life of crime. He is doing his best to live a good life, though, so you have to sympathize with him. Living with regret is part of the bargain for most of us. The guy in this song is looking his past straight in the eye and is being honest. He earns the second chance he gets later on.

I think there is a great deal to be said for that kind of honesty. It is one of the things I really like about Joe’s songs – his characters are honest and clear.

I Don’t Know Why

This is just a beautiful song.