 and welcome to the next stage you'll be watching us on channel 15 on your cable channel you can also pick us up on you verse 99 and catered 95.7 on your radio dial tonight we have a real good treat we have a man come down from Lake Tahoe area where he's a legend I hear and we're real proud to have him down here for the next stage show so the next hour two hours or so Tuck Wilson is gonna entertain us with his own original songs which I've heard him before and I'm really looking forward to this and Tuck I'll ask you some questions later but right now I think everybody'd like to hear some music wonderful thank you Kirk and feel free to stop me anytime after a few songs and if you think of something you think people would like to know about my songwriting or myself we just won't talk about my past kidding a little bit later I'll remind me to tell you how the inspiration for this song came because this is this is a one there's a look in your eyes a look at total devotion and that look in your eyes says that it had to be me there's a feeling inside me becomes where the flood of emotion and that look in your eyes is what said at all free there's a look in your eyes every time I'm beside you and that look in your eyes says that you were in love there's a feeling inside me wanting to be here beside you and I look in your eyes and I know this must be love and this must be love that I'm feeling inside I can't get away from it I don't want to try there's a nowhere to run and there's nowhere to hide because you're all that I can think of your eyes will you don't have to say what you're thinking and look in your eyes says there's been no mistake because I just can't help but be thinking love you was my lucky break the love that I'm feeling inside I can't get away from it I don't want to try there's a nowhere to run and there's no where to hide because you're all that I can think of don't have to say what you're thinking because that look in your eyes says there's been no mistake inside because I just can't help but be thinking inside I can't get away from it I don't want to try there's a nowhere to run and there's no I can think of the next song is called uh what is it called love me tonight there we go got the whole song in my mind everything but the the name don't say it's wrong I don't know what's right I don't want to think about that tonight so hold me just hold me tight as tight as you can don't talk of dreams don't talk at all just hold me close enough to break down your walls and love me love me tonight as much as you can don't care about what others might say just hold me closer and ask me to stay something about you is easy and free so let it draw you to me talk of dreams don't waste the words love is the music and we are the courts so hold me just hold me tight as tight as you can what others might say just hold me closer and ask me to stay something about you is easy and free so let it draw you to me talk of dreams don't talk at all just hold me close enough to break down your walls and love me love me tonight all night if you can so hold me just hold me tight and love me again well as Kirk mentioned I in the introduction I live up to Tahoe I really want to thank these guys for inviting me down to play here what next the stage it's a real treat to be in a TV studio and everything sounds great and I'm loving it but you know we've done a couple of serious love songs I think we need a little change of pace here so I'd like to do a song that I wrote I wrote write some songs about life in a ski town and and living at Tahoe so this one's called living on Tahoe time you know there's the whole world runs on Greenwich Mean Time and then we have our time zones of Atlantic Time and Pacific Time and Mountain Time and when you get to Tahoe that all goes out the window we got our own Tahoe time I woke up today to a sky so blue it's where it's almost too good to be true it's a day for the beach lying out in the sun ignoring those piles of work to be done so I pour some tequila squeezing a line living on Tahoe time oh yeah I'm living on Tahoe time well I quit a good job and took out my guitars spending the evenings now playing in bars struggling at times just to make the ends meet may not be long till I'm out on the street come time to retire I won't have a dime thanks to living on Tahoe time oh yeah living on Tahoe time wake up tomorrow make a new start be more responsible do something smart I could start my new habits by seizing the day I could reset my watch but I threw it away so I think I'll just buy more tequila and mimes and keep living on Tahoe time oh yeah I'm living on Tahoe time like to do another slow one this is one of my favorites called I didn't have to love you I didn't have to love you and I didn't have to care I didn't have to open up give my heart to you to share could have stood apart from you I could have played it cool let myself be vulnerable to being someone's fool but there'd be one more lost and lonely man looking for meaning in a meaningless world have to love me oh you could have passed me by give yourself even take the time to try you could have been another ship that passed me in the night you didn't have to change your course and be my guiding light there'd be one more lost and lonely man looking for meaning in a meaningless world wasn't hard to love you wasn't hard to care open up give my life to you to share I didn't need a second chance didn't take a second look I saw that fire in your eyes babe that was all it took to take one more lost and lonely man and put meaning in his meaningless world this is a song that I haven't done for many years but my freshman year in college I came back from the dining hall and somebody said hey Eli's here Eli's here whoever that Eli was you know but that seemed to excite a bunch of the sophomores and juniors and so there was an apartment off-campus and this guy was hanging out there and a whole bunch of people gathered probably 2025 people gathered and he stayed around for about three days and he kind of was a facilitator of the best bull session you can ever imagine in college and this guy I mean they talked all kinds of philosophy and metaphysics and all kinds of stuff and then he just packed up and headed off and I gather he was basically this is was the way that he lived he went from college campus to college campus in the during the school year and would spend a couple days at each school when you know people would bring a little food to keep him going and when his jeans wore out they'd somebody give him a pair of their jeans and when his shirt wore out somebody give it so here's a guy who's just living hand-to-mouth at other people's generosity but nobody was begrudging it because they just really loved having him there and and he was contributing in his own way but it fascinated me to see somebody who wasn't too worried about his 401k and his retirement savings and that kind of stuff so there's no plane I gotta catch is nothing like bumming a match I'll keep on living free all I own is myself but there's nobody else can make a claim on me all I have is a quarrel eat them worse than I take them buy all the tickets to freedom is just while your pride just stick out your thumb catch your eye somewhere you've never seen might be Denver today or next week San Francisco Bay all have you ever been to New Orleans I have is a quarter dirty shirt worse than I take them buy call me a parasite you know they might be right but I wouldn't trade with those who think they've got it then again I've got nothing to trade another friend who he'd worked for a few years for the Southern Pacific Railroad and he used to on the weekends just go down the freight yards and hop on a train and disappear Friday afternoon and late Sunday night or Monday morning he'd be back on another train you know I'm growing up I'd heard about hobos but he's the only person I knew who was was actually hobo and then he said don't you know don't even think of trying it cuz first of all freight yards are very dangerous places and secondly he said you know somebody who works for the railroad catches you out there they'll beat you to a pulp but you know he says I can still got a union card I can flash and they'll I'm okay but I like that and I liked songs that had a little bit of train sounds on the guitar so I decided I was try a little bit of that there and then try to get that train whistle going Spending my days hiding out in the railroad yard I didn't have much luck trying to thumb a ride in a car riding the box cars may not be traveling in style but it's the cheapest way I know of covering miles so hey mr. breakman won't you please leave me alone trying to get her out on a train that'll get me back home listen to the sound of the freight train whistles scream keep a pinching myself saying wake up it's only a dream catch a ride all the way back east by rail catch you at its son you know they're gonna lock you up in a jail hey mr. breakman won't you please leave me alone train that'll get me back home I'm trying to get her out on a train that'll get me back home from Arizona to Tennessee sometimes I rode with cows but I got there free I'm gonna use that money to buy a little music instead cuz America's the land of the free and the grateful dead yeah give me a break man won't you please leave me trying to get her out on a train that'll get me back trying to get her out on a train that'll take me trying to get her out on a train get back home like to do a song this is called don't tell me and this actually was a poem that was written by my sister Lee and I read it and I thought hmm I bet I could put some music to that so I did and I got a chance to play it for a few months later and she hated it took me many years to play it for her again and she said you know actually it's kind of nice it's just hard when you write something and you have a mental image of it and then you hear it in a different way don't tell me how much you love her I once loved her too her clear blue eyes radiant smile and just knowing she loved me too don't tell me how soft her skin is I knew it long before you and the curve of her back the tilt of her chin and her laugh I love that too come tell me tell me how much you love her and I look for some small clue to tell me that though you may love her she doesn't she couldn't love you yep yeah sorry about that sorry about that yep is another one I haven't done a long time but looking forward to it this kind of a hokey country song of mine and you had booked a day in the life of Ivan Denisovich and you had the Beatles a day in the life so I decided this would be a week in the life of Tuck Wilson then I decided I liked the title a life in the week rather than a week in the life on Monday and on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon I told you I was leaving in my car and on Thursday and on Friday well I said I'd do it soon now it's Saturday here we are is it wanting to hear the things you say to please me just to see you smile when I come home well I guess there's something in the way you squeeze me doesn't let me stray for when I roll yes in January February March April and May I told you I was itching to move on the June July and August when winter came to stay and I'm still here I haven't gone is it wanting to hear the things you say to please me just to see you smile when I come home yes I guess there's something in the way you squeeze me doesn't let me stray for when I roll so I pack my bags each morning when I kiss you goodbye my will for leaving somehow disappears I guess we ought to face or at least we've got to try better now than in another 20 years is it wanting to hear the things you say to please me just to see you smile when I come home yes I guess there's something in the way you squeeze me doesn't let me stray for when I roll how about an American kid that's a change of pace you're gonna know this is an old song just by that the topic but this dates to a few years after the Vietnam War was over and what would what we should do about the folks who had gone to Canada if if anything let him rot or let him come home so I wrote this song it's called an American kid it was in high school he would cruise the strip listen into rock and roll and be in him he never cared a whole lot about politics can't compete in teenage hearts with cars and chicks he's an American kid in your hometown but there's thousands more just like in if you look around downtown never thought about or felt the change the campus was in turmoil and things got strange when they burnt the rots he built and he was on the news must have been a shock to my but here is views he's an American kid from your hometown but there's thousands more just like in if you take a look and have the guts to call it they sent the kids and then they called up more and more when Billy got his notice late July we'd never be a part of such a lie he's an American kid but what the heck there's thousands more just like and now up in Quebec singing oh Canada the home of the brain haven't for a generation we betrayed oh Canada and other free beacon of the world of what we claim to be and well he's made a brand new start they can't come home for holidays it breaks his mother's heart it's time to give what's due to all the boys who went to fight to do the same for those who stood for what they saw was right they're all American kids with no hometowns but it was thousand just like them who finally got that war songs about people now these are real people right that you've mad over the the time or is this a compilation of most of my songs come from come from personal experience a lot of them are written from people I meet in the mirror oh there you go and some of them just yeah some of them just I get an idea and there's nothing to do with anybody or anything but I just flesh it out it's a work of fiction like any other fiction but it sounds great I just wondering what kind of strings do you use to on that and do you prefer any harmonica over another one those are both good questions the strings that I like these are Martin studio on performance Martin S&P and I use them on all of my guitars just like the way they send like the way they feel I play a pretty fair number of hours a guitar and so coated strings are very popular these days I do not buy coated strings and the reason that I don't is they're designed to keep the oils from your fingers from dirtying the strings but I play enough that I actually wear the strings out against the frets so when I take the string off you can see these little divots look like half the moons out of the strings so having a coated string isn't gonna isn't gonna help that if you're playing less often and especially if your hands sweat a lot then the coated strings will keep the life going but I'm actually wearing out the strings rather than having them get dirty so well I learned some every day just talking to the musicians that come through here you know I would not have guessed that coated strings made any difference but that's me you know piano a little bit I really like your collection of harmonica is there is there any key that you prefer being in I mean is your voice in a certain key that seems to fit the harmonica actually the reason I have a collection of harmonicas is these harmonicas are all each one plays in one key so I've got eight of them sitting here because every time I write a song in a different key I need a different harmonica so I like the Lee Oscars I use them Hohner makes great harmonicas as well I've just gotten so I like the the Lee Oscars and you know every year they go up a little bit in price and they used to be an inexpensive thing you could buy and now they so you don't get those big ones where you can just change a key with a punch of a button well you're all in one key on these yeah with these you're in one key if you were just a harmonica player you'd get one of those big probably you know I think they call them echo when they travel yeah and right and they're called chromatic when you have that can push it in because then he can play any note on the scale oh okay and so the these are chromatic so it means they are they have one scale but the ones that push in are a lot more versatile but now you got to hold it with one hand be able to push with the other I can't I don't have any hands-free so so for hands-free harmonica playing you got to kind of stay steep yeah I never saw Neal earlier Dylan playing excuse me while I stop the guitar go up I don't have the luxury of being my own harmonica player usually so so what brought you to Davis I remember seeing you and hearing you in the park and that's what gave me the idea to bring you here in the first place so well I appreciate that you did because I'm loving doing this my daughter went to UC Davis and she's been living here in Davis since she graduated so it's a blue devil there so it's all good yeah and it's a couple hours from Tahoe so I'm usually too busy up there playing music to travel in the summertime and too busy skiing to travel in the winter time but spring and fall we like to come down and visit and so basically you're singing ski bump that's certainly what my siblings think yeah yeah I know they just don't understand an artist interpretation of life yeah they they don't actually stand the hardships they have to endure you know I have to sometimes I have to play at the beach sometimes I'm in the mountains you know every now and then I forget my sunscreen and that's really horrible so sort of like the hobo guy you know you don't really need sunscreen on that train but I'll let you get back to playing here and after we take a break later on I'll come back and ask you some more questions all right thanks this is great I know I know she did bring some friends with you too so if anybody out there in catered land is listening and here's clapping and stuff we do have an audience here it's a very small audience but it's a great little audience so sure I mentioned to Kirk a little bit earlier that it's been a real treat for me there are a lot of songs here that I'll be playing today that I haven't done in a long time because I do a lot of playing in restaurants where I'm background music and people want to hear covers of songwriters that and they want to hear songs they know rather than my stuff and I actually finished up a few songs this week just knowing that this was coming as a as I was gathering my songs together and looking at what I might play this is one of them and this was just written on a lark when we first moved to Tahoe from the east coast a friend of ours bought a pug one of those short-nosed dogs and he was pretty cute little pug and she was cuddling him and she said oh he's just 32 pounds of love I thought oh there's a song in that 32 pounds of love I like that and it was a it was a holiday party so they had a turkey and that a ham you know and I noticed that I'd say gosh I didn't think I ate all my turkey all right did I eat that whole slice of ham and then I'd see this pug over in the corner with a big smile on his face and I okay I know where that went well I like turkey I like ham there what made me what I am I'm Bubba 32 pounds of love and parties give me such a thrill I hang out beneath the grill I'm just 33 pounds of love yeah I don't need those stinking chip I'll just lick the bowl again I'm 34 pounds of love no I'm my crass I'll never beg but a little slobber on your leg you might drop your plate and spill your wine and once they hit the floor they're mine I'm 35 pounds of love yes some like kisses and lonesome like hugs but there's no substitute for pugs when it comes to absolute unconditional unqualified and totally adore excuse me somebody dropped the broad worst I love I actually went to a party at their house last year and a couple days before the party somebody posted a a little poster on Facebook that was perfect so I printed it out and it's got this pug in a chef hat holding the tongs for the barbecue and next to him is a grill full of hot dogs and the caption says you want yours licked or not licked just kidding they're all licked how about pretty birds that's a good one now we're gonna go back to some of a more introspective songs here a little less commercial but one of the things that has fascinated me is that the more deeply personal the song is that I write it seems as though the more people come up to me later and say wow I really identified with that song you know when you get when you get on a level where you feel like okay nobody else gonna felt like that well you'll find out everybody's felt like that because we're all human and we all have the same kind of emotions and we all go through stuff that triggers those emotions and I was living in New York when I wrote this song and I'd written a couple of verses and I had a friend over and I played them for me so well it's pretty cool I said that's like having some kind of pretty songbird and keeping it in a cement cage and I said oh I like that thanks James one for me I'll sing us a song one for the road before we move along once we hit the road we can't go back and again so I feel as though I've lost my only friend like to see you but my hands are tied they've been wrong sometimes but I never lie I can't talk to you unless you come to me and all I have to say is just be what you could be phone stage running hide inside a shell like a pretty bird in a cement cage because you're afraid to be yourself take some confidence to be you naturally not something that you think your friends would like to see what you have to give is so much less than the whole because of all that's lost by acting out a roll the phone stage running hide inside a shell hurt in a cement cage because you're afraid to be yourself time to say goodbye but what I'm going through I'll relive every minute I ever spent with you know I'll think those thoughts thousand times again so within my mind those days will never end this is another song from the same era such a capacity cruelty you're ruining me stare at me blankly and say that you want to be free it's the end thing to be freedom is one thing that's not mine to give it's not something you buy it's the way that you live you've been living someone else's life all along they can't figure out where you might have gone wrong you have such a capacity for cruelty you're ruining me your coldness to others around you came so easily can't you see you're not helping yourself by teaching yourself to ignore what were worries before and your fantasies are destroying your friends pushing them far beyond fantasies and you have such a capacity you're ruining talk about goals and you talk about dreams but you never pin down what anything means when you look at yourself in the mirror sometimes don't you wonder why there's nothing but lines you've been living inside of a dream so long the bubble popped and you can't go on you have such a capacity for it's a shame that you're me to do a fun song this is called heading into trouble again this was written on Tuesday today Saturday right it was written on Tuesday but as I said as I was gathering my songs together and organizing what I might want to play I noticed this on my hard drive a document that said heading into trouble and I remember thinking that be a pretty cool name for a song so I opened it up and there was a verse and a bridge and I had no recollection of ever writing but there they were so I looked at it and I said well the third and fourth line need to be switched and what I've got here is a country song so I guess I just got to think what's the key to writing a country song and I thought I Toby Keith so I just said to myself what would Toby do this thing I had seen quite some time she crossed the bar like she could read my mind I've forgotten that a woman could look that good and I could tell by her expression that she understood looks like I'm heading into trouble again try to tell myself that I should take my time but I tell myself the lover wouldn't be a crime no I'm heading into trouble again I bought her a tequila and she tossed it down she looked at me and said why don't we blow this town there's a hot springs in the desert and a nice full moon and I feel like a Ferrari that has just been tuned oh yeah I'm heading into trouble again we all come out of this with no regret but I think that I'd be smarter not to make that bet because I'm heading into trouble again do your guesses be they wrong or right it might have been a waste or a hell of a night but there's nothing like the desert on a nice full moon and there's nothing like for ours that I just been tuned running it for throttle down the interstate yeah maybe that's the reason I just can't wait to be heading into trouble again I don't claim that I don't claim to be take co Toby Keith but I hope I did him okay there she doesn't like my music there's a there's a fun one this is another one that fortunately is not from personal experience because I'm very glad it's not since it's called she doesn't like my music she doesn't like my music she doesn't like my songs she doesn't like my lyrics yes she says I got the words all wrong she's mean yes she's cruel so how do I think she's cool she doesn't like my kisses she doesn't like my hugs she pushes me away just like I'm a swarm of bugs she's mean yes she's cool so how do I think she's cool I'm just a paradox is yeah while she's a boat with games I'm just a piece of broken glass and she's a she say you're a loser I'd probably say well thanks a lot she's everything I'm not that's why I think she's hot doesn't like my loving I give her all I got she doesn't like my mother well she's got a point I'm nothing but her fool that's why I think she's cool okay oh yeah that's it all right hey catered fans you are you are on 95 I'm on 95.7 and they're listening in 95.7 K DRT Kate dirt 95.7 correct and we're being streamed live on the internet at www.kdrt.org so good when we got here she told me how about she told me I don't know whether I play harmonica on this one or not but I'm about to love me she'd never go yet from her actions you'd never know feeling neglected I'm being like I've been here before last time the same as the next time to start over and rewrite the text remember the bad times forget all the best maybe catch up on some red so sudden it happens so fast where did they go to the good times it passed isn't the first time the questions been asked you know that it won't be the last this is I like to write songs when I'm on long drives in the car I just kind of get something going through my mind and that's a good place songs come from different spots you never know where it's gonna come from but when I'm driving in the car I can just kind of get a line or two going and I find a melody for them and then I just start expanding that and I get a verse or verse in a bridge and then I'm then I'm just looking for the the words that'll go with the other verses other songs get written cuz I'll just sit there and do a little riff like that and say oh I can't waste that I got to have a song that goes with that riff so that's the hardest thing to do is take a riff and then figure out how you're gonna make a song out of that whole song out of that riff the first song that I started with was an interesting one because if you remember that was a there's a look in your eyes and it's got a pretty distinct rhythm to it there so where that song came from was I was sitting on a riding mower mowing my lawn in Vermont I had a couple acres there and and I realized that the mower had this kind of rhythm to it so I started look looking for some words that went well with the rhythm and by the time that takes a while to cut a couple of acres of lawn so by the time the lawn was done I had the whole song written all the verses the chorus and everything and then I had to go in and figure out okay on the guitar before I forget the rhythm I got to figure out how to do this on the guitar and that was that was kind of fun but this was driving through Georgia days are running sometimes I think there ain't no fun in being me decent shot and I'm so tired of feel like I'm hanging from Vienna why don't you see there's gotta be a change come somewhere there must be relief and a place to hide I know I couldn't make it couldn't bear to find out what's on the flip side so confused completely baffled and know I'm about to come unraveled hard to face nerves afraid my eyes are red I get no rest when I go to bed too quick a pace there's gotta be a change come somewhere must be relief and a place to hide no I couldn't make it couldn't bear to find out what's on the flip side and a place to hide no I couldn't make it couldn't bear to find out what's on the flip side and I gotta get myself back together again and there's next song came from Arlo Guthrie he doesn't know it one of my friends said man you should have sent it to Arlo he would have done it and he that's that's quite a compliment but that would have been a great thing but I saw Arlo play and he mentioned that he was trying to write a song about Watergate so there's a long time ago he was trying to write a song about Watergate and he said I just can't do it you know because I wanted to be a fun song and funny song he says but when I start writing I start thinking about it I just get so pissed it's so angry I can't make a fun song and a funny song out of it so I figured I better do it for him I went home and wrote this song and this is called the ballad of Dickie and Jerry you a story remember I don't claim it's true about a couple of heroes who fought for the red white and the blue actions above and beyond the call and plenty of courage and plenty of gone no hesitation to let someone else's head roll if you said Jerry I got me in kind of a thing I know it's hard to believe but I finally run out of tricks Democrats just won't be satisfied now that you think that a man like me with a light and asking you straight are you willing to stick by my side Jerry said Dickie there's really not much I can do I'm saying that I cut a deal for you my integrity is not for sale but if I get the job I'll at least go your bail or we both know this country would die if you landed in Jane Dickie said the way I've been hounded the way they've been putting me down it's just got to be stopped you know you can't kick your the radical students who yell about love well they can take all their freedoms and give them a shove there's some things a government has to be valued about recipe for disaster and alright we are on KDRT 95 7 FM I'm Tuck Wilson coming to you live on the next stage show and thank you for listening I just liked this title it's called a recipe for disaster capo this one up or not do you know do you remember there we go that's what I thought you take a bottle of whiskey the pinch you could substitute gin set a glass on the counter pour the whole thing in it's a recipe for disaster but you know that I know that it's true it's a recipe for disaster just like a love in you it was a time when I thought that my life was all roses and wine it was a time when I foolishly thought that your love was all mine now it's hard to believe I thought you'd be mine for all time and my heart and my soul went with you when you left me behind take a bottle of whiskey in a pinch you could substitute gin set a glass on the counter pour the whole thing in it's a recipe for disaster don't you know that I know that it's true it's a recipe for disaster just like a loving you yeah just like a loving you and cheer soon too since we're on the subject of writing songs this one's about three four years old I was just doing my thing at Tahoe mine in my own business up there in front of the microphone singing my songs and I finished a song and this guy back in the back of the audience pulls his lighter out and with his great big frizzy red hair he's flicks the lighter on and hollers so I kind of look at him and all of a sudden these words just popped into my head and I thought okay that's cool I gotta sing those to him and it's all right that it's only one verse because we're just having a little fun well by the time I finished the first verse I had the second verse and by the time I finished the second verse I had the bridge and by that that I so this song literally wrote itself while I was singing it to him and of course this is a song called I won't play free bird can put away that lighter before you sing your hair you can yell to your horse I still won't care I won't play free bird I won't play free bird if you're stuck in the 70s frozen in time that's your problem I won't make it mine and I won't play free bird I won't play free bird you cannot change that would make you sound hip but you dated yourself with that one little snip I won't play free bird I won't play free bird city blues that's a good one let's say feeling good I want to do the New York City to stand out late every night until my patience is short my muscles are tight thought it all out it just doesn't seem right gets to the point the living's a fight every day the feeling grows stronger every little minutes seem a lot longer gotta get away no reason to stay not even another day taking it straight it cuts my throat like a knife sick of this big city rock and roll I'm tired of everything I haven't had of everything I am I'll probably tire of anything I'll ever be just doesn't seem to leave a whole lot ahead of me waking up a well-afternoon being confined in a dirty old room all of my dreams will go up in a spoon if I don't get out of this city real soon nothing here to keep me alive it's still close to New York City at five you gotta get away no reason to stay not even another day you can keep your exhaust in the smog that comes from your car don't want to be a big city rock and roll star tired of everything I haven't had of everything I am or ever been I'll probably tire of anything I'll ever be that just doesn't seem to leave a whole lot ahead of me waking up the noise in the halls staring straight back at the same four walls the city's got a way make us feel so small no wonder if there's anything left at all I came here to follow my dreams now I'm falling apart at the seams and I gotta get away a reason to stay not even another day I'm going back to where people give you a hey playing a big city rock and roll band thank you thank you this is tuck wilson coming to you live from Davis, California on K DRT 95 7 FM and being streamed live on www.kdrt.org thank you for listening and I want to thank these guys Kirk and and Cliff for having me down here this is a blast so if you guys are enjoying it I sure am I'm gonna play it this is just a fun song this is every time I play this I I want a band but feeling good tonight you've got it in tune and you know that the music sounds good the crowds caught the rhythm you're rolling right away them feeling just the way that it should music's just flowing you know that it really sounds tight they're gonna have a good time cuz the band's feeling good tonight you let the rock and roll send them to gathers momentum and the place gets a little bit loud a little do something to you when the message gets through you know you got a really good crowd and the place is jumping fans just pumping yeah everything's going just right we're gonna have a good time cuz the crowds feeling good tonight the place is just a buzzing and the still lining up at the door you got the place pop in there ain't no stop and you know they're gonna want to hear more all be staying just as late as your plan ain't no ending in sight we're gonna have a good time because we're all feeling good tonight we're gonna have a good time because we're all feeling good tonight have a good time we're all feeling good tonight I had a little instrumental that I did a few love songs that were a little depressing and there was one there was one year where I just crank those things out one after another my friends were all kind of looking at me like whoa and so that led to this song this is called three-part harmony everybody's always asking me why I don't write happy love songs why I choose a minor key not effervescent they're manic depressing a pessimist parade of negativity in cessing a melancholy tale should be a sentimental fine but yours are like the ravings of a sick-demanded mind every wave sun shines buried in a shroud and every silver lining has to bring its own cloud why must you sing such a somber melody always so devoid of any sense of harmony and never any three-part harmony everybody's always asking me why I don't write happy love songs you think that some of them would see it's never been any happiness it's always been a shabbiness a side of crowd of crowd of lie denied nearly died I've always read in storybooks that love would set you free but love with you has always been the chains of misery a quick examination yields a loonating clues relationships with you it seems never come in twos there's always more than two in any kind of you and me in everything with you there has always been three and I just don't like three-part harmony this next song is called America and it would not exist if Google had existed when when this was written I saw on PBS a Pete Seeger concert many years ago I was probably an eighth grade or something like that and I just remember really loving one of the songs that he did and unfortunately I was never able to find the song because you couldn't just Google it up right and I went through a bunch of song books looking for it and was never able to find it so I just he said I'm gonna write my own song so different melody different lyrics but a little bit the same story and this is about the immigrants coming to America and what it represented this phenomenal land of opportunity for them and it's interesting because yesterday as I was thinking about you know I would never have written this if I'd been able to find Pete Seegers I would have just learned his song and this wouldn't exist and I thought well but Google does exist today let me Google up and saying sure enough I found the Pete Seeger version and and the other thing I found out is Bruce Springsteen rewrote the song and expanded it and what I find interesting is we have three songs that deal with the same story but they're all from a very different angle they all deal with the the hope and the excitement of coming to America and mine just deals with the fact that the American dream didn't didn't work out as envisioned for everybody it was a wonderful thing for some and for others it ended in tragedy and Pete Seegers does also but he kind of points out the fact that these are people who came over and then they they just kind of worked themselves to death as the immigrants they were they were very poor and they worked 60 70 80 hour weeks and Bruce Springsteen put it what I thought was an interesting twist on it because he deals with the immigrants coming and how hard they work and then he makes the point that these are always the people that we're trying to keep out right whether it's the Italian those Italians the Irish the Chinese and the Mexicans the people who are here working hard and and really trying to they came over with the American dream those are always the ones that were that we're putting down and the ones that we're trying to keep out so I think I've got the correct harmonica here and this one's called America once in America in America once in America I will send for you have a job of something to do you and the children will come to me too let's bow our heads and all join our hands pray for this America land once in America in America once in America we'll have lots to eat what I have heard we could even buy me kids will have schooling shoes for their feet let's bow our heads and all join our hands for this America once in America in America once in America I can still hear him speak he was hit by a horse cart cross in the street I can still see him lying there dead at my feet tell her the best that I can in this America thank you again this is tuck Wilson I'm from Tahoe playing for you live in Davis California on K DRT which is 95.7 on your FM dial or wwwkdrt.org all right this is a good call the good life that's what we all want isn't it people tell me to settle down carry a ball and chain around lock up my imagination go to work for a big corporation find a good wife they call it the good life originality has its place but get back in line kid you'll upset the pace sure I see with these people me you gotta trade in your morals give up your dreams for the good life it's all for the good life all your opinions are memorized your manicured lawn makes up for the life I love a possession satiable craving for rapidly see you stuck senselessly slaving for the good life it's all for the good life America symptoms of social disease proven contagious now overseas but it doesn't hurt me cuz I know I lost but on my gravestone I want these words and bonds my thoughts on the good life well it took their advice and he settled down went to work at the biggest damn factory in town and he raised up a fine young family a credit to our society they strolled for success and they all did well because they had no idea how to think for themselves while the way they live was the way that he died decaying through slow mental suicide called the good life he lost to the good life are gonna go back to the very first song that I ever just called I don't believe you right now I'm gonna miss an old friend Bob Cannon he and I used to play together many many years ago when we were in college he just released his first CD that within the last year it's called Unbreakable Heart Bob Cannon great songwriting on that but Bob used to do the second guitar part and the harmony on here and every time I play it I miss that we're trying as hard as you'd like to sound you say you want to take me high but you always bring me down we're trying as hard as you like I just can't take much more it's driving me to drink some time away maybe we could try again sometime if you're trying to find some words to fill inside the coldness of your desolated life it's some time away maybe we could try again sometime can't seem to help myself it's tearing me apart love you but I just keep hanging on for a day I call you though I know you want to be home sometime away maybe we could try again sometime we're gonna go back to Tahoe back to Tahoe and one of the first things that I noticed when I moved to Tahoe was every time it snowed I was surrounded by people on their cell phones calling home and saying oh man I'm stuck in Tahoe again I'm just gonna have to stay here and ski a couple more days and then I realized that with the right attitude you can get stuck in Tahoe any day of the year so if that sounds like a good idea to you just take out your cell phone dial home and repeat after me honey I'm sorry there's just no way I could get over the past today it's coming down hard and it's already deep the road home is slippery and way too steep I guess we both know where that leaves me I really no choice but to stay and ski honey I'm sorry yes I really am but I'm stuck here in Tahoe again I was riding my mountain bike down from the top hit the brakes but I couldn't stop and I'm still pulling thorns out of my tush it came from a big man's Anita bush I know I shouldn't renters it so honey I will bottle of wine and a steak on the grill yes honey I'm sorry I really am but I'm stuck here in Tahoe again that you had been free I really wanted you here with me and I'd have called in for you you know I would better believe I could make it sound good that would have been like a dream come true to be stuck here in Tahoe with you honey I'm sorry I really am but I'm stuck in a huge margarita jam nobody's moving it's crowded as heck and there's no telling when I'll get off this day they keep bringing pictures I'm doing my best sometimes it feels like there's just no rest honey I'm sorry you know that I am but I'm stuck here in Tahoe again I only wish that you had been free I wanted you here with me and I've called in for you you know I would better believe I could make it sound good cuz that would have been like a dream come true to be stuck here with you to be stuck here in Tahoe with you I like this TV studio thing and the radio it's very low-key it's kind of laid back here I wrote this song when I was living in New York City I used to live there in the summer times when I was in college my sister lived in New York and she would be out of town in the summer being a frugal and practical college student it seemed like a foolish thing to me to leave a perfectly good apartment sitting empty in the middle of Manhattan so I would do her the favor of going up and occupying that apartment for her and most of the clubs at that time were either in Greenwich Village or on the Upper East Side I lived on the Upper West Side so I would take the subway downtown to 4th Street and and the hard thing is you get off from playing it and maybe it's one or one thirty in the morning but you know you've been up there on stage and you pumping out all this energy so it might be one in the morning but your your body is you know ready for the second half of the soccer game or something like that right you're just keyed up and your mind's racing and your blood's pumping and there is no way you're going home and going to sleep so one day I decided to try walking part of the way home and then as I started to get tired I figure I can jump on the subway and ride the rest of the way the next thing I knew I was home at 72nd Street having started at 4th Street but what fascinated me also was is I went through Midtown Manhattan I mean these are streets that I'm used to seeing tons of cabs and buses and all the traffic's just backed up and honking and honking and I'm walking through there and there's not a soul in sight there's not a single car on the streets there's not a person out just me walking up the streets and it it was like a completely different world and it was kind of cool so I wrote this song about empty streets and aching feet don't know where I am look at my watch I guess it stopped must be close to 5 a.m. by the glow the sun's sure coming up slow in the east you can hear the Sun rises sing the West is still a purple light show out there motor cars the streets are comforting just can't seem to bring myself to go home what's miles away the break of day you can smell the cool seer makes you pause and ask the calls of the city's neon glare that dies as timers sense the light skies in the east you can hear the sunrise is singing the West is still a purple light show out there motor cars the streets are comforting just can't seem to bring myself to go home these streets and aching feet I don't know where I am look at my watch I guess it stopped must be close to 5 a.m. by the glow and the sun's sure coming up slow in the east you can hear the sunrise sing West is still a purple light show out there motor cars the streets are comforting just can't seem to bring myself to go home just can't seem to bring myself to go home thank you here's another fun one I wrote this for my oldest daughter Ashley when she was in ninth grade and about to enjoy her very first final exams ninth grade in my very first final exams what a delight so I tried to capture the way that I felt about my final exams here for Ashley I wish I were fishing I love to go fishing sitting on a riverbank dreaming and wishing I'd rather be fishing and sitting here in final exam I wish I were skiing I love to go skiing so exhilarating it's so mind-free and I'd rather be skiing and sitting here in final exam I wish I were sailing I don't know a thing about sailing but it's gotta be sitting here knowing I'm failing I'd rather be sailing and sitting here in final exam thank you and this is a song I mentioned one earlier that was derived from Pete Seeger this was derived from a friend of mine who's also a songwriter and he's written a song that I've never heard and I don't think he's ever heard this one but Chris Adam was talking about he had an idea for a for a song he thought it would be kind of cool to have this high noon shootout on a street in the old west and Pepper McKay was the was the hero but the other dualist was a video game that had come to life the idea but I wound up with it doing a different twist and writing a bunch of words and started out with wound up I needed a nice my video game was gonna be a bad guy so you wanted to shoot him down right so I wound up with blackjack speed how's that sound for evil and so I wrote the words and I really didn't feel like coming up with a tune for it so I've always liked the traditional American tune John Hardy so I just stole that and set the the words to that because it ought to be a flat-picking tune like this jack speed was a gunslinger name spread terror in the west those who tried his hand now we're buried in the sand the others all said blackjack was the best the other west agreed that blackjack was the best I'm gonna take a quick break here and I'm gonna change the key cuz that's a way too low for me I challenged him one evening and felt the sense of all a silence what the cross the whole saloon I never saw him draw no a flash was all I saw for me the shooting ended all too soon yes for me it was over all too soon better whole of quarters when the bar mate comes around order up another round of beer because I'll be sticking around yeah until I shoot him down till I be pepper I'm not leaving here until I beat you like I'm not leaving here expate is a video machine fastest gun in all the way from his place upon the screen now he's picked my wallet green and I'll agree that blackjack is the best yes I'll agree that blackjack is the best we have a very small audience here but I'd love to see what they have in mind so we're gonna do Ernie and the combo for the storm wrap up okay hmm let's do combo for the storm and boo you wee that's better all I mentioned earlier that sometimes it was a little riff on the guitar that inspired the song this was this was the one I used as the example it's about just being tired of things as they are and knowing there needs to be a change in the status quo and you're just waiting for the catalyst that's gonna make it happen for me that was also called senior you're in college I haven't been working my studies are shot to hell I've been doing nothing but being bored but damn it I'd do that well and I know that it's gonna break hard soon but it's still kind of peaceful and warm so just been taking advantage of the calm before the storm skies are getting cloudy looks like it's gonna rain that's another unusual it's just a yesterday again and I know that's gonna break hard soon but it's still kind of peaceful and warm so have just been taking advantage of the calm before the storm yesterday brought nothing tomorrow will be the same I've tried to convince myself I'm happy but I know it's only a game so I'll desperately reach for something go by another guitar but I'm only trying to fool myself it can't be more than you are and I don't see myself as worth anything so everything pulls me down all I've been doing is wasting the time till they dig me a hole in the ground and I hope that hell it breaks hard soon cuz I'm sick of being peaceful and warm and I'm tired of taking advantage of the calm before the storm like to thank Kirk for inviting me down here to nexus stage I've had a blast I hope you have enjoyed the music it's really a lot of fun to spend a couple hours here in the TV studio studio see myself staring right back at me on the monitor so thank you gang for having me down here thanks to Davis media access and KDRT 95 7 and Cliff Gamble cliff and Kirk you guys thank you so much for for I've been listening to the show at home by the way just so I know what what what you guys are doing down here so appreciate what you're doing it's a lot of fun and this is called I don't know what it's called but it's a song I wrote when college was over and my dad and my friends were telling me it was time to get serious about life and I wasn't sure I was ready to and so I thought this would be a good song to end with because it probably has a lot to do with why I'm living at Tahoe playing guitar and standing here in this studio and not on the you know like 30th floor of some building in Pittsburgh being an accountant well don't want to mention any names but I do have a brother who would fit that description and he's the yeah he's actually the one who introduced me to folk music introduced me to Pete Seeger Joan Baez Tom Paxton Peter Paul and Mary he ruined my life and and I thank him every chance that I get even after I'll get there why should I run my life by your standards well I can't even run it to mine and I may not land on all fours like a cat but so far I'm doing just fine and it's my life let's not forget that that live however I can I've been having a final time drifting along like I am so you tell me it's time to get organized get my life fall me via rain but I'd rather trust my instincts to tell me when it's time for the change I'll go looking for rainbows and you'll get a job with your chums yeah see you can become the executive I'll ride the rails with a bum you tell me I'm just chasing legend but sometimes they're true I'm told so while you're pursuing a paycheck hey I'll search for pots of gold and it's my life let's not forget that the live however I please and it isn't a crime to spend some time for losing fancy free you tell me it's time to get organized get my life fall me via rain but I'd rather trust my instincts to tell me when it's time for the change don't want to be your subject matter something analyze the marvel of the truth I've told and no wonder about the lies yeah my father said do what you do best son and it's haunted in other sins you can go out and kiss a toad but that doesn't make him a prince my life let's not forget that to live however I choose why would you have me spend my time singing somebody else's blues no matter rather go through life barefoot than in somebody else's shoes because a life is how you play the game it's not something you'll win or lose yeah the life is how you play the game it's not something to win or lose