2024 - 06 - Cafe C

Tears of Rage (The Band / Bob Dylan Cover)

This started out as a country song and then I re-wrote it three times and little bits of each version got passed through to the next round. I forced myself to finish it for a song-a-week challenge so here is the fourth and final version for your listening pleasure. Thanks to Trevor Pendras and Matt Bean for helping me with earlier versions of the song.

No Paycheck (acoustic demo)

I wrote this original lyrical idea on a plane from Seattle to LA on Oct 6, 2017. Tom Petty just died. I was thinking about him. He wrote love songs.

I'm Useless Without You (demo)

Song of the week project, week 11. The first stanza is based on a fragment of a song from a few years back and built up from there. It's about learning.

Lovesick, Stuck in the Past (demo)

Co-written with Peter Donovan of All the Real Girls. Inspired by Matthew Engebretson.

I'm Not Coming Back To Minnesota (demo)

Lyrics co-written with Amy Huber and Jade Nguyen

Bad Scene (demo)

I originally wrote this in January as the second song of our 2019 "song-a-week" project. It was heavily inspired by the John Phillips album "John, the Wolf King of L.A." which I was listening to obsessively at the time (and still am, to some extent). I wrote the song from scratch in one sitting—music, lyrics and all—which is pretty rare for me. This demo features Kenneth Aramaki on piano and Amy Huber on background vocals. Danny Hahn, Alex Leake, and Matt Bean all give music input for the arrangement in this second revision. It's still a demo but I gave it more of a full band treatment to offer an idea of how it could sound completed. Thanks for listening and remember, "you can't take back what you never owned."

Easter Cactus (demo)

Full-length album to be released in 2021.

Written by Hamilton Boyce

Vocal, guitars, drum machine, Mellotron – Hamilton Boyce
Bass, snare drum – Jesse Harmonson
Piano – Kenneth Aramaki

Engineer – Robb Davidson
Mixing engineer – Randall Dunn

Recorded at Avast! Recording Co. in Seattle, WA
Mixed in Brooklyn, NY

Additional production — Mathew Bean
Additional input — Miles Burnett, Amy M. Huber, Trevor Pendras

Cover design — Harrison Boyce
Cover photograph — Amy M. Huber

Lyrics:

You can sit, you can stand, you can pace, you can wander by the door
You can wish, you can pray, you can cry, you can laugh it off once more
I tried waiting around
And I’ve been searching all over this town
But I guess I’ve been looking in the wrong place

No paycheck in the mail again today
No paycheck in the mail again today

Just to live when you’re poor ain’t nothing but a struggle and a chore
Just to walk out the door and try to act like you know there’s something more
I’ve been working hard every day
And hoping that some part of it would pay
But I guess I’ve been working in the wrong way

No paycheck in the mail again today
No paycheck in the mail again today

Wouldn’t it be so strange if I saw you
And you still had your whole life to live
Wouldn’t it be so sad if I saw you
And I still didn’t have nothing to give

All the time in the world means nothing if you got nowhere to go
All the dreams you can have ain’t nothing if you got nothing to show
I tried living unmaterialistically
And focusing on only what’s important to me
But I guess I’ve been living in the wrong way

No paycheck in the mail again today
No paycheck in the mail again today

Chin up, work hard, look ahead or struggle till you’re dead
It’s so easy to say when it’s really just something that you read
But maybe some day it’ll really change
After all ain’t that supposed to be the American way?
But I guess I’ve just been running in place

No paycheck in the mail again today
No paycheck in the mail again today
Oh but maybe tomorrow it'll come
No paycheck in the mail again today

No Paycheck

Written and recorded on July 23, 2020. 

Lyrics:

They say money can't buy you happiness
But being broke sure can bring you down
What goes around's supposed to also come back around
But it's sure been going around for some time

It's easier
It's easier said than done
It's easier
To pray and to shun

I heard some loaded questions asked
It seems you don't really want to know
Time's supposed to heal all wounds
But blood keeps pouring out like rain

It's easier
To sweep beneath the rug
It's easier
To bury when you've dug

They say all is well that ends well
Well what if the end looks grim?
There is an elephant in the room
"It's no my elephant" they said

Is it easier
To turn a blink eye?
It is easier
Than it is just to try?
Is it easier to lie
And to drown out the cries?
Is it easier?
Easier

Easier (demo)

“Dirty Money” by Hamilton Boyce. The first single from his forthcoming debut solo album, out January 2021.

Official Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF7wOCUPpsk

Stream the “Dirty Money” single now:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7AT40qLvP1bWix5MBek6Lb?si=6tZzfqn2RMypHaP-HWv4Zg
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/dirty-money-single/1531982993
YouTube Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpwvM0FmIVU

Follow Hamilton Boyce:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonboyce/
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/22cNT2KfXp6vj4JONv6Xx8?si=5eQJwJB8QnaQ0H6Qnj5C9A
Website https://hamiltonboyce.com/

Song Inspiration: Requiem for the American Dream, featuring Noam Chomsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZnuc-Fv_Tc

Song Credits:
Hamilton Boyce – Vocal, acoustic and electric rhythm guitars
Milky Burgess – Lead guitar
Kelly Van Camp – Drums
Jesse Harmonson – Bass
Recorded live by Robb Davidson at Avast Recording Co.
Mixed by Hamilton Boyce

Lyrics:

All money is dirty money
I heard you say that that man was funny
What’s so funny about a rich man’s son with racist tendencies and blatant bigotries

Why do the wise always get ignored
While the loudest men take over the world
American history is nothing that the Establishment needs

Big money buys the election ties
And everyone wins unless you're on the outside
But everyone I know and everyone you know is on the outside and that’s the downside

Muhammad Ali was a boxing pacifist
Said “no” to the draft and that was a catalyst
Took a fighting man to stand up to a real bad government plan

Freedom and democracy
Politicians use words like these
To make us think they're on our side but most of the time that's just a lie

I heard a story from a wiser man
That activists have to have a plan
But the gathered masses have the power to get politicians off their asses

Dirty Money

“Joey the Junkie Cowboy,” the second single from the forthcoming debut Hamilton Boyce solo album, out early 2021.

Stream the “Joey the Junkie Cowboy” single now:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/774zoV78xwxKyQSfTD7Hiq
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/joey-the-junkie-cowboy/1535293487
YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=v8sSfQPBTds

Follow Hamilton Boyce:
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hamiltonboyce/
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/22cNT2KfXp6vj4JONv6Xx8
https://hamiltonboyce.com

Credits:

Lyrics and music and written by Hamilton Boyce

Hamilton Boyce on lead vocal and acoustic guitar
Milky Burgess on electric guitar through Leslie speaker
Dave Harmonson on pedal steel
Austin Jacobsen on electric bass
Trevor Pendras on harmony vocal
Kelly Van Camp on drums and percussion

Recorded by Robb Davidson at Avast Recording Co. in Seattle
Mixed by Hamilton Boyce
Photo by Danny Lee Blackwell
Art direction / design by Harrison Boyce, Amy Huber and Hamilton Boyce

Lyrics:

Joey was a junkie cowboy from Oklahoma
Somehow he ended up living on the streets of Seattle
We met him down south and he knew how to fix a house up
We all headed off back home and we brought him on with us

He slept on our couch for a while and he worked in the daytime
He kept on asking us to hold his pay till tomorrow
Eventually he told us to send the money to his mother
We got him a Greyhound ticket for the following Monday

Oh oh Joey the junkie cowboy
He wanted to be clean and he wanted to do right
Poor old Joey he just couldn’t take it
With a twenty in his hand and his guy around the corner

He wanted to look nice when he got back to Oklahoma
But he just couldn’t trust himself let loose in the city
So Mom took him downtown and bought him some new boots and Wranglers
She got him a haircut and said goodbye at the Greyhound station

Oh oh Joey the junkie cowboy
He wanted to be clean and he wanted to do right
Poor old Joey he just couldn’t take it
With a twenty in his hand and his guy around the corner

Oh oh Joey the junkie cowboy
His will was strong but his habit was stronger
Poor old Joey he just couldn’t make it
Had to take himself back to the prairies and the pastures

Oh oh Joey the junkie cowboy
He wanted to be clean and he wanted to do right
Poor old Joey he just couldn’t take it
With a twenty in his hand and his guy around the corner

Oh oh Joey the junkie cowboy
His will was strong but his habit was stronger
Poor old Joey he just couldn’t make it
Had to take himself back to the prairies and the pastures

Joey the Junkie Cowboy

"I'm Useless Without You" single, released December 4, 2020. Full Hamilton Boyce album coming early 2021.

Listen to "I'm Useless Without You" on,
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/4Q53MHptuR3W0gQ38sCzrF?si=tYlDs5jZQ1-1l9c0wH56oQ
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/album/im-useless-without-you-single/1541440452
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vBWTQbIfaE

Hamilton Boyce — Vocal and acoustic and electric guitars
Kenneth Aramaki — Piano
Jesse Harmonson — Bass
J. B. Kardong — Pedal steel

Recorded by Robb Davidson at Avast! Recording Co. in Seattle
Remote overdubs by J. B. Kardong and Hamilton Boyce

Mixed and mastered by Hamilton Boyce

"I'm Useless Without You" was written on a plane traveling from Seattle to Los Angeles in the days after Tom Petty had died. Tom Petty wrote love songs. This is a love song from the perspective of relationship as a process rather than a destination. The song went through many iterations during the recording process. A stripped-down piano-based arrangement being the groundwork for the final version and triple-layered pedal steel guitar being the secret ingredient in completing the song.

I'm Useless Without You

Piano - Kenneth Aramaki
Guitar - Milky Burgess
Drums - Kelly Van Camp
Bass - Jesse Harmonson

Background Vocals - Robin Bacior and Amy Huber

Lead Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Acoustic Slide Guitar, Songwriting, Producing, Mixing - Hamilton Boyce

Recorded by Robb Davidson at Avast! in Seattle
Additional overdubs recorded by Jason Soda at Palomino Sound in Los Angeles

Special thanks to Danny Hahn and Alex Leake for providing arrangement suggestions

Cover photo by Amy Huber

Hamilton Boyce

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