Chris Heers - Road Ahead Shines

STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS: 1. Fannye Katrina I was puttering around the house, doing dishes or something and in the background there was a news special that I could hear on CNN. It was the 5-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the man who was being interviewed on TV was talking about how his restaurant used to be on the water but was completely wiped out and is now located inland. He said something like, 'We'll be back there again though...I know it'. I remember pumping my fist and saying out loud as I was washing the dishes, 'Yeah buddy... you will be back!'. Later that night or the next day I was noodling around with my old black Takamine acoustic guitar and that song just came out. I have no idea where Fannye the Angel or whatever she was came from but I am thankful that she rolled through my pen. I knew what she looked like as soon as I said her name because there was a real Fannye who I used to help take care of in the early 90's. She was elderly, late 80's from Georgia via Louisiana, and she used to cook me things after I went to the grocery store for her; Great things like collard greens 'washed in two waters' she would say, and chicken cooked in real lard baby. 'She looked like the woman on the pancake syrup bottle...' There were two that came to mind, Mrs. Butterworth and Aunt Jemima. Fannye looks like AJ but more wrinkled. Beautiful. The Fannye in the song is luminescent. Her brown face is wise and somewhat younger than the Fannye I used to take care of. The Fannye in the song swims up to my character with a face that glows with an energy and love that can't be put into words. She is not from here. That I know. In my mind the main character, a fisherman, was having breakfast in his boat - pancakes. As he looks out the window at the grey wall of hurricane coming toward him he sees the bottle of pancake syrup, one of the last things he sees on the boat before the mast disappears into the sea. As he starts hallucinating three days later he has this picture in his head - the pancake bottle. Fannye swims up to him and assumes the form of the woman in his head to make things easier for him. I know that you can float on a bag of potato chips because it really happened to me when I was in high school. My buddy Jim and I ditched school with some other kids of questionable intentions and we went to Lake Mead for the day. Jim's dad, Jim Sr., had a large boat there with a rubber motorized dinghy. It was brand new and very off limits to us like the boat itself. The dinghy was attached to the back of Jim's dad's boat. Long story short, this kid Randy had the engine and rudder of the dinghy and I was on the bow holding a rope like a bronc rider as we slammed into these huge windy lake waves. Next thing I knew we slammed into a massive wave and we were both in the water with the dinghy disastrously empty of it's passengers and stuck on full throttle while heading for Jim Jr. who was on a jet ski in the distance. We were in a dire position but it was strangely hilarious to see Jim's dad's boat heading straight for him unmanned at full throttle. Jim Jr. managed to jump off the Jet Ski onto the dinghy at high speed and save the boat and his ass that day, a courageous maneuver at that speed. Randy and I were about a mile off shore surrounded by floating snacks that had fallen overboard with us. I decided to let my tennis shoes sink in order to stay buoyant with my big yellow bag of Lays which I floated on until rescue. Thank you Lays!!! Fannye says, 'I could explain it in detail but it would be like talking about outer space with a fish. Child just know that you don't know and have faith.' I don't know if Fannye is an Angel, a mermaid, or a hallucination but she does save the fisherman in more ways than one. I hope she is an Angel. Recording trivia ~ Fannye Katrina One of the coolest surprises that happened in the studio was when Drummer John Gardner broke out the sleigh bells. John Gardner - Drums/Percussion David Francis - Bass Jeff Roach - Keyboards/Organ Rob McNelley - Electric Guitars Pat McGrath - Acoustic Guitar John Mock - Tin Whistles Chris Heers - Vocals/Background Vocals/Harmonica 2. Leaning Into Barstow I half thought about calling this album 'Barstow' because that town seems to have influenced a bunch of the songs. I was extremely tired on the I-15 on the way to a show in southern California. I had come from a show in Sedona and decided to drive right on through. I was pulling myself up on the steering wheel; slapping myself hard 'Leaning in' it seemed while I saw the Barstow 68 miles sign pass. I ended up pulling over and sleeping for a bit. I sing 'Six Days on the Road' and 'Willin' with my band. I Love truck driver songs. I wanted to write one that could hang with the greats. Those guys were taking little white pills. My guy is relying on the desert air, the radio, and a gallon of "Joe" to pull him through. On second thought, maybe I should have called this album 'Joe'. I recently did an acoustic songs and stories show in Hollywood with Justin Furstenfeld from Blue October. I noticed that when he plays his ballady love songs he has all these beautiful women coming apart at his show. It reminded me of a show I did at the Gold Strike out near Stateline, NV except instead of beautiful women in the front row it was all professional truck drivers coming apart. Maybe I should start writing more ballady love songs. Recording notes ~ Leaning into Barstow John Gardner - Drums/Percussion David Francis - Bass Jeff Roach - Keyboards/Organ Rob McNelley - Electric Guitars Pat McGrath - Acoustic Guitar Steve Hinson - Steel Guitar Chris Heers - Vocals/Background Vocals 3. Trailer 19 I never intended to record this song myself but I just like playing it. So shoot me. Maybe Taylor Swift will still do it. I could use a new house. I digress though. I was working at a day job at the time where we would have to make copies of people's driver's licenses for credit checks. One customer had T-16 or something like that as the address on her license. I stupidly asked her what that meant and she said Trailer 16. She wasn't embarrassed though. I thought about how some people could be embarrassed saying they lived in a trailer park. I wouldn't be though. Trailers rule. I live in my Sprinter van half the time when I am in LA. I wrote the song around a girl who turned one trailer into another one. Trivia: I wrote most of this song in a modular trailer structure at that day job that same night that I met the T-16 girl on this old cheap Yamaha guitar that was lying around. The strings were dead but it sounded nice. Recording notes ~ 29 Palms John Gardner - Drums/Percussion David Francis - Bass Jeff Roach - Keyboards/Organ Rob McNelley - Electric Guitars Pat McGrath - Acoustic Guitar/Mandolin Tammy Pierce - Background Vocals Chris Heers - Lead Vocal/Background Vocals 4. Halfway You won't find any women in this album who are standing on tailgates pouring ice-cold beer on their tank tops and shaking their "moneymakers". There are plenty of those girls on the radio. Wait just a minute, is that how you get on the radio? Hmmm. Maybe I'll sell out on the next album. For now though here is the story behind the song "Halfway" I used to play this solo acoustic show in Sedona, Arizona at a bar called The Full Moon Saloon. The Full Moon was the only place open until 2:30am in that part of Sedona, near Bell Rock in the Village of Oak Creek. It was great because I could crash at my grandma's place two blocks away. The Moon is a great place full of European tourists and local industry people who like to sing along. There was this girl at one of my day jobs who was an extreme rock climber. She was really nice to me until she found out that I was friends with some people she had a prior disagreement with. Then she kind of gave me the cold shoulder. It had nothing to do with me but I am one of those people who can have a thousand friends but feels the jab of the one who isn't. So this gir