Dawn Of The Crawdad Era (2022)

Tracks

1. Kick Your Ass
2. Vigilante Rock
3. Drivin' With My Blinker On
4. Sounds About Right
5. Isn't She Lonely?
6. "Big O" Biscuit
7. Catamount Pounce (Instrumental)
8. Let's Play Some Chess
9. Jaded
10. Something Bad
11. WMSJ Is Now RGC
12. The Ballad Of Cletus Lily
13. We're All Doomed
14. Rock On
15. Kick Your Ass (Reprise) (Instrumental)
16. Old Red Jeep, New White Snow (Nothin' Stoppin' Christmas)

Credits

Steve "Crawdaddy" Crawford - Vocals, guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, banjo, harmonica, percussion, other noises.
Patrick A. Crawford - Lead guitar on tracks 5, 6, 8, 12.
R. Eric "Zipper" Wilson - Lead guitar on tracks 2, 11, 14.
Tim E. Gillespie - Trumpet on tracks 5, 15.
Dale “Big O” Owens, Cheryl Zimney, Lisa Kettlestrings, Laura Bates McGuire - Vocal cameos on track 6.

Recorded & produced by Crawdad Crash.

All tracks by S. D. Crawford; published by Crawcophony Music Publishing (BMI).

Album artwork by Margaret M. Crawford.

& 2022. All rights reserved.

  Compact Disc

Spotify Player

Apple Music Player

Amazon Music Player

Crawdaddy's Notes

Kick Your Ass

Some teams have songs they play to get them pumped up before a big game, and there are some songs that get played all the time at sporting events — e.g., Gary Glitter “Rock And Roll, Part 2”, Queen “We Will Rock You”, AC/DC “Thunderstruck”, White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”, etc. I remember one of my kids being on a team that liked the Dropkick Murphys “I’m Shipping Up To Boston” for their pre-game, even though it had nothing to do with a competition — like many of these awesome songs. I wanted to write a song that was more directly about competition and could be used in either a sports context or as a concert opener. I imagined the team getting off the bus with this song blaring, striking fear into the hearts of their opponents. My brother’s donkey Winston is featured in the single artwork by Margaret.

Vigilante Rock

I wrote this rock anthem for the Fontanels in the early 90’s after reading about the US military using loud rock music to break down prisoners. I imagined what it would be like to be sort of a spy with a guitar. This version features Hodads guitarist Eric “Zipper” Wilson on lead.

Driving With My Blinker On

When I used to see people driving down the highway with their blinkers on but not turning, I always wondered what they were thinking. Were they planning to turn but didn’t? Do they leave their blinkers on all the time just in case they want to turn? Didn’t they notice the blinking sound? Anyway, I imagined a scenario that seemed very plausible to me. I know it's easy to be distracted when something's going on in a relationship. This is another song I wrote for the Fontanels in the early 90’s, and it has sort of a Tom Petty classic rock sound.

Sounds About Right

This song was initially inspired by a recurring sarcastic comment by Hodads guitarist Eric “Zipper” Wilson. Something weird or bad would happen, and he’d shake his head, make a face, and say, “sounds about right”. The weird sound on this song is me "playing" a piece of sheet metal; I wanted it to sound flimsy.

Isn't She Lonely?

The idea for this song came to me as I was driving back from seeing a long-time friend who was going through a tough time. My friend was bitter, angry, and unable to move forward with his life. With my playlist on shuffle, I listened to AC/DC’s “She’s Got Balls” and Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” back-to-back, and then the idea for this song popped into my head. I’m normally a pretty positive person; so, it was difficult to write the song from that perspective. Tim Gillespie added a lonesome trumpet intro, and my son Patrick played a nice lead, which reminds me of Dire Straits.

"Big O" Biscuit

When I was in college at Western Carolina University, there was a Hardee’s where everyone went late night after parties. My friend Dale (“Big O”) convinced Hardee’s to make a biscuit named after him with steak, egg, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. It became so popular that Hardee’s printed official 2-for-1 “Big O” biscuit coupons! At a recent homecoming, I recorded “Big O” doing the “Oooooo” intro and some of my long-time friends / dance partners (Cheryl, Lisa, Laura) saying their names, which I mixed into the outro.  While early versions sounded either like Prince (first attempts) or Pink Floyd (with Eric on lead when incubating with the Hodads), it turned out to be a funky dance jam when my son Patrick added some tasty lead guitar.

Catamount Pounce

The WCU mascot is a catamount. This is an instrumental / surf song with a 60’s style freakout at the end. I wrote it sort of like classical program music. The catamount is watching and waiting in the first part, then stalking, then chasing, then pouncing and attacking.

Let's Play Some Chess

My tribute to Chess Records and all the great blues songs they put out. I wrote this before ever knowing about Queen’s Gambit, but wouldn’t it be great for the soundtrack to that TV show? Anyway, this includes lots of references to other songs; see how many you can spot.

Jaded

This song was initially inspired by a conversation at a Christmas party with a friend, who laughed and said he was “too jaded” to do or care about whatever we were discussing. I took that notion and ran with it to create this punk rock song. I didn’t want everything to rhyme perfectly — like I didn’t care. Then I mentioned that it doesn’t all rhyme in the lyrics — sort of like Alice Cooper in “School’s Out”. The Hodads recorded the first version of this, but it wasn’t released when I was doing the first Crawdad Crash album. So, I decided to do my own version because it’s so fun to play.

Something Bad

Buzzsaw? Falling piano? Dynamite? Yes, this is a love song — inspired by cartoons. Influenced probably by the Cramps and all those garage bands from the 60’s like the Sonics, Standells, Chocolate Watchband, Count Five, Seeds, Lyrics, etc. Check out the Nuggets and Pebbles compilations if you’ve never listened to that stuff. This was originally done by the Fontanels.

WMSJ Is Now RGC

When I was a kid, a DJ at the local radio station WMSJ was killed in a transmitter accident, and the station changed its call letters in memory of him. “Ronnie” was Ronnie G. Childress, the DJ, and “Uncle Jimmy” was Jimmy Childress, the founder of the radio station. Really tragic for a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Recently, I found an article about it in the archives of the Sylva Herald. Lead guitar by Hodads guitarist Eric “Zipper” Wilson, who grew up in my same hometown. Eric was a big Steely Dan fan, and, when he was recording this, I said, “think Steely Dan”. This may be the last thing Eric ever recorded.

The Ballad Of Cletus Lily

Occasionally, the Hodads would be the backing band for country singer Cletis Lily. I’m not sure how he spelled his name exactly, but I used the spelling “Cletus Lily” for the song so that it doesn’t conflict with the singer Cletis Lilly from the 60’s who had a song called “Southland Boogie”. Anyway, we would bill ourselves as Cletis Lily & The Quivering Livers, and we'd play traditional country and boogie like Hank Sr.'s "Rambling Man", Hank Jr.'s "Born To Boogie", David Allan Coe's "You Never Even Called Me By My Name", etc. Cletis was an incredible singer, had an awesome voice for country music, and could also impersonate famous country singers (George Jones, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, etc.) really well.

We’re All Doomed

The idea for this just popped into my head while I was hiking during the pandemic, and, by the end of the hike, the melody, chorus, and structure of the song were all set. I worked out the verses quickly, and the title of the debut album comes from one of the lines that mentions the “Crawdad Era”. I thought if Brad Paisley wanted to cover my song, then he could change it to the “Paisley Era”. I added some banjo and a detuning guitar for some different sounds.

Rock On

This song is about perseverance and partially inspired by some friends dealing with depression. It has a glam rock feel to it, with a stomping power pop outro, which references the Banana Splits theme song. Eric played some great lead on it.

Kick Your Ass (Reprise) (Instrumental)

One night when I was incubating “Kick Your Ass” with some of the Hodads, Steve H. started high-stepping and said, “I could see a marching band doing this!” So, I took a section of “Kick Your Ass” to create an instrumental reprise, added more drums, and then got Tim G. to add some trumpet to get more of a marching band sound. Of course, it also has lots of wailing guitars with whammy bars — which are less prevalent in marching bands. I didn't have a vibraslap; so, the weird "sproingy" sound near the end is a doorstop!

Old Red Jeep, New White Snow (Nothin' Stoppin' Christmas)

When I was a kid, my dad and other men from the church would deliver gifts to the needy around Christmas, and my brother and I would tag along. Many gifts were destined for rural mountainous areas with poor roads, but luckily my dad had a Jeep that could go anywhere. Unluckily, I'm not sure the heater worked. One Christmas, it snowed about 8 inches, and my dad drove all over town picking up my relatives to bring them to our house for our traditional Christmas dinner. I extrapolated on this theme in the last verse, with my dad helping Santa Claus like Rudolph did. Dedicated to the memory of Frank M. Crawford, Jr.