By Ted Slowik
All nine songs on Edward David Anderson’s new album
“Lower Alabama: The Loxley Sessions” are masterfully written stories about
life, love, loss and other themes.
The tunes were skillfully recorded this year by longtime
Neil Young sideman Anthony Crawford, who produced the record and who plays
fiddle, pedal steel, bass and other instruments. The release on the Royal
Potato Family label is Anderson’s follow-up to his solo debut, “Lies &
Wishes,” produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos.
One song in particular reveals Anderson’s songwriting artistry:
the lead track, “Firefly.”
Anderson, the bearded former frontman for Backyard Tire
Fire, says he originally wrote and recorded “Firefly” about 20 years ago when
he was playing with the Bloomington, Ill.-based band Brother Jed.
He planned to record eight songs at Crawford’s Admiral Bean
Studio in Orange Beach, Ala., where Anderson snowbirds to escape the harsh
Illinois winters. But he snuck in “Firefly” as the ninth song, he told National
Public Radio affiliate WGLT-FM in a Nov. 3 radio interview.
“I completely re-arranged it, put it in a different key,
kind of changed the feel and cadence and rewrote some of the words,” Anderson
said. “But the chorus is the same, and (the song is) the same principle.”
That principle captures the essence of life from the
perspective of a veteran songwriter and touring musician. It’s the principle of
the rolling stone that Muddy Waters first wrote about in 1950, which inspired
The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and countless others. It’s a sentiment shared by songs about shooting stars, or ones about it being better to burn out than to fade away.
A rolling stone or a meteor have brief life expectancies,
but they’re characterized by brilliant bursts of energy. That sentiment may
also characterize the life of a rock star, the poet, or anyone who appreciates
that life is short. The Latin expression “ars longa, vita brevis,” typically
translated as “life is short, art is eternal,” sums it up well.
As does Anderson’s song “Firefly.” A lightning bug’s life
expectancy is but a few weeks, but the creature spreads light and beauty during
its existence. “Don’t want to grow up but time don’t stop,” Anderson writes.
Time waits for no one, but Anderson leaves you feeling like it’s never too late
to have a happy childhood.
The chorus of “Firefly” brilliantly captures what it means
to live like a rolling stone:
You can give in and do what
you’re told
You waste away and you grow old
Or you can shine brightly and
light up the sky, yeah you
Light up the sky like a firefly
In the 65
years since McKinley Morganfield first penned a song that distilled into music
the essence of restlessness, wanderlust and the release of kinetic energy, many
have attempted to replicate the spirit of that expression. Few have
accomplished it as well as Anderson.
Anderson's video for "Firefly" features footage filmed by his wife, Kim.
And that’s
just the first track on “The Loxley Sessions.” The other eight songs are all
superbly crafted tales with wonderful melodies and exquisite arrangements.
Firefly by Edward David
Anderson
Cornfield full
of fireflies, well I’m
Driving west
into the clear dark night
Got a
destination with no place to go,
Got a
destination with no place to go
Midlife
crisis, it’s one and two
Just trying to
figure out what I want to do
Well I don’t
want to grow up but time don’t stop, said
I don’t want
to grow up but time don’t stop
You can give
in and do what you’re told
You waste away
and you grow old
Or you can
shine brightly and light up the sky, yeah you
Light up the
sky like a firefly
No one’s come
along to steal my heart
They may not,
now and that’s the scary part
Everybody
seeks love everybody fears it
Everybody
needs love and everybody’s scared
You can give
in and do what you’re told
You waste away
and you grow old
Or you can shine
brightly and light up the sky, yeah you
Light up the
sky like a firefly
Light up the
sky like a firefly
I’m in the
shadows, next day the light
I’m turned
around I don’t know wrong from right
I’m off my
path, I’ve lost my way
I’m thinking
back to what a young man used to say
He said, you
can give in and do what you’re told
You waste away
and you grow old
Or you can
shine brightly and light up the sky, yeah you
Light up the sky just like a firefly
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