R I C K V I N E S
songwriter
3 Songs - 10:39
Me and My Shadow
It was after midnight on a Tuesday. TC invited me to play poker with him and some friends. One of them was Dominick Grillo, a saxophone player who I’ve seen a bunch of times at The Spotted Cat. I didn’t know the other guys.
I’m down here alone in New Orleans, so the invitation was welcome relief from the solitude. I’m sure they played much later, but I was tired and probably 30 years older than everyone else there. I left up $8!
Walking back to my rental apartment along Royal Street on a gorgeous night, I came across the tile street marker that said “Marigny.” To my left was Marigny Studios, where I recorded some songs back in January during Folk Alliance. My shadow falling across that tile felt like a perfect image for where my life is right now and what this whole project has quietly become for me.
I felt summoned back to New Orleans, and I’ve now been here for two and a half months. Last week, I finally understood why.
I realized there was a hidden part of me I finally needed to reckon with. A part of me I never fully acknowledged, but that influenced far more of my life than I realized. This had been brewing in me for a long time.
I'm lucky and grateful beyond measure for the opportunities my parents gave me in life. But I grew up in a family that suffered the tragic death of the firstborn son. I was born three and a half years later into a grieving family. There was not a single picture of him anywhere in the house.
We didn’t celebrate his birthday or openly honor his death. But his presence loomed large. I’m still trying to understand exactly how that shaped me, but at a high level, emotional honesty was not especially welcomed or modeled in our household.
Jung called this hidden part of ourselves “The Shadow.” That’s why this picture felt so perfect to me.
My brother Jeffrey
Rick Nelson
Back in January, I recorded about nine songs in six hours at Marigny Studios. Just me, the guitar Rick Nelson (owner and engineer) loaned me, the microphones and all my insecurities. Three of those songs immediately felt connected to each other, so I put them together as a small release. I mastered Rick’s rough mixes myself. I'm calling it "Marigny Sessions - Vol. 1. I'm leaving the door open for more.
After having this realization about why I was down here, I listened to the songs again and suddenly heard them differently. I realized that songs I had written years ago were, in some strange way, songs of comfort and companionship for this hidden side of myself.
That realization made me cry more than once.
I’ve never been especially comfortable making my songs directly about me or my story. Often, I don't even know what they are about really. I just know how they make me feel. I'd much prefer to hide behind them. But I think part of what I want from releasing these songs is to step more honestly into myself, all of myself, including the parts I’ve hidden for years.
At another level, I’ve also been struggling with what to do with the nearly 300 songs I’ve written. Making another full album was always a possibility, a fun and expensive possibility, but I eventually realized that whatever I do at this point is mostly for me anyway.
I’d also been thinking a lot about production and realized that while great production can be captivating, the beauty is often in the imperfections. So I wanted these recordings to simply be me, the guitar, and the microphones. No Autotune. No click track. No overdubs.
Me
TC Moore, who invited me to play poker, is an artist I met at the Frenchmen Street Art Market the first week I was down here. I felt something immediately from him and from his work.
There’s a humanity in it that connected with me.
It felt like he was the one to do some artwork for the release. He’s agreed to create the artwork for this release and is one of only a few people who has heard these songs so far.
TC Moore
I’m 68 years old, and seeing myself in a new way at this stage of life is a little disorienting. But it’s better than never seeing it at all.
I hope you’ll take a quiet moment to listen to these songs and that they speak to you in some way.I know everyone struggles, even if they don’t let on.
I know life can be harder than we want to admit. And I know that in the quiet hours, when no one is watching, everyone can use a little reassurance. I hope you find some in these songs.
Marigny
Lyrics
ALONE IN THIS WORLD
A light in the darkness, A warm hand to hold
A voice in the silence, A truth to be told
A reason for trying, A crack in the door
A break in the quiet, A faith to restore
I know, You are, A long way from home
I know, You feel, Alone in this world
A sea of emotions, A map and a glass
A hopeful horizon, A dream you can't catch
A world of illusion, A shift in the wind
A foolish idea, A place to begin
I know, You are, A long way from home
I know, You feel, Alone in this world
IT'S TIME FOR YOU
Sweet surrender
Please remember
You are worthy of this world
You are worthy of
Dreams that will hold you
Love that will open up for you
Time, it's time for you to shine
It's time for you
Free forgiveness
Lies within us
As you wander through this world
As you wander through
All the memories holding on to you
It's time for something new
Fog is lifting
You are drifting
They have given you this world
They have given you
Dreams that hold you
Love that will lead you to what's true
Time, it's time for you to fly
It's time for you
THE WORLD TURNS AND THE WIND BLOWS
It's a straight line to a crooked past
Think of something make it fast
You can see it like a photograph
Deep inside your mind
It's a long time on a short path
A dream you try to make last
All the time you spend tied to the mast
Drifting through your life
and the world turns, and the wind blows
the sun shines, through the window
and you wonder where did the time go
and you think hard, but you don't know
It's the search for the greener grass
The reach for ring of brass
The half full or empty glass
You've seen it from both sides
It's the love that you let pass
The hurt heart that you can't patch
The words you can't take back
That keeps you up at night
and the world turns, and the wind blows
the sun shines, through the window
and you wonder where did the time go
and you think hard, but you don't know
It's the sand slipping through the hourglass
the trying hard to somehow make it last
It's the days that go by so fast
sometimes it makes you sad,
but then you just laugh
It's the time spent with an old friend
The old house you grew up in
all the boxes in the basement
It's the stories that you write
and the world turns, and the wind blows
the sun shines, through the window
and you wonder where did the time go
and you think hard, but you don't know
It's a straight line to a crooked past
Think of something make it fast
You can see it like a photograph
Deep inside your mind