(Written and arranged by Reynold D. Philipsek 1995 copyrights Zino-Rephi Music BMI)
All voices and instruments by Reynold except steel guitar by Stymie Seamans
Recording engineer:Stymie Seamans
Mastering engineer-Bernie Grundman
Over the next few weeks I will be sending out four songs where I tried to inject some humor into the process. The real models for this type of songwriting are Randy Newman and to some extent Loudon Wainwright III. Trying to be funny with a song is extremely difficult or at least I think it is. This is an “existential “ cowboy song which in itself is paradoxical. “Gabby Hayes” might be a pretty arcane reference but some people of my vintage might remember this gruff, toothless old comic character from Roy Rogers films.
At the time of this specific recording Stymie was working at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios and as a consequence we recorded several songs there including this one. This was done in Studio C at Paisley Park on a Studer 24 track machine. Famed mastering engineer Bernie Grundman later mastered this track in Hollywood. So from a technical standpoint it is one of my more highfaluting recordings.
I especially like the layered arpeggio harmony guitars that enter on the second verse as a rhythmic counterpoint. Stymie adds some nice steel guitar on last verse. Overall I think we did a nice job of building the production arrangement.
Be kind.
Reyn