In the winter of 2018-2019 The Sandwich Rangers spent some time in the 3 LB Hammer Studio recording original Doug Hazard and Lisa Ferguson songs. These were all “live” takes, 4 musicians playing together, nothing added but a little reverb.
Here are the Hazard tunes. I like the way they came out, mostly relaxed but flowing over Dick’s acoustic bass, Jon’s hand drumming and harmonica, Lisa’s fancy guitar work and harmony vocals.
Love Won’t Stop The Rain is a ridiculously optimistic Pollyanna of a tune, there’s no denying. But I have been ridiculously lucky in this life, and this condensed autobiography expresses that.
My Good Gal’s Gone, aka Too Late is not autobiographical at all… at least not so far. But I think we can all relate to the feeling of waking up with a new understanding of our mistakes, and also the knowledge that it’s too late to fix them. Can’t relate? — Lucky you!
Take My Breath Away is known to all the various musicians I play it with as The Happy Song. That apparently relates to how they feel playing it, because the lyrics are more like a sticky mudball of politics and fairy tales rolling through the seasons down a slope of WTF. (Couldn’t have said it better myself!) I’m not satisfied with this version, but I’m beginning to fear that this is one of my song’s that I’ll never arrange and record to my own satisfaction. Nonetheless we play it and are happy.
The one song in this group that I’ve recorded before is The Whiskey Boat . It appeared previously on the Idol Hands album “See Around That Corner.” That’s a good version, but I wanted to play it with the Rangers, and I’m glad I did. I wrote this song for no particular reason; rather I should say that it wrote itself, came to me unbidden on my screenporch one evening, a much-appreciated gift… gift from ??
Ill Wind is the final selection here, the newest of my “wise-ass” songs, which many feel are the truest expression of my thoughts. They’re not wrong. It’s a yin/yang cosmos, and I illustrate that here with some good examples and some very bad ones.