10. MAURICE TANI: WHEN I'M DRINKIN' (I AIN'T THINKIN')
From the album "Blue Line"
Written by
Maurice Tani; Tanitone Tunage (ASCAP)
Maurice Tani: Vocals, Guitars, Piano; Mike Anderson:Bass; Steve Kallai: Fiddles; Trey Sabatelli: Drums
I’m sorry Baby
That I said that about your sis
You know I love her –and your mother
They are such a source of bliss
Hardly apropos –yes I know
My words landed with a hiss
Hey, drinkin’ always makes me act like this
When I’m drinkin’ –I ain’t thinking
I start blurting out the feelings that most folks would hide away
When the liquor’s talking –I should get walking
Some things I say are shocking
When I’m drinkin’ -I ain’t thinkin’
but I believe every word I say
Hey, hey bartender
I shouldn’t have heckled that band last night
Those guys were so bad –and I must add
They couldn’t sing or play or write
I said some things –took some swings
Added fire to the fight
Hey drinkin’ always makes me feel I’m right
When I’m drinkin’ –I ain’t thinking
I start blurting out the feelings that most folks would hide away
When the liquor’s flowin’ –I should be goin’
Before my other side starts showin’
When I’m drinkin’ -I ain’t thinkin’
but I believe every word I say
Liquor never made me say a thing I did not feel
But it made me say a lot of things I wish I’d not revealed
I’m sorry darlin’
I don’t express my love enough
But I do dear –and it’s just fear
That makes saying it so rough
My brain takes a time out –I spill my guts out
With a shot of the hard stuff
Drinkin’ always helps me loosen up
When I’m drinkin’ –I ain’t thinking
I start blurting out the feelings that I usually hide away
Through my devotion –to potent potions
I’m in touch with my emotions
When I’m drinkin’ -I ain’t thinkin’ but you can believe every
word I say
__________________________________________
 MAURICE TANI & 77 EL DEORA:
Maurice Tani is a veteran singer-songwriter and band leader of the Alt-Country and Americana music scenes. He has released six critically-acclaimed albums of original material over the past dozen years.
“I was actually blown away. Maurice Tani writes songs that sound at once familiar, ethereal and beautiful.”
-Robert Sproul, No Depression Magazine
Born and raised in San Francisco, Maurice Tani was too young for the Summer of Love, but was still profoundly influenced by the California culture that gave the world surf guitar, country rock and psychedelic to the singer songwriter types.
Barely into his twenties and hungry for experience, he moved to central Texas to work the hardcore country, blues and rock circuit between Austin and Dallas, playing five sets a night, seven nights a week for months at a time, eventually making connections that led to his moving to New York City just as the punk rock scene of CBGBs and Max's Kansas City was exploding in Lower Manhattan. By 1977 he was back in San Francisco as punk, power pop and new wave was taking hold in the Bay Area and began a stretch of five years and four critically acclaimed albums with ex-Flamin' Groovies front man Roy Loney's band, The Phantom Movers.
Through the rest of the '80s and '90s, Maurice was the lead guitarist and a featured vocalist for Zasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra and Big Bang Beat, two large, 12-18 piece dance bands that gained worldwide exposure from a 2 hour PBS New Years Eve tri-mulcast (2 television stations with different views and FM stereo radio audio all broadcasting simultaneously) that was broadcast annually for many years on public TV around the US and Europe.
Tani has spent the past 15 years as an active part of the California alt-country/Americana scene. Fronting his own bands, Calamity & Main, 77 El Deora, he has produced a series of albums for himself and others. Tani has constructed a repertoire of rye humor and darker romantic rumination often described as Oblique Americana and Twang-Noir, Tani calls it “Supercalifornographic”.
WHAT IS SUPERCALIFORNOGRAPHIC?
Short for “Supercalifornographicexpealidocious”. While rooted in country music, Tani's writing is centered on a West Coast perspective. “Though much of my material is based on fictional characters and situations, I still write what I know”, said Tani. “I'm not particularly comfortable or interested in the rural imagery of tractors, 4x4s or general agriculture common in much country music. What attracts me most about country is the story-telling side of it. My stories are more likely to be centered around an urban experience. I'm a Californian from a large metropolitan area and I write about the things that hold my attention. I think of these songs as a sort of cinema for the blind. Short musical narratives of life on the left coast.” |
