Dive! - Here comes another one

Though it was my intention to write every tune specifically for Dive!, I'm finding that in my unreleased song archive, there are a few tunes that have been waiting patiently for the right moment to get recorded and this sure as hell is one of them.

Written in 2004, "Drinking Out Loud" was originally going to be a tune for Mohave, since most of those songs stem from the fictional town of Nowhere, Nevada, where there's nothing to do but sit around, drink and count tumbleweeds. However, as I've long since discovered, Nowhere is not only a mythical dot on the map, but it's also a state of mind (if you're heard the tune "Nowhere, Nevada", you know what I'm talking about), one that I find myself frequently visiting. So, "Drinking Out Loud" is not so much a random tune that came out of a need for storytelling in the Tom Waits tradition. Rather, it's a hymn to self and to anyone else out there who likes to cozy up to a good stiff drink.

Drinking Out Loud
Music and lyrics by Bing Futch
© Copyright 2004 J.O.B. Entertainment Inc.

bartender, be a friend
no tonic, straight gin
I'm in a hurry and I want to get plowed
your compassion's why I'm here
so if you could please, lend an ear
because I came here for drinkin' out loud


a little booze-buzz on my brain
perhaps some liquid cocaine
will start me mendin'
and I'll blend in with the crowd
thank God I'm a local
cause you'll let me get vocal
just a yokel for drinkin' out loud


lord bless me full throttle
then pass me the bottle
cause you'll find that my mind's in a cloud
if it wasn't for drinkin'
I might still be thinkin'
about sitting here drinkin' out loud


bartender, you the man
to assist with my plan
I know that somewhere there's a momma who's proud
and somewhere else there's another
slightly less happy mother
who raised a son up for drinking out loud


right now this hell is heaven
and this heaven is hell
I can't remember who I was
or how far I fell
so keep my bar tab wide open
I'll leave when you close
because you win some, you lose some
that's just how it goes

Funnily enough - I wrote this song on piano and had never attempted to play it on the mountain dulcimer before this afternoon. Though the key of D can be quite challenging for both women and men, in the case of "Drinking Out Loud", it seems to work pretty well, as opposed to the key of G, which takes it into high lonesome territory (which means you sing so damn high that everyone leaves you quickly and then you're lonesome.) I may post an acoustic demo at some point. Been holding back on posting all of the demos 1), because I want some of the record to be a surprise and 2), there's nothing like having half-assed demos floating around the internet to build a case for first impressions. Right?