One of the best parts of my job is that I get turned on to so many talented young artists, so when my friend Kevin O’Sullivan suggested I give his nephew Garrett Anderson a listen I was all ears. Garrett is a Baltimore, Maryland native and has just released his second CD, Great Unknown. It’s an eclectic collection of narrative ballads, light-jazz bop, and traditional rhythms with just a hint of Appalachia creeping in around the edges. Great Unknown is a clean, enjoyable sophomore effort, a follow up to Anderson’s first CD, Portraits of the Young Man as an Artist.

Garrett Anderson - Live - 8X10 Club - Baltimore, MD. 12-05-09
 

Garrett Anderson - Before Now

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Great Unknown

Written, recorded, and produced by Garrett Anderson ©2009

 Music by Anderson, Baldwin, Dunson, and Boring

www.GarrettAndersonMusic.com

1. Mindy

2. New Umbrella

3. Bohemian

4. Grandpas’ Song

5. Drop these Blues

6. Before Now

7. Day to Day

8. Church Pew

9. Prisoner’s Escape

10. Great Unknown

Mindy

Breathing life into the lines

Free to fly from your worried mind

Even if fools don’t catch your drift

Ever on these waves you will ride

We are fighting the fight

You and I have unsheathed our words

Taken to the sky with our voices

We are haunted by the same old ghosts

So keep on talking about it

Keep on praying out loud

When too many voices are crying

Let your whisper calm us down

Mindy it’s alright to crack that smile

After its all we ever wanted all the while

Mindy its alright to sleep at ease

In the morning you will find another trial

I am thanking heaven

For the gift of your voice

Singing sweet songs of creation and

Drowning out the unholy noise

When too many voices are rising

Let your whisper cut the crowd 

So just smile

New Umbrella

So it comes to this and that and everything in between that I’m thinking

That I’m stronger to resist the temptress but I’d just as soon avoid the tempting

As it happens here’s your turf so I’ve no right to try to talk you into leaving

But you’ve got me in a bind and my will’s running outa time the clock is ticking

Through the chatter of the room somehow one voice seems to rise above the clamor

I know I’ve heard that laugh before but in a way this time sounds strange I think she’s faking

Though I try to keep my eyes fixed on the politicking gentlemen I falter

And sure enough she’s there and I do my damnedest not to stare but I can’t help it

What’s a Mississippi man do with a missy with a plan to clip his wings

She’ll Let him go and he’ll come on back cuz he’s attached and she’s pulling all them strings

She kept in touch without a word by being nothing but herself for no one else 

Hence her being so polite for all the folks who see the world in black and white

Well she’s not the only one but she’s one of a kind and they’re few and far between

See I haven’t settled down cuz the one in my arms is the woman of my dreams

So please don’t donate too much charity to the happy hobo living wild and free

Cuz then he’ll haveta do your thing and find some rain to try his shiny new umbrella

Oh but When the storms come all I’ll need is a fire to dry my tired feet

So I won’t follow salt thrown over shoulders into memories

See I Don’t believe in luck but I’d be happy to take some if its just laying around

For a minor commotion or a sly diversion so I could bid adieu without ever having to talk to you

Bohemian

Times aint changing the rules ain’t breaking

Only the strong survive and strength is measured by the dollar sign

I got an itch to get in politics to change it from the inside out

But all the hands I’m shaking, money I’m taking could change the man who wants to change the world

But a law school drop-out bohemian lives a righteous life but only one so I’m leaving him

Unless his ink can flood the whole world unless we think about a new world honey

I gotta keep composing You gotta know you’re chosen

To right history your pen is permanent and your will is free follow me

To a new era don’t be scared of thinking in a new way start today

You got a mind of your own you gotta take control or you’re just another in the machine

That is bringing us down

Now my mind is shaking I can’t go insane

I’ve got to play the game

Grandpa’s Song

I look to the sky as I walk in the morning and take a good look like my last

I breathe in the peace that comes with the mourning and knowing that all comes to pass

So ride it high when times are happy and cry your eyes when they’re sad

Love your ma respect your pappy and tra la la loo ra loo

Well I live my life in circles and stories while others are living in lines

It’s just that I’ve found little use in the bothering of going with no end in sight

Grandfather clears his throat, takes my hand, and pulls me close

Says “Son, whatever floats your boat will lead you to your promised land”

Well the night’s cold and dark I can’t see where I’m going

But the sun’s on her way like she does

Well he’s off and he’s gone but he won’t be forgotten

He’s living on in all of us

Drop these Blues

I’m begging you not to burn me Cuz I’ve been burned before

I know I’m playing with fire Cuz I’m so tired of being cold

So hold me close so I can drop these blues

Its even getting hard now to sleep sound knowing you’re not here safe in my arms

And dreaming of you… well it only makes waking so hard

I didn’t think it would last forever

I just hoped it would last for a while

So keep holding on

Before Now

Like a penguin waddling through snow and ice awaiting spring I’m tired of your dawdling

Like a kettle boiling get to me before I scream Or I’ll be screeching suffering

I wanted you before now

Well I did not know you was you But I was looking anywho Lucky me you’re looking too

Fate was running late and I was tired of the wait We met not a moment too soon 

Here we’re poised to take the plunge

Like putting flowers into guns

I’m pacified and overcome

Day to Day

I’m doing a new dance called the day to day

Ain’t thinking about tomorrow quit frettin’ on yesterday

And I’m feeling alright doing the day to day

I was just a young fool thinking I could look past the moments

Pre-acting anticipating cause

Wasted time trying to read all their minds

Instead of asking and embracing surprise

Couldn’t fit the whole in my head

Not enough cause for all the consequences

Of all the could that could come to pass

Just one will so I’m

It got so bad I was wishing that I had

Things I had that I had forgot

Too busy counting days till I had it made

Till it killed me I was missing my life

Church Pew

I’m singing along from the church pew

Like momma taught me to

Singing along from the church pew

Like daddy tries to do

Prisoner’s Escape

The jangling of many keys dangling off an iron ring

Alert we caged animals of a break in our routine

Perfume of tangerine betrays her anonymity

She called in all her favors from well-connected friends 

To free me from this cell 

It’s been seventeen months since I touched my love

Her beauty was somber and worse for the wear

Five I spent hiding, since the night of my crime

Dodging authorities, till they captured me 

A year I’ve awaited this day 

She begged of me “why didn’t you flee

To a faraway land beyond their reach?

It was a matter of when, not if, my dear

They’d hunt you on down if you stayed too near

Why’d you not run?”

“Cuz Oh Love Oh Love you ask of me what I cannot do

I stayed so I could Lay my longing eyes upon you 

In alleys and sidestreets I hid from you and kept out of view

cuz I Knew they watched you too, mine were not the only stares

So they caught onto my trail”

Hand in Hand in cuffs we touched

Warmth in between the cold iron bars

She slipped me a heady juice and begged that I don’t refuse

The chemist assured her that I’d feel no pain

 In my Venomous getaway

See the screams of my wife to be, unleashed the beast in me

The fates fondled history, like the drunks to my love

So she watched as I killed a man

And cringed as I killed again

The crimes, though in passion, were crimes just the same 

But I had to stay

Careful not to let me know, tearless till she turned to go

She slipped another dose between her teeth

Death in her sympathy, freed us of misery    

Our love was saved in its own peculiar way

A life we had waited… 

Great Unknown

Wondering where it’s from my glance is at the sky

Answers we found before are slipping through my mind

From all the hints I’ve got I turn from what it’s not

To face the great unknown knowing it’s all I got

After my thinking’s done I find a clearer mind

Looking outside in and minding what I find

From all the hints I’ve got I turn from what I’m not

To face the great unknown knowing it’s all I got