Bret McCormick Many years ago, after you handed me a Texas Water cassette, I listened to it and this song was the first one that totally grabbed my attention.

The guitar is great on that song James...is it a vocoder or a phaser or wah or something like that..stereo vocoder maybe....makes it sound like an synthetic organ type sound...matches the theme...disguised...unreal..very clever.. Matthew

OMG - you bring tears to my eyes and joy to my heart...I understand and identify with all the words you have written.

Listening to your songs evokes imagery of being a lonely and mysterious character stuck in an old dusty town.

Man this is beautiful!

Cool Song !

nicely done,james.the music suits the lyric perfectly

Cool feel to this one. Haunting

Beautiful song James!

fuckin awesome song but why didn't you sing the last 2 lines?

Lovely James. What a blessing to cheer up my down morning.

And ALL of that... I remember when my boys first came to CA. They were late teens, and early 20s. I took them to see Sunset cliffs. If you don't know it, it's easy to imagine: a sweeping vista of sky, sea and pelicans on a postcard. We got out, walked around... they said nothing, somber faces, withdrawn. "I step out of my car/ I don't know where we are..." It seemed the oddest thing at the time, but I knew this is what they were feeling. This song carries the magnificence of arrival in a beautiful new world. Or when my mother drove my sister & I from OK to CA to join my dad during the Korean War. Somewhere in New Mexico along Rt 66 we pulled over to sleep for a few hours. I woke up at dawn before anyone else, to discover the windshield of the car was filled with an enormous glowing ball. At age 6, I had never seen anything like this sun. I hardly knew what it was. This song was written for such moments. A beautiful, beautiful song. And those guitars in the middle are liquid light. Thank you for thinking of me in relation to this. I will always feel a tiny bit it belongs to me.

Delightul! Notes of honey on that guitar solo! Lyrics are a poem. The pipes coming back at the end, haunting. Something very Irish about this.

LOVE this! Love all that's going on dramaticaly in the sound track. Love the use of text from the book. Love the driving rat-a-tat rhythm. Very creative. Almost like a movie! :)

Good rendition I am sure Teddy Roosevelt would be proud. I sang this song every day at elementary school for 6 years.

GEEZUS, Jim, you keep freaking me out w these amazing songs!! So many styles, and this is my very favorite... until the next fav comes along!! Great lyrics, love the back up vocals, guitar solo, and hope you don't mind me sayin' a bit of a JJ Cale/ Tulsa Sound vibe by my ear. Mesmerizing. Gwyn Henry

everything is right on here. vox and mood. would love to hear more of this

Love it that he lived (has lived?) so long, long enought to enjoy this song as much has he seems to have, and sing it in duets with you. What a joy. And I love to song, too. Our shared roots and Red Dirt!

This brings tears to my eyes. The imagery couldn't be better for spreading empathy.

❤️i love this!

It would be cool to put the GHOST TOWN songs in a collection. A great subject with so much sadness... You really capture it here.

Gwyn Henry said, "How random, Jim! What precipitated this sharing??? Don't get me wrong, it is very funny. My reply, "This was about when Peggy, my fuck buddy for 29 years said no more for me. She was giving it to Doug. Not funny to me. So 15 years celebate."

I randomly chose an old album to pick a song from to post and it turned out to be songs one year after Peggy left. I was at my lowest, loneliest, most unconsolable. STRANGER was a song that also spoke to me about my dad having lost my mom. to Gwyn Henry

I also like These are the Only Times I Think of You... You are so prolific and so consistent in quality of work. Gwyn Henry

WoW! What an interesting counterpoint: slow recitation with snappy drum track.

Really snappy and tight. What an interesting lyric.

That pain is incredible and I understand it Alene Brandt

Scott - Thanks for the link. I love how descripted they were i never have smelled the orange blossoms but i bet they are heavenly. Me -The first time it hit me, I was taking Kay Smart for a ride, top down just west of that bridge at Lemon cove. Nothing else like it. Scott - Enter Scott Scott Carson Ausburn I bet ; ) Nothing like smell to jog your memories. I usta be in love with this girl named Belinda that lived up the street from my Grandmothers. We would go bicycle riding often. Her front yard had plum trees that smelled heavenly when the were in bloom. Now every time i smell a plum tree bloom it takes me back to the good times i had with Belinda and wondering what ever happened to her. Me -So sweet. Peggy wore Sweet Honesty perfume. I’m sure if I met some girl with that I would be shaken.

I sang this song at a Sunday night songwriter contest at The Playground in Fort Worth. No cigar.

Gwyn Henry I go farther and farther into my appreciation of you songwriting skills... lyrics poetic... ex Broke Piano.. The line that got me this time was "The only things that moves my strings is when somebody breathes" I once interviewed a popular musician in Tulsa, John D.Levan, in the late 70s. When I asked him where he got his ideas for songs, he laughed and said, "Heck, you just turn your head, and thre's a song!" Your line is saying the same, only more intensely... it's the inclusion of "human breath". goes even deeper.

Gwyn Henry That one would be my fav of all I have seen! They are all great, but my fav... will never forget you underneath that (was it a piano bed?) So many metaphors played into that... and don't we all just want to revert to childhood at times and go hide under the bed, take a crayon, etc. jmt - You are broadening my vision of the video. Yes. Under the bed was always a place of mystery and imagined safety.

Gwyn Henry That one would be my fav of all I have seen! They are all great, but my fav... will never forget you underneath that (was it a piano bed?) So many metaphors played into that... and don't we all just want to revert to childhood at times and go hide uner the bed, take a crayon, etc.

Bobby Huskins I like this a lot! Thanks for sharing.

Kat Angel Psychedelic sound. Felt like a brain massage.

Kat Angel Wow! Through your words, I heard my mother, my father, my sisters and brother, my grandma and grandpa, myself talking to my husband, my best friend. I suppose we are all that predictable in time and in retrospect. You made me think and travel through time.

Kat Angel James Michael Taylor great song. I love the melody and the words

Joseph Brunelle Haunting Sentimental heart on the sleeve and knot in the pine

Belinda Stephens - Lovely, James. Who are you singing about? James Michael Taylor Belinda Stephens Specifically, Peggy. But we all have the voices of our parents and children and other loved ones that we live with.

David Young Wow! Beautiful song! One of your best.

Leslie Young Evocative song.