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 they said nothing, somber faces, withdrawn.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!

Matthew F. Blowers III I am really liking your song on California, I have a special love for that state. You captured all the reaons I miss it, with your superb storytelling in lyrics and with the smooth harmonies and extremely well played music. It has a catchy beat, and I listened to the very last note.

Very catchy! Too short, maybe. Gotta listen twice.

So today, for some reason I decided to read the words first.. Just the words. And found it an absolutely beautiful experience. The metaphors you use to describe great and cosmic plans and intentions of great societal achievement, contrasted with the lines that begin with, "BUT I dreamed we met for breakfast".... (the switch and the contrast is very powerful) what a tiny, common human thing: meeting over the sharing of food,. Then followed by, "I dreamed I held your hand"... human touch/connection, as though those two simple things are worth more than all the highest achievements of worldly fame, and material ladders climbed! Which they are. They so are. The rest of the lyrics continue to develop & express that idea beautifully. Then I listened to the sing, and although it is good as a song, For me, the words in themselves stand strong and impactful w/o anything else. Not to contrast them and say one is "better" than the other. Just that sometimes I see lyrics that stand alone, And just saying, these words do that very well. Gwyn Henry

This is cool. It gives me ideas.

WoW! Knocks me out. Really sizzles.

Makes me want to find a partner and do a little dance...very nice.

You had me at, "If I back off and shut my mouth..." Know exactly where you are. So afraid the answer is, "No."

Sounds like a 50s Buddy Holly era song. Very sweet sentiment. And, yes, I can dance to it.

Great characterization. Great kick drum sound.

WoW! Rock me, dude! Love the imagery.

Kim Triolo Feil James Michael Taylor that's a fantastic story and a very lovely song

Yes! A MONKEES song, for sure.

Interesting sounds. Cool chord shifts.

Aaah, if Love could only be forgotten... Nice.

Like it.

Very nice...

California has a chorus that camouflages the dramatic irony of the verse narrative. If it weren’t for the unusual intro, it’d seem zirconium. Christopher Youngblood

Circle of No Regrets sounds quaint. That’s what makes it hit. Unless you turn your ears on, it’s a boring song, but once you do, it’s hard to take. It’s almost like you’re giving the audience an option. Christopher Youngblood

I wrote to my children, my answer. I told the how I watched them thru the window and enjoyed them in ways they never knew. How seeing them learn and succeed at their efforts was such pleasure to me. How discovering who they were by the talents and generosity they exhibited made me happy...The first response I got was from Embyr, now a registered nurse, mother of 4, just said, "Jim, you were mean."

Sat 11:38 PM Christopher sent Yesterday at 11:38 PM I listened to Kite a bunch of times, trying to think how it could be improved (it can’t be), and it occurred to me that Ben Franklin flew a key. That part of the story had never occurred to me as important before. But it’s like he was trying to unlock something. Maybe he tried it on a clear day and let the kite rise to where he couldn’t see it. That’d be a different experiment altogether. Christopher Youngblood