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Slow Time​-​-​2021 version

from My Back Pages, Revisited (With No Blonde) by Walter Ehresman

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[A MESSAGE FROM WALTER]

ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON MY FIRST SOLO ALBUM, 1989's "HONOR IN THE SWINE?"

This is the oldest of my songs to get a make-over in this new project. I wrote it in '88, and it appeared on my first solo album the next year. Listening back to the original version now, it's hard for me to get past the hissy recording quality.....all I can hear are things I would do differently now. But I think there's something of value there, beneath all that, and so I gave it another whack in the studio during the COVID down-time.

This song is also an example of me discovering that I need to sing something in a lower key, due to my comfortable range getting lower in the 30+ years that have passed since then. And so I ran the 12-string acoustic guitar through a "negative capo" device for this new version, which made the song easier to sing but also created some sonic challenges in that you really want to mic acoustic guitars in the studio instead of plugging them in, and so I was left with the task of doing a lot of processing to that guitar signal to try to compensate and make it sound at least interesting. You can be the judge of whether I achieved that......

I also added a flavor from India into the middle break section, using an electronic tanpura drone box I ordered many years ago from Mumbai.

Hear the original version here: walterehresman.bandcamp.com/track/bonus-track-slow-time

lyrics

Slow Time
(© 1988 Walter Ehresman)

The days and the nights blend together
in the times that we spend alone;
A twilight of the mind, counting ticks while slowly dying,
and staring blankly at the phone.

You feel that you’ve something to offer
in the closeness that adds up to two,
but the wounds from the past breed the fear that holds you fast
from ever trying someone new.

[chorus]
If we could see through each other’s eyes--
those earnest ideas (real or imagined),
any pain would be justified by the
quantum jump between;
To see what we really mean;
Imploring, but unheard, unseen.
Misperception kills its share of those
who chance to gamble out of the slow, slow time.

Some kind of situation with someone,
could happen almost any day--
two people killing time, telling jokes and telling lies,
with nothing really much to say.

It could lead in some direction,
or take them just nowhere at all;
The delicate balance of interaction,
just a blink, hopin’ it don’t stall.

credits

from My Back Pages, Revisited (With No Blonde), released July 11, 2022
Walter Ehresman: vocals; el./ac. 12-string guitar; keyboards; shruti box programming.

p. 2022 Walter Ehresman. Snipe Bog Records.

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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more

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