Song Notes

Album: Push on Through

Push On Through

This was the last song written for the record and represents a new level the band has reached in their unity. Me and Big T wrote the melody by the Rocky River (mostly his melody; I just copped a chord
from Eddie Vedder and stuck it in the chorus in lieu of a D). I wrote the lyrics about how hard it is to find yourself without self confidence and love for life. it's also about my struggle to get into the music industry and the change about hitting 18 and trying to figure everything out. I'm writing these notes in Germany and listening to the record now (unmastered and unprogrammed) and just really glad we got this song together in time for the recording.
Got it on the 1st take.

Time

Borrowed the pre-chorus from Skynnyrd, but I didn't realize it until after it was written. It's about when I'm in the USA and my girlfriend is in Germany. College is coming up and life, but love is forever. I love the solos on this bit. I learned most of Don's guitar solo in Germany, playing along to the record to stay tight.

River Of Sorrow

I wrote this off an earlier song I composed. The verse chord progression is that of Betrayed. The latter would have been on the album but for lack of time. We wanted a live cut for a bonus track, and hopefully you can visit the Smilefest site; I have been informed that some live cuts of ours are on it, I mean we signed some release
forms and everything. We performed that one especially for you, the fans, but I don't know what ever became of it. Oh well, I love my new song If I Had A Home. I will try to feature a studio Betrayed on the next record. I played River of Sorrow (formerly titled Regret) once at Jordan Matthews High School and the cop had to come
out and tell me to stop cussin' it caused a scene. No hard feelings if
you're reading this, man!

Atrophy

This one was originally in 4/4 time and was about drug abuse and hating my parents. But, of course, it sucked because you can't write about what you don't really know. I was in one of my heavy metal/grunge phases. Note: this phase hasn't ended by any means, but I've matured a writer and my metal is much better. For this one, it was really late at the studio and we were all out of our heads; you know how it is to be still going at 3 a.m. off nothing but coffee. I was like "man, I gotta do one more before we hit the bricks" and sat down and did exactly what you hear on the record. It's the only song with its original scratch vocal track. Of course, the mandolin, cello, and bass were overdubbed later, but this was my personal favorite to record. It's so real, man!

Blasphemy

I wrote this song with rap where the bass solo is and about how much I hated my school's marketing program. Ok, so I was an immature youth lashing out because I couldn't fit in. I LOVE Robbie's bass solo and am glad it replaced the rap. Maybe sometime I'll put up the original recording to download. Maybe after all you fans are solid and hard core and will put up with crazy eccentric stuff, you know? It was in a self made album called Conspiracy and my band then was called QP (later we became a Metallica Tribute called Disposable Heroes). I have a pre master copy of the Doobie-Shea sessions with someone saying uhhh...can we try this later? This will always be my favorite cut.

is:

HARDY WILLIAMSON
Vocals/Guitar

TONY WILLIAMSON
Backup Vocals/Mandolin

DON WRIGHT
Banjo/Guitar

ROBBIE LINK
Bass

Travlin'

Most of the credit here is Big T's. He recorded it instrumentally on my rig, said do something with "until I find some peace of mind I'll be Traveling'" and left. I just add libbed the vocals .. I love Tony's guitar on the Doobie Shea sessions cut.

Proclivity

I basically used my 10th grade vocabulary words for this one. It's my answer to how messed up it is to try and justify an affair and how you know you love the one you're with. Just keep saying I've got a proclivity. You might think it don't sound sardonic, but I did that like Finger 11 did Good Times. If you don't believe me, ask Scott Anderson.

As I Have To Be

Sung this one when my girlfriend's plane was delayed. The plan was to bring her to the studio for the finishing of the record, which we ended up delaying 'cause she eventually got to the Raleigh Airport @ midnight and me and the boys were an hour or so out of Virginia. Big T drove me to meet her. On one of our live shows, T introduced this song as first a 'gut-grabber' and then a 'goat-grabber' in front of my fiancee. That pissed me off and still does to date. I take all my songs really seriously, but T's still the man. I think I'm the overtly sensitive link, the boys are still 15 or so at heart.

Change

I'm really obsessed with the slow part to this and Proclivity. They're so cool, with the arpeggio guitar things I do that's just fun to play. I'll post the tabs whenever I get a chance, or maybe you guys can do that favor for me on Ultimate Guitar or Tabcrawler or something. It's a dream of mine to find a tab of mine online by someone else one day. Anyway, I like to jump for the stop live when I play standing, but I sometimes mess up, so if you've been to a performance where that was the case, forgive me. I just love music so much.

Movin' On

I wrote most of this in my head crossing a parking lot on vacation at the beach. When I got to the hotel, T and I just played it spontaneously. Then, we got in a Skynnyrd groove and went to a bar and played Freebird and Sweet Home Alabama and stuff. We ended up walking up the beach with our axes past midnight and offering patrol
officers to play for them. That's what this song's about, ironically. Trying to find yourself and your soul through music, and just running around the place (state, country, world, etc.) like a decapitated chicken while you do it.