[Tracklist]

01 on the back of a map
02 Mexico
03 1,000,000
04 Hell's Kitchen
05 cat in the box
06 silver dollar on the floor
07 Mickey's Ice
08 old love
09 run till you die
10 perderte
11Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
12 you lie
13 cellophane

Folk Rock Hero was an album I recorded earlier this year and was not too happy with. I decided that before The Warrior Poet came out I wanted to release accoustic versions of my finished songs. These are mostly done the way I play them live and all recorded on my Archos 604, at midnight after working an 8 hour shift on Halloween. I mixed them down in Adobe Audition the next morning (technically the same day) and also made the liner notes and printed several of them out all before going in to work that day at 3:30. Here's the old version of Folk Rock Hero.

[What the songs mean]

01. This song was written in a bar, unsurprisingly on the back of a map. Its about being alone.

02. This song was written a long time ago. The chord progression was the same as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle so I combined the two way back in the day. Some people once told me that they like Mexico better when it was just Mexico. Upon long consideration I agreed with them.

03. This one is pretty obvious. I wrote the chorus about this girl that haunts me in my dreams. When I start dating someone that girl becomes the person I'm dating, so she became my girlfriend of the time, Blue. I wrote the rest of the song about Blue after a fight we had.

04. I was told not to tell people what this song is about because it ruins the song, but if you google Hell's Kitchen and Murdock you'll be on your way to solving the mystery. Every story of a hero needs a mystery.

05. This song is based on the Schroedinger's Cat question.  Although the lyrics have very little to do with it at all. 

06. This one I wrote in a bar on a napkin. It sums up my feelings on politics and life. Ron helped me with the riff for the bridge.

07. This is an older song that I originaly did in my 7songs sketchbook Xsongs in Ydays. It has since appeared in couple of my 7songs. Its about getting 40s with my friend Ian-Leif. We settled on Mickey's Ice.

08. This song was originaly written for a split EP with Donkey Punch Starship before our falling out. You can also find a version of it on DPS's album "more poorly written songs sung out of key". Its about how love grows into routine once it grows old.

09. This is one of my favorite songs that I've written. Its about running till you die or something. Check it out, its good.

10. This song is about my grandfather (maternal). It was a gift to my mother for Easter. It was on my first 7songs. I don't often get the inspiration to write in Spanish, but they tend to be my favorite songs.

11. This song is about a dream I had where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of Sherlock Holmes) taught me how to fly. In my dreams I can usually fly and have the ability to move things without touching them. In the dream I fly over a little girl in the street and lightly bump her head with my foot on my way up.

12. This song is about friends lying to you or otherwise being fake. Also about judgemental people. And elephants. I use lyrics from the old clapping game "Miss Mary Mac."

13. This song was written about a girl who was not yet my girlfriend and I who later became my girlfriend. We are no longer together.Like the last song this one was written in a bar, unsurprisingly on the back of a map. Its about being alone.