The album is a character study based on distraction, and mostly taken from the lives of my band members" - the Odd Urges and a few other friends and family members. I've meshed them all together in one person and wrote from that person's point of view.

The CD starts our with this character so wrapped up in his job as a songwriter, that he neglects to take care of his family and loses them. He spends the bulk of the recording trying to find his way back by dating, cruising Facebook while trying to re-capture his youth and searching for new relationships, breaking down with the realization that he is middle aged without future prospects, looking back on his life with regret and sinking into drugs and booze, going through an intervention, then rehab and beyond.

The Album includes songs co-written by my wife, Lisa and my dad, Max (Whiskey Heaven) and my 6 year old Will (The Bugs are Coming).

Todd Burge (Oct 2010)


The Songs:
This Song Won't Write Itself.
A songwriter can be cursed with songwriting. Let'
s face it, it takes a lot of time and in order to find a good tune, you must write a bunch of crappy ones. The crappy ones take a lot more time than the good ones. Time away from family. I've seen songwriting ruin some families. I’ve seen truck driving do the same and banking and unemployment.

Live it Up
deals with many distractions including middle age. "Welcome to the middle ages, seasons full of serious faces, not too young, not too bold, never doing it in the road. Pardon me son am I in your way, excuse me a bit as I cling on to what belongs to you now".

I'm A Shark
This shark is trapped in the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Los Vegas. He's distracted by the female shark they brought him there to have sex with. Sharks like humans have to keep movin’. Hard to move too much in an aquarium.

As Old As I Can Be
is about wanting to be as old as I can be. Memories of youth can be wildly distracting.

Human Being Dog
is the story of a dead human, who was being a dog while living on earth.

Whiskey Heaven
is a song about how a young man's party is an old man's nightmare. "Seems like I've died and gone to hell in my whiskey heaven". I wrote it with my father and my wife. We all have a different vision of what Whiskey Heaven might be. Dad’s would be the “Big Rock Candy Mountain” kind. Mine would be hell.

Medication
talks about drugs distracting us from being us. I simply took a bunch of folk lyrics and twisted em up so I could get to the next chorus.

Intervene
is inspired by that TV show “Intervention”. I'm addicted to that show.

Get Well
is a song I wrote while a friend of mine was ill. "I can see in your eye that you're not the kind of guy who would fare well on the other side, so, get well". I wanted to write a song from the point of view of this guy who believes in hell but is not certain about heaven.

The Bugs Are Coming
deals with the distraction of Spring. A sunny day can jump start a muse. This tune was written with my five year old Will and my three year old Sophia sings along with us. Now, that’s love.

I had a blast recording this with Billy Matheny (drums and guitars) Rodney Crihfield (bass) and Joseph Hale (keyboards), collectively we call them the Odd Urges.

There are rough West Virginia edges in this recording. There are some twisted characters angst, beauty and love. I had help co-writing a couple, Whiskey Heaven I wrote with my father, Max and my wife Lisa as I said earlier and The Bugs are Coming was written with my five year old Will and my three year old Sophia sings along with us on that tune. Now, that’s love. I'm proud of this work and hope you enjoy it! Don’t worry Mom, it is mostly fiction. You don’t worry about Steven King.

Todd Burge
March 2010
www.toddburge.com

Over the last two decades Todd Burge has performed everything from Punk to Traditional Country and Bluegrass in many venues including PBS's Mountain Stage, The Kennedy Center, CBGB's and Blondies in Parkersburg, WV where they had chicken wire on the stage to protect the band. He has been called "The Dean of WV Songwriters" by Mountain Stage host Larry Groce. Burge might be best known for his recording "My Lost and Found" which was produced by Grammy winner, Tim O'Brien. He lives and writes mostly in Parkersburg, WV where he and his wife Lisa raise a little boy and girl. They also grow stuff there and eat that stuff.

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