Tracks from the Vault, an unreleased album by Fredy Argir

Well, when it comes down to it, it's all about the songs, isn't it? We used to have a steak house here in Austin whose ad tag line was, "it's all about the food, people." Amen to that, Ray...

Here are some songs from my massive personal vault, these are unreleased compositions and free for your personal use only. All were recorded here at the 505 and feature yours truly on everything that was done and is there. These recordings have been meticulously preserved in mayonaise jars for years and are certified accurate by Acme Hermetic Seal. Words and music by your host. Me on dulcimer and harp, too. Just kidding about the jar thing.

I've had a recording studio for over a decade and in that time period I have written and produced hundreds of tracks. I started writing and recording in 1967 and have done a lot of it over the last 42 years. So there's a ton of stuff laying around that hasn't made it on to any of my albums, and I think I'll use this area to start posting some of that material. I'm at the point in my life and that I care more that people hear it than how much money it puts in my pocket. Well, now that I think about it, I've always felt that way. Just more so now. And really, it never did anyway...

So here it is, TRACKS FROM THE VAULT. You can click on either the SONG TITLE or the image to play the music file.

1. JUST SAY GOODBYE (5:13, 7.2 MB) Recorded at my Lake 505 studio in 2005, this tune was a part of a 6-song demo called Live at the Blue Light Bar. Don't ask. Long story. Anyway, I was the Lone Ranger on this one, locked in the studio for several months, not talking to hardly anyone. Neglected my girlfriend so much, she walked right in the middle of things. Hence another song from this collection, "Earth to Baby," but more about that later. Or not. Anyway, I had planned to cut all the stuff live on a great saloon set that a friend had built which I was going to make into The Blue Light Bar. Never happened. Didn't find the right players in time, so off I went on a solo tour and this materiele never saw the light of day. Until now.

2. READ BETWEEN THE LINES (4:10, 5.8 MB) This is from the Six in the City sessions way back there in 2007. Not too much I can add to the lyrics. Just listening to it now, I think it is one of the few demos I have made using nothing but Strats. That's mostly the 7up Strat, for which I traded Stephen Bruton a sunburst Martin but I had loved that ugly green thing since I heard him play it with the One Man Dancing band. Anyway, enough about guitars and we're thinking about you, Stephen. Back to the tune. The attitudes and statements in this song are obviously and unfortunately quite relevant today. But you know, really, several years ago, you could see it coming. And now, as we listen to this song, here it is. And you can dance to it.

3. CITY LIGHTS (6:18, 8.6 MB) Many years ago, in the Seventies, I wrote a tune called "No More Spooky Songs." And that was my plan, to stop writing songs that scared me. Like when I would write a lyric and then next thing you know, it would happen. After I wrote the words. Clearly, this had to stop. So I went in to Austin's Hound Sound studio, owned by Willis Alan Ramsey, and cut the song with Donny Dolan on drums, Dick Gimble on bass, Jim Inmon engineering, and I believe James Lampley sang harmony on that session. And that was the end of it, for a long time. Every time I'd start to go there, I'd remember that melody. Anyway, that lasted until a couple of years ago. When I wrote this song, which was a bit disconcerting because of its unfamiliar vantage point and because this image wasn't ever part of my internal dialog. Bottom, line, it's a cool song and not quite like anything else I've written. At least from my warped view. But back to the point. This track is from The Tundra Sessions, so named because they were cut right after a solo Minnesota tour and I still hadn't thawed out.

4. BANK ROBBER'S LAMENT (6:54, 6.3 MB) I've done this song solo for several years, and last year I was producing some music video soundtracks and cut this version of Bank Robber specifically for a video that has almost been made two or three different times. I'm thinking #4 should do it. Meanwhile, the narrative is, if you haven't heard the song, from a professional bank robber's perspective, it's a letter from him (on the run) to his girlfriend, wherein he's telling her that she shouldn't blame herself for anything, he was simply a guy who was a pro and was supporting his family by doing his job. Unfortunately, that job was a federal offense. But like he says, he "could be anywhere by now." Maybe even on a beach somewhere. Sure. Interesting thing about this track is that there is no snare drum, that's me keeping the backbeat by slapping the face of my 1965 Martin D-18. Repeatedly. It's organic.

5. REHAB (6:32, (9.0 MB) Yep, that's what happens these days. You just go out and do bad stuff and get into trouble and then when it's time to go to court, hey, it's all about rehab, people.
This is another one from Six in the City, 2007. I should mention that the attitude of this track is very much north woods bar music, a rare art form that happens when people come in off the lakes, usually around sunset. You take some ice cold Grain Belt, add some Minnesota ladies in flannel shirts and finally some straight-ahead north woods bar blues - and that's just where it starts. Strange stuff goes on in the north woods after dark. The Pine Beach Resort. The Long Lake Lodge. The Octogon. Even the Garden Lounge in Hibbing. All Mosquito City country.

6. HURRICANE (6:22, (8.8 MB) True story. That was it, finito. After Hurricane Dennis smashed into the Gulf shore in 2006, that was all he could take. As soon as the wind stopped, he wrote her a note and left it on the kitchen table. She never heard from him again. The lyrics of this song were some of those last words to her.

7. EARTH TO BABY (7:05, (9.8 MB) Have you ever paused and looked deeply into her eyes and wanted to say, "Earth to Baby?" "Hello in there?" "Pilot to tower?" Moving right along, this is another one from the Live at the Blue Light Bar sessions. It's that loose 505 bar band crowd again, my mother would have called us a "tribe," singing loudly and drinking good wine and no telling what else but definitely having a good time. Folks, give it up for THE MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES! But again I digress. I'm beginning to think digression is what it's all about. But there we were, chillin' at the baby's lagoon when someone went overboard and it was all downhill from there. And what can you do? Check, please...

8. I EXPECTED MORE (5:28, 7.6 MB) I cut this in 2006, I wasn't writing at the time, so I just watched this one write itself, out of the blue, more of an eye witness. I put it aside right after I wrote it. I liked it but didn't think there would ever be an occasion for me to play it in public.
I intended the metaphors to be taken in the lightest, most gentle way possible. And yes, that's Wally, my longtime dulcimer, on the scene again. He's everywhere.

9. URthe1 (5:22, 6.2 MB) This song was cut in 2008 and was a part of the pre-production for my Last Time Around CD. It didn't make the cut primarily because I didn't want to get into big vocal productions on that album. You know how working with those damn singers can be. But it's from the heart and honest to a fault and I realize that.

10. FRANKIE HIBBING (4:56, 6.8 MB) Mr. Hibbing discovered iron ore in northern Minnesota in 1893. And in the northeast corner of that burg of 15,000, for as long as I can remember there has been a little park with a statue of the town's founder, Frank Hibbing. It was sort of in a better part of town, if you can even use that adjective with Hibbing, and I didn't get to pass through there very often while I was growing up, but when I did, I always thought about that man. Then, one fine afternoon back in the 60s, I was riding a Greyhound out of Hibbing and the bus passed by the park and I wrote this melody in a notebook. Some 40 years later, I sat down in the studio with my black, road-worn Les Paul and cut this puppy. Long time coming? You betcha...

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