[Editor’s Note: This album was later re-recorded at a Texas concert and re-named Live from Texas]Vince Bell is not afraid to try the unconventional. When his right arm was almost destroyed in an auto
accident, he invented a new method of playing his guitar that has come to be known as “frailing”. When he decides to record a new album, he eschews the studio in favor of recording a live performance in one take.
On April 19, Vince got together with several of his friends in the music business at Bluewind the Art Bar in historic Franklin, TN to make a new album. Joining Vince on bass was Viktor Krauss (brother of
Alison and bass player for Lyle Lovett) and Mickey Grimm on “widgets”. That’s Mickey’s version of a drum/percussion kit– made up of an assortment of boxes, cymbals and gongs.
Recently, Nashville Public
Radio aired an episode of the Songwriter’s Showcase that featured Vince, Cam King, and Robin Eaton. Cam and Robin showed up for the live taping– to lend their moral support, and, in Cam’s case, to record the event with
his still camera. You can find some of those photos on Vince’s web site. The photo on this page is from the other photographer at the session- Mike Smeets from Lonestar North.
Here’s what Vince had to say about some of the songs:
The Other Side- “This is how a head injured kid f
alls in love”.
Folk Song- is dedicated to the music industry folks who assume that Vince is a folk singer. Vince says “I explained to the good
fellows and women that folk music was from the 1930’s. It was populist, it was status quo. It was a lot of this land is your land, this land is my land, and I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t do fiction”.
Let You Leave- “A song from the old Harrisburg part of Houston– down by the ship channel. I wrote it there with a little black cat named
Joey and a 12 pound “Wizard of Oz” dog named Pup. It’s about the girl we sent off to college who never returned…”
Local Charm- “Is it hot enough for ya, yet?”
Game of Chances
- “A dream sequence about a luckless guy that ends up on the asphalt in the parking lot of some young girl’s heart”.
Sundown in Her Eyes– from a trip to San Diego with his wife Sarah. Vince says
“It’s about a trolley ride we took through the wasteland to Tijuana, Mexico. It could be about any border town in Texas”.
Queen Street- “One of several I wrote about the emerald green waters of the
Caribbean, the white sand beaches, and the flowered Dutch towns in the Virgin Islands- where I played on St. Croix. I never thought paradise could be so lonely”.
If the album turns out as well as the live performance, it will be a winner.
Steve Robertson
Photograph courtesy of Mike Smeets
Visit his website-
