Album Archives: Weather On The Nines

In 1994 I was going through a rough go at it in relationships.  Penny and I went out a couple times in high school and made a couple attempts to make it work.  Once in 1989 and then in 1993 after talking about dating again.  But I don't think it was really what she wanted, nor do I.  We didn't have much in common and I was a fucking musician for God's sake. Plus she liked country music better but not the Flying Burrito Brothers during which she called it church music and me lacking any sleep from the previous night shut the thing off and we spent a very silent trip to Bennett and back. 

There used to be a a skywalk path downtown Cedar Rapids that we could walk through forgotten stores like Armstrong's or Killians and the old Killians still had this art deco section still up which would have been nice for a picture taken.  On the way back, I ran into Clarice M, a woman that I have seen a couple times at Desoda's and she was with a coworker of mine.  We kinda became dance partners in Desoda's after their breakup for a time in 1993 but she stopped coming in and we lost contact.  She had 2 boys and a third on the way when we reconnected but I thought I would take a chance on her to see what happens.  From April 12, 1994 to Valentines Day 1998 we were a couple.

The new outlook and new girlfriend changed things around.  Like everything new, it was great but once you started getting familiar with them and seen all the faults at hand it becomes then to adapt but for the first couple years we did get along great.  At that time, I wasn't doing much in music or drumming.  But slowly I was beginning to write songs about being in love and thinking about love and Weather On The Nines was the end result.  One of the distractions of recording the album was when Clarice would show up unannounced and songs had to be redone again.  So I ended up making a sign telling when the recordings were going on.  God bless Clarice, she left me alone when the music was being made.

Weather On The Nines started late August when the first song What Do I Feel was laid down.  It was supposed to be a fiery rocker with plenty of cymbal crashes and stop start beats, which sounded good at the time but nowadays I can't listen to it without thinking overkill.  The majority of songs were composed in November.  Hugh McConnell was chosen as Co producer and it was recorded with vocals through the digital delay which made it sound like it was recorded in outer space.  A lot of the love songs were inspired by Clarice, Undying Love was a response to a song that she came over and dedicated a Glen Campbell number called Unconditional Love.  True love songs were something of a oddity for me, but be it lust or love, Clarice did bring out a romantic side of me that wasn't shown all that much in my life.  And You And I (formerly known as Clarice) was a coming of terms of being together, for she was talking about moving to Texas and somewhat I talked her out of that and continued to be a part of my life.  The song shouldn't have gone that long, but Geoff had a nice guitar riff that we kept playing for about 6 and a half minutes.

If you're in love with somebody, you can write a insightful love song, and basically Weather 9's had plenty of that.  The inner spirit of Our Love (endless highway) and questioning if we're worthy of this kind of love, Light On In The Back, was Clarice having a open door policy of visiting her anytime of day or night or the fun of sex on Can't Stop Loving That Woman Of Mine.  But I also wrote about previous breakups;  Barfly is a not so flattering of the last days being with the ex GF, I'm Through Crying Now was another dig and High School Sweetheart was a skewed  remembering of Janice, and continuing to think that she was the one or just another waste of time.  In all fairness I think this song was better than  Running In The Rain, a bit more   reserved and a even more resigned to the fact that it was a waste of time and sometimes our youth blinds us into thinking it was something more.

For the first time, I did a couple of songs that would be considered grunge music, Toner was our version of Alice In Chains' Would? including the last line I had been had, the last two words into a trainwreck ending.  But Geoff Redding had a very interesting guitar riff that was more Deep Purple than AIC.  And Quit, was an attempt to try to continue the crash and bash and it became the CD version ending of the album. Motel Shot was another attempt to do something in the Nirvana sound, but that one fell short.  Quit may have been me not trying to quit my job at work or give up on the being with somebody, but the metallic sound and banshee screams was a bit out of my comfort zone. I was late to the grunge party; by then Kurt Cobain checked himself out of the world and Alice In Chains was breaking up.  And the rest of the grunge bands, I didn't care much for.

Streets Of Your Town, was selected as the single and it, like many others noted the changes that was going all around the town, but I love the chorus line of We're gonna keep chasing rainbows till they fade away.  The story of my life, looking for the miracles of life and hoping to win the lottery but we never seem to pick the right numbers or high enough to reach for the stars.   The other single, Sail Away To A Brand New Day did not make it on this album, the reason I didn't see the need to do a cover version of something I did once.  I have changed my view on that as you can tell on later albums but at that time I was still searching for the new originals. Eventually, Sail Away would find itself on a best of but even on the expanded CD edition we didn't  include it.

After Modern Problems was over and done, that record ended the classic years and Weather On The Nines started a new and brief era of sorts; the era with Clarice, and the Townedgers sound changed as well.  Even in love, the music was darker and more foreboding although I couldn't figure that one out. While Modern Problems was more polished, Weather 9s was more ragged and sloppy and it's one of the black sheep of the family albums that came from me and the band.  A lot like Perseyors Of The Truth but with better arrangements and a bad attitude.  Even with the love songs it's more like a big FU, torn between eternal hopeful love and total despair and knowing this would not last.  Clarice and I would be a couple for the next two and a half years and the records after that, better prepared and played.

Weather On The Nines is a interesting album and has its moments but it's not one of my go to albums, nor I promote it much.  But it does capture the clash of feelings of being in love and lust, as well as the feeling to be free although you don't hear it much in these songs.  But for once I was happy in my romantic encounter with Clarice and the love songs dedicated to her turned out to be a thank you for loving me type of songs, whereas giving the raspberry to The High School Sweetheart and Barfly and those poor girls who were the subject of my ire.  The most Dr Jekyil and Mr Hyde album in my discography.

The Songs:

Warning On The Midnight Train (Smith/Redding)  3:13
What Do I Feel (R.Smith)  3:56
High School Sweetheart (R.Smith) 4:25
I'm Through Crying Now (Smith/Miller) 4:04
Our Love (Endless Highway) (R.Smith)  3:41
Motel Shot (Smith/Redding)  3:35
Undying Love (R.Smith)  7:11
No Trick To It (R.Smith)  3:00*

Light On In The Back (Smith/Redding)  3:20
Can't Stop Loving That Girl Of Mine (R.Smith)  3:28
Streets Of Your Town (Smith/Redding)  2:45
Barfly (R.Smith)  7:25
Sometimes (R.Smith)  4:30
Toner (Smith/Redding/Miller)  2:50
And You And I (Smith/Redding)  6:30
Quit (R.Smith)  4:50*

Lyrics by Rodney Smith, Music by where Credited (C) 1994 Townedger Music Emporium
*Bonus tracks on CD

Band: Rodney Smith, Geoff Redding, Ken Miller

Recorded at Broadcast Manor, 1432 N St. SW  Cedar Rapids Aug-Nov 1994
Recorded by Hugh McConnell, Remixed By Kyle Guttenburg
Produced by Rodney Smith And Hugh McConnell

Released as Maier Records MRK-24924 Weather On The Nines, December 1994