Album archives: Pawnshops For Olivia 2008

When I think about the this album Pawnshops For Olivia,  I didn't expect this to be the last album of the decade, much less for five years, but 2008 damn near wiped me out.  For the most part Geoff Redding was non existent on this record with myself opting to do most of the music and songs.  Like the previous album Geoff had his life to live and since The Townedgers hardly did much outside of the recording studio, I let him live his life and let him seeing his daughters grow up before his very eyes.  But the winter of 2007-08 was the most snowiest on record it seems, every day it was either snowing or icing the roads,  when March came around it rained every weekend and I spent many a weekend trying to dry the basement with ongoing water issues.  To spend every fucking day trying to keep water out of the basement and seeing the skies open up and rained once again I was no fun being around with.  During the lull in storms I would jot ideas down for the next album, which would be entitled Pawnshops For Olivia, originally I was going to use that title on what would become The Road Less Traveled.   At age 47, I was becoming the elder statesman of Town's Edge Rock And Roll, caught in the crossroads of life and getting nowhere fast.  And as we started work on this record, I wasn't impressed with the songs that we started up, nothing sounded very inspired and even Diggy Kat, my biggest fan was wondering if I could put together another winning album like A Long Time Forgotten or The Highway Home.  Martin Daniels also had doubts too, there was a concrete writer's block and I couldn't seem to shake it.  Somehow the one that shook me out of my doldrums would turn out to be the woman that I welcome the new 21st Century with, when she came down here to visit.  That would be Olivia aka Lisa.

I lost Lisa in 2000 when my last trip to Portland turned out to be our last time together and it was decided that she wasn't the one for me.  There was somebody closer to her, he wasn't a record/Cd hoarder and he wasn't a musician, so basically three strikes and I was out.  Even after they became a couple and family, I maintain a platonic and friendly presence by emailing her from time to time to see things were going.  After not hearing from her a while, I send a farewell note to her, which she surprised me by writing back, that she remembered the good times that we had and maybe just maybe we can still be email pals.  Somehow, she got me to write some of more startling candid songs of my career.  But while Pawnshops For Olivia was a look back of what we once had, the album also gave a bit of what my future would hold in store for me.  And the future would be with a new girlfriend a year later and perhaps the last great chance of having that relationship that would last a lifetime.  And the future would be with The Uptown Chevy Girl, a song that was dedicated to Nicole, a Mingles friend of mine that was supporting of the band efforts.  Nicole also helped me write a song called Place And Time, which kinda got me out of the sad songs that comprised of Pawnshops.

For the first time ever, I had help from outside songwriters, helping in their own way.  Diggy Kat co wrote Downer's Grove and contributed to the middle eight bridge lyrics.  Elizabeth Chaffe, lead singer of Lizzy Williams Band got credit for the title of Can't Be What You Want Me To Be, which she did a song called Can't Be Who You Want Me To Be.  I've been friends with Elizabeth for close to ten years now, after buying her Lucky 8 CD and commenting on how good it was and she answered back and we have been  friends ever since then.   And of course Nicole Passmore who was instrumental with her help and even making a couple Townedgers needle point artwork.

As for the album itself, I don't think I ever been so emotional on some of the songs.  The pain of lost love got to the point that my voice kinda wavered in such numbers as So Alone, or perhaps Beyond The Sun, the most depressing song in The Townedgers' catalog.  But that song itself foretold the future more so than it did when I took Lisa back to the airport on that fateful day, that perhaps the only time that we could be together was when we were beyond the sun, meaning the great afterlife, if there were second chances but it came into play three years later and with another woman.  I Don't Fall In Love is another futuristic song that warns the next love interest to seriously consider what she's getting herself into before committing herself to me, but the words were written in 1988 for Postcards From The Edge.  Coincidence is the term of this song.  But I know while trying to sing and tear up on So Alone was that once again I got caught up in the good times of the past, and that whatever the outcome, Lisa was gone.  We may have talked about getting together out in Arizona when I moved out there, but that was wishful thinking on my part.  Although I tried to put some humor into the line that the waterbed is much roomy at night, although not having her next to me anymore made things a bit more lonelier than it seems.  Perhaps the best song that was about Lisa was Dear Lisa, to which summed up our love together in two minutes.

I didn't intend Pawnshops For Olivia to be a mostly acoustic album, but it was less hassles than trying to get the right sound from the amps and electric guitar, therefore I Wonder and Uptown Chevy Girl were the only songs that employed electric guitar.  However, I went back to borrow some Townedgers songs from the past to try to lively up the mood and not make it the total bummer that it was coming to be.  Therefore, songs like Forgiveness, The Perfect Life and Long Walk Home were left off, in favor of a drum solo called Topsy (Part 3), which was a nod and a wink to Cozy Cole, who I gave credit to the song as well as The Townedgers although, the guitar ending was done by me.  Plus the aforementioned Place And Time and something off Town's Edge Rock called Ever So Much, which really really gave that song more of a country flavor than intended, complete with cute backing vocals.   Somewhere Down The Line was originally done in different form on There's Nothing Left and once again attempted during Mixed Blessings but Martin Daniels did a good job in suggesting to keep the song shorter than the bloated five minute version done before.

We started recording on February 29, 2008 and concluded things on a wet and rainy weekend in May, before the flooding rains came and on June 3, we ended up with 10 inches of rain on saturated ground. And then  watched our fair city succumb to the biggest flood in history, 31.3 feet of angry Cedar River turning Cedar Rapids into a ghost town.  Had we live in Broadcast Manor, we have would have had five inches of flood inside the house.  Out here in the country, we got a underground spring turning our basement into a stinky mess.   After completing Pawnshops For Olivia, I started working with Russ Swearingen in a new band we called I/O meaning Input/Output and for about a month doing rehearsal at his makeshift home. His house in Marion catching fire and uprooting him to a rental to which we practiced for about a month with a new guitar player before a riff started between this guitar player and Russ and the band was put on hold.  For the first time ever, I sang a couple songs for the I/O band, one being Dead Flowers and another I Wonder was submitted for a song idea but nobody wanted to do that one.  So eventually Russ went back to the golf course and hanging at the Mexican place drinking copious amounts of Tequila, while I returned back to the record store and hanging in Arizona during the summer months to get away from the flooding hell that was Iowa at that time.

Pawnshops was produced by me without outside help, although Martin added a few things into the songs and mixing of the album. Cover art was by Patrick Jennings' depiction of an old pawnshop somewhere in Oklahoma and Matthew James Smith had a drawing that I used for the back page.  Mr. Smith is an excellent photographer as well.  Perhaps the best photo shot was used on the jewel case song titles was taken by Ryan Adams of a statue of a guy with his palm in his face.  Which really showed how I really felt during that time.  Certainly Adams remains one of the better rock and rollers out there but some of his photography is even more classic than his songs.

Again I promoted the record by adding some songs on My Space and put it out for sale, but like the rest of the albums, nobody bought it, despite the efforts to promote it via social media and net radio. And I think the disappointment of pouring your heart and soul out to make a definite and to me a classic album just took the joy out of making music and I closed up shop for a while.  The outtakes of Pawnshops was called Country and while I slated to issue it in 2009, it would take three years before I did finally signed off and released it to an indifferent and uncaring world.  By 2009, Nicole and I would meet together in St Louis, 9 years after meeting at a Mingles party and becoming boyfriend and girlfriend for a couple years.  Even though I reconnected with Lisa during the sessions that became Pawnshops, we traded off and on email till late 2013 when the lines of communication ended.
And sometimes when things do end, it's best that they remain in the past.  So I wish her well in life.

While I recorded something like 14 albums in the 80s and 12 in the 90s, the actual albums that I did issue in the 2000 (official releases) were 6 plus A Christmas album that we did after finishing up A Long Time Forgotten in late 2005.  Pawnshops For Olivia was the final album of that decade.  It's a grand statement about the loss of love and failures to live up expectations, and while 1983's Love Sucks, and 1992 Drive In Blues chronicled the subject of failed love, Pawnshops shattered both of them in scope and misery but with a hope for the future.  And with that, The Townedgers and Rodney Smith took a long break from it all.

In the 25 years of me playing original music, beginning with So Much For That and ending with Pawnshops For Olivia, the Rodney Smith sound was made and perfected and revisited time and time again, with something good results, sometimes great results and sometimes not so good but each and every album was done with the fire and passion of a somebody who wanted so badly to play rock and roll and not have to work a day job. Well that failed, but in the process I managed to make albums that still sound pretty good to this day.  Pawnshops For Olivia was that grand statement and for that Mel Torme comment of If we're gonna fail let's do it style, we took his comment to heart and ran with it.  In fact I lived it.  I'm proud of that fact that the Good Lord or the powers to be gave me the music and lyrics to make it work in my own way.  And even if the failures of my life and loves damn near drove me insane and almost killed me, the songs really do speak for myself.

And if anybody read this far, I thank you for reading these album archives and by reading them, you have supported this starving artist.


The Songs:

I Wonder (Smith/Orbit)  4:47
Summer Of Your Discontent (Smith/Miller)  2:05
Uptown Chevy Girl (R.Smith)  2:30
There Are Times (Smith/Orbit)  3:33
Can't Be What You Want Me To Be (Smith/Orbit/Chaffe)  2:53
Dear Lisa (R.Smith) 2:10
I Don't Fall In Love (R.Smith)  4:30

Somewhere Down The Line (Smith/Orbit)  3:22
So Alone (R.Smith)  4:40
Downer's Grove (Smith/Kat) 2:30
Topsy (Part 3) (Smith/Orbit/Redding/Daniels/Cole)  4:00
Ever So Much (Smith/Miller/Celica)  2:48
Time And Place (Smith/Orbit/Passmore)  2:33
Behind The Sun (R.Smith)  4:12

Lyrics (C) 2008 Townedger Music Emporium

Recorded at Smith Brothers Studio, Springville, Ia  From Feb 29 to May 15, 2008
I Wonder Produced By Rodney Smith With Richard Dennanbaugh
All other sections Produced By Rodney Smith
Recorded by Martin Daniels, Rodney Smith and Nicky Drummond
Mixed by Daniels/Smith at WTF studios Stone City IA

Thanks to Geoff Redding and Martin Daniels for their help on the songs.

Thank You:  Diggy Kat, Nicole Passmore, Rick Smith, Russ Swearingen, Jessica Somebody, Chelsea (RIP), Maggie May (RIP), Mom, Dad, Pearson Inc for 20 years of being there, Liz Chaffe and to Lisa Poe for the inspiration that went in the making of this album. Without them, I would still be spinning my wheels.

And to the Uptown Chevy Girl, it was a wonderful ride, let's do it again soon.

Released as Radio Maierburg Records RMR 25355 Pawnshops For Olivia, June 2008