Country Morning Music
Produced by Todd Snider and Peter Cooper

Track Listing:

Very Short Time
You Got Gold
Volcano
Shut Up And Talk To Me
Everybody Wants To Feel Like You
Coast Of Marsellies
She Loves To Ride Horses
Long Monday
One True Love
Rainin' (In My Soul)
Country Morning Music
That Old Songwriter
(The) Last Line

First, we were in Santa Cruz, because that's  where we wanted to be..I think it was the weekend that Todd Snider turned 40 . Anyway, it was at a motel  near the water. Keith  Sykes walked into motel courtyard in the afternoon, holding a guitar and a beer and ready to put both to good use. And then we all sat like children around some master storyteller, because we were children around some master storyteller. Most of the stories,we already knew by  heart: Coast Of Marseilles" Volcano", "You Got Gold", "Long Monday" and a bunch of others.If it had jest been the songs, that would have been enough. But it was also the  way Sykes' fingers flew around  the guitar  neck, and the way he sang. Every note had the intent and certainty of decades, and yet his voice was stripped of all age and weather. There were dolphins swimming and playing by the shore. Girls, too. But the best show in town was Sykes at a dirty old picnic table. Where the soul of man never dies, within arm's  reach of a bag of Cheetos.

Later, safe back out of earshot in Nashville, Snider kept talking about Keith Sykes. How he'd sought Sykes out, traveled 700 miles to meet him and wound up sleeping on his couch. How Sykes surveyed a young man's young songs and heard an open heart in which to believe. How Sykes introduced him to Jimmy Buffett and John Prine, Guy Clark and Rodney Crowell and Jerry Jeff Walker. These were the songwriters who turned to Sykes when they wanted something special. When the heavyweights want your help, you're a heavyweight. Sykes approval was validation, his lessons were integral and his songs... heavens.

And so finally, we were in Memphis making a field recording. I fumbled with microphones while Sykes and Snider moved the bird out of the living room, and Jerene Sykes closed the bedroom door and tried to keep the dogs quite up there. And then Keith sat down on the his couch and played his songs. There were no lyric sheets . Sometimes he closed his eyes, and sometimes he looked right at us, and sometimes he looked right through us. The next afternoon, we were done, just in time for the big bonfire.

I worried on the way home to Nashville that people might need the visual,  that they'd need to see Sykes on the couch, and that they'd need to watch the casual geniuses he calls his hands move atop that old Martin. I shouldn't have worried . Listen to his music and you'll see the room. You'll see Snider, among the most revered songwriters of this generation, watching a hero of his do things no one else can do. You'll see the faces of those who came in the evening to listen to the playbacks and looked around at the couch and place where the bird used to be as if to say " This Happened here?"

-Peter Cooper, Nashville, TN

“Advanced Medication For The Blues”
I was staying with Steven McCord and early one evening, just before I had planned to go out, this commercial came on TV. It said something like “Advanced medication for...,” and I took it from there. I wrote the title down right then. When I saw Danny Flowers the next day, writing this song became inevitable.

“I Know An Angel”
I know a bunch of angels, but Kelsey is the one I started this song about.

“Flyin’ Low”
Swain Schaefer and I were lucky enough to have Jimmy Thackery do this song on his live album. I always like songs than involve the dark side of life.

“The Whole 9 Yards”
Back to the dark side already. This was written with Kenny Evans, from Brownsville, Tennessee. He likes the kind of country music I like. I like the twist in the last verse.

“One World”
I like to groove.

“Give Me All Your Love”
When the weather is cooperating, I ride my motorcycle to the river, sit down in my chair and write whatever pops in my head. I hope you get to meet the Loch Ness monster.

“Baby Please” (All the Shrimp in New Orleans)
Hank Devito had the title with that Baby Baby line. Oh, that dark side calls.

“Hard Enough”
Jamie Hartford has come to Memphis a couple of times to write songs and just be in Memphis. This is my favorite one of ours so far.

“One Up One Down”
That guy just ain’t gettin’ that girl.

“Those Were the Days”
I wrote this as a tribute to some of my heroes and to remember what it was like back then. And I’ll be dammed, talk about heroes, Jerry Jeff put this song on his “Cowboy Boots and Bathing Suits” album. Life is good.

“Better Than a Husband”
I’ve put this song on and off this album a dozen times. What the heck, here it is.

“I Want You I Need You I Love You”
I know I shouldn’t do this stuff, no body can do it better than Elvis, but sometimes when I do it, I feel like a king.

“The Fireplace”
Danny Flowers got us passes to see Eric Clapton’s “blues only” show in Memphis. When it was over we went to The Woodshed and had a ball writing blues songs all night.