 TITLE: Freedom From The NRA
DATE: February 2013 LOCATION: Wanted S & P Studio … Toronto MUSICIANS: Percussion … Al Cross Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Scott Campbell Mixing Engineer: Scott Campbell Producer: Bob Burrows NOTES: I wrote this song in response to the response of the American Congress to Barrack Obama’s effort to create legislation to require background checks for prospective buyers at gun shows, that was supported by 85% of Americans yet was still defeated in the Senate because of lobbying by the NRA … after the massacre of twenty 5 and 6 year olds and six of their teachers at Sandy Hook P.S. Unfortunately this horrendous event has been followed by a great many other similar massacres of all sorts of totally innocent human beings in the USA. Because the song was written so long ago the lyric is somewhat dated at this time. But the central theme of the song still has merit and validity in that the NRA still exercises enormous control over any debate or discussion of this topic in government because they fund campaigns for a great many politicians in that flawed country, who then vote as instructed on any efforts to improve the situation. It seems to me that the only way to change this circumstance would be to circumvent the control that the NRA exercises over politicians they own by holding a national referendum to ask the American people directly what they want. I believe that the results of such a plebiscite would be surprising and that the average American would support reasonable gun laws, but no one ever asks them. Contrary to the myth many have of gun loving and gun toting Yankees, Americans likely want what we all want … safer streets for their kids and their families. This recording was a duet between myself and our drummer Al Cross who did not play on a traditional drum kit but used found objects around the studio … like a cardboard box we discovered in the back … bass drum … and a toy tambourine! LISTEN TO SONG HERE
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TITLE: Risky Business DATE: June 2019 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Keyboards … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: David Chester Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: I wrote this song when I discovered that Alex Lifeson … and for that matter, all the other guys in Rush … know every single note they are going to play at a gig when they get up that morning … every note they play all night is predetermined! Which flies in the face of this music … that is all based on improvisation. All the music from which our music has evolved features improv … jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, gospel … what Rush plays is classical music without the dots. If I were to ask our guitarist, Graham Young, what he was going to play in his next solo he would laugh at me and ask … How the hell would I know?! In fact when he plays a solo Graham makes it all up in real time as he is playing. That takes a great deal more skill and capacity than planning everything out ahead! And by the way, Graham’s guitar work throughout this song is just wonderful. But if we recorded the song again or performed it live it would probably sound somewhat different than it does here … which in some ways is the whole point!  TITLE: Heartbreak Hotel Live DATE: October 2019 LOCATION: Burdock Pub, Bloor St. W. Toronto MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Keyboards … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Tommy Durndun, Mae Axton Boren & Elvis Presley RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Sound Man at Burdock and room mics Mixing Engineer: Scott Campbell, Dave Chester Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: This was our last live performance as a band just before the pandemic set in. I have always loved this song … first rock ‘n roll song I ever heard. Saw Elvis perform it live on black & white tv on The Tommy Dorsey Show. We have often used this song as a vehicle to elevate the profile of homelessness. We originally recorded this version back in 2011 with that in mind. The guitar playing here is simply wonderful … Graham loves this tune. You can hear members of the audience calling out to him at the end of his solo. We really love to play live together and we so seldom get to do that. There is something magical about live music and you can sense that here. And if you really do appreciate this performance please give something to help. The folks at Fred Victor do a wonderful job for the homeless in Toronto. Inn From The Cold … same deal … Newmarket ON And there are lots more … talk is cheap … give something … thank you.  TITLE: Morning Hymn DATE: March 2021 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Keyboards … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bruce Cockburn RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: I first became aware of this wonderful songnot long after Bruce Cockburn came to Toronto from Ottawa and made off with half the band I was in at the time! When I first saw Bruce perform I quickly understood why they had left our band! Wanted to get into his band myself and almost did … Bruce was and remains a master guitarist and one of the best songwriters this country has ever produced. At one point however, he came to believe that someone else should sing his songs. I auditioned for that gig and actually got the job except that everyone around Bruce at the time, including manager Harvey Glatt, convinced him to sing his own tunes. Nevertheless I got to hang out with the band, eventually accompanied them to New York where they opened for vibes player Gary Burton at Steve Paul’s The Scene. First heard Bruce sing this song in his basement where we often congregated. Fell in love with the song immediately … one of the best songs I have ever heard. This is essentially a live recording … there are no edits on this track at all. It was just one take off the floor at the studio on one magical afternoon in March.  TITLE: All You Need Is Love DATE: April 2020 LOCATION: Chalet Studio MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Organ … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: John Lennon, Paul McCartney RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: The guitar playing on this track is magnificent … from one end to the other. The whole band gets into a wonderful groove in the ending. And Dennis gives a nod of respect to The Beatles on our way out. A challenge to sing but lots of lovely moments … reaching for whatever you got. Was going to go back and “fix” this or that but just decided to leave it alone. May not be perfect … but then nothing is. Bob Burrows  TITLE: Over Yonder DATE: November 2019 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Organ … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Denis Keldie Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: Over Yonder enunciates many of the thoughts and feelings I have had over the past few years about the end of life, at my age you think about such things more often! It also addresses a lot of concepts and ideas about all that from others, especially organized religion about what death means and what happens afterwards. To me, what happens after death is rather obvious! … and a lot of things that are said about it and what transpires are little more than fanciful nonsense. When I first played the song to our musical director and bandmate Dave Chester he broke into gales of laughter at the ending … A song about a topic everyone wants to hear about Bob … he said … dying! A song to literally die for! And I wonder why I don’t have more Listeners on Spotify. Great piano playing on this track by a close friend of our band … Denis Keldie. His touch here reminds me a lot of Floyd Kramer. As I wrote this song I could hear Roebuck Pop Staples wailing away in my head.  TITLE: Where Did We Go Wrong DATE: December 2015 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Hammond B3 … Denis Keldie Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineers: David Chester Mixing Engineers: Ian Bodazi, Scott Campbell Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: Where Did We Go Wrong expresses many of the ideas and conclusions of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History … our extinction … by Elizabeth Kolbert. It is a very dark and ominous song … and it is intended to be just that! When I invited Denis Keldie to sit in with us on this tune, he told me that he loved the song but thought I should write another verse to give people something to be hopeful for … to which I replied, that’s just the point Denis, there is nothing to be hopeful for with regard to our situation here given our past bevaviour and conduct. The lyrics of this tune very much mirror and reflect the rather stark and blunt comments to the U N’s Environmental Conference by Greta Thunberg in 2020. Not only are we consuming the planet we live on, we seem, like Thelma and Louise, to be in a hurry to hurtle ourselves off the cliff and our planet into oblivion. WDWGW was also the other song on our CD Project with Money … and for good reason … the two songs and the cause of the problems are inextricably connected. The guitar solo here by Graham is one of the finest I have ever heard.  TITLE: Tears Of Rage DATE: February 2017 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Hammond B3 … David Chester Guitar … Graham Young Piano … Bob Burrows Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Dylan, Richard Manuel RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: David Chester, Scott Campbell Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics for this song and then handed them to Richard Manuel (piano player and vocalist with The Band) and asked him … do you have any ideas for this? … and so Richard wrote the music to accompany those lyrics. Richard admitted later that he had no idea what the song was about, but as he said, when you are working with a master like Bob Dylan you don’t ask him that! In an interview thereafter Dylan said that he wrote the song from the perspective of his parents and their generation’s view and impressions about his generation. Regardless, the song was released as the first track on The Band’s Music From Big Pink, which took some doing because the record company did not want that at all. Apparently it is against “the rules’ to start an album with a slow song! I particularly love the song because it reminds me so much of watching Richard sing all those great gritty blues songs with Levon And The Hawks at The Concord. Always love the way he growled out those songs while playing that piano. Richard’s tragic and premature loss seared a hole in all our hearts … forever.  TITLE: Howlin’ For My Darlin’
DATE: Summer 2008 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Bass … Dennis Pendrith Hammond B3… David Chester Guitar … Larry Leishman Trumpet … Andy Gravitis Trombone … Jim Beck Vocals … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Chester Burnett RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Scott Campbell Mixing Engineer: Scott Campbell Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Stuart Blower NOTES: This recording was made during a jam session at Chalet Studio in the summer of 2008 … the first time our band, Burrows And Company ever played together. We had planned to play a benefit for my ailing food company at the time. But when that didn’t work out I decided to get together anyway … and record. So on a lovely warm summer evening we all got together at Chalet Studio to play. Friend and former student of mine Scott Campbell agreed to engineer the session. We had a great time together that evening … and the rest is history as they say. We have been horsing around in the recording studio together ever since! We have played a few live gigs but, for the most part, this has been a studio band. The horns were recorded a couple of years later to complete the work. The song was written by Howlin’ Wolf aka Chester Burnett … an old r’n b favourite of mine … first heard the tune performed by J. Smith And The Majestics. TITLE: Sweet Mother Earth DATE: March 2017 LOCATION: Chalet Studios MUSICIANS: Drums … Al Cross Acoustic Bass … Dennis Pendrith Mandolin … Graham Young Fiddle … Brooke Stewart Harmony Vocals … Jayme Lynn Reed, Bob Burrows Lead Vocal … Bob Burrows SONGWRITER: Bob Burrows RECORDING PERSONNEL: Recording Engineer: Justin Meli, Dave Chester Mixing Engineer: Josh Bowman Producer: Bob Burrows GRAPHIC ARTIST: Mike Raines NOTES: Sweet Mother Earth was written to say something positive about environmental issues … to encourage people to do something positive for the planet in their lives. And to suggest that something like that was indeed possible … that we could still make a difference if we put our minds to it, though I don’t know if I really believe that given our past conduct and attitude … nothing is out of the question. Strangely in the adventure of making this song I experienced some revelations. About the nature of reality, the nature of the universe. Many, like myself when I started to write this song, often use the term Mother Earth metaphorically … “as if” the Earth was our mother … when in the course of writing I came to realize as many indigenous people understood, that Earth is in fact my mother, the mother who bore all life on her being with help from the Sun. With some important assistance and essential cooperation from Father Sun. We were joined on this recording by country singer Jayme Lynn Reed on vocals and Brooke Stewart of Port Hope ON sitting in with us on fiddle.  |
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