Jim Parker
THAT IS WHY I’M HERE
I wrote this song as a bit of a musical challenge. I had been trying to broaden my knowledge of guitar chords by learning some “jazz” positions, mainly from old torch songs. I decided to try and write a pop song with these chords in it and this is what I came up with. I would have to say Michael Mcdonald and the Doobies were an inspiration for this song. Love Norm Ryan’s sax on this!
LOVE YOU BY HEART
I would have to say this song was inspired by James Taylor and his song “Sweet Potato Pie”. I loved that song’s groove so much and wanted to write one like it. This would have been around 1992 I think. The words just kind of popped out as I recall. We were going to put this on the FROM AWAY record but ran out of time and money.
REGGAE WEEKEND
I’ve always been enamored with the idea of living in the Caribbean. I could easily live a beach comber’s life…I think. Maybe the fantasy and reality would be two different things, who knows. Anyway, this is the story of one fellow who takes the plunge and packs it all in to move down on an island somewhere. Who hasn’t dreamed of telling the boss to shove it and just climb aboard the next plane to anywhere? He’s writing a postcard to a friend somewhere back up north to fill them in on his life changing decision although he figures it’s probably the talk of the town back home anyway. This is the first song I started to record for this record so that would have been around 2000 I guess although the song was written much earlier. It’s still one my favourites.
ISLAND GOODBYE
I wrote this while vacationing on Prince Edward Island in 1998. It came with a bunch of other songs that ended up on the FROM AWAY record. I always heard this one connected with the song that follows it, Dreamboat so it had to wait. It’s unusual in that it is the only instrumental I have ever written. I still find it difficult to play sometimes.
Listen here now!
