Twilight in the Dallas Railyard

The second annual Wilson family Christmas CD should be hitting mailboxes this week. Here is the album cover which I am posting here rather than printing 50 times. Maybe by next year I will have advanced to cover art and jewel cases. I realize that our CD and Christmas letter are being delivered in January, that the album cover doesn't look like Dallas, and that you are probably confused by the eclectic mix of music streaming through your speakers, but I promise you I'm not trying to be difficult, it just seems that way. Two more quick notes before I explain the music; if you did not get CD and would like one after reading about it, just shoot me a note and I'll send you one pronto (with 120+ on the mailing list, I had to draw the line somewhere), and technically it's not The Dallas Railyard, but rather, a Dallas Railyard, but it's the only one we work at, so to our crew it is The Dallas Railyard.

Shuffling Down the Tracks

The Dallas Railyard is a large storage area for sand and gravel that arrives by railcar and is dumped in large piles before being distributed throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area for various construction and road projects. It sits on a former landfill in a large marshy area that is surrounded by a shooting range, golf course, and a small amusement park (Speedzone). Our company visits it three times a year to take inventory of the various stone, gravel, and sand piles that fill it to overflowing. From atop these 30 to 40 foot piles you can see the skyline of Dallas nine miles to the southeast, the roof of Texas stadium, downtown Irving, all the planes landing at Love Field (and some headed for DFW), Interstate 35, as well as the aforementioned golf course, shooting range, Speedzone, and marsh. And as if that were not enough life and motion, you can also watch wild dogs fighting and the occasional hobo shuffling down the tracks headed only God knows where. With planes roaring just overhead, the Interstate humming and trains clickity clacking down groaning tracks, the ground literally shakes with movement. Movement creates possibility, possibility creates hope, and hope sets the imagination ablaze and nowhere is this more true than in the railyard at twilight. Watching hoboes shuffle down the tracks you wonder, could I pull it off? Could I ride the rails, watching life through the open doors of an empty boxcar? What would I eat? As the planes roar overhead, you think of businessmen with plans and important things to do, lovers full of sadness at loved ones left behind or full of anticipation at their reunion now only minutes away. The pop pop pop of gunfire from a nearby range brings thoughts of men sighting in the rifles as they dream of that upcoming hunt for____ out in ______. As the wild dogs chase each other far below, you wonder if the situation called for it could I beat them off with this four foot survey rod?

There is no sweeter time to be there than at twilight, when the sun's own movement is exaggerated and seems to be both moving swifter than usual and suspended, caught up in it's own beauty, all at once. The lights on Reunion Tower come on and as the sun heads for daybreak in Japan, the sky in Dallas slowly transitions from blue to orange to a pale shade of pink and for a few fleeting moments made sweeter by their brevity, the whole world seems to stop (or at least the whole world inside of me stops) and I feel peace. Surrounded by millions of people, I am on an island of solitude shared with wild dogs and hoboes. I wish you could see it, but since you can't, this cd will have to do.

Twilight's Sonic Wine Cellar

I am a big believer in music fully coming alive in the proper context. For every time and every place there is a song and vice versa. When you find the right song for the right time, something happens, sometimes the clouds part and you get a small taste of that which is ineffable. Think of this cd, eclectic as it is, as twilight's sonic wine cellar, a storehouse of songs that go well with twilight and just may part the clouds. This disc, inspired by the Dallas Railyard, is as full of contrasts and surprises as the yard itself. From blues to pop to gospel and opera, to country and back to the blues again, this CD will take you on as many journeys of the imagination as its inspiration. If you were to compress and distill all of the emotions in this CD and bottle them up, the time to drink that tasty brew would be just after the sun slipped over the horizon at the Dallas Railyard. The 21 songs on this CD will take you in 21 different directions, but they all lead to one place and one time--Twilight in the Dallas Railyard. But, and this explains the album cover, it goes down pretty smooth just about anywhere, so long as the sun is slipping over the horizon.

1. Night Life - B.B. King "When that evenin sun goes down..." and it is ON!
2. Lovin in My Baby's Eyes - Shannon Mcnally
3. When the Stars Go Blue - Ryan Adams
4. Life For Rent - Dido I love the laid back, sleepy, great power under restraint vibe to Dido's voice. Great lyrics too.
5. Love Gonna Walk Out On Me - Toots & The Maytals
6. Beautiful Stars - Isaac Freeman Beautiful song.
7. Painter Song - Norah Jones The accordion is a twilight instrument
8. Romanza - Andrea Bocelli I guess people think of opera type singing as being very highbrow but I really feel like it is blue collar music. I get the mental picture of a slightly overweight, balding man in his early 50's who just got home from work at the factory listening to this song. He's standing in the kitchen in his t-shirt with his suspenders hanging around his waist drinking milk from a cardboard carton. It is spring and the window is open. He doesn't really like the music, but the voice, the voice!
9. Whom Have I But You? - David Ruis An honest love song of faith by one of my all-time favorites.
10. Happy - Bruce Springsteen
11. 5:15 - Chris Isaak
12. Donegan's Gone - Mark Knopfler
13. Constellations - Jack Johnson The lyrics.
14. The Wild Card Spot, you got one of the following here: Heartland - U2, or Hard Times - Ray Charles, or For All the Right Reasons - The Jayhawks, or This Heart of Mine - The Wailin Jennys, or Many Rivers to Cross - The Five Blind Boys of Alabama. Some people got a song by Neko Case, either Hold On, Hold, On or I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight. If you got one of the Neko Case songs, it will show up after song 16. I couldn't put Neko Case and Patty Griffin back to back. It would have been the musical equivalent of two women showing up to the same party wearing the same dress.
15. Rowing Song - Patty Griffin I have a road trip mix on my iPod that has quite a few Patty Griffin songs on it. Whenever one starts playing I am compelled by the angelic qualities of her voice to scream, "Patty Griffin I love you!" at the top of my lungs every single time.
16. Rambling of a Beggar - Shawn McDonald
17. Heart of Gold - Neil Young For the rest of my life I will associate this song with my friends and former coworkers in Kansas City who introduced me to Neil Young. Harmonica = twilight.
18. Girl From the North Country - Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan
19. Slow Dancing - U2, Mickey Raphael & Willie Nelson
20. Abilene - Waylon Jennings I love the way this song sounds like it is being sung over a loudspeaker at a lumber yard or something. Like shortly after it's over the next thing you would logically hear would be "Carlos, please pick up... Line 1."
21.It's Bad You Know - R.L Burnside When my father-in-law, Bob, and I finally work up the courage to hop a freight train and ride it west, this is the song that will be running through our heads.
"It's bad, you know"
"Yup, shouldn't be doin this."
"Nope, shouldn't be doin this."
"Think they'll get our note?"
"Dunno."
Clickity-clack, clickity clack.