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"['A New Day' is] the perfect bluegrass sound with tight harmony. I spend a lot of time on the road and keep the CD in the car. It gets played at least once a day"

Bob & Alice Brewer,
New Jersey

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CD Info

Big Spike's CD, "Cheatin', Lying, Leavin', Crying", was released in December, 2004. Click here to order it online through CD Baby. You can also get a copy at one of their appearances. It features 14 songs (13 of which are original), the usual crew of talented singers and pickers, and some wonderful dobro playing from Adam Frehm on several cuts. You can hear samples and get lyrics below.

People keep asking us for the lyrics to our songs, so, vôila, here you are. Click the button to see the lyrics. To hear a sound clip, click the button.

	Old Windsor Prison One day Neil was looking at pictures (http://www.cpa.eku.edu/vermont.htm) of the old Vermont State Prison in Windsor, parts of which were built around 1788 and which eventually closed in 1975. Before Vermont built its new prison and closed the old one, it was the oldest maximum security prison still in active use in the United States. A dark and forbidding place, it was built out of red sandstone with narrow, barred windows. It was cold in the winter and sweltering in the summer, and it didn't take much to imagine what got some of those folks their invitations. Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor.
	Greensboro Dam Another sad song in the old style from Pete. We played at a festival in 2003 and someone came up afterwards and asked him, "Where did you learn that Greensboro song?" Pete replied that he wrote it and the fellow refused to believe him, saying it sounded "too old". Pete: lead; Neil: baritone; Kirk: tenor.
	Up From Birmingham There are lots of songs about bad men and outlaws, but there aren't too many about evil, amoral women. Neil wondered what would happen to a decent, small-town guy blinded by the idea of having a chance with a beautiful but mysterious woman from the city. Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor.
	Slippery Bill wrote this catchy instrumental and enigmatically refuses to say whether it refers to the odd phrase at the end of each break, or to banjo players in general! Good tune, though.
	Lonesome Like A Train Driving home alone after a gig late one summer night with the car windows open, Neil heard a freight train whistle far off across the valley and, as he tells it, it was so mournful that he said out loud to no one in particular, "There is nothing that sounds like lonesome like a train." Other train images and sounds quickly came to mind and before he knew it, he had most of a song. Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor. Adam Frehm: Dobro
	In One Door And Out The Other We were commenting one night at rehearsal that we had too many new slow songs and we were going to have to look around for some up-tempo songs so that performances didn't drag. Pete said, "I'll take care of it," wrote this one, and brought it to the next rehearsal. Pete: lead; Neil: baritone; Bill: tenor.
	Moving On We've written a number of gospel songs because we love the sound of the harmonies and the message of hope and good will. Neil wrote this one, which conveys a universal message. Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor; Bill: bass.
	Armadillo Breakdown Our friend Peter Wernick is the source of this wonderfully jazzy instrumental. Peter writes that this tune started out as a kind of variant of "Remington Ride", and says, "the fact that it uses an AABA form instead of AABB makes it a bit unusual as a banjo tune." Freeman brought this to the band and plays the fire out of it. Yes, we know we play the wrong chords, but that's the way we learned it.
	By Your Side If we like songs about heartbreak, we like the old songs about love even more. Neil wrote this song for his wife and, while not an old song, he likes to think that it sounds old. Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor. Adam Frehm: Dobro
	From Here To California We're big Jimmie Rodgers fans, and Neil wrote this one in the style of "T For Texas", or "Women Make A Fool Out Of Me". Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor.
	Lift Me Up We've been doing this prison song by Pete ever since we started playing together. We love it and it always gets a terrific audience response when we sing it. Pete: lead; Neil: baritone; Bill: tenor.
	Fare You Well, Georgia We love the old country songs about heartbreak and lost love that the Delmore Brothers and Blue Sky Boys used to do. Neil got this melody in his head along with the last line of the chorus and the rest of it followed along pretty readily. Neil: lead; Bill: baritone; Kirk: tenor.
	Three Chord Jones We don't hold out much hope for country music given what we hear on today's "country" radio stations which seem intent on driving away everyone not in the 18-34 age group demographic. Maybe we're hopelessly cynical but we're finding a lot of refugees from the "hot new country" world at bluegrass festivals. We joke amongst ourselves that we only like the old songs with three chords. We've got a jones for three-chord songs. Neil wrote this, and dedicates it to his late, curmudgeonly friend Sinc Sinclair of WHRB radio, who would have agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiments of this song. Neil: lead; Pete: baritone; Kirk: tenor. Neil plays low fiddles, and Freeman the high fiddle and the bluesy fiddle behind the verses.
	Breaking Ties Pete wrote this affirmative song about breakup and new love about ten years ago. We think it's held up very well. Pete: lead; Neil: baritone; Bill: tenor.