Mike Blakely-Careless Moonlight

Mike Blakely

"Careless Moonlight"

by TxLogCabin

Mike Blakely’s Careless Moonlight is lots of good blues, ballads, and a dash of ethnic Conjunto and Cajun spice all rolled up into one great musical package. This CD has a different feel from Blakely’s previous releases . As in Any Sky, there is a marked transition from traditional western, but unlike Any Sky and its classic rock tone, Careless Moonlight has more blues than you usually get with Blakely. Maybe it has something to do with being recorded in a studio in Italy, instead of Texas? Whatever the root, you can surely find plenty of good music to flood your senses.

"My Days Are Numbered" is a rollicking fun look at how the numbers from 1-12 relate to a musicians life.

“I need 1 big hit
I drink 2 much beer
I play 3 chord country
And I have 4 years
We got 5 musicians
In a 6 piece band
At the 7-11
We just 8 and ran
Now we’re 9 gigs into
10 one-night stands]
Got 11 hundred springs
In a 12 oz can.”

"Howlin’ At The Moon" is a unique combination of blues and western (almost a yodel) in a drinking song about a hard drinking, woman-chasing carouser.

“I sing every little gal I meet the same old tune
Like an old coyote howlin’ at the moon
I leave a wicked and windin’ trail
Through the cane I raise”

"I Ain’t Wild" is a slow rolling country ballad about the guy who just keeps wandering, never settling down.

"Minor Key Waltz" is a slow mournful waltz about a woman torn between two men. Treading that fine line of working both to her advantage, it wears her down to the breaking point.

"Hecho En Mexico" is a catchy Conjunto ditty with a tongue in cheek message about leaving your ex-wife troubles behind and hiding out in Mexico. He’s now got it made in Mexico (i.e., hecho e Mexico).

“Her lawyers tried to shake me down for money
I disobeyed their order
And I headed for the border
To find a change of scene and drown my sorrows
And now I just don’t care
I’m like this hat I wear
I got it hecho en Mexico”

"Man of Many Blues" is a great jazzy blues tune with the classic never ending litany of blues-worthy problems.

Blakely nailed "Some Barefoot Island" with his special brand. This romantic ballad has excellent acoustic guitar and that special Blakely style. This tune is definitely the highlight of the CD. The CD title actually comes from words buried in the lyrics.

“Down on some barefoot island
Down by the naked sea
Under careless moonlight
Out in the reckless breeze”

"Delilah" is a Cajun-flavored tale of the woman-chasing protagonist and his current focus on a Louisiana girl, named Delilah.

“So, Delilah, would you be my Louisiana girl
Oh, Delilah, come on an give a Texas boy a whirl
Oh, Delilah, bell of the Delta, pretty as a bayou pearl
Oh, Delilah, would you be my Louisiana girl.”

"Gold Digger Blues" is a bluesy ballad about an aging gold digger...

“And they say that she killed him
But she knows precisely
She just loved him to death
And that’s putting it nicely
All dressed down in black now
From her veil to her shoes
She’ll bury the gold digger blues”

"She’s a Runaway" is a fast rolling 2-stepping train song with a quirky tale. A train engineer and his woman conflict over his love of his train. The jealous woman hijacks the train with the intention of destroying her rival.

“She pulled a pistol on the brakeman
She told him start shovelin’ that coal
She pushed him off the train past the next station
Then her locomotive really got to rollin’
It wasn’t bad enough that she left here this way
She had to take the only thing that she knew
Means the most to me”

"Somewhere in My Dreams" is a soft ballad that laments the pain of a lost love and the desire to recall the good aspects of the time together. Maybe that can happen.…somewhere in my dreams.

“You’ll never know how much I care
Until you join me there
Somewhere in my dreams”

If you’d like more info about Blakely and his performance schedule, check out http://www.mikeblakely.com/. The Careless Moonlight CD is available at http://www.mytexasmusic.com/mikeblakely/ , or you can buy one at one of his live performances.

Written by Cheryl Arthur, November, 2006

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