Here's a nice article written about the Tragedies by our friend MarK McDermott. Enjoy.


Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies play Boogaloo
by Mark McDermott
Published December 11, 2008

Not every song can take over a room. Among those that can, even fewer can turn the place upside down. Among songwriters, those songs are known as “keepers” and they are more precious than gold or maybe even a really good guitar.
Several months ago, the sprawling cross-country modern musical hootenanny known as the Firstman Family Affair – kind of a Dylanesque Rolling Thunder Revue, minus the facepaint and Dylan himself – came careening into Hermosa Beach’s Café Boogaloo. It was a ramshackle, magical collective – the kind of night where a saxophone player walked in off the street around midnight and within minutes was absolutely raving through his horn – but there was one singer and one song that rose above the rest.
It was near the end of the night. Brian Wright, guitar slung on his shoulder, was wreathed in sweat as he leaned conspiratorially into the microphone. “Well, me and Mrs. Rosenthal,” he began singing. “We rarely wear no clothes at all…” The band swung in behind him and the room began to tilt. “Well she calls me up, but not to talk,” he continued. “I think I’ll go and see her tomorrow...” Just like that, the room was flipped: people dancing, delirious, the band swinging, raucously. And Wright, at the helm of this upside-down vessel, finished off the job:

When’s she’s drinking in the afternoon
Like she ain’t got a thing to do
Well she told me she’s from Baton Rouge
She singing like the Queen of Virginia…
She good for me like medicine
She say her momma’s Mexican
Well, I hope she wear that dress again
I swear at times I can see right through it
She say she like the way I talk
She crazy ‘bout my lazy drawl
She say it mixes well with alcohol
Baby can I get ya,
Honey let me get ya
Darlin’ let me fix ya up good
That’s why I’m singing to ya…
She wears me out in the finest way…”

“Mrs. Rosenthal” is a case study in keeper-dom. Like any good song, it’s more than the sum of its parts. The singer, with his wry southern gentility and downright soulfulness, somehow manages to make an ode out of impropriety and, well, good old-fashioned lusty romps.
“I’ve certainly loved singing that song,” said Wright, who plays with his band, the Waco Tragedies, at Boogaloo again this Saturday night in another Firstman Family Affair. “It’s fun to play, and it’s nice to sing about fucking sometimes. It can’t all be sad songs and it can’t all be rock and roll songs. Sometimes it’s just, you know, sexy songs.”
Los Angeles is at present home to perhaps the richest singer-songwriter scene since its early 1970s heyday. Like then, several small town southerners have arrived and taken the big city by storm – think of Gram Parsons arriving from Georgia 30 years ago – as Wright and his friends and collaborators Joe Firstman, Sally Jaye, and Joe Purdy have arrived from all points south (Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas, respectively).
Firstman, the bandleader for the Carson Daly show who lives in Manhattan Beach, is also something of a ringleader of this extended group of musicians. He calls Wright a genuine poet.
“He is one of the most creative people on Earth,” Firstman said. “He’s got an incredible way with words and he’s got a genuine engine that is always creating… That man, he lives and breathes creativity. He’s an inspiration.
“Brian Wright is the truth.”

Mayberry & waltzes
Six years ago, Wright stood at a metaphysical Texas crossroads of a sort.
He’d moved from his hometown, Waco, to Austin, Texas, where he played in “this weird kind of art-rock band” that gained some traction but didn’t really feel like the right fit. He’d been writing some songs that leaned a little bit more country-wise, and he was feeling an itch to get out of the Lone Star state. He was thinking either New York or Los Angeles, so he flipped a coin.
“LA won out,” he said. “And, you know, the weather was better.”
His drummer came west with him, and together they navigated the labyrinthine LA music scene, beginning at open mics and slowly picking up steam, gigs, and band members until what would become Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies finally coalesced.
“It took a while to get a band that you wanted to be your band,” Wright said. “Because I wanted a band – I wanted the Heartbreakers, I wanted the E Street Band, a group of guys who played great and had the same sort of musical vision, people who were in it for the long haul.”
The Tragedies are a tight and wild outfit who can go from skid to elevation in a heartbeat. They also, between the six of them, wield a serious assortment of instrumentation: Wright plays guitar, piano, mandolin and harmonica; Jason “Ace” Gonzales plays guitar, lap steel, banjo, and mandolin; Fil Krohnengold plays piano, organ, accordion, and guitar; Will Golden plays bass, tambourine, and provides motivational speeches (according to the band’s Myspace page); Michael Starr plays fiddle, viola, and violin; and the drummer/percussionist known as The Deacon also handles windsor knots for the band.
It’s no coincidence that Wright mentions both Tom Petty’s and Bruce Springsteen’s bands with his desires for a band – there is a little bit of each artist and their respective bands in Wright’s music. His influences are diffuse and wide-ranging enough, however, to have really created a distinct sound. On the slot in the Myspace page template that asks an artist to list influences, he responded with a stream of consciousness riff that became a six inch paragraph and is hardly an exaggeration. It begins:
“Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, The Boss, The Stanley Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, The Brothers Grimm, Dire Straits ‘Brothers in Arms’, Cary Brothers, Dr. Joyce Brothers, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Velvet Jones, Tom Jones, Jim Jones, Grace Jones, Indiana Jones, Black Belt Jones, Ninjas… Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, Bruce Dern, Bruce Lee (not a ninja), Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Mrs. Butterworth, Mrs. Fields, Butterbean, Aunt Bea, ANDY GRIFFITH…”
At the end, Wright writes, “Really it’s most heavily influenced by Andy Griffith and Dallas Winston and the line that we walk between them. That’s why they get all caps…”
Winston is one of the sensitive tough guys in S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders” and Andy Griffith is the sheriff of Mayberry R.F.D. (which means rural free delivery, by the way). Of the two, it’s easiest to trace Andy Griffith in Wright’s sensibility – there is a certain care and outright loveliness in both his songs and demeanor. Wright wasn’t entirely joking when it came to listing Griffith as an influence.
“You can learn a lot from Andy Griffith,” he said.
There is a certain throwback quality in Wright’s writing that doesn’t just go back to a small southern town in the middle of last century (or a small studio in Memphis, Tenn., circa 1956 for that matter) but further back, into a gentler and more lyrical time. This is a man who still writes waltzes. On the band’s 2007 album “Bluebird,” a song called “Boy With No Name” begins with a sweet natured piano waltz that grows into a full-fledged sad-song waltz accompanied by fiddle and mandolin: “Saw her just sitting there/sunk in her shoulders/and this kind of thing will usually blow over/but it ain’t blowin’ over/it’s a new kind of pain/she cries for the boy with no name/we must have missed the last chance oasis/free drinks all around sun in our faces at just the right time…she says waltz with me darlin’/watch the stars fallin’…”
“I don’t know,” Wright said of the song’s inspiration. “But Willie Nelson wrote that song a long time ago that goes, ‘Sad songs and waltzes aren’t selling this year…’ I don’t know if that was the inspiration for it, but I always liked a good waltz. I’m sure Andy knows a few waltzes, too. They can’t all be fast dances, you know – you want to get close every once in a while.”

Songwriting 101
“Mrs. Rosenthal” came from a question answered in a pair of underwear a week after it was asked.
Wright said that he and Firstman were sitting around one day trying to think of song ideas when his friend asked him the name of the street he grew up on.
“I’d never written much with other people,” Wright said. “It’s always just me by myself writing, and that song was sort of the same way except he gave that great line – he just said ‘Me and Mrs. Rosenthal’... Definitely it wouldn’t exist without Joe, because we sat down, and I was like, ‘What do you want to write about?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know. What street did you grow up on?’ And I said Rosenthal Road… He pitched ‘Me and Mrs. Rosenthal’ and nothing came of it until I woke up on a Sunday morning, sat there in my underwear at the piano and just wrote this story about, I don’t know, about an older woman…”
The larger lesson here is how the poetic spark of song can light up the most unlikely places, people, and things. This is something that Wright pulls off again and again on “Bluebird.” It’s an album that includes a down and out painter selling dime bags in Central Park (“He painted all he was afraid of/until all the world was art… he doesn’t quite know where his wife is/but he hopes she’s doing good/she ran off south of Sante Fe/with some hippie throwing copper…), transvestites passing out leaflets (“drag queen Cecilia, she’s the last true believer…”) and a small cast of tough-eyed loved and unloved women (but especially loved). One character in particular emerges with a stark clarity: the beautiful “Adeline.”

You grabbed my hand
And held on tight
We floated down
Past prying eyes
And I’d never jumped dear
From such great heights
Were you not there, dear Adeline…
I caught you smiling
I asked you why
You said no reason
I said baby that’s just fine
Long as you’re happy
Right by my side
Your little gun shy grin, Adeline
You’ll take no husband
You’ll have no kids
But you love your whiskey
And all your friends…”

“That is one of those ones where the names have been changed to protect the innocent,” Wright said. “Yeah, that one was about the love of my life. I wrote that one she drove me up to Lake Tahoe. I’d never been up there but she drove me up there on my birthday and I was just playing banjo in the car…That was her, man. She was Adeline, she was a tough girl, as tough as you will meet.”
As a writer, Wright understands the power of specificity. He reports, and he catches the details. As a result there is real ring of truth coursing through his music. His song “Neighborhood” is a literal walk through his own neighborhood, near Wilcox and Fountain in Hollywood. He’s really doing nothing more than looking around him, but it’s transformed by song, and he even manages to land a punch or two along the way: “I hang out with singers/Bunch of glass jawed bleeders/Whose skin/Is as thin/As a leaf/And there’s actors/And dancers/And more second chancers/Than lights.”
“Aw, man, everybody is so sensitive, including myself,” Wright said. “That’s why that song works: songwriters are traditionally crybabies... I’ll do it from time to time, too.”
Wright, it should be noted, might touch on the tragic and tearful from time to time, but the music usually goes back to its more stomping core. He’s got kind of an unusual secret for a guitar player – he started out as a drummer, but nobody would let him keep playing. “Oh, man, guitar players are assholes,” he said. “I say that now because I’m making my living as one, but I always wanted to be a drummer… ”
And for a guitar player, he’s an extremely grateful sort. He can’t believe his good fortune in being part of a burgeoning musical scene that will land in Hermosa Saturday night.
“LA definitely gets this stereotype, this superficial thing, but there are a lot of true, beautiful talents,” Wright said. “I’ve been lucky to find a lot of them out here… These are people who are writing songs that are real, and doing it for the right reasons. You know, they had to get out of their small towns because you couldn’t do anything there, and they had the balls to go.”
Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies play Café Boogaloo Saturday night Dec. 13 as part of the Firstman Family Affair. 9:30. $10. ER

DOWNTOWN ELOISE im going up the country find eloise she got seven last names and a bad disease she drinking cocaine and water anytime she please and run around all night oh baby don't you go downtown dont you go downtown dont you go downtown little girl they got all kind of shady little dogs around dont you go downtown little girl i bought a brand new clock man the face was broke but the bird still sings so i guess theres hope pulled down the sun with a length of rope and i run around all night chorus well im drinking what i guess is gasoline and i cant help but blame it for a thing ive seen burn down the house every time i sneeze doc says ill be fine chorus south paw charlie that son of a gun left his right hand lying in the sun said i cut it off for what the left one done went and flew a kite chorus so i sent my piano to the president i said gather round singing with all your friends and you wont have time to go to war again goddamn wont that be fine chorus all kind of souls getting lost and found so i stuck my nickles in a time machine went back to when the world was fresh and clean went back and i told em everything said leave it all behind chorus chorus PANTOMIME i loved a girl in pantomime i loved her nonetheless sang to her a measly rhyme bout time and all the rest she put her hands upon my head and held it to her breast and i said lord wont you save me one more time we went down to the river and decide we'd jump in about the time that she decides to show me she could swim much stronger than i could i sank beneath the waves again and i said lord wont you save me one time they come and go with eyes so cold and hands as warm as song and time to time ill close my eyes and quietly sing along pretend my cares were never there and all but prayers are wrong and i say lord wont you save me one more time naive and young my eager tongue would seldom wait on dreams and only speak in incompletes on nearly everything when i said i couldn't love her well she shamed me like a thief and i said lord wont you save me one more time you got away with angels never could could account for men st peter hes been sleeping now a couple strays got in sweet jesus needs us half the time as much as we need him and i say lord won't you save be one more time WAIT DARLIN WAIT wait darlin wait before its too late wait darlin wait now it wont take long wait darlin wait and well both escape well shake til the moonlights gone shake darlin shake til im wide awake and shake darlin shake now it won't take long wait darlin wait and well both escape from today for tomorrow is gone plans darlin plans have tied both our hands understand darlin please now it won't take long and stand darlin stand till the tide rolls in and carries us off to the dawn hope darlin hope for just enough rope when the smoke finally clears now it wont take long and break darlin break under last straws weight and fake like it matters at all RADAR magnolia magnolia i guess i never told you your smiling ive been steady pulling for you to make amends with all friend who told you selling out was wrong robert roberta i didn't want to hurt you your easy if need be ill send someone a searching never mind your heart never mind your soul your like a rainbow the spaceman spaceman spends his time erasin chasing stardust a million miles away and when his air runs out hell have to turn around and hell fall sll the way to the ground you can leave me in orbit till im nothng more than the one the radars lost on the ground together together youre so very clever flip nickels the weather it rains in the fountain i guess you never knew theres someone like you around every single corner and im so fucking bored you can leave me in orbit till im nothing more than the one the radars lost on the ground goodbye now goodbye now go ahead and close your eyes now you're frozen from skating too far out on the ice when someone pushed you down there was no one else around no one to help you out of icy waters please bring me down please bring me down please bring me down please bring me down please bring me down pleae bring me down THE BALLAD OF PLASTIC SARA poor little plastic sara got her hand stuck in a jar gnawed it to the bone couldn't get no farther did you hear that julianas got a problem in new mexico i gave her all my money but a twenty that wont quite get me home singing all the world is sunshine and all that shines is gold all the worlds a secret that everybody knows you cant tear the stars down standing on your toes when all the world is sunshine and all that shines is gold thown together strangers riding shotgun with a dream doesnt stand to reason neither would it seem that he would leave her standing truth or consequences new mexico we left her holding nothing but a bag of diamonds and gold chorus and everybodys just like everbody else everybody already knows and everybodys buyin bein somebody else til they dont know when they've been sold davincis drawing devils with his arms out in the snow wandered round for hours til he grew numb from cold but mona lisa saved him with a painted on smile and a hello shes probably hiding something but he dont care and she dont show chorus MARY one day theyre both gonna walk through the door one from the jailhouse and one from the war you done all you could mary couldn't do more one day theyre both gonna walk through the door tell me my baby now tell me my son tell where you have been gone for so long paint me the grey walls they held you behind speak of the memories you held in your mind oh mother oh mother im glad to be home never again to stay gone for so long id cry when that old lonesome train rolled past memories of home were the breath i held fast chorus tell me my baby now tell me my son tell me where you have been gone for so long paint me the faces of strangers you met and tell me the stories you soon wont forget oh mother oh mother im glad to be home never again to stay gone for so long the strangers i met all sadly are dead but surely their faces ill never forget chorus BIRD ON A WIRE you never let anybody down you never let anybody down and everybody always wants you hanging around you never let anybody down youre just another bird upon the wire youre just another bird upon the wire thats a pretty song you sing but they know youre a liar and youre just another bird up on the wire they got a plan for you my love they all all want you for themselves they hold you tight at night god knows theyre right at time just figurines dancing on a shelf who you gonna cry to when im gone someplace between this dirty city and the place that i call home now who you gonna cry too when im gone chorus the music in here is loud and its clear and theyve been singing the same song so long we cant hear but all the people still twirl around twirl around and the change in my pocket dont amount to alot and if you need something you can have what i got and then you can go twirl around twirl around id only let you down chorus BACKTRACK run til the night falls look back for a second seartch for our breadcrumbs backtrack from heaven dont we backtrack from heaven dont we babe she said youll never find an angel lord youll never ind a friend the way that you are and the way this town is so you backtrack form heaven dont you backtrack from heaven dont you babe she said ill write you aletter when i get there and ill ask you to forget my former name this sunday morning weather proves that jesus like the beaches so ill rise again everythird day you danced on in the graveyard for to take your rest couldn't find your headstone just an epitaph that read how you backtrack from heaven dont you backtrack from heaven dont you babe we found all your bibles dog eared in the middle you said i get the jist if i just read a little so you back track from heaven chorus backtrack from heaven SAD CLOWN sad clown watch the wheels roll round take that money into town go buy a drink sad clown always with same frown circus train got you down and your thinking about leaving now its one more time then youll stop and settle down youll have no more of this three ring runaround so tell the tightrope walker that the trapeze man taught his wife how to swing by her teeth you can tell the barker its ok to spread the word that the tiny car has an open seat and tell the ring master hes the master of nothing and no one hears a word that he speaks and that working for the circus on the surface is perfect cuz it helps to keep the big shoes on your feet thinking about leaving chorus ST RITA it not really a dream its not really a problem there aint nothing to be done about it no it aint that often when i look at the clock thats hanging one the wall it got wound so tight it wont wind now at all go ahead now sing sing sing st rita sing your impossible dream dream dream st rita sing your soft sweet song and theyll sing along its not really a ghost divine apparition it not really a soldier holding tight to his ammunition and rise from the smoke in the quietest hour and to mourn the fallen soldiers all around keep your head down and sing lalalalalalalala theyll sing along lalalalalalalala FALLS COUNTY you'll walk a hard hard line in falls county that sherriffs got cold cold heart in falls county with my two baby brothers in tears that judge gave my father fifity five years in falls county he said that youll walk ahard hard line in falls county my ma did the best that she could she trusted in jesus and knew there was good in falls county bout the time that the cold wind blows our neighbors come round with hand me down clothes in falls county you walk a hard hard line but your friends and your family wont leave you behind in falls county dusty was a horse mane of gold that my ma loved with all of her sould but times got hard and dusty got sold in falls county shed weep in her room at night praying lord watch over my husband tonight in falls county i know what he done was wrong but my boys need their father and fifty five years is too long theyll walk a hard hard line in falls county that sherriff with the cold cold heart fat little king with a cold cold heart little courthouse castle just crumbled apart in falls county and that fifty five years wouldnt hold but my mother and jesus was all that would know in falls county and mikes just like my old man young daniels on that government plan and damned if well ever set foot again in falls county youll walk a hard hard line in falls county you'll walk a hard hard line but your friends and your family wont leave you behind in falls county BEST WELL EVER HAVE all our favorite songs are sad ones and all our favorite days we laughed but i dont believe the bad ones are the best well ever have i got the new ths morning from the sad voice of a friend said you left without a warning no explanation said that bonnie girl had found you said that she broke down the door with a little light around you you were lying on the floor chorus how those words will paint a picture each one colder than the last i cried and thought of how wed miss you with my heart beating fast and i sang to myself chorus now the air is thick with questions aint no need to answer none sometimes this old world will catch you if you dont get up and run chorus OVER AND AGAIN she had a black rose tattoo on her right hand wrist she had the golden rule down low on her hip and i never loved her but i told her i did over and over again i was dreaming of you she said in your sharp black suit she said with your ten dollar words and your five dollar shoes i bet you still got that cigarette smile and your country boy blues and you sing it over and over again she said you sing it like you mean it but its just some stupid song but little ballerina its my favorite when you dance along nothing ever sounded better than this scratchy old record im so happy that you threw it on and you just let it spin over and over again she pulls the needle off the record throws her favorite old record on now it's worn out and cracklin shes happy its her favorite song she twirls around and around and around until it's over and gone just to start all over again she plays it over and over over and over again chorus the sunlight creeps in and shines on the mirror the nights passed us by and morning is here but if you gotta go go safely my dear and the record just skips at the end over and over over and over again just skips MORNING CIGARETTES its a long way to the top with your pockets full of sand i saw the devil on the tele i was playing in the band your fathers eyes were vacant when they came to take the land baby whats it gonna take for you to go on a string around his neck a leper carries both his hands and out over the ocean pilots wonder where to land you know wed probably live forever if we just follow the plan but baby whats it gonna take to let it go well if you find out honey wont you let me know another morning cigarette we were born with neither memories nor regret and if i called your name youd come from miles away i bet youre on your way but youre not here just yet now the seven saddest soldiers that had ever lost a war you know they shot the sky with rifles in dress blue uniforms singing lord if you cant keep him send him someplace warm where he doesnt hear the voices anymore they got the different colored pills for different times throughout the day they got the long term side effects the world has turned to gray the lady at the door just told me god was on his way i told her tell him to stop by and say hello cause if hes in town theres some folks that would like to know chorus MRS. ROSENTHAL me and mrs rosenthal we rarely wear no clothes well she calls me up but not to talk i think ill go and see her tomorrow whens shes drinking in the afternoon like she aint got a thing to do well she told me shes from baton rouge she singing like the queen of virginia she good for me like medicine she say her mommas mexican well i hope she wear that dress again i swear at times i can see right through it she say she like the way i talk she crazy bout my lazy drawl she say it mixes well with alcohol baby can I get ya honey let me get ya darlin let me fix ya up good thats why im singing to ya chorus she wears me out in the finest way she making sure my spine is straight im singing pardon me your highness little darling how you got so good so good so good thats why im singing to ya chorus FORMER QUEEN OF SPAIN now the rich man and the poor man and the former queen of spain have all had someone like you they all have gone away and the fact that time will crawl or fly depending on the day makes every kiss a gift and everyone of us a saint if that aint love its close enough i heard my angel crying out shed fallen from gods grace shed had enough she drank the blood she couldnt stand the taste from there to heres a long way down but baby i can wait i might be a fool to catch ya let ya falld just be a waste if that aint love its close enough i should have took a breath instead i wired my jaw shut i breathed deep through my nose and prayed my clothesd turned to dust stand naked as a babe the day i finally gave up when all id say became profane i would not give a fuck if that aint love its close enough my eyes wandered round the crash site for to find your missing parts i found your head your perfect legs and your million dollar heart to my surprise i caught a cop he was climbing in the car i was flashlight blind jaws of life could not pry us apart if that aint love its a lot of blood i woke up from my dream to someone screaming in the road hed carved your name into his chest saying baby please dont go when i woke you up you whispered wearily and cold you said baby shut the shades its just someone i used to know it wasn't love no not like us but its close the day i lost my sight i learned to fly and i flew away id check on you from time to time just to make sure youre ok and all at once you shot me down with a simple turn of phrase you said if you got a secret you should learn to keep it safe cause that aint love but its close enough HIGH SCHOOL DRUGS hey julianna you must be tired you been running all day and running all night now the suns coming up in a big pink sky you got the radio on you look just fine now with the radio on you look just fine hey julianna i wont leave town just lie right here and i wont make a sound when you wake up you can talk me down when im walking around with my head in the clouds just a walking around with my head in the clouds and id watch them all float away before id leave you find myself hummin the songs youd sung remember you singing when we were young just driving around on high school drugs we had that sunrise kind of love just driving around on high school drugs and id watch them all float away before id leave you BOY WITH NO NAME saw her just sitting there sunk in her shoulders and this kind of thing will usually blow over but it aint blowin over its a new kind of pain she cries for the boy with no name we must have missed the last chance oasis free drinks all around sun on our faces at just the right time in just the right places she cries for the boy with no name she says waltz with me darlin watch the stars fallin and know that i came when i heard you callin this heartaches a game that nobody wins right away and its always the same when she cries fro the boy with no name creased in the corner cards on the table between secrets and dreams whos got the angle and time is a spy that grows blinder each day when she cries for the boy with no name we must have missed the last chance oasis she says waltz with me darlin she cries and she cries and she cries she cries all night SOPHIA senora sophia circa nineteen seventy five well she joined em cant beat em everybody saw how she tried they just broke her down as we all know theyll do and she can joke about it now you know she still looks good lenora oil painter she gave me one to hang on the wall well she burned out cant blame her but now she never bothers to draw at all at all and they just broke her down but she was younger then and man i hope she works it out shes a real good kid never meant to do what she did she a real good kid senora sophia circa nineteen seventy five YOUR BROTHER THE POET so you scratched at the door like a cat in the rain and at that i had you dead to rights so i looked to be sure that your hair was the same but something had scared you ghostly white so i lent you a coat and it fell off your shoulders i laughed at the way it swallowed you whole girl its so nice to see you how long has it been since los angeles has seen any snow and your brothers up in new york city the city that he loved so well and hes plagiarizing promises with the ghost of dylan thomas on the ninth floor of the chelsea hotel so a penny a thought and a nickel a prayer if we just save a little itll just get us there so give back the nickels that ive tossed in the well cause summer in san francisco is colder than hell so i dressed up the truth in a big blue hat and i walked the old girl right down to the service and they all asked about you and the troubles youve had and everyone seemed to believe you deserved it and your brothers up in new york city i looked all around and no one could find you just had to remind you of the girl on train she was waving and scared she was tangled and fair hair danced in the window as the train pulled away GLORY HALLELUJAH im trapped here by the sound of the sleeping soldiers now and the cars out on the street well they never screamed so loud and the voices in my head they whisper true and proud and something that theyve said has got a whole new meaning now singing glory hallelujah how that pain itll shoot right through ya and it sure was fine to knew ya but im gone gone gone lord im feelin fine drinkin sacramental wine got me swimming toward the sky til i get caught up in a bind lucky i built the kids a shrine that we worship all the time we just roll the dice and pine all the loss of love and crime chorus until were left with only hollow thoughts and memories weve won and lost tied our hands with golden knots and went to tell the others and I told em i got a girl at home i left her all alone she was crying on the phone i couldn't bear to listen so i screamed til i was tired full of kerosene and lies i told her i forgot her eyes and couldnt give a damn to kiss her singing glory hallelujah and we were left with only broken glass and memories of good things past convinced myself that nothing lasts and went to tell the others and I told em ADELINE you grabbed my hand and held on tight we floated down past prying eyes and id never jumped dear from such great heights were you not there dear adeline you got a voice dear thats hard to find i hear it call me each time i die it brings me back love and youre wearing white its all the time now dear adeline and well wave goodbye to the punch drunk world sugarcoat so sweet little gum drop girl and im hopeless to believe you but if youll just stay a while ill do anything you say dear adeline i caught you smiling i asked you why you said no reason i said baby thats just fine long as youre happy right by my side your little gun shy grin adeline youll take no husband youll have no kids but you love your whiskey and all your friends theyll break your back love but youll never cry cause you never was like them dear adeline and well wave goodbye to the punch drunk world CENTRAL PARK i met the last of the great painters selling grass in central park he painted all he was afraid of until all the world was art and hes a brilliant conversationalist his topics ranging near and far from the price of tea in china to the fastest foreign cars he knows a lot about the cars but he doesnt have a license doesnt leave the neighborhood he doesnt quite know where his wife is but he hopes shes doing good she ran off to south of sante fe with some hippie throwing copper that was seven years ago today he heard she had a daughter he heard she had a daughter oughta send her something nice he thought a book a piece of jewelry but he dont know what she likes and he thinks her name is julie partially and mostly right for her name is julianna probably pretty probably shy probably gets it from her momma she had a real good looking momma not a single day goes by he doesnt think of her and wonder why she up and left him for some turquoise wearing sculptor but she always liked a dry heat she was raised in arizona its a hundred ninety five degrees at seven in the morning doo do doo do doo doo doo do do doo doo do i was walking through the park trying to score a joint or two i was probably lying when i said i was a singer said he saw it in my eyes just an in betweener never stood up to a giant never seen the mona lisa never said nothing so defiant so that anyoned believe it no ones gonna believe it well he hasnt touched a brush in long enough he could still wield it saw a lot of things hed like to paint but he never could quite feel it and ive felt the same of song when there was no one there to listen but it never was for them no it never was for them no it never was for anyone but me he said i am not a wise man but i know you are mistaken cause art is only yours until the second you create it and i may have had a wife once and i may have been a painter but right now i got these bags man and theyre fifty bucks an eighth thats the going rate so i thought id pick one up for you doo do doo do do doo do do doo do do doo i was walking through the park and i was on my way to see you WAR ON WILCOX where in the world do you come from where in the world do you go who dropped the dime on good reverend jerome he just took what he felt he was owed you rolled dice last night with coretta rolled twice and won me the world but youd give it away if i let ya crazy i tell ya make me laugh out loud like that time that i caught you in austin and you were carrying ten times your weight i loved you as quick as i lost you but cost aint nothing to rich man like me it dont mean a thing i found heaven in a three sided story heard my story in clear blue skyI got this brand new tattoo just this morning covered your name up melted my thumb like a candle sealed a letter that ill never send i wondered who taught you the art of a scandal is ninety nine and five sixteenths what you put in and we both put in you lived through the war out on wilcox got bored with the billionaires tie you carried your teeth in a pillbox those nice pearly whites let me see you smile like one more time where in world BLUEBIRD i was a bluebird lost and alone searching for shelter far from my home struggling to fly but you mended my wing youre sweeter than springtime i love how youd sing you know the song to play when im gone no longer weary finally home watching from heaven with fond recollection my sisters and brethren have all gathered round to help me to lay my burden down i was a preacher robbed of my faith surrounded by devils suspicious of saints drawn to temptation drowning in sin but i found my salvation when you sang again you know the song Bluebird flying home NEIGHBORHOOD where i live now is a little red house down on wilcox and fountain los angeles i sleep through the sirens police lullabies and i ride my little black bicycle down to bogies and drag queen cecelia she the last true believer shes walking the boulevard shes handing out leaflets that nobody reads cause they know all the secrets and they dont need a reason to be so scared and this aint no kind of scene baby why in the world would you follow me here and this aint no kind of scene why in the world would you follow me here you followed me here my friends and my worries they got old in a hurry but no less deserving a fond farewell and bellbottomed cheapskates theyre all asleep in the heat wave and they wake up from their dreams of the sixties find that nothing has changed baby nothing has changed and this aint no kind of scene why in the world would you follow me here and you believe what you wanna believe and this aint no kind of scene I hang out with singers bunch of glass jawed bleeders whose skin is as thin as a leaf and theres actors and dancers and more second chancers than lights

Unfortunately, www.brianwrightmusic.com has run away from home.  But you can find me at my other home, www.breakoutent.com/music.  Go.  Post in the forum.  Send pictures.  When the prodigal son returns, will let you know.

But I really can't stand Frank Sinatra. There I said it. I feel better.

22 May 2008, 20:00 - The Queen Charlotte [Edit] [Cancel]
286 Dereham Road
Norwich, NR2 3UU
UK
Cost:10 pounds
Description:An acoustic solo show with Catherine and friends Brian Wright and The Challenge of Feral Green. Tickets available from the UEA box office : https://secure. ueaticketbookings. co. uk/searchresults. aspx?id=3323

Hope you can make it!

Ok, so in the interest of sanity and consideration, we are updating our Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies mailing list, if you would like to be on it, and you know you do, please drop a line to brianwright@breakoutent.com . The mailing list will keep you updated regarding news, touring, recipes, coupons, home remedies, etc. You haven't lived til you've learned how Deacon treats a case of the sniffles.

Also, a music website (www.roomthirteen.com) recently conducted an interview with Brian regarding the upcoming Hotel Cafe Europe tour, listed below are his responses.

Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies Interview
Band: Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies
Mon Apr 14 21:17:11 2008 Click to view full gallery

by Abi Plunkett
Once just a small coffee shop, The Hotel Café has quickly blossomed into not only one of the premier singer/songwriter venues in the United States, but also been labelled "the place that breaks artists." For the past 4 years, The Hotel Café has been presenting a tour that has ventured around the United States and through the UK. The concept of the tour was to share the same community vibe with music fans all over the globe. Artists performed solo and would then share the stage with fellow tour mates. As the Europe leg of the 2008 tour gets ready to hit the UK we caught up with Brian Wright of Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies fame; one of the six talented artists taking part in this year's tour.

R13: For those who don't know who is Brian Wright?
BW: Songwriter, band leader, ring master, double jointed, no tattoos or piercings, a man of average height, a surprisingly good diver, a mediocre dancer. I've had a lot of dogs with weird names.

R13: You're just about to embark on the 2008 Hotel Café tour. You've certainly worked hard to get to this point; do you feel this tour is the culmination of all that hard work for you?
BW: I try not to culminate.

R13: What on this tour are you the most excited about?
BW: Driving the bus. I always ask, they never let me, but I'm going to keep trying. Actually the music is really my roundabout way of getting into bus driving.

R13: If you could rename this Hotel Café tour to anything you want, what would you name it?
BW: Cordelia

R13: The tour line up is pretty hectic- how much do you think you'll get to explore? Are there any places in particular you'd like to get the chance to look around?
BW: I've been lucky enough to visit some of these places before, so I think it'll be nice to know where I am a bit more, can't wait to try out my Norwegian, I've learned to say "I really like your red cowboy boots." I think that's an important phrase to know in any language.

Also, Tom McRae is an avid fly fisherman, I had started a documentary film about him and his passion for casting, I'm looking forward to finding some nice locations to film him fishing. I hope to finish the film sometime in the fall.

R13: Who of those on the line up do you already know?
BW: I know all of them very well. Greg Laswell still owes me eighty six dollars for teaching his dog to play harmonica, but I'm sure he's good for it. As for the rest, they are all good people, great artists, and good friends. Jim Bianco and I ride bicycles through the Hollywood Forever cemetery. Cary and I are thinking of taking a rafting trip soon. Tom has his fishing, but that's his time, I'm just lucky enough to be a fly on the line. Catherine makes wonderful soy meatballs for rehearsal snacks.

R13: 5 guys and 1 girl• that seems like a pretty uneven ratio (read: unfair advantage) to me! What do you think?
BW: I've known Catherine probably longer than I've known anyone else on the tour. She's one of my favourite singers and writers and will undoubtedly steal the show nightly. I'm looking forward to a few second and third place finishes. None of them sings as well, except Tom. (He makes me say that)

R13: In such a busy tour setup, it seems unavoidable that you'll all be living and working on top of each other. How do you think you'll keep your sanity?
BW: If you love something, set it free.

R13: What can anyone coming to see you play expect?
BW: There will probably be a line at some point, but I trust the venues will have capable people on hand to make sure it moves quickly. Oh and music, lots of that, all shapes, sizes, and colours. Someone will mention that I have a beard, or that Cary Brothers wears a hat or that Jim Bianco is lot of fun to watch, or that Catherine Feeny does a spot on version of "the Pusher" by Steppenwolf.

R13: What's the best reaction you're hoping for from the audiences on the tour?
BW: Obviously, every performer would like a positive reaction from the audience, and I am no different I guess, but I would like it if just once someone threw a tomato, not at me, maybe Jim, but I've just never seen that happen. It's a weird thing to do, throwing tomatoes.

R13: What fan gifts/donations/sympathy votes are you secretly wishing for this tour?
BW: I can not stress enough how much I want a suit of armour, with a broadsword or a crossbow and a shield with my family crest on it. Please. Also, if anyone has a copy of Johnny Cash reading the Old Testament, I have him reading the New Testament, but the stories are better in the Old. Someone gave me a cookie once in my likeness, but to be fair, it didn't really look like me and I was afraid to eat it, which is strange because animal crackers don't look much like animals they're supposed to be and I think they're delicious.

R13: A year of touring; travelling and getting exposure is every artists dream. How does the reality compare?
BW: Has it been a year already? The reality is that it's the best job I've ever had, and I hope I don't get fired.

R13: Frank Zappa said: "Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read." • How true do you think this is?
BW: You know that trick when people appear to have removed and then reattached their thumb? It looks cool when it's done well, but everyone knows it's a trick.

Tonight march 31 silverlake lounge (323) 663-9636
2906 W Sunset Blvd. 11pm. free.

If you are in or around the LA area this weekend, Brian and the Band want to very much encourage you to join them for some very special shows with a very cool band from Texas. Macon Greyson, www.myspace.com/macongreyson , are a fantastic, four on the floor rock and roll band, very close friends, and musically kindred spirits to the Tragedies. After inviting the Tragedies to join them on a few tours through the south, Macon Greyson have decided to head out west for some great times at some great clubs.

Friday, March 28th, Cafe Boogaloo, Hermosa Beach. Always a blast, great food, drinks, dancing, and a great night of music with Brian Wright and the Waco Tragedies, Sally Jaye, and Macon Greyson. It’s a Friday night down at the beach. Don’t miss it.

Sunday, March 30th, Hotel Cafe. Home to the Tragedies when they’re in town. A fine night of rock and roll, with Macon Greyson and more.

Monday, March 31, Silverlake Lounge. Neon Salvation.

Wednesday, April 2, Zoey’s Ventura. Stripped down but hardly acoustic show in Ventura, to kick off the Sally Jaye’s Wednesday night residency in this super cool venue. Macon Greyson still with us, we love them.

Friday, April 11, Martini Ranch, Phoenix, AZ. 195 degrees at 7 in the morning. Looking forward to this one with Joe Firstman, and Chris Pierce.

Sunday, April 13th, King King, LA. Last show in Los Angeles for a while, as Brian heads off for the European leg of the Hotel Cafe Tour with Tom McRae, Catherine Feeny, Cary Brothers, Jim Bianco, Greg Laswell, and more. It’s a benefit show sponsored by Breakout Entertainment for the National Veterans Foundation, with all proceeds going to a very good cause.

Hope you can make it. All the best to all of you and thanks for supporting the band.

The Tragedies are shooting a video on Saturday, Feb 9, for Glory Hallelujah.  Need extras for the crowd, the shoot will be in Riverside.  If you are a lady with a beard, or a half snake, half man, or a juggler or a clown or a knife throwing, fire breathing, siamese twin strongman able to lift a train while eating a sandwich or a train sandwich eater, come on out.  Or if you are just a fan of the band and want to help out by being in the video, we'd love to have you.  Drop me a line here and I'll get you the details.

Come out to the Hotel Cafe tomorrow, Feb 6, at 10pm.  The band starts it's February residency that night and are gonna kick it off with a bang.