Notes
As a songwriter, this album finishes a trilogy for me, starting with 2008's New Good Old Days, then slipping into The Beige Album in 2009. I can see now that Living the Dream is my completion of a journey, a journey that started with the turn of a century, the death of my parents, and the subsequent shaking of my faith in just about everything. Living the Dream is what happens when a man looks mortality in the face, sees his own reflection, and takes his friends out for ice cream. There's nothing we can do about the passing of time but enjoy the ride.' - Antsy McClain, Nov. 2011 1. Living the Dream This was the first song I wrote that started to pull the theme together for this album. It's happy, upbeat, and draws upon a recurring theme in my music: enjoying the simple things in life. This guy doesn't have the fanciest car in town, he doesn't make a lot of money, but he's got his girl, a Summer night, and a watermelon Slurpee. Life is good. 2. Rain Dance This song came to me during a rain storm. I had this guitar lick going, and I was looking out the window at the diagonal rain fall I started singing the chorus, 'Let's see your rain dance, baby.' And it quickly became like a mantra to me, and I wondered how many times in my life I could have benefited from those words myself. If I had had the notion to dance during past storms, how would it have changed the outcome and made the storms more tolerable? So, I wrote this for all our future storms. Hang tough. 3. Picking Up Speed The reaction to this song has been interesting to watch. The few times I've played it for anyone, they give a disapproving snort to the phrase 'over the hill.' We need to stop fearing this phrase. It was a derisive term used by young baby boomers in the '50's and '60's to call attention to the 'squares' in middle age whom they saw as authority figures, or worse. Now that boomers are themselves middle-aged, they don't care for the phrase all that much. I see it as a wonderful description of mankind on a rollercoaster. Looking back on my life, I can't think of a better description. And looking forward, well, if the shoe fits... Everyone who's ever ridden a rollercoaster knows the best part is the last half of the ride. 4. Time is a West Bound Train This is one of the first biographical songs I ever wrote. I wrote it as I was just starting to perform in front of people, back in the early '90's sometime, but I always felt it was too close to home for me to perform it live. Since writing it, I may have performed it a half dozen times, always on someone's porch or in their living room. Some songs are too important to open up and distribute like canned soup. Time is a West Bound Train has been waiting patiently for the right curtain call, and this album is it. 5. Hanging With My Friends Again My friend, television and film producer Alan Blomquist, needed a theme song for the upcoming reunion of the guys from The Blue Collar Comedy Tour. He gave me one line of direction: 'Give us something happy and up-tempo about getting together with friends you haven't seen in a while.' 'Cool,' I thought, 'A reunion song!' I'm not sure I've ever heard a decent reunion song about friends from High School or college, or wherever, getting back together, so I dug right in. For inspiration, I pulled out my High School year- books and put my 20-year High School reunion photo up on the wall beside my desk. 6. Live It Like You Dream It On a recent family vacation, we all put together a mix CD of our favorite Summer songs. On the CD was a number of fun, bouncy rap songs (picked by my children, of course). They turned out to be our favorites. We replayed them as we drove to the beach, singing out the windows and soaking up the sun. I came home a new man, and a new songwriter. I wanted folks doing that with my music. So, I wrote my first rap song. My daughters sing the chorus, and I play and sing everything but the drums. My buddy Spoons played that beat and I looped it. The uku
