The oldest song that I wrote on this album is about driving toward Los Angeles; the newest song is about driving away. In between, all the threads that connect those two road trips, so many years apart – a tangled nest of wishes, dreams, kisses and questions. If I were to pull at those threads, they might lead back through the last nine lives, from Hollywood to Burnside and beyond. Which are the memories, which are the lies? I’ll never tell. There’s nothing in writing here. Just listen.

Production Credits:

Produced and Arranged by Nelson Bragg (except as noted below)

Engineered by Steve Refling at Lincoln Lounge

Mixed by Nelson Bragg and Steve Refling

Mastered by Brad Vance

Tangle-Free World, The Night She Learned to Drive, Paper Umbrella

Produced by Phil Parlapiano and Nelson Bragg

Now You Can Hurt Me

Produced by Anny Celsi and Nelson Bragg

Recorded at Catasonic Studios, engineer: Mark Wheaton

and at Lincoln Lounge, engineer: Steve Refling

Cover Art by David Chelsea

Graphic Design by Gwen Koger

Players:

1. Tangle-Free World

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion, Piano

Dave Sutton Bass

Jonny DuFresne Electric Guitar

Ivan Pyzow Trumpet, Trumpet Arrangement

Phil Parlapiano Acoustic Guitar, Octomandolin

Carl Byron Organ

Robbie Rist 6 & 12-string Electric Guitars

Rick Gallego Coral Sitar

Backing Vocals Evie Sands, Adam Marsland, Teresa Cowles

Backing vocals arranged by Adam Marsland

2. Thanksgiving in Hollywood

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Backing Vocals

Robbie Rist 12-string Bass, Electric Guitar, 12-string Rickenbacker, Baritone Guitar

Steve Refling Electric Guitars

Carl Byron Organ

3. Own Sweet Time

Nelson Bragg 12-String Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Drums, Percussion

Probyn Gregory Bass, Trumpet, Slide Guitar

Carl Byron Piano, Wurlitzer

Amy Farris Violin, Viola, Cello

Backing Vocals Teresa Cowles, Anny Celsi

String arrangement by Paul Von Mertens

4. First Love Freezes

Nelson Bragg Drums, 12-string Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocal

Shawn Bryant Bass

Jonny DuFresne Electric & Slide Guitars

Steve Refling Electric Guitars

Carl Byron Piano

Amy Farris Violin, Viola, Cello

Rick Gallego Pedal Steel Guitar

String Arrangement by Nelson Bragg

5. The Night She Learned to Drive

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion, Sleighbells

Anny Celsi Acoustic Guitar

Jonny DuFresne Electric Guitar

Dave Sutton Bass

Carl Byron Piano, Organ

Ivan Pyzow Backing Vocal, Desk Bells

6. Now You Can Hurt Me

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion

Steve Refling Acoustic Guitar

Scott Bennett Piano, Organ

Paul Von Mertens Saxophones

Nick Walusko Electric Guitar

Dave Meshell P-Bass

Backing Vocals Evie Sands, Teresa Cowles, Anny Celsi

Horn arrangement by Paul Von Mertens

7. Some Velvet Morning

(L. Hazlewood)

Nelson Bragg Vocal, Drums, Percussion, 12-string Acoustic Guitar

Nick Walusko Electric & Baritone Guitars, Guitar Arrangements

Brett Simons Double & Arco Bass

Ivan Pyzow Trumpet, Desk Bells

Probyn Gregory French Horn, Baritone Horn

Amy Farris Cello

8. Dream Boy

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Piano

Shawn Bryant Bass

Jonny DuFresne Electric & Baritone Guitar

Carl Byron Organ

Backing Vocals Nelson Bragg, Anny Celsi

9. Piece of Heaven

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion, 12-String Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, Bells, Stylophone, Backing Vocals

Shawn Bryant Bass

Jonny DuFresne Electric Guitars

10. Sally Go Round the Roses(featuring Evie Sands)

(Z. Sanders, L. Stevens)

Nelson Bragg Drums, Percussion

Evie Sands Electric Guitar

Teresa Cowles Bass, Electric Guitar

Carl Byron Piano, Organ

Backing Vocals Evie Sands, Teresa Cowles, Anny Celsi

11. Paper Umbrella

Nelson Bragg Drums

Dave Sutton Double & Arco Bass

Phil Parlapiano Acoustic Guitar, Vibes, Glockenspiel

Carl Byron Piano

Amy Farris Violin, Viola, Cello

String arrangement by Amy Farris & Phil Parlapiano

Writing Credits:

All songs written by Anny Celsi (Ragazza Music, BMI)

Except Own Sweet Time and First Love Freezes – lyrics by Anny Celsi, music by Nelson Bragg (Oh My God That Song is Great, ASCAP)

Some Velvet Morning written by Lee Hazlewood (Criterion Music Corporation)

Sally Go ‘Round the Roses written by Loni Stevens and Zell Sanders (Bonny View Music Corporation)

Song Lyrics

TANGLE-FREE WORLD
Music playing- Something’s burning in the air
smells like candy, his fingers in her hair
And tomorrow he’s still tangled there
But boys and girls can’t live in a tangle-free world

Girl tastes sweeter every time they kiss
Boy can’t help it, he cannot resist
It’s not like him to get tangled up like this
But boys and girls can’t live in a tangle-free world

You want to live in a tangle-free world
You want to be with a tangle-free girl
But you got tangled in her dreams
Tangled in her curls
Boys just can’t be free in this world

Now she’s falling - falling every day
He’s so sorry, it’s all that he can say
It’s not so easy to lock your heart away
But boys and girls can’t live in a tangle-free world

THANKSGIVING IN HOLLYWOOD
Thanksgiving in Hollywood
The sun beats down as we go riding
Over the river and through the woods
Across the freeways cars colliding on
And if it all burned down
I don’t even think that I would turn around

Thank god for the boulevard
A place to seal our dreams in plastic
I’d be laughing if it weren’t so hard
To look back on the light fantastic now
And say the words out loud
Do you ever wonder why we stuck around?

Just to pick away at the bones and pieces
That feast has failed me somehow
There’s plenty left for those who want it
The wild wild west and the ghosts that haunt it now

Thanksgiving in Hollywood
The knives are out on every corner
Hot wind through the neighborhood
I should have felt it years before and now
I roll the window down
And I throw every last illusion tp the ground

Thanksgiving in Hollywood
There’s plenty left for those who want it
Thanksgiving in Hollywood
The wild wild west and the ghosts that haunt it now
And if it all burned down
I don’t even think that I would turn around

FIRST LOVE FREEZES
One long midnight passing blindly
Kept us drifting, shifting slightly
Hid the cracks that grew so slowly
Til the daylight came to show me

All my sins of inattention
Far too numerous to be mentioned
Could’ve used some intervention
Here’s the news, I’ve learned my lesson

Morning breaks
The pieces scatter
First love freezes, then it shatters
First love freezes, then it shatters

Saw your shadow pass the doorway
Heard your footsteps down the driveway
Loving’s hard, and leaving’s easy
When you’re one part home and two parts highway

Morning breaks
The pieces scatter
First love freezes, then it shatters
First love freezes, then it shatters

THE NIGHT SHE LEARNED TO DRIVE
Wake up Jonah, it’s Arizona
Miles of blackness, lightning frozen
I’ve been driving, you’ve been dreaming
Drums are playing on the radio

Take this night with you -- Keep this picture in your mind
Cause this lightning can’t compare to the storm we left behind

Wake up Jonah, cause we’re leaving
Don’t wake Daddy, he’s still sleeping
Bring the dog in, it might start raining
No, you can’t take him -- I can’t feed him too

Take this night with you, cause right now it’s all I know
I can only see as far as where the headlights hit the road
Someday you’ll know why you saw your mama cry
Under Arizona skies
On the night she learned to drive

Wake up Jonah, it’s California
Sun is rising, the storm is over
Turn the radio on, check the weather
We’ll learn to read this map together now

Take this night with you, take the lightning and the drums
Cause this road ain’t near as rough as the one that’s yet to come
Someday you’ll know why you saw your mama cry
Under Arizona skies

Take this night with you -- Keep this picture in your mind
Cause this lightning can’t compare to the storm we left behind
Someday you’ll know why you saw your mama cry
Under Arizona skies
On the night she learned to drive

NOW YOU CAN HURT ME

What kind of statue would I be if this didn’t feel so good?
You in my life every day
Pulling my heart out to play
What kind of stone would say it doesn’t feel like love?

Little by little it all means a lot more than it should
Stolen kisses in the bath
Arms and legs across my path
Late nights and morning laughs – it sure feels like love

But now that the walls have come down
Guess what I’ve found
Now that the toybox is turned upside down
Now you can hurt me
Now you can hurt me
Now you can guess what I’ve found
Now you can hurt me

Once we were playing by the rules that I’ve learned so well
Act like you just don’t care
Don’t ever say it’s not fair
Baby I swear, I never meant to fall

But now we can’t go back again
Now that you’re in
Watch where you step, cause the ice on my heart is thin
Now you can hurt me
Now you can hurt me
Now you can guess what I’ve found
Now you can hurt me

OWN SWEET TIME
Long before you left me darling, I knew you were gone
Other arms were reaching for you - I could not hold on
Clinging to your kisses
Waiting for the blow
I could feel the fire burning low

Something in your suitcase, something in your eyes
Circles on your calendar I didn’t recognize
All along the river
Weeds are gonna grow
I could feel them creeping from below

But in their own sweet time
The things that we don’t want to know
In their own sweet time are gonna show

I’ve read all the books on love, but none of it applies
Once you hear the music and you see the curtain rise
Just don’t get too cozy
Standing in the glow
There’s a colder wind that’s yet to blow…

But in their own sweet time
The things that we don’t want to know
In their own sweet time are gonna show

DREAM BOY
Desperate to leave him, she told him a lie
She didn’t know what else to do
It just wasn’t working, she couldn’t say why
And nothing she said could get through

He went out drinking and he came home drunk
Looking for someone to blame
There was Jack in his system, a gun in the trunk
And she mentioned somebody’s name

Dream Boy, slipped from her heart to her tongue
A boy she knew when she was young
Dream boy, she hasn’t seen him in years
But some dreams just don’t disappear

Quarter past midnight, a man takes a walk
Leaving his shift to go home
Somebody stops him who just wants to talk
About a girl he used to know...

Are you the one that she dreams of at night?
Who does she see when she closes her eyes?
Which are the memories, and which are the lies?

Dream Boy, slipped from her heart to her tongue
A boy she knew when she was young
Dream boy, she hasn’t seen him in years
But some dreams just don’t disappear

Four in the morning a body is found
There’s always a woman to blame
Just at that moment clear across town
She wakes up calling his name

Dream Boy, slipped from her heart to her tongue
A boy she knew when she was young
Dream boy, she hasn’t seen him in years
But some dreams just don’t disappear

PIECE OF HEAVEN
Have you ever seen a little treasure that you couldn’t resist?
Riding home from work, your hand beneath your shirt, clenched tight in your fist?
Something so unique, such a little piece, it’ll never be missed
To see the light in her eyes when she looks at the skies
And she’s holding this

I only brought it home to please her
A piece of heaven in her hand
I told her keep our little secret
And if you had a daughter you would understand
If you had a daughter you would understand

I know 'bout all the things you lift, pens and paper clips too
Bank tellers know, and every CEO, nobody’s immune
But who wouldn’t want to see the look upon the face of a little girl
When daddy hands her a piece of the moon
And says, Honey it’s for you

I only brought it home to please her
A piece of heaven in her hand
I told her keep our little secret
And if you had a daughter you would understand
If you had a daughter you would understand

There’s bigger stories to be told
This one you’ll find below the fold
Did you hear what the janitor stole
Did you hear what the janitor stole

But there are shops and restaurants filled
With jewelry and hundred dollar bills
You only take what means the most
You only take what means the most
You only take what means the most to you

I only brought it home to please her
A piece of heaven in her hand
I told her keep our little secret
And if you had a daughter you would understand
If you had a daughter you would understand

PAPER UMBRELLA
There is no evidence, dear, to convict us
Nothing that’s touching your heart to mine
No solid line that could ever connect us
Nothing in writing
Nothing in writing
Nothing uniting us now

Words by design disappear as we speak them
Love, undefined, disappears just the same
Promises written, it’s harder to break them
But we’ve nothing in writing
Nothing in writing
Nothing uniting us now

Love opened wide like a paper umbrella
One heavy rain, and my shelter was gone
Nothing to hide but the kissin’ and tellin’
Nothing uniting us now

I told my tale to a train that was leaving
A tide that was ebbing, a moon on the wane
And when they return, it’s your name they’ll be breathing
But there’s nothing in writing
Nothing in writing
Nothing uniting us now