I've been cleaning out the drawers and boxes. These are cuts, maybe not finished, mabe laid down and left to knock around, or fragments culled from the moment and then forgotten. Tapes sitting in cracked cases, tangled, frayed amd torn. So I cleaned and spliced, and they kind of make story now that I've stuck them together. It's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Mark Ari on vocals, guitar, and harmonica. "Don't" This tune was recorded sometime in the very early eighties. This mix is rough, and I never got around to fixing it. Can't find the original hafl-track anyway. With Frank Dasaro, drums; Chuck Glicksman, bass, Phil Sivilli, guitar. Produced by Mitchel Glicksman. "Too Tight Hat" Came in wet from the rain, played with Acid. Originally published by SPOKENWAR. "Last Goodbye" In the Kitchen, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Early 80s. Additional vocals by Eva Steinberg and Carol Cooperman "Fiddler on the Goddam Roof" I was living in Seville, Spain in 1986. For the first month or so, I stayed at the Hostal Virgen de los Reyes. I got sick. Ferocious fever. Neck glands bulging and tight as drums. The works. Flattened me good. Then, one night, the sheets were knotted bladderwrack, the way they get when it’s late and the air is wet and you’re coughing so much you feel your lungs rip and something bursts in your brain with every bark. I dragged myself out of bed, grabbed my Walkman, guitar, and a carton of wine, and went up to the roof where I hoped the air would be cooler. Thought I’d strum a bit. Drink until it made me tired. Maybe lay out under the stars. There was a guy already there. One foot hooked on a rail behind him, he stood leaning back on the parapet, his head tilted toward a fiddle he plucked and tuned. He tossed me a nod when he saw me coming. I flung one back at him and grinned, because that’s what you do when the moon is fat and blue and the sky all glittery-like, and there’s the fiddler on the goddam roof. "Daughter of the Moon" Same session as "Don't" with keyboads added by Phil Sivilli. Written in the studio. Rough mix, no half-track tape--like "Don't." So there it is. "Kitchen Cowhand Medley" Found this and smiled. 1986. Spain around the same time as "Fiddler on the Goddam Roof." In the kitchen of the Hostal Virgen de los Reyes in Seville. Lots of Tinto and beer. Someone hit the on switch of a portable cassette player. With Mitch "the Farmer" Cohen, Ken Hassard, Andreas from Switzerland, Marianne and Alejandro from Chile, and others: The Hostal Virgen de los Reyes Singers. "Tough Darts" Like "Last Goodbye," this was recorded in my kitchen in Bay Ridge. Only earlier. This is oldest recording I've found yet. Must be 1981 or 1982. I remember recording it with some stuff--a bass, a flanger, and a beat up Radio Shack reel-to-reel--somebody had left behind the night before. "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" Same night of wine and song in the kitchen of the Hostal Virgen de los Reyes as "Kitchen Cowhand Medley." I could only save this little bit from the damaged tape, but I had to include it if only for the vocal solo by Mitch Cohen. With that same crew: The Hostal Virgen de los Reyes Singers. Fun night. Album cover design, by Mark Ari. Album Photo is in the public domain in that it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1977 and without a copyright notice.