Kyrie

(Cerney/Griffin/Royer) Kyrie was the first song Jimmy, Todd and I wrote together, a relationship that soon led to the formation of the band Toast – so named because of the presence of three ex-Breaddies, slightly burnt.

For a while I was going to include it on the upcoming Toast album but it’s more of a pre-Toast song than a Toast song and I can’t find the master anyway so I’m putting it out here.

Kyrie is the sweet story of a friend (I always thought it was a dad but Todd felt that would limit its chances of a cut) who finds a rodeo girl alone in her room grieving a lost love and tries to cheer her up.

When we wrote it, I was under a heavy Dave Loggins influence. Dave could write songs that were so natural and free flowing that there hardly seemed to be a form at all until you looked closely and saw the masterful construction. This was my shot at that kind of a song.

Kyrie

Magdalena

(Knechtel/Cerney/Royer). This song grew out of an improv that Todd and Larry and I did in whatever you’d call the post-Toast configuration after Jimmy left (Crumbs, I guess). I wrote the lyric as kind of a tribute to the generous spirit of my wife Madeleine. I imagined a story about a guy who is down on his luck, has taken a tremendous fall, possibly homeless, and is now obsessing on a girl he occasionally sees, who seems to embody everything that is positive and hopeful for him.

The record is unfinished; we never got the guitars on. We have Todd’s vocal and Mandolin, my keyboard and Larry’s bass part but I had a really specific idea what the track should sound like and I guess I drove everybody nuts. I wanted a certain on-the-upbeat bass part that was completely foreign to Larry, but to his credit he hung in there and got it for me. But by the time we did, Todd was burnt, needed a break and we never got back to it. I would have probably finished it on my own but Todd had a completely unique way of recording that was part 8-track tape, part sequencer and part VCR audio. Simply untransferrable. There are a number of other Toast songs that only exist in this system and, now that he is no longer with us, may be permanently lost. We always thought we’d do it someday but, by the time we realized there was no someday, Todd was already very sick and had to concentrate on other things. At least with Magdalena we got a critical mass. For some reason, on this one, I’m going to include the Lyric.

Magdalena, will you be by tonight?
Cause when I see your angel’s face
This is my one redeeming grace
For a stranger, new to this circumstance
Here on the mean streets of this town
Where everything just pulls you down
But when you come around…

There’s a heaven that I see in your eyes
And there’s halo ‘round the street lights so bright
And I feel like it’s gonna be all right

Magdalena, girl how I need you now
If one like you can really be
Then maybe there’s a prayer for me
Please be there for me

Cause there’s a heaven that I see in your eyes
And there’s halo ‘round the street lights so bright
And I feel like it’s gonna be all right

And I could walk on the water
I’d have mind over matter
If you’d shed your grace on me
Magda darlin’ will I see you tonight?
Be there for me

Oh Magdalena

Now That I'm Over You

(Rutherford/Cerney/Royer) I had a Tuesday Night Music Club (literally) with these two guys around the turn of the millennium. Rivers was just on the verge of becoming the hottest writer in country music for a number of years, writing massive hits for Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Brooks and Dunn, Montgomery Gentry, Brad Paisley and pretty much everybody else. Todd and I were more the kind of writers who labored in obscurity for years and occasionally had a big one jump out of the woodwork. We kept telling ourselves that the purpose of our getting together was to write a big one but the minute we sat down we couldn’t help ourselves from playing R&B, everybody’s secret love. ‘Now That I’m Over You’ was a pretty good example of our output. Rivers was a monster guitar player, Todd a world-class mandolinist and I’ve been spotted occasionally holding a guitar. On this particular track Rivers plays guitar, Todd plays bass and I’m on electric piano. Rivers is doing the lead vocal, backed by Todd. That’s our old friend Roger Linn on drums. (Joke. Roger invented the drum machine).

Now That I'm Over You