John McCutcheon - Riding My Bike

Artist: John McCutcheon

Song: Riding My Bike

Album: John McCutcheon Four Season’ Summer Songs (1995)

John McCutcheon (born August 14, 1952) is an American folk music singer and multi-instrumentalist who has produced 34 albums since the 1970s.

Summersongs is the first of John McCutcheon's Four Seasons series of family albums celebrating each season of the year. McCutcheon, whose previous family albums have received awards from the American Library Association and Parents' Choice Magazine, masterfully evokes children's sentiments of summer, from swimming holes, ice cream men and lawn mowers to backyard camping and meteor showers. Adults will be surprised at how easily their own summer memories return. Come spend the summer with John McCutcheon and this uplifting family recording.

**Winner of the 1995 NAPPA (National Association of Parenting Publications) Gold Award
**ALA (American Library Association) Notable Children's Recording
**Grammy nominee for Best Musical Album For Children for 1995

"A terrific collection . . . most of the dozen tunes are irresistibly cheerful."—Booklist

"The first of a planned 'four seasons' series, this John McCutcheon masterpiece just might have you barefoot and mixin' lemonade in the dead of winter. The subject matter of the songs will bring a smile to kids and a memory to adults. . . ." —San Diego Parent Magazine

This looks so easy
But this is so hard
I practiced all summer
Out in my back yard
Mom running before me
Dad right beside
Watching me close
With their arms open wide

Chorus

Mother, I'm flying
Come catch me, Dad
The most wonderful feeling
That I've ever had
I'm riding, I'm falling
I'm falling, I'm riding
I'm falling, I'm riding my bike

My friends all have fancy ones
Ten, fifteen gears
Mine is a Schwinn
That my Mom's had for years
With its big old fat tires
Its ragged old seat
I think it's the coolest bike
Out on our street

Chorus

Tricycles, training wheels
Tell them good-bye
We just don't need them,
My old bike and I
Three wheels are too many
One is too few
Now that I'm six
I'll just get by on two

Chorus

Amy Correia - The Bike

Artist: Amy Correia

Song: The Bike

Album: Carnival Love (2000)

Tactile experiences played a prominent role in Los Angeles singer/songwriter Amy Correia's construction of a song. Sometimes, the imagery took her back to a childhood memory as was the case with the bearded lady winking at a tattooed man in her song "Carnival." Other times, a poem did the trick. "Daydream Car" came from poet Patrick Cavanaugh's The Hunger. A Louisiana nightclub experience helped to produce the mournful song "Blind River Boy." Correia, from Lakeville, MA, made waves with her 2000 debut CD, Carnival Love (Capitol), with its richly melodic mix of mournful tales and whimsical stories created from a childlike, imaginary dreamworld. Her background as a short story writer and lover of literature surely contributed to the emotional depth of her songs. She confessed a love for short stories by writers as diverse as James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and Flannery O'Connor, whose writings she explored as a student at Barnard College. more

The honeyed rasp of Massachusetts native Amy Correia is the perfect vehicle for the sharp melodic sense and captivating imagery that's on display throughout her debut. Highlighted by the endlessly striking likes of "Daydream Car" and "The Bike", Carnival Love introduces a performer with an intriguing future. --Rickey Wright

In an era of ethereal female singer-songwriters, Amy Correia's Carnival Love marks the arrival of a talent whose concerns are rooted in the earthly. In a voice that at once conveys a sense of both itch and scratch--and often accompanied, Waits-like, by her own baritone ukelele--this East Coaster delivers tales of damaged people (the devastated Korean War vets of "Chinatown" and "The Bike," the grownup "crying in a company car" in "Angels Collide") and dented romance ("Gin," "Starfishin'"). Even Correia's moments of escape and whimsy are fully grounded; "Daydream Car" acknowledges that hanging out is a game best played by two, while "Carnival" updates "Wild Billy's Circus Story." Correia is outstanding in a crowded field. --Rickey Wright

review

I became the heiress to a red and rusted bicycle
Built like a tank from Sears Roebuck circa 1952
It had been entrusted to me by my late great uncle Pat
And I guess he didn't ride it much
Both tires on the bike were flat
Pat had died at Christmas time in 1991
He had fallen off the wagon
And he sunk into a Christmas funk
My father he had found him
Two days after he had died
Well he drank himself to death one night
In a little home he owned by the seaside
So I took the bike and I cleaned it up
My father he patched up the tires
Am I going to town or just spinning my wheels
And when I die I wonder how it feels
Hey and I'm riding around riding around on it
Hey just riding around riding around on it
Hey you know I'm riding around
riding around on it. Hey!
The funeral service was a few days later
At a place down the street from where he had lived
There wasn't a hell of a turn out
He had never married and he never had kids
The coffin lid was open
Pat was lying inside
His sister had a picture of a poodle named Pepper
She put it in his hand and then she cried
Now I'm riding around in the city
Through the smog and the summer heat
And I'm blowing through all the red lights
I guess you could say I'm feeling lucky
And the taxis and the trucks
Everybody's blowin' their horns
And I got a bicycle bell to ring
And I got a notion to sing as I'm riding along

Well I didn't even really know him at all
And I wonder can he see me
As I'm riding along
Riding along
The day that Pat was buried
The air was cold and clear
And we drove out to the cemetery
And snow flew around in the air
And a hired man from the State
He played taps on a coronet
And a flag was presented to his sister
For time in the service that Pat had spent
When he used to ride on the bike
Way back in 52
He was starting out a life
And the bike it was brand new
And life was laid before him like
a platter before a king
He was young and he was handsome
and the world was alive with meaning
The world was alive with meaning

Try My Bicycle - Lessons on Love and Junk

Artist: Try My Bicycle

Song: Lessons on Love and Junk

Album: Voicings (2007)

Folk with a solid jazz sensiblity.beautifully organic production with an emphasis on rich vocals/harmonies, musicianship, and recording live heartfelt studio performances.

Try Me Bicycle consists of four major players: Andy Naylor (Voice and Guitars), Jay Novak (Harmonies and Bass), Jacob Koller (Piano), Laraine Kaizer (Violin).

The history of Try Me Bicycle dates back to the fall of 2005, when we first met up to play through some material Andy had been working on. It was nothing serious, but the connection felt great from end to end, so we just kept working on material as Andy made it available. Eventually, we had mustered a live set’s worth of songs and began scheduling shows locally in our hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Following one of those performances, we came in contact with songwriter/producer Michael Krassner (Patrick Park, Califone, Boxhead Ensemble, Simon Joyner). Michael wanted to record and produce the quartet and, given Michael’s reputation, we were ecstatic with such an offer. In November of 2006 we started recording and have since finished our first record together entitled “Voicings.”

biography

review

music

A light post off the desert plain down a road I’ve worn old
Lead me to a junkyard mirage of bicycle bones
There was a man with a heart
For his field of mechanical parts
He said take all the parts you like.
I found a bike with one tire
Found the handle bars, two pedals, and a chain entwined in the brior
With the rusted iron rot
Built this beautiful bike that I bought
Across the valleys, the moon lit the road that I’m ever to ride
Of but a prayer to see me thru
Take the old and make it brand new
And alright
I’ll ride that all night

Offer me something warm. Well I’d rather get high
To wine and dine with cultured crimes and eek my way by.
To be a moron with brains and whatever it takes to get laid
Turns out life just swept a broom over me
Sometimes I maybe right, sometimes I maybe wrong
In the end, love built a life out of me