Freedom came my way that night / Just like a jet plane in and out of sight / Oh, I was hauling ass at a million miles an hour / Wondering how hard I’d hit /
Intro
Freedom came my way that night
Just like a jet plane in and out of sight
Oh, I was hauling ass at a million miles an hour
Wondering how hard I’d hit
pre-chorus
So say, “Cheri, Cheri, Cheri, won’t you dare to?”
Leave a message and your number, please
Wrap ’em up in a big red bow and send them care of me
chorus
I’m taking my chance on the wind
I’m packing up all my bags
Taking a mistake I gotta make
Oh, then I’m glory bound
Hmm-mm-mm
verse
So I packed it up and I
Went to the winds and I
Lived out of a VW bus for a year or two
verse
Ain’t nothing but this pipe dream and my guitar
Livin’ off for apple fields and old cigars
Diggin’ this microphone
Checking it out every night all alone
And my car battery is dead again
So I got my head dead set against it
pre-chorus
So say, “Cheri, Cheri, Cheri, won’t you dare to?”
Say, “Cheri, Cheri, Cheri, won’t you dare to?”
pre-chorus
Leave a message and your number, please
Wrap ’em up in a big red bow and send them care of me
chorus
I’m taking a chance on the wind
I’m packing up all my bags
Taking a mistake I gotta make
And then I’m glory bound
Give you some bound, yeah
Writer(s): Martin Sexton
The American Review by Evan Cater
Martin Sexton’s aptly titled major-label debut finds the ostentatiously talented singer on a spirited, cross-country tour of nearly every genre the nation has ever produced.
Folk, roots rock, grunge, country, soul, R&B, blues, and jazz — Sexton pulls it all off with a voice that exhibits all the rangy flexibility of a ballet dancer.
The American is a little more consistent than its indie label predecessor, Black Sheep, although it comes dangerously close to ruining the best song from the first record by re-imagining “Glory Bound” as a fiery rock anthem.
In contrast, “Candy” is actually improved by the acid grunge treatment it gets here, acquiring a gritty bite that it lacked on Black Sheep. He also revisits two songs from the demo recording In the Journey (“Way I Am,” “Love Keep Us Together”). But there’s plenty of sharp new material here as well, such as the jazzy “Diggin’ Me” and the country & western-flavored title track.
Throughout all the genre hopping, Sexton’s indefatigable vocal cords provide a constant. “My Maria” once again demonstrates the singer’s preternatural ability to create astonishing simulations of musical instruments — wailing electric guitar solo winds seemlessly into a wailing Sexton falsetto, leaving the listener to puzzle over what was live and what was Memorex.
These are the kind of infectiously exuberant moments that populate Sexton’s recordings, capturing an American virtuoso in love with American music.
