Chords for Mike Zito Backstage Conversation with The Texas Music Scene on Gone To Texas

[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
[E] Welcome back to the Texas music scene, folks.
You know, blues musician Mike Zito [A] relocated from St.
Louis to just outside of Beaumont, Texas,
as part of starting [D] a new life for [A] himself.
_ This musical journey is the impetus for the 2013 album Gone to Texas,
a project that brought Zito a ton of critical acclaim, more importantly, for larger [D] fan base.
Here's his [A] take on the album.
_ _ [D] _
Well, [A] I've gone to Texas, baby.
_ [D] _ I got my guitar by [A] my side, yeah.
[D] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ Well, I've gone to Texas, _ [Em] baby.
_ [D] _ I got my guitar by [A] my side, _ _ yeah.
[D] The title [A] track, the song Gone to Texas, is the song itself.
[E] Really, the idea I had was like, this is a great idea for an [D] album.
It's different.
I mean, a lot of people write songs about [A] Texas,
and they're from Texas, and they're [D] good songs.
_ [A] I'm not from Texas.
So I really kind of, looking at it from another point of view, from all the different types of music,
especially [D] in southeast Texas, the way the blues [A] and the Cajun and the country and swamp pop,
and they got all this music, it all kind of mixes up.
Being from [D] somewhere else, that's totally different and unique.
But I [C] had a lot of different _ ideas, and it [D] kind of came [Cm] together for a good album.
And in the album, you get [C] this whole kind [Gbm] of [Cm] outsider's perspective [F] [Gm] of, I've moved to Texas, I'm going [C] to Texas.
And this is what I see.
It's beautiful, you know?
[F] Well, my [E] man, _ [Dm] _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ [Gm] she got [Am] the number [Gbm] _ [Gm] _ [Cm] way over _ [Gm] _ [Gbm] _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ [Cm] _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] my _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ [E] _
[Eb] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ [Eb] [C] head.
_ [Cm] So Gone to Texas is my fifth studio, like an actual label [C] release.
When I was getting started, I would just [G] write songs.
I want to play guitar, I want to scream, try to get something, do it fast.
And I realized, [A] you [B] know, man, the best [C] _ songwriters, the best story, they're storytelling.
[Gbm] I mean, [Gm] the song's the story, the album's the story.
[Cm] There's something there that really draws people [F] in.
[C] So I've been really [F] following, [Bb] thinking about how [Cm] to tell it.
So I wanted to tell [E] that story.
So I [A] got this idea together, we brought it in.
So I wanted to produce this album myself.
So [G] I picked the band, it's the wheel.
[C] _ Some of these [Gm] guys I've been playing with for years.
Some of [D] the guys, [Cm] like Louis Stevens on [Bb] the piano [F] and Scott Sutherland [Eb] on the bass.
[D] You know, [Cm] I had metal on the way.
[E] The other guys, Jimmy Carpenter on the saxophone, [F] Rob Lee on the drums.
_ I just [C] like, man, that's my guy.
Alright, that's the guy.
When I get ready to do this, that's the guy.
So when it came time to do the album, I [Eb] said, alright, [C] I know these guys are going to play great together.
And it was like, I [G] want to get this band and develop a sound, a style, a feel.
And then we went to Dockside Studios in Maurice, [Dm] Louisiana.
It's right outside of [Cm] Lafayette. _
And we recorded [Bb] the whole, we did it live, recorded in five days [Cm] straight.
Set up live, press record, [G] tried to get it as raw as possible, as real as possible.
Not a lot of overdub or anything like that.
About seven days, we did the whole record from beginning to end.
I got [C] the feeling like, [G] man, you [Gm] know, like today, like, first [G] take's going to be the best.
Even if it's got a little something in it that ain't right, there's a feeling that happens the first time.
Once you start doing it over and over again, it starts losing its, the emotion, you start thinking [Gm] too much, you know.
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_ _ You know, [Gm] man, one of my [G] favorite songs on [Am] the album is called I Never [G] Knew a Hurricane.
We had the [C] great Susan Cowsell came and she sang backup on this [F] album.
So she came and sang and we [Dm] kind of do that song as a duet.
And I just, man, I love [C] singing with her.
Like I said, I'm not from Southeast Texas, I'm not from the Gulf Coast.
[A] And [D] I moved there and then we had Hurricane [Am] Rita and Hurricane Katrina hit.
[Dm] When I had only been there a [F] couple of years.
If you don't live near that, I grew up in St.
Louis, I mean, I [Am] knew what a hurricane was.
You don't [Dm] even think about it.
Not [Am] like you do when you live, [G] where you got to evacuate or [F] get out, you know. _
People become so emotional, man.
I mean, it's like their [G] whole life changes because they don't know if they're going to, I mean, they might lose everything.
And all of a sudden people [F] will just put aside, they don't care about their house no more.
It's just family, get your kids, [G] we got to go.
I'm an observer.
So watching and seeing all this, it's [F] really, _ _ it's a very unique [G] emotional experience.
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_ [C] _ _ There's another song called Death Row.
It's more of like an old [D] blues song playing a dobro acoustic, you know, a national guitar.
Just kick drum and hi-hat and we're kind of trying to capture like an older blues sound.
You know, I got cleaned up and I met a lot of different people and I was, _ _ we take recovery [G] meetings into prisons.
I met this minister.
He was doing [A] work [G] with the death penalty.
He was [D] working with guys in Huntsville and going over there and like trying to get them to be comfortable with _ _ _ _ what's coming.
[A] _ _ Man, it was really heavy.
Man, this guy's doing some real work.
I'm like, you know, I'm [D] like [G] trying to play guitar and tune.
This guy's spending his days going and working with these guys. _ _ _
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_ _ _ [F] _ _ [D] _ So to [Bbm] put this album out and [C] have that [Gm] exposure and have it [D] be so well received, it's really, [Bbm] it's been [D] awesome.
Especially to have that story and that idea and [A] to kind of go at it.
I'm going to do what I'm going to do and see if people like it.
[D] And then have _ [A] some people like it.
It's pretty good, you know.
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