Today the sun sets in the east.
The gate is closed, so live in peace.
I say goodbye.
I say goodbye.

Sometimes death just draws you a sign.
I move on when the stars realign.
I say goodbye.
I say goodbye.

The dark-haired girl who was the first to know.
Her words are all I have to hold.
I say goodbye.
I say goodbye.

Musicians who played with fevered brain.
Left standing alone in the rain.
I say goodbye.
I say goodbye.

Dreams dried up are coming to life.
I bend down, clear the ground with my knife.
I say goodbye.
I say goodbye.

My mother had died, leaving me some money, and I was using it to move to the Pacific coast and start a new life. After spending my whole life growing up and living east of the Mississippi River, this song was my goodbye to all those I left behind.

This song was also my first real attempt to utilize the new digital loop recording technique. Except for the voice and harmonica solo, the entire song is built up of dozens of short recorded segments. These loops were deployed as necessary to fit the song and overlapped to provide varying instrumental textures.

This move to recording in loops came about because of my purchase of an acoustic guitar. My number one love will always be the electric guitar, with its contemporary sound and wide range of special effects. But ever since getting into home recording, I had wanted an acoustic guitar to allow me more versatility in arrangements. I was mainly interested in getting a hard guitar sound like the punk bands whose sounds I tried hard to emulate, but Led Zeppelin used plenty of acoustic guitars, and nobody ever accused them of wimping out! Once I had my digital recording studio up and running, I treated myself to a new Ibanez acoustic guitar.

I found the acoustic guitar to be more than just an electric guitar without the electronics. The instrument inspired new playing techniques, the most radical, for me, being finger picking. The acoustic guitar remained out of my recording arsenal for a while as I tried out new sounds and playing methods.

Finally, this song came around. I had a set of lyrics, but no music yet. As usual, I wanted something different, and I saw the acoustic guitar across the room. Rather than using my usual method of building a song foundation by strumming chords on my electric guitar (the punk approach), I decided to pick out individual notes and melodies on my accoustic and start from there. While I was learning to pick the acoustic, I still couldn't maintain a pattern for long, not over the course of a song. The loop technology proved to be the perfect answer, as I could play a pattern through a few times, take the best performance, and use it throughout the song.

I decided to see how far I could push it, so I looped everything I put into the song, except the vocal and the improvised harmonica solo. Inspired by a friend of mine who likes to record using several drum machines linked together and playing simultaneously, I built the drum track from loops of three different drum kits which overlap to varying degrees throughout the song.

Rick Hines: voice, acoustic guitar, MIDI keyboard (piano), 5-string bass, harmonica, drum machine.

Produced, arranged, engineered, edited, mixed and mastered by Rick Hines.

Recorded February 17-26, 2008 at Rick's Studio, Atlanta, Georgia.