Okay, let me just quickly state up front that this album won’t be for everybody.
In fact, it won’t be for most people. But I have a feeling that those who like this album will like it a lot.
In the name of journalistic integrity I should also probably state that I’m the guy who spent the last two years of his life making this album. And I’m very excited to perform it at the album release party Saturday the 21st at Yellow Racket Records. But I’m also a little nervous about it.
That’s because Chihuahua is… well, it’s a lot. The album’s 12 chapters tell an hour long story about an old man and his dog. It’s a mix of classical guitar and spoken word that sounds less like an album and more like a rhyming audiobook with a pretty soundtrack.
I usually play in rock bands. But after 30 years of recycling Chuck Berry and Slash licks, I got burned out with the instrument. Then as an escape from the news during the pandemic, I got into classical music – especially French composers like Ravel, Debussy, Satie, and Saint-Saens. Suddenly the guitar was fresh and exciting again.
Okay, that sounds pretentious. I apologize. Here’s some balance:
Another big inspiration for this album was an old man I knew In LA. Once upon an economic collapse, I lost most of my freelance gigs and side-hustles. To pay rent, I started moving furniture. And to find my moving jobs, I’d spend all day on the sidewalk outside the U-Haul as the only white dude among the workers from many countries south of the border.
It was tons of fun, and I have lots of great stories from years of working with those guys. But there was one guy I always wondered about. He must have been in his late 60’s, but was still out on the sidewalk all day hustling for moving jobs.
All the guys loved him, and even though he was slow and couldn’t carry heavy things, they were always happy to negotiate a price that included him as part of the crew for the day. They did this because they cared about him and they were happy to repay him for all the years in which he scored the jobs and hired them onto crews.
It was a really lovely example of how the goodwill we’ve built up in our community can sustain us in tough times. But I couldn’t help thinking, what happens when it can’t? What happens when that old man can no longer go up and down stairs, even carrying one small box at a time? What happens when he can’t afford rent in a city where prices always go up and few people own a home?
That’s what Chihuahua is about. It’s about a guy like that who slowly loses every reason to live except for one… his loyal little Chihuahua. But the love of that little dog might be enough to keep him alive. At least for one more day.
So yeah, like I said up front… this album ain’t for everybody. But I think it’s a unique work of art that touches on a lot of timely subjects like housing costs, elder care, homelessness and death. But it’s also about the love of our friends and our neighbors and even our pets.
The whole epic saga is available today on all streaming platforms. If you check it out and like it, I hope you’ll come to the album release show! Maybe check out a few chapters and save the ending for my big show at Yellow Racket Records on Saturday the 21st. Music will start at 8pm with Dixon Blake Callahan. There is a $10 cover charge.