Hands Untied -
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This song was definitely a part of the session we did with Donnie Meals at Edit Point. Curtis Saunier was playing bass with us by this time and it seems we had stopped playing live shows as often as we had played a bit earlier in our brief career together as a band. I had moved an hour away while attending classes at Southwest Texas State University and I did my best to continue to be a part of the band (because really, that's what I wanted to do. I had little interest in graduating with a degree. I want to play and record drums and travel and tour and perform live.) Jeff Duncan had decided he could no longer be committed to what we were doing and we didn't really have anybody we named as our bass player. Matt Odom was a friend that Mattingly knew and he traveled with us a time or two but living in Ft. Worth meant that he wasn't readily available to be a part of what we had going on locally. I think that was probably a bit hurtful to him at the time that we didn't invite him down to be a part of these session, but that wasn't done with malicious intent. Curtis was close in proximity to us, he enjoyed the music, he was really nice guy, and he contributed to what we were doing at the time. Curtis played with us until the band slowly dissolved.

I distinctly remember playing the bongo part as sort of an aside -- I don't think I ever thought that it would make the mix but somehow it not only made the mix, it sort of became a big part of the song. I think the whole idea of laying this part originally came from me watching Curtis tinker around with those old bongos in the cutting room during a playback of the song. Keep in mind, I'm no percussionist - I do well to play what drums I have (Hell, I'm not even a musician, I just hang around with them!) - so the bongo part was more of me noodling around on two small drums rather than having thought about recording an actual percussion part. Maybe it's better this way. I don't know. You be the judge.

I've always liked this tune.