dad, what is it like?

01 Beck - Lost Cause
02 Bonnie Prince Billy - I Am Drinking Again
03 Bruce Springsteen - Straight Time
04 Camper Van Beethoven - All Her Favorite Fruit
05 Elgin James - Your Deepest Scar
06 Fred Neil - The Dolphins
07 James Carr - Dark End of the Street
08 Mickey Newbury - The Future's Not What It Used To Be
09 Richard Buckner - The Worst Way
10 Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York
11 Smog - I Break Horses
12 Tim Rose - Long Time Man

by J.W. Buckley

As I near the age of thirty and having grown-up without a father I have recently begun to think about father/son communcation in-depth. Since I was never really a "son" what it would be like to be a "dad?" What would it be like to look into my teenage son as he timidly asked for some truths, some secrets, some anything from the world of men. I fell that not ever having those moments with my own father I tend to romanticize them as well as discount them. Maybe it it the slow and painful, and nearly complete, death of the American male that has caused such a cynical contradiction or perhaps it is just what happens to any boy who gets called up to be the man of the house at far too young an age. All that said, this is a collection of songs for any father to listen to with his son and hopefully pass along the only lesson that will ever help this boy out; men carry sorrow onward.

- JW