30-Minute Music Hour

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It's the 30 Minute Music Hour. I'm Andy Moore. This is Willy Porter! HELLO LITTLE MOONBEAM SUCH A WELCOME SIGHT NOTHING IN MY POCKET NO, NO, NO WALK WITH ME TONIGHT OLD CARS IN THE TALL GRASS BROKEN GLASS AND CHROME DOWN ALONG THE RAILWAY RAILWAY BEHIND OUR FUNKY LITTLE HOME HIDING IN THE SUMAC WAITING FOR A TRAIN GOT A PENNY ON THE RAILWAY HELLO LITTLE MOONBEAM I FORGOT YOUR SONG EVERY CROSSTIE TELLS ME I'VE BEEN GONE TOO LONG YEAH SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU GIVE YOUR LIGHT SO FREELY WON'T YOU SHED YOUR BEAMS ON ME I NEED YOU OH LITTLE... MOONBEAM LITTLE, LITTLE WHEN I WAS A YOUNG BOY I BALANCED ON THIS RAIL I'D HOLD MY JACKET HIGH LORD, LORD, LORD WIND WOULD FILL MY SAIL

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COME ON LITTLE MOONBEAM IN THE AIR TONIGHT SHINE YOUR LOVE UPON US EVERY LITTLE THING GONNA BE ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT HIDING IN THE SUMAC WAITING FOR A TRAIN GOT A PENNY ON THE RAILWAY RAILWAY

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All right. Welcome, my name's Willy. It's a great pleasure to be here today.

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That was a tune called "Moonbeam." I'm going to move on to another song of mine. It's on my third album.

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It's a song inspired by seeing a naked woman out of my window, which doesn't happen often enough, frankly. But this is a tune called "Paper Airplane." I WANT TO WALK THROUGH ALL YOUR OPEN DOORWAYS I WANT TO DRINK DOWN ALL YOUR CHEAP WINE I WANT TO ANSWER THE PHONE WHEN YOUR OLD MAN CALLS IT I WANT TO TELL HIM THAT YOU'RE DOIN' ALL RIGHT I WANT TO ERASE ALL DOUBT I WANT TO STAND NAKED BEFORE THE SUN I WANT TO LAY DOWN BESIDE YOU WHEN THE WORKING DAY IS DONE THROUGH YOUR OPEN WINDOW MY PAPER AIRPLANE FLIES PEOPLE SAY I LOST MY FOOTING THEY SHOULD LOOK INTO YOUR EYES FROM THE SECOND FLOOR I CAN SEE INTO YOUR HOUSE DON'T NEED A TELESCOPE TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT JUST LIKE A LOVE LETTER TUCKED UNDER A WING JUST LIKE YOUR NAKED TRUTH THERE'S LOTS OF EVERYTHING I WANT TO ERASE ALL DOUBT I WANT TO STAND NAKED BEFORE THE SUN I WANT TO LAY DOWN BESIDE YOU WHEN THE WORKING DAY IS DONE THROUGH YOUR OPEN WINDOW MY PAPER AIRPLANE FLIES THROUGH YOUR OPEN WINDOW UP INTO THE SKY PEOPLE SAY I LOST MY HEAD THEY SHOULD LOOK INTO YOUR EYES INTO YOUR EYES UP HERE IN THE THERMALS DRIFTING LIKE A HAWK CARRYING ON THE WIND BLOWN AWAY LIKE CHALK SUCH A TINY CRAFT PAPER CLIP ON NOSE I COULD STARE AT YOU FOR HOURS BUT YOUR BLINDS ARE CLOSED YOUR BLINDS ARE CLOSED

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THROUGH YOUR OPEN WINDOW MY PAPER AIRPLANE FLIES FLIES Nice work! - Well, how you doin', Andy? I'm good. Thank you. - Thank you. Very nice. What a good start. Well, all right. All downhill from here. You've got 23 minutes left. To crash and burn. Isn't it great? Let's just play Gin, or something.

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No Packers. - No Packers. And no Texas hold 'em. None of that. I put your coffee right here. All right? Thank you. That's agua, of course. It's good to know it's nearby. All right. - I get a little nervous. You're playing a brand-new guitar. Not everybody owns a guitar like this. No, sir. No, it is a brand-new thing. Tell us about that, because it's a pretty big deal. It's a Guild, and that's all I'll say. But they're your sponsors. You take it from here. Yeah, it's a Guild Signature Willy Porter model. So, I had a lot of input in designing it. It's a great honor. Obviously, Guild is a great American guitar company. One of the greatest in my humble opinion. How does that work when you have a hand in designing a guitar? You sketch out on a napkin? You mail it in? What happens? Well, actually, we meet for tequila. No, it's not quite even that involved. It's more involved than that. There are some great luthiers at Guild, a gentleman by the name of Donnie Wade, who is a southern gentleman. He's a very wonderful guy and a real genius luthier, guitar builder. He came up with the basic idea and design. And then we just tweaked it. I think we did four or five different versions of it. Where was it actually designed? In Mississippi? Actually, no. He's, I think he's from Mississippi, Alabama, Texas. I can't remember. But he could be from anywhere. But the guitar was built in Tacoma, Washington. So it features some stuff that I really like. It has a wider neck. And it's beautiful flame maple back and sides. I'll try not to wreck the set. And you'll be going out to the West Coast when they're going to debut it? Yeah, at the show for the National Association of Musical Instrument Manufacturers. We get together for kind of a dog and pony show where we unveil all the new things. It should be fun. I'm going out there this Thursday, actually. Willie, did you get a shot right in the sound hole, so that we can see that, you know, anyone could just say that was a Willy Porter guitar, but when we look in there, what does it say? It says... I think it says this is a genuine Willy Porter Signature guitar. I'll get my head in the way. Sorry about that. W-I-L-L-I-E They misspelled it! No, you are such a brave warrior. Of course they did not, Andy. They spelled my name right. You didn't, of course, in all your emails to me even though you've known me for 20 years. Well, how about playing the Willy Porter guitar. Sure. - Thanks a lot. My pleasure. I BLEW ALL MY DOUGH ON A TILT-A-WHIRL I DRAG IT AROUND BEHIND MY CAR SEEMED LIKE A GOOD WAY TO SEE THE WORLD YOUR HOMETOWN UNDER THE STARS A MAN IN A FEE CAB HE MADE ME A DEAL HE SAYS, SON YOU COULD SET IT UP IN ANY OLD TOWN MOON SHININ' DOWN ON ALL OF THAT STEEL PACK 'EM IN FOR MILES AROUND TILT-A-WHIRL GOIN' TO MEET YOUR GIRL BY MY TILT-A-WHIRL LOOK AT ALL THAT COTTON CANDY SWIRL FROM SANTA FE TO THE DUST OF MOLINE AND ALL THE TINY TOWNS IN BETWEEN I SET IT UP AND I TEAR IT DOWN FOR CHEESEBURGERS AND GASOLINE MY FOLKS THEY CALL ME A RADICAL MY FRIENDS THEY THINK I'M OBSCENE BUT MAKIN' LOVE TO A SEVEN-FOOT BEARDED WOMAN WAS ALWAYS MY BOYHOOD DREAM TILT-A-WHIRL GOIN' TO MEET YOUR GIRL BY MY TILT-A-WHIRL LOOK AT ALL THAT COTTON CANDY SWIRL WHEN SHE'S REALLY HUMMIN' FOLKS PULL TWO G'S IN THE OUTSIDE CAR THE MAN SAID SHE'LL DO THREE JUST FINE BUT I'M NOT GOIN' TO PUSH HER THAT HARD SO IF YOU'RE SCARED OF THE HAMMER HEAD AND THE FERRIS WHEEL MOVES TOO SLOW TILT-A-WHIRL WILL FILL THE BILL STEP RIGHT UP, SON SHE'S ABOUT TO ROLL

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BOOZE ON MY BREATH MAMMA, I'LL STRAP YOU IN LIKE A FROG ON THE DISSECTION TABLE US CARNIES ARE NOT DANGEROUS, BABY WE'RE JUST BIOLOGISTS OUT ON SABBATICAL TILT-A-WHIRL GOIN' TO SEE YOUR GIRL BY MY TILT-A-WHIRL LOOK AT ALL THAT COTTON CANDY TILT-A-WHIRL GOIN' TO MEET YOUR GIRL SHE'S MY TILT-A-WHIRL FROM SANTA FE TO THE DUST OF MOLINE HIGH ON THE AMERICAN DREAM I SET IT UP AND I TEAR IT DOWN FOR CHEESEBURGERS AND GASOLINE So that was a little thing called "Tilt-A-Whirl." My name's Willy Porter if you're just tuning in. It's a blast to be here today on Wisconsin Public Television. Andy I think stepped out to go get a beer, or something. He'll be back in a minute. While he's away, I think we can sneak one more little jam in here, folks. And that last song wasn't recorded yet. This one is off an album called "Dog Your Dream,"

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which came out way back in 19... a-hem... So this one is a tune called "Angry Words." I CAN SEE THOSE VISIONS DANCING ACROSS THE FOOT OF MY BED CRUMPLED SHEETS TWO TIRED BODIES SINS I COMMIT NOW IN MY HEAD I HAVE CURSED YOUR NAME A THOUSAND TIMES OR MORE YOUR PHOTOGRAPH LIES DEEP AT THE BOTTOM OF MY DRAWER BUT WHEN I LOOKED AT IT THIS MORNING I HAD NO ANGRY WORDS TO SAY NO ANGRY WORDS TO SAY THE COFFEE MAKER THAT YOU GAVE ME IT FINALLY BROKE DOWN IT UP AND DIED THIS MORNING WITH A GROANING SOUND ALL THESE GHOSTS I HAVE DRIVEN OUT DRIVEN THEM FROM MY HOUSE IT'S A SIMPLE LIFE I LEAD STILL GOT A LOT TO LEARN ABOUT YEAH, BUT I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YES, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YEAH, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER THE SAD PART OF YESTERDAY NO ANGRY WORDS TO SAY I LEARNED A LITTLE 'BOUT FORGIVENESS A LITTLE 'BOUT SIN A LITTLE 'BOUT THE SOUL OF A MAN LIVING WITHIN THIS SKIN I AIN'T AFRAID OF NEW LOVE THAT COULD BE STARTING I DON'T WEAR A FACE THAT SAYS I'M WEARY-BROKEN-HEARTED I DON'T NEED SOMEONE TO SMOTHER WITH THE LOVE THAT YOU DISCARDED NO, 'CAUSE I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YES, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YEAH, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER THE SAD PART OF YESTERDAY YEAH, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YES, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YEAH, I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER THE SAD PART OF YESTERDAY

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YEAH I'M FINALLY GETTING OVER YOU All right. How much does a guitar player of your caliber-- I stood in a pretty long line at the beer tent.

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How much do-- - They must've seen me comin'. Here you come. How much do you practice? How much do you work out with your instrument? Or, are you past that, you know? A lot of guitar players hear somebody like you play and they leave your show and they throw their instrument in the lake. You're kind. - But do you practice the guitar every day? Well, I do, I kind of-- I have kids now, and stuff. And so I don't have the amount of time I used to have, you know, to be able to sit for three or four hours at a time. And now I don't have that, but I find if I can get 15 minutes a day, it's enough to keep my chops together. I'm not going to learn anything new or expand, but the muscle memory stays intact, you know. There's a kinesthesiology to the whole thing that will hold together. But I long for the time when I can have more. I remember you told me that you lived in Eau Claire, way back, did you not? Yes, I did. And at that time, you were trying to work on your attack and figuring out who you were on your instrument. But I can't remember how many hours a day you told me you played back then. What was it? It was some insane number of hours. It was a long time. I think, even when I was in college, I was doing at least four to five hours a day. And usually it was at night, so I wasn't sleeping much. So in college? - Yeah, that was when I just, you know, I was studying psychology, so I had a lot of time.

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And now, two kids. Are either of them musical? They both kind of are, you know. It's sort of like, I guess the dentist, you know, doesn't want the kid to be a dentist kind of a thing. The lawyer's kid is in jail. You know that story, right? No. - All right, we won't go there. But it's true. And for me, my wife and I have introduced things, a piano and guitar, and such, but we're not really trying to steer them that way. If they pick it up-- I think my son's got the guitar disease. I think he's probably going to play in some capacity. But it's hard. It's too soon to tell. So we just try to create an environment in which we can figure out what they love to do, and we can just let them go. I know you're a dad, so you can understand. Well, I can. And we're kind of at the top end of letting go, and watching. I remember when our oldest started playing the guitar, I told Peggy, my wife, "This is great," because definitely college is out now.

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You look for savings down the road. - Yeah. Well, thanks again for coming, Willy. We want you to play a couple more. I'd be happy to. In the second of that couple, we're going to show a few credits. Sounds great. - Then we'll be done. Okay. - Thanks, again. Thank you for having me, Andy. What a pleasure. Appreciate it.

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This is another new song. This song is going to appear on an album that's being worked on now. Hopefully, it'll come out in 2008. A song called "A Hard Place." MY NAME IS BRADLEY WILSON MARINE TO THE CORE LIKE MY DAD BEFORE ME MY GRANDPA IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR SAIGON IN '73 GRANDPA LEFT HIS DOG TAGS ON THE BEACH IN THE PHILIPPINES HE GOT CAUGHT OOH BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE SEMPER FI WAS NOT A SLOGAN BUT A LIVING LEGACY I ALWAYS THOUGHT MY DAD'S DRESS BLUES WERE MUCH TO BIG ON ME BUT THE BELL TOLLED FOR ME ONE MORNING AS IT WILL FOR ONE AND ALL IN THAT AWFUL ENDLESS MOMENT AS I WATCHED THE ANGELS FALL THEY GOT CAUGHT OOH BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE THEY GOT CAUGHT HEY BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE THEY SAID THERE'D COME A DAY WHEN THE TRUTH IS IN YOUR FACE AND YOU'RE CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD HARD PLACE YEAH, YEAH

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NOW THE SUN BEATS DOWN UPON US BURNS RIGHT THROUGH OUR SKIN PLEASE DON'T FORSAKE US FOR THE WAR WE'RE FIGHTIN' IN MY NAME IS BRADLEY WILSON MARINE TO THE CORE PLEASE DON'T FORGET ME WHEN I'M BACK HERE ON OUR SHORE All right, a tune called "A Hard Place."

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I'd like to do a song about ice fishing. I have never actually gone ice fishing in my lifetime. But I know a lot of people up here do. I also know Wisconsin consumes more brandy in our state, within our borders, than the other three states around us, combined, so... Thin ice and brandy are really not a good combination, so I'm told. Somebody always falls through with their truck every spring. So my buddy Tom, he beat me out of half of this next one. He wrote this little tune about ice fishing. It seems like it's pretty much a Wisconsin tale. Thanks so much for having me on today. I really appreciate it. I GOT A PICK-UP TRUCK AND A FISHIN' HUT IT'S A 20-MILE RIDE TO THE SECRET SPOT UH-HUH MM-MMM THREE FEET OF ICE OUT ON THE LAKE NOW A TACKLE BOX ON MY KNEE I GOT NINE-VOLT SOCKS A DOZEN TIP-UPS THE STOVE IS BURNING KEROSENE I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING JUST THE WIND THROUGH THE CRACKS OF MY FISHIN' SHACK NOW HOWIE AND DOUG GOT THE SHACK NEXT TO MINE I CAN OUT FISH 'EM IT'S A MATTER OF TIME MM-MMM I GOT SHINERS AND MINNOWS AND THE WAX WORM TWIST NO GOD-FEARING FISH COULD EVER RESIST I GOT A SAWDUST FLOOR A HAND-ROLLED CIGARETTE AND MY BLACKBERRY BRANDY IT AIN'T FROZE YET I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING JUST THE WIND THROUGH THE CRACKS JUST THE WIND THROUGH THE CRACKS OF MY FISHIN' SHACK WHEN THIS SHACK OF MINE BLOCKS OUT THE LIGHT THE SUN TRAPPED BELOW MAKES THE WATER GLOW IN THE HOLE It's a strange phenomenon. Very strange. I SWEAR IT'S THE TRUTH THOUGH IT SOUNDS LIKE A LIE I SPRAINED MY WRIST AND BROKE MY POLE YES, SPRAINED MY WRIST AND BROKE MY POLE ON A LUNKER TOO BIG TO PULL THROUGH THE HOLE I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING I CAN'T HEAR NOBODY CALLING JUST THE WIND THROUGH THE CRACKS JUST THE WIND THROUGH THE CRACKS OF MY FISHIN' SHACK

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I GOT A PICK-UP TRUCK AND A FISHIN' HUT IT'S A 20-MILE RIDE TO THE SECRET SPOT