The Outlaw by Brian St. John

This project stems from the release of a record in December 2019 called Missed Opportunity. Many of my favorite records are double albums. Missed Opportunity was a chance to explore genres, instrumentation, and arrangements I’d not played before on record. The promotional effort for that record was ultimately buried in the months to come due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The world had much bigger problems but the limited time we did play this music live it felt great to play these tunes with a big band. While many of the songs from that record have been played live, they are mostly from the “electric” side while many of the tunes from the “acoustic side” got lost in the shuffle.
As the opportunity to create new music was limited in 2020 and 2021 due to social distancing efforts, the idea of making another record with a full band had to sit on the backburner. Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and cat enthusiast Jon Irizarry and I did cook up another scheme to make some music: What if we could just get in the studio and record as many of the parts ourselves? We could still have fun making music and hopefully the band could play the songs in the appropriate settings. Thus began a trilogy of records exploring many of the influences and styles of writing I enjoy. 2021’s A Little Empathy was a reflection on society’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and my own enjoyment of singer-songwriters. 2023’s Dirty Tetris was my opportunity to rock out while still having lyrics that mean something (no Love Guns here). To round out the trilogy, I wanted to delve into parts of my playing and writing we only scratched the surface of in the previous three records.
Let’s start with an unpopular opinion: I dislike writing personal songs. I seem to appreciate it when other people let me share in their struggles but who needs to hear about the problems of a thirty-six-year-old middle class Caucasian male? I’m more of a “write about something” rather than “write about myself.” However, the gents in the band encouraged a bit more self-reflection and I believe that’s represented in this collection of songs.
Musically, I wanted to survey some territory that if you are hanging out with me socially or joining me for a concert you know I enjoy but not played on record. This album dives into my enjoyment of folk, country, and acoustic blues. Folk music’s omnipresence in my life is represented through my parent’s record catalog including Bob Dylan and Jim Croce as well as plenty of modern artists. My enjoyment of country music goes back a long way too. The local country station was always on in the car whenever my mother was behind the wheel. Later I started to appreciate bluegrass and country musicians who really had something to say with their lyrics (Bro Country be damned). Acoustic blues was there in the sounds of fingerstyle guitarists Leo Kottke and Pat Donahue of A Prairie Home Companion fame but in college diving back into the roots of this music by exploring the work of Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and Leadbelly. It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. My hope with this recording is to shine a light on how these influences have been important to me in my own musical development.
This album was recorded over three different days in 2023 with the same team as 2021’s A Little Empathy. Behind the desk and controls we have the man himself Mr. Tom Askin. Tom’s got a great ear for songs in addition to his technical capabilities. He truly was the right man for the job on this album. On drums, things with keys, and other odds and ends we have Mr. Jon Irizarry. He’s a wonderful collaborator on projects like this because of his excellent ear and reaction time to new parts. On records like this we tend to record the drums first with some scratch guitar. I’ll go back and lay down some bass and guitars. All the while Jon is sitting in the control room coming up with a piano or a vocal part. The spontaneity is there and yet his parts and ideas sound like they’ve been crafted for years. He’s truly a pleasure to work with on these albums. On pretty much all the other nonsense, it’s yours truly although because of eased restrictions with the pandemic we were able to open these sessions up to new players who will be mentioned in the song-by-song breakdown below.

Floridian Divorce: When you grow up in a cold(ish) weather climate, many people fantasize about leaving the snow behind and moving to the beach. As many I know have found out, this is easier said than done without the necessary connections to start a life there. Directly inspired by a monologue from a ride-share driver (no, I’m not gonna say the name of the company – what do I look like, an Uber-dork) on his Christmas plans and life gone awry in January 2022, this song is a pastiche of Jimmy Buffet and John Prine. It felt like the right way to set the tone for what this record was going to be.

The Brown: I despise the egregious use of the word “whiskey” in country music! Most of the people that sing about it are only drinking hard seltzers to watch their waistlines. They also haven’t sampled the product beyond an Old No. 7 or perhaps in a fit of desperation broken the wax seal on their uncle’s bottle of Makers Mark. Like dirt roads and pretty-little girls, it’s become a lazy catch all word for bands who don’t really have anything to say. This offends me as a songwriter and a whiskey enthusiast. I’d say I collect but I prefer to share. I wanted to write a tune which reflects my love of delta blues and the booze that comes from slightly northeast of there (or anywhere else for that matter).

Above the Noise: I had been playing around with this dark finger picked guitar part and melody for a couple of months that I really enjoyed but lyrically had nothing. Jon and I got together with a couple guitars and much like our co-write on Dirty Tetris called “Influencers,” it was a fully formed song in one night. Lyrically it seems to be about the power of love to rise above but you can ask Jon about that (he did more of the heavy lifting lyrically on this one). The subtlety of the arrangement gives the song its power with lovely vocal harmonies from Jon and Tom.

Use Your Name: In college I used to travel from Clemson University up to the Charlotte area to visit my uncle Ed. Ed was a chef by trade and I think we saw a lot of ourselves in each other’s personalities. He was incredibly creative with food in perhaps way which I can occasionally craft a song. One evening he asked why I named by band at the time after myself. My response was “it’s the same reason you named your signature dish at the restaurant back in Rutherford Shrimp St. John.” Perhaps there was a bit of hostility in my voice but I am from New Jersey so I think that’s just par for the course. We each sat in respectful silence after that for a few moments watching a UFC Fight after that. The message was it forces you to own whatever it is you are doing to the highest of your ability and we each took that to heart in that moment. In the summer of 2022, my uncle took his own life in his home. This is my own little requiem for the man who challenged me to use my name. If you or anyone you know needs help at this time, there are resources including 988 on your phone and afsp.org.

Delay, Deny: In 2021 and 2022, I read about cancers caused by burn pits during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the military sets up mobile command facilities and bases in foreign countries, these are basically little cities. Any city needs infrastructure. Simple things like where the water comes from and where is the waste going to go are very important questions. Waste, and in many cases toxic waste, was burned in the open and has been linked to cancers years later. Perhaps worst of all, multiple administrations from both major political parties have used a strategy of delaying and denying any acknowledgement of connections between government practices during the wars and these cancers. They are letting down those who fought to protect the country in their time of need. You can find more information on this topic here: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/chemicals/burn-pits.html While I’d like to tell this story to raise awareness, I refuse to profit in any way from their story. Any proceeds generated from this song will go to the American Cancer Society and related Veterans charities. A special thank you to all our friends who came out and sang on the choruses: Chris Calandrillo, Lenore Coyle, Lloyd Gold, Patrick Maloney, Ali McDowell, Jacque Reardon, Lou Tambone, Alan Tepper, and Denny Tilton

Talli Tater’s Tarried Tarantella: Every niece and nephew gets a piece of music that reflects their personalities in the moment of construction on a record. The first piece I did like this was written on piano, the next acoustic guitar, and the following on electric guitar. This time around the primary instruments are banjo, electric bass, and the Stylophone S-1, a pocket-sized synthesizer developed in the late 1960s. The tune itself borrows from the traditional Italian dance in ¾ time. This one’s for the Tater…

My Baby Loves the Dog More than Me: This one is self-explanatory. With kernels of truth surrounded by a delicious, candy-coated lies, it’s fun to write tunes that aren’t so serious in their construction. Kudos to Jon and Tom for the added percussion and harmony vocals! It makes the arrangement.

Points of Change: Jon and I made my first solo record over fifteen years ago and then buried it so far deep into the ground that no one this century will ever here it. There’s a few good tunes on there but for the most part it’s an early effort that serves as a stepping stone to get to the work we did together with the BSJ Quartet and later with the solo albums. This was one of the tunes that was prime for a resurrection as we’ve done with other pieces throughout our musical collaboration. To be completely honest, we didn’t change too much. I rewrote a couple lines and we are certainly better singers and players but the soul of the song didn’t change. It’s a testament to the less is more approach.

Big Ole Sunglasses: Students of history know it is of vital importance to research your subjects. I got curious about the gargantuan size of women’s sunglasses in the heart of the pandemic. I saw a woman struggling to sip a venti chain coffee through a cloth mask and her massive sunglasses kept fogging up. It turns out oversized sunglasses were favored by the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy to protect her privacy way back in the 1960s. They also can make your face look smaller and logically from there somehow more attractive. These musings sent me down the rabbit hole of creating a sad male character thinking he’s met the woman of his dreams (or afternoon) at a local watering hole who perhaps has a change of heart by the end of the narrative. A country waltz, this was fun to record with all the traditional accoutrement of the style: a trebly Tele and a whining lap steel guitar.

The Outlaw: This song is for anyone who plays music for part or all their living. Much of what we do is at night and the work we put in to do it well is in the shadows. We are odd suburban cowboys and cowgirls who ride into town in secondhand cars, play our hearts out to make your night, and then ride home late into the night to an all too quiet house. In many ways, this might be the most honest thing I’ve ever written which I dedicate to all my fellow brothers and sisters who do this because it is who they are. I tip the brim of my symbolic Stetson to y’all…

With artwork by Catherine Kiff-Vozza and produced by Tom Askin, Jon Irizarry, and yours truly, it’s been a long time coming but I’m proud to say The Outlaw will be released on limited edition black vinyl, compact disc, and all streaming platforms on 11/1/24. I look at this as the end of a trilogy of records that I’m pleased to share with you. I can’t wait to come back at you with something a little different soon. Thanks for your support and enjoy the album!

Hailing from Sussex County NJ, Brian St. John is a guitarist for hire, singer-songwriter, and all around music fan. After a five year stint with his eponymous quartet, he has released six solo albums over the last decade. Citing influences from all over the music spectrum, St. John makes a sound reminiscent of his old soul.