David Dondero
Shooting at the Sun with a Water Gun
Future Farmer 49322-6914-2

by Al Kunz

If you break my heart, you pay for it. If you break my heart, you bought it.
David Dondero --- "If You Break My Heart"

Harlan Howard, one of the most prolific and successful songwriters in country music, says one of his favorite ways to get song ideas is by hanging out in bars. Listening to the other patrons, he'll hear stories or turns of phrase he can build a song around. Anything you say within hearing distance of a songwriter could become a lyric in their next song.

David Dondero uses this same technique. He is on the lookout for lyrics everywhere, saying he eavesdrops on people and translates what they say into a song. Whether putting the clichéd gift shop sign "You break it, you bought it" to fresh use or "translating" overheard conversations, Dondero has an unusual way with words. Bar conversation, both with a friend and overheard the same night, provided these opening lyrics for "The Real Tina Turner."

If it wasn't for the liquor and the weed, I never would have made it through the winter
Developed a habit of washing your hands to the point that your fingers would bleed
What's your name? Hey I'm Patsy, are you Irish? No I'm Frankenstein
Well, here's to the best of the "backseaters." I was a real Tina Turner in my time

With his five previous releases (three with alt-rock band Sunbrain) Dondero has built a following among both music fans and his peers. One of these, Connor Oberst of indie-rock band Bright Eyes, describes Dondero as "carrying on the tradition of American folk music in the fashion of greats like Woody Guthrie or Townes Van Zandt, while still creating something modern and unique." His music has a folk aesthetic largely relying on spare, acoustic instrumentation, but with an edgier, more contemporary feel due to a smattering of drum samples, electric piano, and some unconventional percussion.

Dondero relates his observations of the sights and sounds of an urban neighborhood in "Pied Piper of the Flying Rats." Car alarms sound as the "wingnuts and screwballs" that populate the area go about their business. A wino gathers cans, thieves ply their trade, while the "Pied Piper" feeds the pigeons.

Pied Piper of the flying rats
Toss his seeds from the dirty old sack
It's a gray cloud of life
Cut in half by a moonlight knife to the underpass out of sight

Eavesdropping and keen observation can provide raw material for lyrics, but to polish these lyrics into a well-crafted song requires more. It may just be arranging the raw lyrics into verses and adding musical accompaniment, but it can require adding a unique perspective or personal experience. Dondero is described in his record company biography as traveling incessantly, "never growing roots, absorbing all he can through odd jobs and playing music." This rootlessness may have provided the perspective and experience for "This World is Not My Home." The feeling expressed in the opening line, "this world is not my home / I'm just passing through it," are emotions he would understand, at least on a local level, from his nomadic lifestyle. Religious overtones and a slower pace give this tune the feeling of a hymn.

Oh, Lord, did you know
I've no better friend than you
If heaven ain't my home
I don't know what I'll do

I hear the voices
From your heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore

The last song may have been personal, but "Analysis of a 1970's Divorce" leaves no doubt. Six-year-old David Dondero was "tore up inside" when his parents decided to divorce. But he refused to stop believing in love or to give in to the bitterness. After several years to analyze the reason for the divorce, he cheerfully explains his conclusion.

Well, maybe they were victims of what was expected of them
It was just before the dawning of the new sex revolution
And maybe they thought marriage was the proper thing to do
And in reality they probably just wanted to screw
Oh, the things you do when you want to screw
The stupid things that you do

Dondero doesn't want to duplicate his parents' matrimonial mistakes. He shows a little fear (of possible rejection and hoping it's the right step) as he timidly sings his marriage "Proposal." "I want to be always close to you / always around you / / marry me, marry me."

In "The Waiter," Dondero says the waiter got stiffed, not because he wasn't tipped, but because he was killed. Throughout the disc, Dondero shows this talents for metaphor (comparing a futile effort to "shooting at the sun with a water gun" in "Now & On") and for wordplay, calling a character "Carlos, the great guitar-los" in "Love." If you like your Americana to have an edge with clever, literate lyrics told from a unique viewpoint, then this is the disc for you.

*For more about David Dondero visit www.futurefarmer.com .


Contact Al Kunz at kunz-at-rockzilla.net

 
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