Some very kind remarks here. Thank you all. Special thanks to my friend Dan O'Connell who wrote me today and asked how I'd feel about having 'Mercy' linked to/from his song 'Lightning Road' on YouTube.

Dan, as many of you know, battled a loss of feeling in his fingers. With encouragement from people on Mudcat and elsewhere he tackled guitar playing and then songwriting. It was like a dam opened up, and his songs on YouTube have attracted many, many people to the folk-side of music. Lightning Road took off, and he was at or near 23,000 hits last time I looked (and listened). He deserves it, and I make no secret that I'm a fan of his. And I admire his courage. Took real guts for him to hang-in and get 'er done, but he did. He's a truly good friend. Thank you, Dan.

The CD

I recorded all the cuts just voice and guitar. The raw tracks were sent off to musicians in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. I asked them to 'do something' with the cuts they received. I made no suggestions to anyone. No point getting musicians who are better than you and then start telling them what to do. Every single one of them came through.

The musicians on Mercy

Caroline Allatt whom I first heard at Cafe Namasthe in Ormstown was at an open mike and after she sang two lines of a song she was doing I asked her manager if there was any chance she'd do a duet with me next time she was in town. We got that fixed up and practised the song three or four times, worked out a few wrinkles, sang it a month later on stage and that was that for about five months. Her harmony got to me so I then asked if she'd record it with me. She agreed.

The sessions for the CD were all done at Eric Bernard's house (Productions guitare verte) in his upstairs studio. He not only did the engineering for the CD but also added some electric bass and electric guitar on a few cuts. That man plays about ten instruments well.

Ron Bankley: I don't know where to start talking about Ron and if I get started I won't stop. He's great--I mean really great as a musician, as a songwriter, as a poet and as a person. To say we're friends would be a severe understatement. He put lap-steel, acoustic 12-string and electric lead on the song. He did the work in his home in Ontario.

I'd intended to be in the studio the day Caroline was doing her overdub just in case . . . . I got snowed in and couldn't get there. Sounds like I wasn't needed. The harmony is just the way we'd done it before, and she matched my phrasing word for word. Dynamite voice that gal has.

Anyway, Mercy turned out to be one of my favourite songs on the CD. Joe asked for the lyrics to be posted, so here they are.


I'M AT THE MERCY OF YOUR SMILE

I'm at the mercy of your smile
And as I walk these summer streets
Staring back mile after mile
Where lovers rub each other's feet
I love you, you know I do
I'm at the mercy of your smile

I'm at the mercy of your eyes
They shine like diamonds in the night
A billion stars burn in the skies
But even they don't shine so bright
I love you, you know I do
I'm at the mercy of your eyes

BREAK

I'm at the mercy of your touch
And of your raven-coloured hair
When the world becomes too much
Give me your troubles and your cares
I love you, you know I do
I'm at the mercy of your touch

I'm at the mercy of your heart
I'd trade a mountain made of gold
To walk a path that never parts
And always have your hand to hold
I love you, you know I do
I'm at the mercy of
I'm at the mercy, love
I'm at the mercy of your heart
Oh yeah
I'm at the mercy of your heart

Bruce