'Lil Shake
The story behind 'Lil Shake starts off when Carol Lee and Arthur were in New Orleans where he was playing a bunch of gigs during the 2014 Jazz Fest. On their last day there they still hadn’t written anything so as they where walking in the French Quarter Arthur looked down a street and saw “Louis Armstrong Park” in huge letters and told Carol to “GO WRITE!” She walked into the park and unbeknownst to her, Carol walked smack dab into the timeless energy vortex of Conga Square and immediately started crying. The vibes there are profound and the deep history is still present today. Carol has a clairvoyant gift with the ability to tap into it to see, hear and feel what is there on many levels. She sat on a bench and the lyrics for 'Lil Shake came thru…..”Crossroads are timeless, where there’s Spirits there’s bloodlines, backs broke by the spineless, in the fortunes in the crimes.” That’s some heavy stuff right there
'Lil Shake
Lyrics: Carol Lee
Crossroads are timeless
Where there's Spirits
There's bloodlines
Backs broke by the spineless
In the fortunes
In the crimes
Brass cats sound real sweet
Gonna boogie all night
On Frenchman Street
Baby how do you do?
Shot of Bourbon
Little shake of Voodoo
Straight talkin' street jive
After sunset
‘Fore sunrise
Fine player's got statues
The deep roots
Gonna get deep grooves
Haunted bars Squares and saints
Uptown street cars, Sugar cane
Crawfish pie, masks and beads
A Second Line parades the streets
Crossroads are Timeless
Where there's spirits
There's bloodlines
Backs broke by the spineless
In the fortunes
In the crimes
Brass cats sound real sweet
Gonna boogie all night
On Frenchman Street
Baby how do you do?
Shot of Bourbon
Little shake of Voodoo
Big Livin’
The song Big Livin’ first came to Carol Lee in a dream where she was in a 13 year old African American boy’s body running as fast as he could chasing a New Orleans Street Car in the 1920’s. Along with that experience came the melody and a few lines for the first verse that Carol sang to me and I was able to capture and record on my iPhone. 6 months after this dream Carol was recovering from being really ill and watched a documentary on the legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson who’s story tells of her leaving New Orleans and moving to Chicago to sing when she was around 15 years old. In the documentary Carol saw the exact image of the same Street Car from her dream which brought back the memory of the song and the dream that inspired her to finish the rest of the lyrics combining both experiences. Arthur took the melody idea Carol had and found the chords that supported that and then wrote the music for the chorus and refrain. Another synchronistic fact was that Carol Lee was born 7 years earlier at the same hospital, Little Company of Mary, that Mahalia Jackson died at in Evergreen Park IL on the south side of Chicago.
Big Livin’
Lyrics: Carol Lee
Nico caught the last train
Heading into town
Coming back to "N'Awlins"
No one left around
Where we gonna go? Mama
Tell me where we gonna go?
I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know
See the children running
Up and down the streets
Aunties and their Mamas
Hanging out the sheets
Nowhere left to go child
Ain't nowhere for us to go
I don't know, I don't know
I don't know
Brick by brick
Row by row
Old folks stay
And young folk go
Ruby's saving up some nickels
Soon she'll turn fifteen
Northbound to Chicago
Where she gonna sing
She's got somewhere to go mama
You know she's gotta go
Gotta go, Gotta go, Gotta go
Where the boys can really swing it
Staying up till dawn
Hear there's some big living
Now this bird has flown
I know you had to go child,
She sho'nuff had to let you go
I don't know, I don't know
I don't know
Brick by brick
Row by row
Old folks stay
And young folk go
Big livin big livin'