Phil Vassar photo by Jim Wright, courtesy of Universal Records South.

Sean is Doug Sahm's son – from the Texas Troubadours. Los Lonely Boys are on the
record with me. One of my old friends is their lawyer and Mark Wright produced them so we had the idea to ask them to come in. It turned out really cool. I love the accordion. There's a guy in my band who plays accordion and he flipped out, because how many songs can you have with an accordion in them? "American Child" and now this one. That's it.

"It's Only Love"
(Phil Vassar/Rodney Clawson/Julie Vassar)

That's another breakup song of course, but it's more my tongue in cheek way of looking at it. Hey, it's only love. No big deal. It's only everything. Writing this was a good time.
I've almost put this on my last two records. I've got a few of these songs where it takes a few passes before it clicks in. I've got one song I've cut, Tim McGraw's cut, Jo Dee Messina's cut, I think Faith Hill has cut it. Four or five of us have cut it and it's such a great song, but it's never made a record because nobody's nailed the cut yet.

"Let Me Love You Tonight"
(Phil Vassar/Jeff Smith/Julie Vassar)

If I have a favorite performance on the record, that's it. It's a pretty bleak song, but
we've all been in that place. As far as writing, performing and playing, it all came together on that song. I had a melody and that chorus came out and started a flurry of ideas. We were just thinking about being in that place where you're face to face with someone saying, "I know, I get it, we're done." That's where the real songs come from.

"Baby Rocks"
(Phil Vassar/Billy Alcorn)

That was just silly and we had a great time writing it. Every once in a while you have to
let go a little bit. I'm a Rolling Stones fan, Jagger and The Beatles, The Who – all that British Invasion stuff. This was just goofy and fun. As the album goes, that's my brainless one. It was really fun to record, too.

"The World Is a Mess"
(Phil Vassar/Tom Douglas)

I told Tom, "I've got this idea: The world is a mess, I feel like dancing." He just looked at
me and said, "That's great! Let's write it." Tom's that guy who I'm in the zone with right now. I can just go to him with the most bizarre idea and he runs with it. He's not afraid of anything. That's easy to do when you write by yourself, but it's hard with a co-writer. He's that guy I can go to who doesn't think I'm out of my freaking mind. My kids love that song. Dad, play it again! My three year old loves it.

"Crazy Life"
(Phil Vassar)

I wrote that song about 10 years ago in the middle of one of the most horrible, defining
days of my life. I remember coming home, sitting down and writing. I kept thinking about my day, what happened and how screwed up it all is. But you know, it's a crazy life. This is just the time for that song. And it needed to be the last song on this album.