SugarBird - Paul Reddick

 Catalogue #: NBM0050

Sugar Bird

  SugarBird, Reddick's most realized work to date, is once again produced by Linden, who adds his superlative guitar playing to every track. Linden co-writes the songs with Reddick, and the album includes two of Linden's compositions. A small supporting cast includes The Band's Garth Hudson on accordion, LA bass player extraordinaire Hutch Hutchinson from Bonnie Raitt's band, Nashville drummer Bryan Owings (Emmylou Harris, Shelby Lynne), and the core of Blackie & The Rodeo Kings' rhythm section, Gary Craig (drums) and John Dymond (bass). Alternate bassist Dave Roe, from Dwight Yoakam's band, worked with Johnny Cash for 12 years. Arrangers Chris Carmichael and Darrell Leonard are also make significant contributions on strings and horns respectively.

The songs themselves cover a wide gamut, from rollicking lust (
It's Later Than You Think) to hopeful love songs (Wishing Song, Every Temptation), from gut bucket blues (Block of Wood) to delights of pure imagination (John Lennon in New Orleans). Breathless Girls and Blue Wings are expositions of longing and beauty, tapping into the tactile images of poetry, overlaid with the richness and depth of the music itself. Reddick continues to perform in Europe once or twice each year, where the critical applause for his work equals that at home in Canada. He plays festivals across Canada, and is in demand as a session player - he's appeared on recent CDs by Kathleen Edwards, Colin Linden, Susie Vinnick, Treasa Levasseur, David Baxter and others. Meanwhile, Reddick continues to walk dogs as his daily job - which gives him, in the middle of a turbulent city, time to think and the space to let his imagination fly with the birds.


Special Bonus: lyrics to Sugarbird
Morning Bell

Come and go
The day is new
Row the morning
Across the dew
Ease your dreams
Into the breeze
Sweetly rising by degrees

Climb the sun
Round and round
Wake the dust up
Upon the ground
The sky beyond is just as blue
There's half for me
And half for you

Early in the morning
Bout the break of day
What will I call you
When you've gone away

Pretty ribbons and pretty bows
Oh my darling
Nobody knows
Who's been tolling that early bell
Its hard to tell, its hard to tell

Come and go
The day is new
Row the morning
Across the dew
Ease your dreams
Into the breeze
Sweetly rising by degrees

Early in the morning
Bout the break of day
What will I call you
When you've gone away

Early in the morning
Bout the break of day
What will I call you
When you've gone away
I Will Vanish

I will vanish
From this world
From this world
Who has gone to
Gone to wander
Of the fields
Where he roams

x2

Don't care how long you've gone
Don't care how long you stay

I will vanish
From this world
From this world
Who has gone to
Gone to wander
Of the fields
Where he roams

Don't care how long she's gone
Don't care how long she stays

I will vanish....x2
Devilment

Sometimes when you look at me
All my troubles cease to be
You are lovely you are fine
You've got the devilment on your mind

Oh so fine a heart so pure
You're alluringly demure
You're the fruit upon the vine
You've got the devilment on your mind
You've got the devilment on your mind

You are perfect you are sweet
You are small with the little feet
You're as thin as turpentine
You've got the devilment on your mind

Ain't no trouble ain't no toil
Ain't no cauldron on the boil
Ain't no axe for you to grind
You've got the devilment on your mind
You've got the devilment on your mind
Blue Wings

Long it was a weary way
Won't you go and stroll with me
Little by little and was by was
Some pleasure to see

Mary had a red dress red dress red dress
O with thoughts that grew by night
The train is coming and its never late
Hold me tight

Let this world go as she will
So full of sweet surprise
The train it sings upon blue wings
Dark advice

Sugarbird don't you weep no more
Sugarbird don't weep no more
Round and round
Round and round we go

Who passes by when I am gone
Hands wet with the dew of flowers
Try to never travel such roads of love
Minutes like hours

See yonder sun how steady she run
Im going home on the morning train
Sing song girls ringing in the dawn
Colour of flame
It's Later Than you Think

Get your house in order
Come back from the brink
Cast your eyes on Western skies
It's later than you think

Come back to your senses
And order one more drink
Raise it to the great unknown
It's later than you think

Im on one side of the room
You are on the other
Never has this closer
Been this further

The clock is ticking faster
Than the dripping in the sink
I wonder who you're waiting for
It's later than you think

The bellman's got your suitcase
The coat check's got your mink
You've got the key to 903
It s later than you think

You've got the secret number
You're playing in the pink
The moon is lost behind the fog
It's later than you think

The bellman's got your suitcase
The coat check's got your mink
You've got the key to 903
It's later than you think
It's later than you think
John Lennon in New Orleans

A night so bright and warm
A star so far from home
Moonlight barely breaks the surface
Here I am so all alone

The streets can't hide your shame
The heat might melt your bones
Stumbling blind through hidden lanes
Face down on cobblestone

Creole girl, I am a stranger from a foreign land
A wanted man no one can't recognize
Help me please, I wanna hold your hand
Sleep walk with me tonight

They'll find me in the morn
You never knew my name
I was hiding in the storm
And you saved me from the rain

Creole girl I'm a stranger from a foreign land
A wanted man, no one can't recognize
Help me please I wanna hold your hand
Sleepwalk with me tonight

They'll find me in the morn
You never knew my name
I was hiding in the storm
And you saved me from the rain

I was hiding in the storm
And you saved me from the rain
Every Temptation

In a violet dusk a blackbird sang
Her throat towards the moon
By the edge of purple clouds
The sky was the deepest blue

Oh it's every temptation
Your mouth is full of night
I fell in love with a pretty girl
Her heart like a clasping knife

Oh warm your throat with moonlight
Unwind the winding path
Wear your purple dresses
Sipping wine in the ruby glass

Oh it's every temptation
your mouth is full of night
I fell in love with a pretty girl
Her heart like a clasping knife

{repeat}

I have seen and I have known
I've been dragged away
There's somebody sweet and kind
Calling at the close of day

Oh and it's every temptation
Your mouth is full of night
I fell in love with a pretty girl
Her heart like a clasping knife

{repeat}
Wishing Song

The moon's a rising, rising in the darkling day
The moon's a rising, rising in the darkling day
The moon's a rising, rising in the darkling day
Oh be with me until I fade away

The wind is singing, singing a wishing song
The wind is singing, singing a wishing song
The wind is singing, singing a wishing song
Oh be with me, as I travel on

I can't see, see what brought me here
Oh stay by me, stay by me my dear

I can't see, see what brought me here
Oh stay by me, stay by me my dear
I don't know, know about the heaven above
Hold me close my love my love

The wind is singing, singing a wishing song
The wind is singing, singing a wishing song
The wind is singing, singing a wishing song
Oh be with me, as I travel on
Oh be with me, as I travel on
Oh be with me, as I travel on
Breathless Girls

Breathless girls

And the wintergreen
And the whipping wind
And the notes go down
And the voices rise
And the man who walks
And the blouses white
And the waves roll in

Gathered there together
No shoes upon their feet
They wade the water lilies
Warm and bittersweet

And the eyes are closed
And the feather grass
And the table's set
And the noon day sun

And the rising tide
And the purified
And the linen's dried
And the ribbon's tied
Climbing Up the Hill

Climbing up that lonesome hill
All is calm and all is still
Just a little and you will
Be home

All that's gone is gone for good
Trying to do the things you should
Winding through the neighbourhood
Alone

Never used to wonder
Neither bothered why
Now you're looking on down the road
And up onto the sky

Soaring in the silence
O'er top the trees
A red-tail rides a rising breeze
Beyond these mysteries

Never used to wonder
Neither bothered why
Now you're looking on down the road
And up onto the sky

Soaring in the silence
O'er top the trees
A red-tail rides a rising breeze
Beyond these mysteries

Sometimes all that things have been
They aren't always what they seem
Like some kind of crazy dream
Of love

Like some kind of crazy dream
Of love
If By This

Rubies red my love skies of blue
Oh rubies rubies skies of blue
Sweetly sweetly to be loving you

All the seasons round and round
All the seasons roll round and round
All the leaves are trembling, drifting to the ground

If by this your mind may move
Come live with me and be my love

All the silver all the gold
All the silver all the gold
All the love your body holds

If by this your mind may move
Come and live with me and be my love

If by this your mind may move
Come and live with me, darling be my love

I have a bird to whistle and a bird to sing
Oh a bird to whistle and a bird to sing
It s a tegerous journey lonesomeness brings

We can sit and rest upon the hill
Oh darling rest now upon the hill
And watch this world go as she will

If by this your mind may move
Come and live with me and be my love

Be my love
Block of Wood

You sure did do, did do me no good
You sure did do me darling
Did do me no good
You cut my heart in two
Like it was a solid block of wood

O I'm standing standing baby
Where I might not have withstood
I'm standing standing baby
Where I might not have withstood
I'm standing steady steady darling
Like it was a block of wood

Like a ship out on the ocean
Like Noah's ark out on the flood
Like a ship out on the ocean
Like Nora's ark out on the flood
You know I'm drifting yes I'm drifting
Like it was a solid block of wood

I'm searching hard for you darling
Like a hound dog through the wood
I'm hot on your trail baby
Like a hound dog through the wood
So hard for you darling
Just like a solid block of wood

Order

. Garth Hudson of The Band is Paul's special guest on 3
tracks.
. Paul's last CD, Villanelle, was nominated for JUNO Award in Canada and a Maples Blues Award for Blues Album of the Year in 2006.
. Paul's first NorthernBlues CD, Rattlebag, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award in 2002, and received universal acclaim. Other award nominations for Rattlebag include:

  • 2002 JUNO Award nomination.
  • 2002 Canadian Independent Music Award nomination.

. WINNER: Blues Album of the Year by the Toronto Blues Society.