Welcome to Flagpole Premieres!, a recurring feature where we debut new material from local artists. Today, we bring you a new song from The Taxicab Verses.
Local musician James A. Wilson (Don Chambers & GOAT, Moths, Madeline, Echo Canyon) began writing and recording as The Taxicab Verses after spending time in Ghana and collaborating with local musicians in 2008. As he explains:
I was in Accra, Ghana in May of 2008—two months after President Bush had visited to commemorate Ghana’s 50th anniversary of their independence. We will just say he did not leave a great impression. The U.S. had two clear candidates for the upcoming election in Barack Obama and John McCain. Every cab driver I ran into wanted to know who I was voting for. All eyes were on the United States. From what I could gather, the general public felt that our decision in who would be president would affect the world immediately and for years to come. They didn’t want Bush. They didn’t want McCain. They were rooting for Obama.
It was during this first trip that I noticed many of the decal stickers on the back windows of taxi cabs were personalized thoughts for not only the taxi cab drivers, but also somewhat exemplary of what the general public was witnessing or thinking of at the time. This included thoughts on politics, religion and life in general. I have collected hundreds of different phrases from the backs of taxis all over Ghana and have put them into the form of a story and song in an attempt to capture and share the mindset of the wonderful people in Ghana from a specific moment in time. So here is “First Things First,” a snapshot from me, the “photographer,” in Ghana in May of 2008.
Wilson will release “First Things First” as a FREE download next Tuesday, Oct. 16—to commemorate National Boss Day—via a soon-to-be-launched Bandcamp page.
Song credits:
Vocals, Cue Giver: James A. Wilson.
Backup Vox: Trish Scurry, Melissa Colbert-Taylor
Electric Guitars: Matt Stoessel, Craig Lieske, Jef Whatley
Bass: Chuck Bradburn, Chris Heron, Bryan J. Howard
Drums: Brad Morgan
African musicians courtesy of Kofi Atentenben and The Warriors
Gome: Agbo Kofi
African Drummer: Okoe Yartey
Bells, Rattle: Akuetteh Yartey
Engineered and mixed by Drew Vandenberg
Mastered by Joel Hatstat
Produced by James Wilson, Patterson Hood, and Drew Vandenberg
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