AFTERGLOW — my cassette-only debut album recorded at Trail’s End Studios (Leander, TX) and Flashpoint Studios (Austin, TX), engineered by East Side Flash [see photo below]), co-produced by Edloe and me; mastered by Sound Recorders (Austin, TX), and released in 1992 in Austin, TX; album cover art (see below) produced by Beverly Guhl from a photo by edloe; all songs (C)(P) 1992 Lawrence M. Lesser (Poet Larryate Publishing, BMI); all rights reserved
Big Bad Professor (9), Yamaha FG-335 acoustic guitar (9), co-producer (1-9)
1. Green Line (3:23), 2. The Hard Way (3:53), 3. As You Go (2:29), 4. Rails (3:24), 5. Earthwoman (2:49), 6. Zoo Afternoon (3:02), 7. Bats (4:42), 8. Afterglow (3:04), 9. Big Bad Grad School Blues (3:14)
MUSICIANS: Herb Belofsky drums/percussion (1,3,5); Lisa Walton Benford background vox (5,9); Richard Bowden fiddle (8); Edloe Washburn HB-50 electric guitar (1), Epiphone Riviera 12-string electric guitar (3), Big Bad Professor introduction (9), Yamaha FG-335 acoustic guitar (9); East Side Flash piano (9), dobro (5); Randy Glines acoustic and electric bass (1,3,5,8,9); Larry Lesser vocals (1-9), percussion (5,7,8), train whistle (4), acoustic guitar (1,3,4,5,7), classical guitar (2,4,6,8), keyboards(6); André Mack background vox (3,5,9); Lisa Mari flute (2); Paul Pearcy percussion (1,9); Debbie Rothschild background vox (8); Donny Silverman WX7 Midi Wind Controller(7); Richard Steinberg accordion (6); Robbi Sherwin-Jordan background vox (1,4); Therapy Sisters background vox (3)
HIGHLIGHTS: album release concerts on 8/13/1992 at Waterloo Records and at the High Time Tea-Bar and Brain Gym; “Rails” won the June 1992 “Take 5” songwriting contest of the Austin Songwriter’s Group; Eve McArthur reviewed the album in the May 1992 Music City Texas (no. 33, p. 9), describing “Zoo Afternoon” and “Rails” as “outstanding”; David Medina reviewed the album in the Aug./Sept. 1992 Rice University Sallyport (48(6), p. 31), describing the songs as “sensitive, soothing and often humorous”; “Earthwoman” had its first airplay on 6/16/1992 on KGSR-FM and also appeared on the 1995 album Folkus by the Texas-based all-female trio Folkus; “Big Bad Grad School Blues” had its first airplay on 8/13/1992 on KGSR-FM, was published in Journal of Irreproducible Results (50(2), 13), and was runner-up in the fall 2012 El Paso Songwriters Contest
song summaries:
“Green Line” — named for the armistice border after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the song more generally explores boundaries that protect but don’t isolate
“The Hard Way” — realizing that I could not go further in a relationship of unsustainable (gendered) expectations
“As You Go” — when love becomes a tug-of-war between stability and spontaneity
“Rails” — a breakup’s dis-illusionment
“Earthwoman” — inspired by a George Carlin joke and a then-girlfriend who took better care of her planet than herself (those who don’t appreciate the song’s humor should know I also wrote serious pro-environment songs such as “Rowboat”)
“Zoo Afternoon” — an allegory of childhood inspired by a scene at Houston’s Hermann Park Zoo
“Bats” — metaphorical look beyond myths written after visiting Austin’s downtown bridge hosting the world’s largest urban bat colony
“Afterglow” — a March 1989 Texas Hill Country camping trip surprised me with the best view of the Northern Lights I could ever expect in this state
“Big Bad Grad School Blues” — the first two doctoral programs I tried didn’t yield a PhD, but instead a song about the lower side of higher ed