Living Like a Hobo

Album: Marvin Country! (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Lone Justice were an American Country-Rock band consisting of guitarist Ryan Hedgecock, singer Maria McKee, bassist Marvin Etzioni and drummer Don Heffington. They released one critically acclaimed eponymous album before Hedgecock, Etzioni and Don Heffington all left leaving McKee to lead Lone Justice alone. In 2012 Etzioni released his solo double album Marvin Country!, reuniting with Heffington and McKee. Etzioni told us that the project evolved over 20 years. He said: "It wasn't like 20 years ago I woke up one day and said, 'I'm going to do this double album.' It wasn't really like that. I did some recordings and initially it was going to be a single disc, and then I had actually made a cassette only version of the record like 15, 20 years ago, and handed that out. There was a label that was going to put it out, but then the label folded. So it was kind of a series of events, like a car that's about to go, then it stops, the battery dies, a new battery, 'We're going.' It stops again. It was like this thing that just kept wanting to go, and then finally over the years as I was doing other things - what is that line, 'A record happens while you're busy doing other things.'" (Laughing)
  • This song also features the talents of producer and musician Buddy Miller and Etzioni told us that it was an especially "fun" track to record. He explained: "It's a deceiving record, because it's very spontaneous sounding, but it actually started with just me and Don Heffington, electric guitar, live vocal, and drums. And then we built on that. I always make sure that anything like that was like the first take. I really wanted that spirit, like the train was about to lose control at any moment. And then Buddy [Miller] added the vocal, and then that was it."

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