"Pigeon Bones"

“Pigeon Bones” - written by David Steadman & William White © 2003 David Steadman & William White

In the early 2000s, my brother answered a “guitarist wanted” ad posted by a band called Turtlebone. He asked if I wanted to go check out one of their gigs with him, as he wanted to see what they were like live, and they wanted to meet him. We were both floored by them, and I found myself wishing that they were also seeking a bass player. Fast forward a few months and I did indeed join. Writing in the band primarily came as a collaboration between the piano player and the singer, David Steadman (my musical partner-in-crime for over 20 years now), with the arrangements hammered out in rehearsals, each member contributing their own twists and turns. My brother brought in music that would eventually become “Pigeon Bones” with the melody and lyrics coming from David. “Pigeon Bones” became part of the track list for our first full length album, Mercy Risin’, in 2003.

The original version is so powerful and well crafted that I felt I needed to deconstruct it a bit in order to cover it. My first thought was to bring it from 4/4 into 3/4. My second was to approach it like a wobbly-wheeled Tom Waits song (two of my most-played albums are Waits’s The Heart of Saturday Night and Small Change). I’m no Tom Waits (as a lead singer, I’m a good backup vocalist…) but, hell, if I was going to try David Steadman’s good boots on, I might as well go all in. In a similar vein, I wasn’t going to touch my brother’s guitar work so piano became the central focus (another nod to Tom) and the guitar player became a broken character abusing his instrument, perhaps while perched on an overturned plastic milk crate. The choir parts are me aping the kids from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I could definitely imagine ol’ Chuck singing these lyrics…