Monkey Bidness Music

After a fire in a small Tennessee town burned one business to the ground and threatened all of "downtown" Selmer, John's mother-in-law playfully challenged him to write a song about a fire, similar to the one he'd written that was inspired by the Great Nashville Flood of 2010, "The Day the Water Came."  John playfully laughed off the challenge, not knowing that he would indeed write that very song.

One day, while working on his first book about his family, the musical and lyrical ideas just came to John and, in about forty-five minutes, he'd finished the song's entire arrangement - including where he wanted what lead guitar part, something taboo within the Quarters - without touching an instrument.  He took it in to Barking Dog the following Sunday, and playing electric piano with new Dirty Quarters member and veteran White Animals, 1969 Band and Double Trouble Blues Band drummer, Ray Crabtree on the skins and Bill on bass, laid down the basic track with a scratch vocal.  Jere added the rhythm and lead guitars, as did Bill.

The next weekend, local keyboard legend and one of John's personal keyboard heroes, Mark "Doc" Holladay, was in town from Arizona visiting family and came over with Ray. He was immediately bamboozled into laying down an organ part - the central keyboard on the track.  John then added the piano solo and re-cut his electric piano track; Ray got Emily Music to come sing with John; John got former Outlaws, 1969 Band and past and present Double Trouble Blues Band and White Animals guitarist Rich Parks to come play the guitar solo, adding a frantic, almost panicked feel to a solid solo by Bill Davidson (at John's request, evoking the town's response to a fire); and finally, Jere got Bill Cole to add the vocal bottom. 

The song then fades with all of the vocals and all three of the lead guitars sharing space, "putting out the fire." 

"Hanging On a Wire" completed John's response to his mother-in-law's dare and became the last song added to "Dirty Quarters and Wooden Nickels."