THE ART STREET BOYS: Songs in Your Own Backyard

We think of music as a youth fascination. Dance tunes and songs of love motivated teenagers on American Bandstand. All those moves on Soul Train were accomplished by folks in their teens and twenties. Try the same thing in your thirties or forties and you’re risking injury.

But age also has its place in music. Mozart was a musical prodigy at the age of nine, but it took a mature Wolfgang Amadeus to achieve the genius of his Jupiter Symphony. Beethoven was in his fifties when he produced the majesty of his ninth symphony.

Maturity and aging are the thematic heart of Songs in Your 0wn Backyard, a new CD by the Art Street Boys. These are songs by and about folks whose kids are grown, maybe even their grandchildren are grown, too. You get to the age when it seems that you see your doctor more often than you see your best friend. That’s what the song “Maintenance” is all about. It’s an upbeat tune. After all, there is nothing wrong with getting older, and there is nothing wrong with getting a little help from your dentist, minister, or chiropractor, too.

At antiwar rallies, at the No Kings gatherings, aging hippies are well represented among the middle aged and young. These were the students that protested the Vietnam War. (Just as an aside, at the last No Kings event I found out that the guy sitting next to me on a bench was at the same antiwar demonstration as I was in 1970.) These folks marched in the streets for women’s rights, for civil rights, for environmental protections.

But sometimes, despite the good causes and the great battles to fight, the best thing some old bones can achieve is a good afternoon nap. Naps are good. While naps don’t work off the calories, they aren’t fattening, either. And naps are carbon neutral. You’re not warming the planet as you snooze. These are the thoughts behind “I’m Going Back to Bed.”

Accompanied by the bright sounds of acoustic guitars and dulcimer, the rest of the recording is similarly reflective and wry. The Art Street Boys are Andy Robinson, Mark Phillips, and Jackson Wagner. Robinson penned all the tunes, with help from Phillips and Wagner on “The Golden West,” a song that takes an adult view of the Manifest Destiny mythology we were fed growing up. Maybe Andy Robinson listened to Animals or Dark Side of the Moon before putting these songs together, because the melodies have a vague Pink Floyd vibe. There aren’t any screaming Roger Waters guitar solos or random voices dropping in and out, but you know what I mean.

Jim Soldi and Paul Abbott did a fine job of recording and producing the disk. I think I’ll listen to this disk again then settle in for a nap.