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Cover of Vacancy Sign

Album · 2011

Vacancy Sign

by Josie Marlowe

A motel-circuit debut of gravel shoulders, neon signs and borrowed trucks, written in the rooms between the gigs.

Tracks

  1. 1. Gravel Shoulder LullabyI pulled over on Highway 99 one night too tired to drive and wrote this with the hazards ticking. It felt right to open the record on a hush.front-porch folk, hushed americana4:31
  2. 2. Tin Roof RainA storm took the power out in a room I was renting and I sat with the guitar until it passed. The band came in on the second take and stayed.rainy-day folk rock, heartland5:07
  3. 3. Salt Flat WeddingA couple I knew eloped with a dented truck and a borrowed ring. I just wrote down how happy they looked.western ballad, wedding song3:54
  4. 4. Spare Key Under the FlowerpotNine hours of driving home and every landmark on the way got a verse. The spare key was always under the flowerpot.roadhouse americana, homecoming ballad3:39
  5. 5. Motel Ice Machine BluesRoom one-fourteen, brown carpet, the ice machine groaning all night. I am sure the whole circuit knows this one.honky-tonk, motel blues4:41
  6. 6. Pie Case Angel at the Starlite DinerThere really was a waitress who slid a slice of pie across the counter without asking. She was an angel at three a.m.diner folk, pedal steel americana3:21
  7. 7. Three Chords and a Borrowed TruthElks Lodge on Friday, laundromat on Sunday, and a truth borrowed from every stage. This is my working-musician anthem.honky-tonk, country shuffle4:49
  8. 8. Quilt Stitched from Mile MarkersMy grandmother's quilt lived on the back seat and every square was a place she had been. I wanted to stitch a song the same way.heirloom folk, front-porch americana4:06
  9. 9. Barefoot on the Hot AsphaltA flat tire in July with nothing but cornfields around me, and somehow it was the best afternoon of the summer.sunny country, barefoot twang3:09
  10. 10. The Man Who Pushed My CarA stranger pushed my dead car off a county road in the rain and would not take a dime. I closed the record on him because kindness deserves the last word.country rock ballad, small-town hymn4:22

Liner notes

I wrote most of this record on the bed of a room at the Starlite Motor Court with the air conditioner rattling and a pedal steel borrowed from a man in Tulare. Every song came from somewhere between Bakersfield and Redding, a diner at three in the morning, a flat tire, a wedding with no guests. I recorded it live in a church hall in two days because that was all the money we had. If you can hear the rain on the roof, that is real.

Josie Marlowe