Naturally High
I woke up early once and strapped on my running shoes. I said to myself as I ran, "This is better than the best beer." It was that runner’s high that you get. It really is amazing! Everything looks so bright and new like you are looking at the trees for the first time. I wasn’t in the greatest shape and had gone two or three miles but I felt so damn good that I kept running. I wrote that song that same day and made the character an Oklahoma College Student – kind of a fraternity house kid who decides for once not to party with his buddies that particular Saturday night. He hits the sack early and reads a few short stories by Mark Twain before waking up at 5am, stepping over the people passed out on the couch, and hitting the countryside. I think I was reading Mark Twain’s "Roughing it" at the time. "The Oklahoma sky is big and blue and bright... I forgot how beautiful life is." I used to be one of those drunken college kids. I wish I would have realized then that life is so much better without the booze. Then again I would probably be some attorney or power broker instead of a broke mangy transient songwriter.

Recording notes ~ Naturally High.

John Gardner - Drums/Percussion
David Francis - Bass
Jeff Roach - Keyboards/Organ
Rob McNelley - Electric Guitars
Pat McGrath - Acoustic Guitar/Mandolin/Banjo
Chris Heers - Harmonica/Background Vocals

Trivia: This is the favorite song of some of my earliest supporters who would come see me rain or shine when I was playing solo, my long distance dirty runner girls who think nothing of waking up at 5am and hitting the open desert for a brisk twenty mile run. These are the types of hard-core strong women who inspired the characters in this album. They are strong like bull. I keep threatening to run with them.