Good news! I wrote and recorded a brand new song.

My plan moving forward is to publish a new song every Tuesday. I’m calling the project Tuesday Groove Kabobs. You can listen / download (for free) all the songs on my Bandcamp page.

The song is called The Smiley Man.

I hope you guys like bongos because, oh boy, does this song have some bongos. I fucking bongoed it up!

Here is the rest of the scoop.

The Smiley Man is about meeting a stranger at someplace like a bar, or an airport, or at a bar inside an airport. The stranger seems nice. They seem like they’ve got things more or less figured out. They gift you a piece of advice that seems quite profound in the moment, almost life-changing. Then later (could be days, or even years later) you realize that what they said was pretty dumb and/or obvious.

don’t live your life like a fuddy-duddy
even if you feel like a fuddy-duddy
that ain’t no way to live

My friend Kerry says a lot of wonderful things. One time she said that she thought that the word “fuddy-duddy” was a way-too-cool sounding of a word to be used to describe a person who is so inherently lame. “What a waste of a cool word!”

Kerry is right, you know.  And I borrowed her non-fuddy-duddy wisdom to inspire the chorus.

THE SMILEY MAN
by Mike Votava
——————
I grew up overshadowed by buildings
couldn’t catch the eye of no city girl

Drove my rusty truck into a sea of whispers
the whispers build, the whispers cry
drinking beers with the morning skies

When I was a child I met the smiley man
I asked him how he stayed so smiley
this is what the smiley man said

don’t live your life like a fuddy-duddy
even if you feel like a fuddy-duddy
that ain’t no way to live
amen

Used to know a girl who lived in Bellingham
well now, sorry that’s not true
I’m playing a hilarious prank on you

But if I actually knew that girl
I’d wonder how she’s been
does she understand
the wisdom of the smiley man