Liv Mueller walked into the lobby of the Holiday Motel early Tuesday morning on June 7th during Steel Bridge Songfest 2011 and I was trying out some guitar chords to see if a song would appear. One chord change sort of jumped out at her and she said "oh, that's cool," so we started talking about writing and recording a song together. She had to run to the store to get some things and this song sort of flowed out while she was away. I've always wanted to write and record a song with Liv because I love her voice so much and she's awesome, so this whole song was really written with her voice in mind. By the time she got back it was pretty much ready, though I've been toying with the words a little bit since the initial recording.

In the studio we were lucky enough to have Will Sexton play bass and sort of take over the producer role, definitely one of my favorite recording sessions of the week. Will is such a cool person in the studio, able to bring ideas to the process in a very positive and creative way, and incredibly tuned into the overall sound and what specific item could be added to fill out each sonic frequency. An amazing experience. Manny from Groovesession played drums. Will also played shaker. I played both guitar parts, but Will dialed up the electric guitar sound on Liv's effects rig since I know like zero about guitar effects.

The lyrics initially were based on the phrase "Worn In Grey" from the look of the bridge before it was repainted. Liv liked how those words could also sound like "Warning Grey" and even "Morning Grey" or "Morning Rain" so we ended up singing all the phrases... mostly because I'd forget the words as we sang. It was raining the next morning and when everyone heard the recording that night I think they assumed the words were "Morning Rain" or "Morning Grey" and thought it was so cool we'd gotten a song about the rain out so quickly, though the day we wrote it was sunny. Funny how timing works. I've changed the words below to my new version, so they'll vary off from the recording a bit.

I'd pretty much blown my voice out from singing and recording all week, so I'd love to do this vocal track again now that I'm rested, hopefully Liv and I can meet over at Steve Hamilton's studio in Milwaukee sometime and re-track it. This recording was engineered by Dan O'Stoffels in the Beach Harbor studio.

Morning Grey
Music and lyrics by Charlie Cheney & Liv Mueller

There's a smell on my skin like an empty bottle
And my mind lurches in to the words you mumbled
But the door is open wide and there are sirens outside

Morning grey, morning rain, I ignored your signals
All the warnings you gave, and I'm still broken

Rusting stains on the walls like a snail that's crawling
Greasy rain on the tiles and I hear you moaning
Then my brain closes in like a crowd on a train

-chorus-

If I'd smiled would it all be different?
If I change, will you stay?

-chorus 2x-

•
•
•

Chordpro version

Morning Rain
Music and lyrics by Charlie Cheney & Liv Mueller

[Gm]There's a smell on my [Eb]skin like an [Bb]empty bottle
And my [Gm]mind lurches [Eb]in to the [Bb]words you mumbled
But the [Gm]door is open [Eb]wide and there are [Bb]sirens out[Ab]side

Morning [Eb]grey, morning [Bb]rain, I ig[Ab]nored your signals (2x)
All the [Eb]warnings you [Bb]gave, and [Ab]I'm still broken

[Gm]Rusting stains on the [Eb]walls like a [Bb]snail that's crawling
Greasy [Gm]rain on the [Eb]tiles and I [Bb]hear you moaning
Then my [Gm]brain closes [Eb]in like a [Bb]crowd on a [Ab]train

-chorus-

[Eb]If I'd [Bb]smiled would it [Ab]all be different?
[Eb]If I [Bb]change, will you [Ab]stay?

-chorus 2x-