Tales From the Homestead

The Telling Kind is the 12th track on Tallsome Tales.

Gary Mackender - drums, accordion, organ, piano

Karl Hoffmann - bass, lap steel, baritone

Belinda Bonita is the 11th track on Tallsome Tales.

T'was at my best friend's wedding dance I first laid eyes on her

I walked right up asked her to dance such was her allure

We moved across the floor with a ballroom dancer's grace

I knew that she would be mine when I felt our first embrace

Belinda Bonita o come dance with me tonight

Belinda Bonita o until the morning light

There is no one else who can take your place

You're my only heart's desire

Belinda Bonita o come dance with me tonight

We pledged our love eternal exchanged our wedding rings

We felt like we were floating high as if we both had wings

We glided down the aisle o'r the threshold we did pass

Our new life lay before us I love my darling lass

I came home after work one day not all that long ago

Belinda's bags and clothes were gone I looked both high and low

Not a farewell message could be found have I gone completely mad

Or was Belinda just a dream of a love I never had

Was Belinda just a dream of a love I never had

Belinda Bonita o come stay with me tonight

Bonita Belinda o until the morning light

There is no one else who can take your place

You're my only heart's desire

Belinda Bonita o come stay with me tonight

O come dance with me tonight

O come stay with me tonight

Gary Mackender - drums, accordion, percussion, vocals

Karl Hoffmann - bass, baritone guitar

Joe Fanning - acoustic guitar, mandolin

The Scarlet Oak is the 10th track on Tallsome Tales.

Gary Mackender - drums, accordion, piano

Karl Hoffmann - bass

Heather Hardy - violin

To Be Home Again is the 9th track on Tallsome Tales.

I left my home when I was just seventeen

I knew all there was to know

I packed my bags and drove as far as I could

No one to tell me where to go

Got me a job selling gas and cigarettes

Graveyard shift was all I could find

Married the first gal paid attention to me

No one to tell me I was blind

Oh to be home again

It was heaven to me

It was my sacred ground for years

Been gone so long

Makes it hard to see

Just what that home meant to me

Thirty years of trying to make my ends meet

Creditors been knocking at my door

My wife and kids walked out on me a lifetime ago

Grief and sorrow burns me to the core

I had not seen my folks for all these worn out years

But there was nowhere else I could turn

They took me in with open arms and love to spare

Asking for nothing in return

Oh to be home again

It's heaven to me

I've found my sacred ground right here

It's taken o so long for

Me to see

Just what my home means to me

Gary Mackender - drums, accordion, organ, piano, vocals

Karl Hoffmann - bass, guitars, mandolin

Joe Fanning - electric guitar

Don Armstrong - banjo

Björgvin Benediktsson - harmony vocals

Why Not Marry is the 8th track on The Carnivaleros' Tallsome Tales release.

We've been sweethearts since we were twelve years old

So why not marry me

Our secrets are unlocked all our stories told

Why not marry me

We can live in the house that my folks passed down

Be so fine just you wait and see

Would be a good life I'd provide for thee

Why not marry me

Yes, we've been together for all these years

But I cannot marry thee

I know your sisters and your brothers, aunts and uncles, too

I cannot marry thee

I know you want to settle in our little hometown

With a wife raise a family

But I have to move along need to see this world

I cannot marry thee

Sometimes a friend's just a friend

And we carry on

Lovers come and go like time

It's hard to find a friend

That will stick to the end

Won't cross that line

We'll both be fine

It's been so many years since you left this town

You never did marry me

You traveled o'r the world didn't let you down

Never did you marry me

I'm living in the same house in my little hometown

Laid down roots like an old oak tree

But I've loved you every day since you went away

Never did marry me

Yes, I've traveled here and there seen this big old world

Never did I marry thee

I feel like I've been on a tilt-o-whirl

Never did I marry thee

But I miss your little house on the edge of town

It's taken years of trial and error to see

That I've loved you every day since I went away

I might still marry thee

I might still marry thee

Sometimes a friend's just a friend

And we carry on

Lovers come and go like time

It's hard to find a friend

That will stick to the end

Won't cross that line

We'll both be fine

Gary Mackender - drums, accordion, percussion, vocals

Catherine Zavala - vocals

Karl Hoffmann - bass, guitars

Joe Fanning - electric and acoustic guitar

Don Armstrong - banjo

The Die Was Cast is the 7th cut on Tallsome Tales.

That Man you think you fell in love with

That man you think is here to stay

Can't see your house is made of glass

Dreams only of his past

Can't take you where you want to go

Long ago, the Die Was Cast

There was a time he said he did love you

There was a time that movement seemed so slow

But the cards came tumbling down when he told you

Cut your losses, I love you no more

Don't expect him to lay down beside you

Don't expect him to say it's all okay

At best all he can give to you

Is a fraction of his past

Can't take you where you want to go

Long ago, the Die Was Cast

Gary Mackender - drums, accordion, vocals

Karl Hoffmann - bass, guitar

Joe Fanning - acoustic guitar, mandolin

Justified Fitting End is the 5th track on Tallsome Tales by The Carnivaleros.

Was you sent or did you just went

Asked the preacher 'cross the table from me

I told him it was neither I was backed up to a wall

Certain things are meant to be

I had to kill my father he was beatin' on my mother

Some old fences just will not mend

It was an unexpected, loosely-jointed, understated, overrated,

Jaded but sophisticated, justified fitting end

My Ma was a-raisin' my sisters and me

In a shack on the edge of town

She always did her best to keep food on the table

Even though Pa was not around

But he'd show up now and then in the heat of the moment

Reeking of a backwoods still

He'd been in a rage every day gone by

Since they laid him off down at the mill

He knocked us all around but my Ma got it the worst

Only so far a body can bend

Until his unexpected, loosely-jointed, understated, overrated,

Jaded but sophisticated, justified fitting end

There was a time things weren't so bad

When we were knee high to a man

But that must've been just a child's perception

Don't remember when they got out of hand

Now I'm doin' time on the local state dime

I did what I had to do

My Ma would've died and the bruises on my sisters

Were a spectacle of black and blue

I’m a peaceful man most every day

But when the trouble just would not end

I had to do something 'cause my ma and my sisters

Had not the strength to fend

If I had to do it over it would come out just the same

Some old fences just will not mend

It was an unexpected, loosely-jointed, understated, overrated,

Jaded but sophisticated, justified fitting end

Gary Mackender - accordion, organ, vocals

Karl Hoffmann - bass

Les Merrihew - drums

Joe Fanning - electric guitar

Mitzi Cowell - slide guitar

Björgvin Benediktsson - harmony vocals

Carla Brownlee - bari sax

Mike Coyle - trumpet

Michael Oliver - trombone

Greg Mackender - horn arrangements

The Purple Door is the 6th track on Tallsome Tales, a funky song for a film yet to be made.

Gary Mackender - drums, organ, piano

Karl Hoffmann - bass, percussion

Ed DeLucia - guitar

Tales From the Homestead is a podcast series created and hosted by Björgvin Benediktsson, which takes you behind the scenes of Tallsome Tales, the sixth release from The Carnivaleros. Every episode, we deconstruct a new song before playing it, giving you the inside scoop on every cut off the album. You'll learn about the inspirations behind the songs and how they came to be - the fun stories, the cautionary tales, and the tragedies. Along the way, you'll learn how even the smallest of ideas evolve into full-fledged production with humorous anecdotes about the talented musicians and technical wizardry that aided them along the way.

If you want to be notified of new episodes, please click this link to subscribe: https://forms.aweber.com/form/97/152003397.htm

Let’s Dance is the 2nd track on Tallsome Tales by The Carnivaleros.

Björgvin Benediktsson interviews songwriter Gary Mackender and mixing/mastering engineer Karl Hoffmann about the inspirations behind the song and how it came to be.

Walkin' down on 6th Street, done paid my daily dues

Could feel some crazy rhythms in the soles of my shoes

A barker grabbed my arm and shouted come check out the show

They'll kick your ass across the floor, they're playing the Zydeco

Well, I hadn't heard those sounds before so I thought I'd take a chance

The music grabbed a hold of me, come on let's dance!

I died and gone to heaven, my body drenched in sweat

The backbeat was relentless, the squeezebox reeds were wet

The bottom on that bass guitar could make a grown man weep

As the drummer kicked it in to gear and started digging deep

Well, I hadn't heard those sounds before so I thought I'd take a chance

Let the Zydeco wash over me, come on let's dance!

Gary Mackender - accordion, organ, percussion, vocals

Karl Hoffmann - bass, guitars, background vocals

Joe Fanning - electric guitar, background vocals

Les Merrihew - drums, background vocals

Björgvin Benediktsson - background vocals

Carla Brownlee - bari and tenor sax

Mike Coyle - trumpet

Michael Oliver - trombone