Former English teacher Henry Wagons turned up stateside a year ago for a solo slot on American Songwriter‘s Thursday night showcase at the Basement for Next BIG Nashville. At the time, the songwriter drew comparisons to ZZ Top, The Doors, and Nick Cave, and also provided some humorous banter for our mini-documentary.
Now, the Melbourne-based singer-songwriter has brought along the rest of the boys – a five-piece country rock outfit appropriately dubbed Wagons – who have been making waves down under since 2000. The group’s new record, Rumble, Shake & Tumble (Thirty Tigers) draws on American country, folk, and rock and roll, as seen through the eyes of a rumble, tumble crew of Aussies.
Wagons says the group’s lead single, “I Blew It,” (from which the album’s title phrase is taken) “arose from trying to take stock of what I was left with when coming out of a freshly broken relationship.”
“There I was, with a newly finished hamburger wrapper on my bedroom floor, a grande cup full of tears, greasy fingers and a half empty bottle of whiskey next to my feet. Back then, when I looked around me, I didn’t have too much to be proud of when I did my life’s inventory. Some people thrive in those situations, and plenty of good songs arise out of living and reveling in those kind of conditions. Not me. I’m more of a ‘glass half-full’ kinda guy, so I tried to concentrate on the stuff I still had above and beyond my immediate circle of tear-soaked junk food shrapnel.
“’I Blew It’ is an attempt at writing a rollicking, up-beat, break up song to help kick myself into the moving on stage of the break up as soon as possible. It was trying to embrace, and even celebrate, the fact that I totally and royally ‘blew it’, put it behind me and start to re-build in what I hoped would be a better place for everyone. I do still occasionally end up with a hamburger wrapper on the floor and whiskey bottle by my feet, but thankfully its in much better circumstances.”
“I Blew it”
I kicked a few goals in my life
I dragged a few nuggets from the goldmine
One thing I regret it’s true
I blew it when it came to you.
I dodged a few bullets in my time
Narrowly escaped with a fully intact hide
One thing I completely screwed
Yeah I blew it when it came to you
Got myself in trouble
Rumble, shake and tumble. Mmmmm.
Got into a pickle
Reaper and his sickle. Mmmmm.
One thing I regret it’s true
I blew it when it came to you.
I’m building castles of stone
I’m trying to move up, while you’re moving on
One thing just between you and me
We always knew I’d blow it, didn’t we?
One thing I regret it’s true
I blew it when it came to you.
Written by Henry Wagons