ERIC PETERS

(DADGAD)
If you are unfamiliar with my former duet, Ridgely, this song was one of our live staples and was especially fun to play when we had a backing band. There are very few old Ridgely tunes that I still play live, all for various reasons. Some songs I simply cannot relate to anymore, some don’t interest me, while the vast majority of them are physiologically impossible to pull off without Kevin Smith (the other half of Ridgely) at my side. But this song has stuck around, has withstood quite a few seasons, and continues to find fertile little corners inside my heart’s garden to drop its seeds and sprout new gestures of meaning in my life. Over the years, I’ve occasionally dusted it off at concerts but realized, the hard way, that singing it in its original key of ‘E’, and even a full step lower, was not only a rugged stretch for my aging – “maturing��?, ahem – vocal chords, but an invitation to sonic detriment. But from the moment I decided to make Bookmark, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to include this song. During pre-production, Andrew (Osenga, producer), recognized, rightly so, that the song had worn out its shelf life in its current state and therefore needed a retooling. So with a gentle nudge from Ben Shive (keys), we built a new set of legs for an otherwise old, comfy and familiar chair. Thus “Clenched Fist��? was rescued from antiquity like a well-worn piece of furniture lost in the rubble of some eccentric old maid’s home, perhaps an even more valuable treasure now that it is found once again. In this business of music, shelf lives are short. What one did yesterday, today ceases to be relevant. It’s a grueling “What have you done for me lately?��? industry in which to try and stake one’s claim. However, I can see myself playing this song for another fistful of years come hell, high water, or expiration.
I can walk and I can live and breathe
but does any of it make sense if I don’t believe?
with torn and tattered edges, I must make a choice
I find it’s only when I let go that I can rejoice
pain becomes my joy