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DownTown Blog – One More Chance

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It’s not every day that a song sneaks up on you and stays with you for years and years. That’s kind of the story for me with the song One More Chance. It was back in the early 80s that I would come up with the chord changes for the verse of the song. I had quit a band I had been with for over 10 years and I was intent on finding my own way as an artist and a songwriter. This was a change that was new to me.

I had just finished my 1st solo recording project and was now in the “after-birth”, as it were. I kind of connect it with postpartum depression. You give birth to something you’ve created and now you’re finished. There’s a kind of emptiness you feel because after being creative, all the work you’ve done is suddenly over. There was a beauty to it as you felt totally fulfilled, but now it’s come to an end and you’re not quite ready to start over on something new. As a matter of fact, you’re feeling a bit depressed and trying to start something new is the furthest thing from your mind.

Eventually, I forced myself to pick up my guitar and start doodling around, in hopes of finding a spark to catch my attention. I can’t remember when it happened but one of the things that I came up with was this chord progression that definitely caught my attention. It became like a meditation for me. I would play it over and over, this descending 4 chord progression. It was hypnotic to me as I played it every time I picked up a guitar, but I had no idea where to go with it. I just loved playing it over and over. After a while, I knew that I needed to find some other place to go to in the song.

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After awhile I came up with 2 more songs to work on. One of them was in the same key as my meditation song. The other song would eventually become The Wish, but at this time I would take a section of it to use as the chorus for my meditation song, which would become One More Chance. Now I had verse chords and chorus chords to play with. It would stay that way for a number of years as I never could seem to get beyond this point. I would try to put a melody to the parts but I was never really satisfied with it, which is probably why I put it aside.

With the dawn of the 90s I was in full swing with my publishing company Sha-La Music. I would be out and about in clubs or at music industry functions meeting people, who would give me their tapes. Songwriters would send me their songs in the mail. Generally, the tapes in the mail did not have anything of interest for me. That was, until one day a tape arrived that caught my ears in a big way. A songwriter from the area named Bruce Engler had sent me a tape and when I put it in the cassette player I was immediately struck by his voice and style. I liked his songs and felt like I had a connection with him.

Bruce Engler
Bruce Engler

The following week I gave Bruce a call to see what his story was and what he was looking to do. As it turned out he had been in a band that had won Star Search, a TV talent show in the 90s that was the forerunner of shows like American Idol and America’s Got Talent. He had left the band and wanted to try his hand at songwriting. I told him what I thought of his songs and that he should also consider being a solo artist. Bruce was a bit ambivalent about the artist thing, having just left a band. I could relate to that. 🙂

After a few more calls we finally met and began a working relationship. I felt that the songs that Bruce was writing were really good but the artists that they would be a fit for, were artists who wrote their own material. Again, I brought up to Bruce that he should seriously think about being an artist to showcase his songs. He had a great sounding voice and was an excellent guitar player. He just needed a bit of confidence in himself and more songs. At some point, as we got to know each other better, I decided to show Bruce the meditation song of mine.

Bruce & Robert

We set up a time to get together and he came over to my house. I played him what I had and we began to play around with the verse chords. I got inspired and started to come up with lyrics for the melody I had for the chorus. I hit on the title One More Chance and all of a sudden the song was taking shape. Bruce liked what we had created together. I told him to take it home and finish it. I had a melody for the verse but I thought it would be better if he came up with his own melody to write lyrics to. This would allow him to be free to go in whatever direction he wanted. It would prove to be the right move on my part.

The next time I saw Bruce, he played me the finished version of One More Chance. He was quite happy with it but said it took a lot of work, especially the lyrics. He also added a B section after the verse to connect to the chorus that worked really well. I was impressed with his melody and lyrics and how it all fit with the chorus we had written. After all the years of playing the chord pattern over and over to myself, my song was finally finished. It was kind of a surreal moment for me. To think that a random tape in the mail would connect me with the person who now sat in front of me playing me the finished version of what was now our song, One More Chance. 🙂

DownTown Blog – Bruce Engler: One More Chance

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The One More Chance album by Bruce Engler featuring DownTown Mystic has been a pet project for some time now. It’s filled with great songs and it was a highlight of my career to work on and be a part of. Of course, I’m a bit partial since I co-wrote 2 songs with Bruce, including the title track, and Bruce was generous enough to record 2 of mine. Besides producing, I got to sing and play on every track on the album. Considering that Bruce and I have been collaborating and working together over the past 25 years, it was about time we did an album of his songs.

Buce & Robert

I wrote about how the title track One More Chance came to be written before and really started our working relationship. It’s been an interesting journey for the two of us. Bruce has been an integral part of the DownTown Mystic project since its inception, lending his many talents, chief of which is his excellent guitar work. I think Bruce is one of the most expressive guitar players I’ve ever seen, let alone worked with. His playing has a character all its own and it’s great that he’s finally getting some of the recognition he deserves. Of course, his slide playing brings out the best in him.

The Way To Know single is a great example of Bruce’s slide playing and technique. Aided and ably abetted by the RnR HOF rhythm section from The E Street Band, Bruce puts down layers of slide guitar parts that float on top of the track. When he solos during the instrumental break, it’s hard to tell if he’s playing slide or a synth is playing the part. Bruce is that good. Having written and produced the track, I got excited when Bruce recorded his vocal. Bruce’s vocal style is a lot like his guitar playing, where he’ll phrase something in a way that lifts the entire track.

One of my favorite tracks on the album is Fiona. From the moment I heard Bruce’s demo I knew I wanted to record it with harmonies not on the demo. PJ Farley (Trixter) lays down a great bass line and Rich Scannella (Bon Jovi) provides a cool reggae beat that brings the song to life. I came up with a cool vocal arrangement on the chorus that Bruce, me and the lovely Jaime Della Fave sing in the background. One of my all-time fave parts!

Bruce at Bitter End, NYC

One Step Closer is the original version by Bruce. DownTown Mystic recorded a version for the Better Day album. I always thought this was a breakthrough song for Bruce and his career as a singer/songwriter. It signified something deeper in him that I had not seen before. I love its message and the good feeling you get from it. Outside of the She Said, She Said cover, One Step Closer is the only song recorded but not written by DownTown Mystic.

Goodbye is a rocker with a classic riff that provides Bruce with the opportunity to show off his guitar chops in a big way and he doesn’t disappoint. Backed by the rhythm section from Ian Hunter’s Rant Band, drummer Steve Holley and bassist Paul Page lay down a solid track and Bruce does the rest. Blue Moonlight shows off some more tasty slide work from Bruce. I think it’s one of his most underrated songs. I had just bought my Rickenbacker 360/12-string and got the chance to use it on this track as well as singing a couple of harmony parts.

I’ve always thought that Bruce’s whistling on Go Back made it one of his most unique songs. Bruce and I disagree about this because he thinks I hated the song when I first heard it because of the whistle, but he would be wrong about that. 🙂 I first heard the song when Bruce sent me a homemade 8-tk recording which blew my mind, so it’s very unlikely that his whistle would have turned me off to the track. I still think that 8-tk is one of the best home recordings I’ve ever heard. Go Back really has it all—great guitar work, killer harmonies and a chill acoustic groove that Steve Holley and Paul Page star on.

Read The Signs is the other co-write on the album that I did with Bruce and it appears here as it did on the Better Day album. It’s too good of a song to keep off this album and once again, Steve Holley and Paul Page play a big role in its success. Letter To My Brother is one of the first songs I ever heard by Bruce and he shows off his acoustic guitar playing on the track. We also share the bass duties on it. I play on everything except the chorus, as Bruce came up with the part and it made sense to have him play it. I don’t think anyone can tell there are 2 different players as the playing is seamless. I think this is the first time I recorded a part with my Rickenbacker 360/6-string.

Bruce Engler

Bruce sings my song Last Teardrop and his vocal is killer. The song has always been a problem for me because of the key but it fit Bruce’s voice perfectly. It was fun to do the harmony part as well as recording the acoustic guitars which I have to credit to producer Rob Harari for a great idea in layering them. The last track If We Believe was recorded at the same session as Fiona and features the same personnel—PJ on bass and Rich on drums, who lay down a solid rockin’ track for Bruce’s cool slide parts. Once again Bruce, Jaime and myself provide stellar background vocals as counterpoint to Bruce’s strong lead vocal. A fun track to end the album.

I’ve included an unreleased version of Fiona as a bonus track on the album. This is the full unedited track and shows off more of Bruce’s lead guitar work than on the final version. There was also an extra drum track that wasn’t used on the final, but overall, an interesting take. Even Bruce was surprised to hear how different it was from the final version. As I said at the start of this blog post, the One More Chance album has been a pet project of mine and one of my favorite albums to have worked on. I think it will help continue the roll that Bruce has been on since his excellent release The Landing in late 2020. Check out One More Chance.