Kenny White - In My Recurring Dream

I was transfixed by this song the first time I heard it on Vin Scelsea's great radio show "Idiot"s Delight," just astonished by the myriad images that Kenny White was able to weave together within the course of one tune. Each verse tells a little story in ways that are sometimes surreal, sometimes absurd and sometimes just heartbreaking. "In My Recurring Dream" is complex, yet emotional and accessible in all the best ways.

White was an accomplished professional musician and producer long before he recorded his first solo record. His commercial projects in TV and radio saw him working with artists such as Gladys Knight, Linda Ronstadt, Dwight Yoakam, Ricky Skaggs, Kim Carnes, Felix Cavaliere, Dobie Gray and Aaron Neville, as well as many others.

According to his bio, "His relationships with Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin led to his producing Colvin’s Grammy-nominated, “I Don’t Know Why” and to his involvement in Cohn’s eponymous platinum debut record. White went on to produce three records for legendary J. Geils Band leader, Peter Wolf. The second of which, “Sleepless,” garnered the distinction by Rolling Stone magazine of being one of “the 500 greatest albums ever made,” as well as giving Kenny a chance to work with Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Steve Earle."

His list of credits and accomplishments is long and impressive, yet I still keep coming back to that first song I ever heard from him. You know the one. That song where...

"in my recurring dream i give a man a 20 dollar bill
’cause he likes smokey robinson and lives on the street, but still
will never confuse the temptations with the miracles
when he walks into the grocery and hears them on the radio
and i’m sad he’s on the street, but glad he can feel the thrill
when “tracks of my tears” comes on and then “blueberry hill”
so here’s my 20 dollar bill…in my recurring dream."

And so I invoke here the credo of Vin Scelsea's Idiot's Delight, which I have adopted as my own unofficial credo, as well:

Respect The Elders.
Embrace The New.
Encourage The Impractical and Improbable,
Without Bias.
- David Fricke

Here's my $20 bill. Play it again.