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This is a cowrite between me and David Snyder. We have been kicking the idea around about writing something together for some time. He sent me the outline for this song and some lyrics for verse 1. We kicked some things around and this was the result. There's parts of 17 tracks in this. Drums Rock sw 16 Bass 784 B3 675 Banjo 1579 Guitar 625 Guitar 878 Live tracks include several acoustic and electric guitars including all leads. There are 5 vox tracks layered in the mix. The song is about war and the casualties that result both physically and mentally. PTSD is serious business. Every day, according to statistics, 22 veterans take their own lives as a result of not being able to cope with it. Whiskey for Breakfast Here's the lyrics: Whiskey For Breakfast It’s been the same way in this world since the dawn of time When the first man said this land here is mine He picked up a rock and there was blood on his hands A curse on the ground his brother dying on the sand They called him Johnny Reb and he wore that name with pride It was brother against brother some fighting side by side Antietam down to Vicksburg marching to the devil’s den After all that time still wondering where the hell he’s been Whiskey for breakfast they say it’s a sin But they’ve never seen the places that I’ve been. I’ve been dreaming about mountains and faces of the dead I’m drinking whiskey for breakfast, until these nightmares end. Nightmares that haunt me in the middle of the day Closing my eyes I can’t chase them away Some came home and some remain just names on a wall Walking down a busy street I feel the darkness call Whiskey for breakfast they say it’s a sin But they’ve never seen the places that I’ve been. I’ve been dreaming of jungles and faces of the dead I’m drinking whiskey for breakfast, until these nightmares end. In the devil’s sand box you can’t tell friends from foe Death is waiting for you, everywhere you go. Whiskey for breakfast they say it’s a sin But they’ve never seen those places that I’ve been. I’ve been dreaming of deserts and faces of the dead I’m drinking whiskey for breakfast, until these nightmares end. Hope you enjoyed this song.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Herb & David
Great production - superb sounding mix and performance.
Strong lyrically and musically. Excellent guitar parts.
Really well done.
Peter
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Hey Guitarhacker, This is brilliant! I really enjoyed the progression. The Vocals have a nice tonality to them too! Well done! 
Cheers,
Joe
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Excellent collaborative work team H & D
A great set of lyrics, and a powerful delivery.
Everything was just really great. The guitar work shone through also.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Herb and David,
The overarching sound that you've created via the arrangement and the mix is first class... spacious, powerful, and a great fit for the lyric content.
I thought that the VVCVCBC format was an excellent choice for the unfolding narrative (V=verse, C=chorus, B=bridge). I particularly liked the way you used the short interlude at the end of the bridge to set up the final chorus.
What really got me thinking was how you arranged the verse using essentially two chords and in what sounded like E natural minor to me. Then, when the chorus arrived, you launched into the relative major of G. The feeling and the lift that this key change carried with it was noteworthy. How you used instrumentation to capitalise on this is a credit to your arranging skills.
An excellent listen! I was mesmerised for the entire 4+ minute's journey.
Regards,
Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Man, what a great song!
Lyrics are very well written, love the vocal, and the guitar work is emotive and tasteful. Production is just stunning, totally pro all the way.
Sounds radio ready to me, well done!
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Top notch on every level. A nice collaboration. Enjoyed this one a lot.
Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Great production - superb sounding mix and performance.
Strong lyrically and musically. Excellent guitar parts.
Really well done.
Peter Hey Guitarhacker, This is brilliant! I really enjoyed the progression. The Vocals have a nice tonality to them too! Well done! smile
_________________________
Cheers,
Joe
Peter and Joe..... Thank you both for listening and commenting. David has been a friend of mine for several years now. We're both members of the Nashville Songwriters Association Raleigh NC chapter. We've been half-heartedly discussing the idea of writing together for much of that time. Recently, we renewed that interest and I asked Dave to send me something. He sent an idea a few days later in outline form with a partial verse. I let it set for a few days before starting on it. The rest of this was a quick write. We bounced it around, edited, changed things, and this was the result. Glad you like it.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Hi Herb and David. This song is a great collab.
Great lyrics and performance and the chorus is full and powerful. Some sweet guitars in there too.
Nice listen thanks.
Cheers.
Mike.
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David and Herb,
Good collab, guys.
Good lyric - the opening 4 lines and the chorus are especially strong. Good arrangement and mix. Well done.
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The chorus comes across as especially powerful. - Marty, US Army Vet.
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Excellent collaborative work team H & D
A great set of lyrics, and a powerful delivery.
Everything was just really great. The guitar work shone through also. Video track.... Thanks I'm glad you enojyed the song and the guitar parts.... Yup... I loved playing that solo. So simple.... yet.... it fit perfectly. Herb and David,
The overarching sound that you've created via the arrangement and the mix is first class... spacious, powerful, and a great fit for the lyric content.
I thought that the VVCVCBC format was an excellent choice for the unfolding narrative (V=verse, C=chorus, B=bridge). I particularly liked the way you used the short interlude at the end of the bridge to set up the final chorus.
What really got me thinking was how you arranged the verse using essentially two chords and in what sounded like E natural minor to me. Then, when the chorus arrived, you launched into the relative major of G. The feeling and the lift that this key change carried with it was noteworthy. How you used instrumentation to capitalise on this is a credit to your arranging skills.
An excellent listen! I was mesmerised for the entire 4+ minute's journey.
Regards,
Noel Noel, thank you for the kind words. The structure of this changed several times. We had 3 verses but that put this closer to 5 minutes. Way to long. I scrapped the structure and rewrote V3 to be a short bridge that covered more recent events. That keeps it just over 4 minutes. Acceptable length for what this is. Em is correct. I actually asked Dave about the "happy sounding" Gmaj in the chorus. Since we didn't have any brilliant ideas, we left the G in there. Thanks for coming along on the journey. Dave was the one who suggested starting it sparsely and I wanted to end it that way too... just didn't end up that way, but that "interlude" was what it needed to break it up a bit.
Top notch on every level. A nice collaboration. Enjoyed this one a lot.
Charlie
Thanks Charlie. Glad you enjoyed it too.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Great job! Love your voice and the delivery/interpretation of the lyrics.
Radio ready. Could be a hit!
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Great write guys, I really like the arrangement
and overall feel of the song, very nice vocals.
Kenny
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Herb and David,
This is excellent. Loved the guitar work.
Regards,
Bob
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Did we enjoy that?
Man, this is super! Such a power sound and superb vocals Herb.
It would fit right into a Tarantino movie.
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Excellent collaboration David and Herb
Loved the lyrics in this song. Vocal and guitar were excellent.
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Soundclick Website Charts position
» highest in charts: # 1 (67,911 songs currently listed in Country)
» highest in sub-genre: # 1 (3,835 songs currently listed in Country > Country-Rock)
» today's position: # 1 in Country
» today's position in sub-genre: # 1 in Country-Rock
Cool.... too bad it's not the official Bill Board charts.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 02/19/17 02:39 AM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Man, what a great song!
Lyrics are very well written, love the vocal, and the guitar work is emotive and tasteful. Production is just stunning, totally pro all the way.
Sounds radio ready to me, well done! Dave, thanks. I really enjoy the production part of creating something new in the musical sense. I always look at the song and ask myself what can I do to make this unique? Hi Herb and David. This song is a great collab.
Great lyrics and performance and the chorus is full and powerful. Some sweet guitars in there too.
Nice listen thanks.
Mike. Thank you for listening. Glad you enjoyed it. David and Herb,
Good collab, guys.
Good lyric - the opening 4 lines and the chorus are especially strong. Good arrangement and mix. Well done. Floyd. It means more than you know to hear you say that. Thanks
The chorus comes across as especially powerful. - Marty, US Army Vet.
We wrote this for the guys like you who have been there and see that and came back. Great job! Love your voice and the delivery/interpretation of the lyrics.
Radio ready. Could be a hit! Jerry. Thanks.... it would be too cool to have a radio hit.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Soundclick Website Charts position
» highest in charts: # 1 (67,911 songs currently listed in Country)
» highest in sub-genre: # 1 (3,835 songs currently listed in Country > Country-Rock)
» today's position: # 1 in Country
» today's position in sub-genre: # 1 in Country-Rock
Well as I like to say: "The people don't lie." And "the clicks don't lie." #1 out of 67,911 is kinda hard to argue with Herb. But I knew this was gonna happen the first 12 seconds in when Herb sent me the final mix. My jaw dropped open. I am simply astonished at what he has done with this song after we kicked around the original idea. My prediction is that this song is gonna go viral. To my ears, the sound that Herb has concocted here is incredibly fresh and "new." I often get confused when I read certain posters who say "it's impossible to get a truly modern country or indie sound" [or whatever] using Band-in-a-Box. Well, I guess that depends on who's behind the board. Sounds to me like Herb just did. Awesome job man.
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