After a considerable amount of re-thinking everything and listening to what everyone said, this is what I came up with.

Floyd Jane found a BIAB drum line and mixed the vocal and acoustic guitars. I redid the electric guitar part and cut the 16 bar solo to 8 bars.

There were some things I don't know how to fix. The beginning of the vocal is a bit overdriven. That is what happens when a hardware compressor and limiter is not put between the microphone and the board and the vocalist gets a little to loud.

I learned a lot of stuff making this. Thanks Floyd and everyone who commented and helped.

https://soundcloud.com/planobilly/mooney

TASTY!
I'm "conflicted": the aggressive guitar sticks out and is great...I like where it is BUT I suspect many folk would rather it tucked in or softened with reverb a little.
I think the fiddle was a little forward.
Your vocal sits IN the mix and I like it like that...I can hear, comprehend and enjoy it without it floating on top.
I's have liked a couple of verses more to be honest...the story is as good as the telling.
NICE ONE!

Hello PianoBilly,

It is a composition pretty to the ear by this series of chords. The voice is well integrated. It is rare to keep it on the outro and it is the charm of this construction.

Kindly regard

Dero13
alias JaniJackFlash

Hi Rayc,

I too am ambivalent about the Telecaster guitar track for two reasons. One, it makes the vocal less important and two, it pushes the song more toward country than Americana to my mind.

On the other hand, the subject matter is pretty intense. I have been taken to task on several occasions for lyrics that are less than politically correct, especially in the context of mental illness.

Thanks for commenting.


Billy

Dero13...thanks for the kind words.

The outro was more or less an accident to start with. Then I decided I actually liked it. Any sort of fade out for me only happens on recorded songs. It is pretty rare for me to fade a song playing live.

Billy

Nice

I like it!
I can imagine this being a hit.