Sid Griffin Sends Love to the Circle Bar

In this My Spilt Milk video debut, Long Ryder and Coal Porter Sid Griffin remembers New Orleans in a song from his new album.

When Sid Griffin of The Long Ryders and The Coal Porters fame released The Trick is to Breathe last September, he included the song "Circle Bar" in honor of the New Orleans landmark.

At the time, he described the song as "written for the Long Ryders when I thought we were to reunite in the studio in the late 1990s. It is the story of one of our dear New Orleans friends who is no longer with us. As we grow older the death of beloved peers hits us harder and harder and you find yourself with more yesterdays than tomorrows."

"Circle Bar" is the subject of a new video from the album, and My Spilt Milk is pleased to premiere it. For the occasion, Griffin told more of the song's story:

I remember over 20 years ago sitting in my Los Angeles living room with my roommate, the great Eric Burdon of the Animals band and also War. I would play guitar and Eric would sing blues. When the bourbon had hit us both, he would always request "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" and then sing the beejusus out of it. The beauty and power of his performance made me shudder at its potency.

My song "Circle Bar" is about an actual place in N’awlins and a romance which almost was and then never was. It is a song about the city, true, but also a song about growing up, growing old, and going away from your roots. Now that’s a lyric any south Louisiana cat or kitten can understand.