Jerry David DeCicca – “Texas Toad”

Today, the European label Worried Songs announces their vinyl release of Jerry David DeCicca’s The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures. The album was released digitally last year and has delighted audiences since. JDD, an Ohio native, lives in the Texas hill country with a whole menagerie. The vinyl will be available on October 1st and you can pre-order on Bandcamp.

Jerry is a whimsical and worldly songwriter, and The Unlikely Optimist explores philosophical conundrums while also celebrating the simple pleasures in life. “Texas Toad” demonstrates the latter, augmented by Augie Meyers (yes, the very same of Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados) delivering a signature fun-loving yet elegant sparkle with his Vox organ.

Although like Guy Clark’s “Homegrown Tomatoes,” many of Jerry’s animal/mineral/vegetable songs are really about bigger picture ideas, “Texas Toad” is truly an ode to his pets, all of which are named after Hoyt Axton. Illustrated by Scott Duffey at Toucan Tango, the video is also a loving homage to Jerry’s adopted home of Bulverde and nearby San Antonio.

The Unlikely Optimist was one of my very favorite releases of 2020 and you probably already know that I think the world of Jerry as a songwriter and a human. Excited to be able to put this record on the turntable.

There’s so much I could tell you about how I became a toad parent or what it’s like to raise them from babies to toddlers (toadlers?) to egg-laying adults. I could tell you about their mating habits and the sounds they make. I could tell you about the way they look up at me as I drop bugs into their home like the hand of God raining protein. I could tell you about how I dust the store-bought crickets with vitamin D powder or about my sweat-drenched t-shirts from bare-handing grasshoppers in the weeds of August. I could tell you horror stories of owls and roadrunners and what happens when the toads go after the same superworm at the exact same time. I could tell you about this song’s fingerpicking pattern that I was so proud of that I texted my guitar/vocal demo to Ray Wylie Hubbard even though I knew I’d probably never hear back from him. I could tell you that, indeed, everything in this song was true when I wrote it, but now, years later, some Hoyts are no longer with us. But this past October, I rescued a new baby the same day one of my songwriting heroes died and I named him, Shaver. I could tell you about the day I cut this song with Augie Meyers late in the session because I didn’t want to freak him out right away because I’m a grown man singing about his pet toads. I was so self-conscious that day (even though how many times have I heard people talk about their children and I’m always polite and pretend to be interested.) I mean, is there any more perfect instrument in the world to play on a song about pet toads than Augie’s Vox Continental organ? There are so many ways to be loving in this world, so why haven’t there been more songs about toads. Have I interrupted the course of nature? Are my toads happy? I watch the “big boys” hop past me on summer nights and I wave to them as they move forward in the rawness of the evening. It’s only the babies I feel compelled to capture and raise. This song could have been an hour long. It should be, really. I could tell you stories about my toads all night.

-Jerry David DeCicca, Bulverde, TX

Pre-order The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures on Bandcamp.

If you want to learn more about this album, you can listen to my interview with Jerry here.