Steady breakin'

"'Tower' is just kind of the first installment toward my record," Pierce says of the Aware contribution. "It's like back to the old-fashioned way of making music, one song at a time. It's something you forget when you're on a major label. But it will be nice to do it old-school again, making my record one song at a time and finding a home for it. It's just one song of many. I read an article in Musician with Tom Petty and Beck where Petty said, 'I like writing music I like listening back to,' and that's where I'm at now. I fall asleep with my mini-recorder listening to stuff I did on the back of the bus a year ago. It's sonic Darwinisim, what keeps coming back to me. It's whatever rises to the top." He does make a great straight man.

Cary Pierce performs October 3 at the Gypsy Tea Room. Webster Saltman and Jenifer Baldwin open. The first 200 to arrive receive a free Aware 6 CD. You luckies.

Send your funky shit to rwilonsky@dallasobserver.com.