Tag Archives: chicago

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Without You (To Lean On) (version 2)

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1960s Front-line Power OrganHere’s the newly recorded, newly updated, newly new version of the song I released way back in 2011. Go check out the original here.

Notice anything different?

I attempted to go out of some sort of comfort zone. I added some instruments that I don’t really know how to play. Like a Frontalini Power Organ from 1960’s Italy and a marching band drum from my one-year-old daughter.

If you keep up with the photos I post from Instagram, I’ll get one up of the organ. Was my great-grandmother’s. I’ve had it for a couple years, but it’s a little intimidating to someone who only took piano from age 5 up to age 12 and then touched no more pianos. They become strange and unique creatures. They make your knuckles sore.

Anyway…this is the new version. It’s surely different than pretty much any other recording I’ve done before (that I can recall off the top of my head). But, still retains that same feeling of most of my songs. I don’t quite know how to get rid of that. Or move beyond that. Or completely become that.

I’m sure, though, I’ll figure something out in the weeks and months to come.

In the meantime, just keep listening and passing the songs on to other people, okay?

Listen, New Song

New Song: Just Like Everything Else

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I never wrote a song about a chicken before. But I’ve heard a lot of chicken songs. And I never quite knew exactly what they were about. Or understood them very much. Except that they were maybe about chicken.

But now I think I get them a little better. I think I understand chicken a little better. If you understand me at all.

So, this song is about chicken. I wrote it on Sunday night and just got around to recording it Tuesday night. It’s a pretty easy song to understand. If you know anything at all about chicken.

I’ll also post the fresh, updated, re-recorded tune from 2011 tomorrow morning, but be sure to check out a few of the other new songs and re-recordings I’ve done the past couple weeks here, here, and here.

And then go grab your coat and hat. See ya.

Listen, New Song

New Song: The sun makes everything glow

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And here’s the new song for the week. Took me about an hour or so to write. Mainly cause I kept getting interrupted. But was a good kind of interrupted. Someone constantly telling me to “look, look at this!” and “look at how I colored this dog all purple!” and “I colored this girl all purple too!”

And then I could ask questions like, “So, what should this next verse be about?”

And the answer would be…”books.”

And then, “what do you like most about books?”

“Words.”

And then, “What do the words look like to you?”

“I just do not know.”

So, I had some help for this song. Thanks Gus.

But also, this song is kind of weird because it sounds a lot like songs I wrote a year and a half or 2 years ago. Not that that’s so bad, but it’s just strange. I didn’t even really think about the music, it just happened this way and fit well so I went with it.

I kind think this song is best suited for it’s re-recorded version next year. But who knows.

Anyway, that’s it.

Vinyl Records

Random Record Pick: The Earl of Old Town

Vinyl record of The Earl of Old Town.For more photos, connect to @afrancisb on Instagram.

Random Record Pick is a way to organize and archive an always-growing collection of vinyl records. Each record is randomly picked from a shelf or crate or dusty corner of my house, a photo is taken of the cover, and then the entire record is played all the way through, even if it’s terrible. 

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: I’m Better Off (version 2)

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So, here’s the re-recorded version of “I’m Better Off,” which I wrote and released exactly one year ago today.

The new one is what it is. The old one’s here, if you want to compare.

Be on the alert! There’s a Poor Elvis show this Friday. The details are here. Check it out!