Tag Archives: recording

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Winter (version 2)

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I’m doing the re-record first this week cause I didn’t quite get the new song done last night. I think I’ve got the music down, but the words just weren’t ready yet. So, you get this today.

Lately I’ve been thinking how these re-recorded songs are taking up a lot of time and maybe taking time away from writing new songs, but then I decided that they also help me to get to new places each week. I’m at least thinking of doing something different with an old song, so maybe some of that seeps into my head to do something different with a new song. In any case, at least it keeps me working.

So, for this one, today, I think it’s fairly different, not just from last year’s (go listen and compare!), but also from a lot of other tunes I’ve been writing and recording lately. The phrasing is different. The singing is a little different. It’s just different. Different for me anyway.

Let me know what you think….

Listen, New Song

Goodbye, Goodbye

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In Cairo, the Spring can be great, but the Fall not so much

In Cairo, the Spring can be great, but the Fall...not so muchSo I had the idea for this new song on Tuesday last week. For one reason or another the old tune Goin’ Down to Cairo popped into my head while I was driving around in my car. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard that tune, check it out if you haven’t. This video is a pretty good approximation of how it’s always sung. You can also read about what that tune is all about over here, courtesy of the Old Town School of Folk Music. That’s where I first heard the song. People up there love it. Can’t get enough of it.

Anyway, I had that tune goin in my head and then I figured I hadn’t ever tried to write a song about the Arab Spring. Mainly, probably, because I don’t know a whole lot about it and because it ain’t really affecting me and my comfortable life. Other than for a week or so, a month or so ago, the news channels couldn’t get enough of it.

It’s pretty obvious, I think, how I went from a song about a town way down south at the tip of the bottom of Illinois to something about what’s going on over in the Middle East. And it was pretty easy, actually, to go from one to the other and back again. People in Illinois say “Kay-ro” and people in Egypt say “Ki-ro,” but they all want the same things when you get right down to it. Ain’t anything hard about that.

So that’s the song for today. Have a listen.

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Fairway 12

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Songs from Someone Else’s Perspective Week

I wrote Fairway 12 back in May of 2008. Or, really, I reworked it from the original tune, Banks of the Ohio, which you can see here. Mine’s pretty much the same, except for the parts that I changed.

Anyway, I wrote this because two of my close, affectionate friends were about to get married. So this is from their perspective. They spent their wedding night at the Fairway 12 on June 7, 2008. Actually, most of the wedding guests stayed there. Only some of us made it home without developing a foot fungus.

The Fairway 12 in Meadville, PA is the only place to have a great affair.

They do have the “best dance floor around,” though.

That’s the song for today. It’s a funny song. And it’s a true song.

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Ballad on November 5

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No Theme Week

Here’s the last song for No Theme Week. It’s a song I wrote back in November of 2008. Didn’t have anything to do with anything. Wasn’t about me or you or anybody else in particular. Wasn’t no meaning behind or about or in-front of it. Took about 30 seconds to write and around 5 minutes to sing and listen to. I played it out all over in three-quarter time, two-four time, six-eight and four-four and five-ninths. It all sounded the same to me. I put it as song number one on an album I made and didn’t distribute except to a few very affectionate friends. I haven’t sung it in a year or so. I pulled it out and I think it’s a pretty good ending to No Theme Week.

See ya Monday…bright and early.

At the end of the week, listen to a ballad about November 5.

Chicago Song, Listen

The Talkin’ Tax Blues

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Mass Media Week

Here’s a song about tax I wrote just about exactly 2 years ago. I guess 2 years ago I was really upset about something to do with the city of Chicago and a bunch of talkin’ blues songs came spilling out of me whenever I read or heard about what was going on.

I’ve expanded my boundaries a little bit lately.

Although, I do have a new album of Chicago-inspired songs. I plan to have the songs available for download and purchase, but, apparently, that takes a lot of technical know-how. Anyone ever told you about a FLAC file? Or bit rate? Or pixel laxness?

Anyway, eventually it’ll be up on CDBaby and itunes and all that mess.

For now, though, you can get an album from me out at one of my shows. Next one is this Saturday, 8/14, at Jerry’s in Wicker Park.

But, this song here. I ain’t got much to say about it. I’m not that mad anymore, I guess. It was just something I read in the newspaper again and I wrote this song. Don’t mean nothing. Cause I know there’s a lot of people now-a-days that’s getting all worked up about taxes and government. I ain’t one of them though. I like black coffee. I like to be regulated. I like to be a hypocrite and admit it.

Pay your tax, okay? They support the things that you use in this country.

See ya.