Video here 💜

https://youtu.be/G7je9x_x_0Y

A song I wrote with my dear friend Orla in mind and memories of our teenage years and the great times we had. sadly Orla left this world 7 years ago and left an empty space in many people's lives...
               💜 
Snowy bus rides, foreign scenes,
the way we laughed, hysterical teens,
singing "I don't belong here"
life is not what it seems.


ooh dancing in the long grass
ooh closing time.


Traffic lights, staying out all night,
scary stories, your eyes so bright.
Those empty spaces...
floating out of our sight.

ooh dancing in the long grass,
the fire inside fire inside, fire inside

oooh reflections of time..
oooh can't rewind...
reflections of time
can't rewind, when it's closing time.

reflections of time
can't rewind
when it's closing time.


Empty spaces...
Closing time.


Empty spaces (Adrian Smardzewski and Áine Parkes)

Songwriter : David Gates \ ISWC : T-070.080.616-1
Publisher : Sony ATV Tunes LLC \ Released : March 21st, 1971
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Recorded : June 19th 2005
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Alas, it wasn't me who played the guitar!. I gave it up a very,
very long time ago. Besides,
I can't remember how to pluck the chords... 🙄😊😁
(I used to sing it and play guitar when I was young).

In fact it is a guitar sound from the synthesizer going
through a sound module. But no synthesizer guitar sound can
replace the real sound of a guitar... Maybe now...
With the new technology.
Besides you can hear that it is a bit machine.

There are imperfections, I recorded it in one take.
When I sing, I only have the feeling once,
so inevitably the wrong notes and the pronunciation
mistakes are in the “box” as they say.
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IF - Cover (Bread)

A.D. (LIVE ACOUSTIC)

Taken from the 'Beyond the Veiled Horizon' series of tracks

https://soundcloud.com/mrbouzouki/sets/beyond-the-veiled-horizon-series

Dee Zee and Mr B YouTube Channel 

https://www.youtube.com/@DeeZeeandMrB
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This track is part of an ongoing SoundCloud collaboration with accomplished keyboard player and Prog Rock enthusiast Dave Zeitlin.

Be sure to check out more of his music here :- @dee-zee

Once again, one of his instrumentals entitled "Beyond The Veiled Horizon" conjured up some imagery that inspired me to try and add something to his original track. I was thinking 'Ethno-Prog' mixing Prog Rock with a World sort of feel. 

The title and music suggested to me the mysterious world of a desert landscape with it's rhythms and music and I had the famous Led Zeppelin 'Kashmir' in my head too. John-Paul Jones added a strings arrangement to that track and I thought I could try something similar.

Since it's Prog Rock I wanted to get my electric guitar out and I feel I came up with some phrasing and a scale that works for the idea. I particularly like the solo section at the end featuring Dave. I didn't want to tread on his toes so I went for more melodic held notes and panned myself hard left and right to keep the separation. 

I used a fair amount of more exotic instruments from various parts of the world. The Persian Ney, Kavali - an End Blown Flute and percussion from ancient Greece and the fairly rare Indian Kanjira that is like a small tambourine. A bell tree, cymbal and water pumpkins were added into the mix too.

Finally, I sang in some vocal lines that I felt helped add to the immersion after doing a bit of research about Moroccan vocal phrases. You can buy VST instruments with samples of them but I thought it was more fun to sing in my own and have more control over the finished article as a result.

Be careful out there ... who knows what you might discover.

Instrumentation 
Drone - Dee Zee
Drone and Chords - Dee Zee
String Synth Intro - Dee Zee
Brass-Like Synth - Dee Zee
Percussion Organ - Dee Zee
Main Synth - Dee Zee
8-bit Pattern - Dee Zee
High Voice Synth - Dee Zee
80's-Style String Chords - Dee Zee
Drum Kit - Dee Zee
Guitar-like Riff - Dee Zee

Seistron Percussion - MrBouzouki
Bell Tree - MrBouzouki
Kavali - End Blown Flute - MrBouzouki
Ney - Persian End Blown Flute - MrBouzouki
Shaker Percussion - MrBouzouki
Kanjira - Indian Hand Drum - MrBouzouki
Water Pumpkins - MrBouzouki
Strings (VSL Appassionata Violins) - MrBouzouki
Electric Guitar - MrBouzouki
Cymbal - MrBouzouki
Ending Hits - MrBouzouki
Sung Vocal Phrases - MrBouzouki

Beyond the Veiled Horizon - in collaboration with D Zeitlin

Made in 2023;
https://hega.bandcamp.com/album/world-after

World After

Time

Thank you to everyone who stopped and listened to this track.
Another dream, a fleeting dream.
It is said that we are connected to the universe through sleep, but when we awaken from the story of our dreams, we return to our daily lives. 
The modern world today is not kind enough to enjoy the continuation of a dream. So we start again from the beginning and dream a new dream.
For a world that can nurture children's dreams!
Today, May 5th, is Children's Day in Japan!

Dream Within A Dream

Mark Kurtis Adams (1956-2022) is the greatest songwriter you've never heard of. We were friends for forty years. Since his passing, I have been combing through his massive catalog of original songs; many co-written with friends, many written solo. It would be a crime for the world to never hear the music I grew up on. Mark gave me permission/freedom to use his music in any way I choose before he died. Here is VOLUME 2 of Mark's music as I have interpreted it.

Follow the Dog

This is my 59th Album and my first solo Album, in which all the lyrics of the songs are composed by me, as well as the song layout and composition. I have used Ai to convert the lyrics to vocal by a singer (my style). It has allowed me for the first time to express my feelings through a voice. I hope you embrace this new version of my music.

So, this Album is ‘An Aussie Xmas…Vol.2’ and is focused on Christmas in Australia. This is a love letter to Australia, with red dust on your boots, a beer in the esky, and a smell of sausages. 

This isn't a sleigh bell or a sleigh with a sleigh, it's a roadhouse with reindeer that look like roos covered in bull dust, ancient Boabs standing guard and fireflies dancing under a sky, so full of stars you can almost hear them hum. 

It is mates waving goodbye with "See You Next Year", caravans crawling across the endless Nullarbor, and the sunsets that make you feel both tiny and unbreakable. This is the sound and soul of an Australian Christmas, it's raw, sunburnt, and unapologetically ours. 

1.	‘Six White Boomers’ (2025 version) is an up-tempo country-rock reboot, kangaroos pulling the sleigh across the desert night.

2.	‘Santa Wears A Blue Singlet’ is about Surf-life-saver Santa, board shorts, zinc cream, rescuing presents from rips.

3.	‘Thongs On The Rooftop’ is about kids hear clippety-clop instead of hooves, Santa’s lost his ‘RM Williams’ in the pool.

4.	‘Deck The Shed With Bits of Wattle’ is about bush-carols parody, but deadly serious, gum leaves, bottlebrush and Banksia men.

5.	‘Mangoes In The Fruit Bowl’ is about tropical Christmas soul ballad, mangoes, prawns, and ‘Nan’s’ trifle.

6.	Carols By Torchlight Power’s is about a power blackout, where the whole street sings by phone-torch on the nature strip.

7.	‘Christmas On the Nullarbor’ is about road-train drivers’ Christmas, CB radio choir, tinsel on the bull-bar.

8.	‘The Twelve Days of An Aussie Christmas’ is a song about twelve cold stubbies, eleven barbecues, ten meat trays, etc. Crowd sing-along stomper.

9.	‘Pavlova For Jesus’ is about kids leaving a Pav, Tim Tams and a cold ‘VB’ for Santa instead of milk and cookies.

10.	‘Mary Rode A Ute to Bethlehem’ is a Bluegrass-gospel song with banjo and a tale about Mary and Joseph in a Holden with a blown head-gasket.

11.	‘Cicadas In A Gum Tree’ is a slow summer-night ballad about baby Jesus who sleeps to the sound of cicadas and distant thunder.

12.	‘Santa’s Lost His Akubra’ is a kids song about a frantic search for Santa’s hat across Bondi, Uluru, and the MCG.

13.	‘Christmas Day At The RSL’ is about lonely old diggers who find family for one afternoon, indulging in ‘Two-up’ games, meat raffle and mate-ship.
 
14.	‘Red Dust Reindeer’ is a song about an outback station’s Christmas and Santa’s sleigh pulled by red-kangaroo team.

15.	‘Away In A Caravan’ is gentle waltz song about the grey-nomad nativity under the annexe under ‘Broome’s’ landscape.

16.	‘Christmas On The Bitumen’ is the anthem for every Aussie who’s ever celebrated Christmas barefoot on hot bitumen, mango juice running down their arm, arguing whether the pudding should’ve gone in the fridge or the Esky. It is a joyful, irreverent, and 100 % ‘fair dinkum’.

17.	‘XMAS Down Under’ is an Australian Christmas love letter to Australia, with red dust on your boots, a beer in the Esky, and the smell of sausages. 

18.	‘See You Next Year Mate’ is the final track, and a big emotional country-rock closer, Christmas lights on the ‘Hills Hoist’ and everyone swaying with arms around each other.
I hope you enjoy this Christmas Album which is proudly ‘Australian’ and very different from the traditional Christmas songs. It is Merry Christmas and See Ya Next Year, Mate… 

ENJOY!!!


Cicadas In A Gum Tree

Lyrics Gebed (by Blaffy)

Singer/songwriter from Galway ☘️ aka Firecat9 🎶
My YouTube channel- https://youtu.be/GwOCtvbGxZY
or find me on Spotify :)

aineparkes9@gmail.com if you want to get it touch 💜
Thank you all who take the time to listen to my music, I really appreciate every comment, like and reposts 💜 I've discovered so much amazing music on soundcloud and so many talented and lovely people too. 
I've been writing songs on and off for over 20 years, I write mostly about life experiences and anything that I'm passionate about or situations that I've been in but sometimes imaginary too.. Music means so much to me and I'm really enjoying recording more in this strange lockdown year...
I like how Rumi says it.... 
'You are not just a drop in the ocean, you are the whole ocean in one drop'

Empty spaces (Adrian Smardzewski and Áine Parkes)

Aine Parkes