Ithaca faves

2023

LYRICS:

There should be candy hearts for
People who’ve been together 20 years
And their romance has evolved into routine

Like:
What’s for dinner?
Where’re my car keys?
Is the dishwasher clean or dirty?
I love you, I love you too,
Your feet are so fucking cold

When you’re twenty-two
Intimacy means fucking constantly
But when you’re forty-four, it’s
I hope we die together, please don’t ever leave me

There should be candy hearts for
People who’ve been together 20 years
“Be mine” becomes bemoaning
How you always miss the hamper with your socks

So be my valentine
And be my emergency contact
Be my primary beneficiary,
Tooth fairy, Easter bunny and Santa too

This heart-shaped box of chocolates
That I bought at a gas station on my way to work
Sat in the car all day
But you were probably gonna give it to the kid anyway

There should be candy hearts for
People who’ve been together 20 years
Like, let’s make love on Tuesday 
If there’s nothing good on TV

I still like you
We’re okay
We’ve got a teenager and a 401k
Be my baby
Take a chance
You’re a snappy dresser but I love you in sweatpants
You’re my sweetheart
You’re my home
You piss me off sometimes, but it beats being alone
There is nothing that a candy heart could say
That articulates the way I think about you every day

demo 2022-02-15

Candy Hearts

New Year meditation on invasions.

What if all the invasive species decided to spontaneously combust?

What if you were one of them?

My old friend Kate Khosla kindly lent her beautiful voice!

explosion of starlings

I went looking for it in the sound of ‘91
The proof was in the kiss and in king’s x it’s love
It was a song for love, a sixties mind, a bull’s eye guitar
Glittering in every step a rising joy star

Walked around a dying tree with dust arms raised 
I found it in the copper caps and white stalk maze
The devil falls and living walls, splash stone floor
Shimmering in every step a rising joy star

In the now, in the end, it’s there in a memory’s hum
I vow to attend to the pointlessness swelling inside
You’ll SEE me rise, with a truth loud as a snare drum
Leaving the Past and the future behind

Making something out of nothing music in our minds
Push it farther move it closer dreaming unwinds
Listening with intent a syncing of hearts
Vibrating every step a rising joy star

Imagination, effortless, no need to worry
Loosening the beat, goodness no need to worry

In the now, in the end, it’s there in a memory’s hum
I vow to attend to the pointlessness swelling inside
You’ll see me rise, with a truth loud as a snare drum
Leaving the past and the future behind

Songwriting Challenge Jan 2023

In Burbank, CA, in 1957, Bonnie Raitt turned eight and got a guitar for Christmas. She took it to summer camp in the Adirondacks, where I think she must have made an impact on the other campers. She swept the Grammy awards in 1990 with her tenth album, which she called her "first sober" one. How she kept going through the low sales of the first nine is a mystery, as it is that any of us keep going, keep shining our lights.

Lyrics:

so glad you came 
back to camp, this year
i thought about you and your guitar

i wanted to sing by this fire with you
but i was too shy to go that far

but now I've seen a curvy, freckled girl
can play guitar all night
and even the older kids will
sing along and we all feel so right

i just want to say
you gave that to me
and i can see that you will
give it to the world eventually

count the stars
as their light surrounds you
i know your own feels
small tonight
keep your faith
shine it around you
the world will turn
until we need your light

you cleaned up good
for this show
in the nick of time:
now they know

you poured out your heart nine times
in eighteen years
and now at the tenth time
they're ready to hear

i'm tuning in
from afar
remember when
i saw your star

count the stars
as their light surrounds you
i know your own feels
bright tonight
you kept your faith
shine it around you
the world will turn
until we see your light

the world will turn
  and the hour grow later 
  until it's dark enough
that we see your light

notes from Stella

Original song, Blue Mark.

This song started out as a poem that kept me entertained waiting for a bus in Paraguay. It was inspired by a literal blue-ish mark that comes and goes around my left eye. You can sing it to yourself, a friend, a lover, a pet, etc.

Jordache Grant: co-producer

Blue Mark

Accustomed to the hustle culture in the US, I thought the slower moments my Paraguayan neighbors incorporate into their days and the time they have for each other is beautiful. If I start feeling anxious because I’m not being productive or busy enough, it helps me to remember that life has been and is rich on the metaphorical bench slowing down with my ppl.

Big Things

A song about not being able to write a song about it... with a show-don't-tell ending.

Lyrics:

if i put all that's true
about how things are and how they've been between me and you
in a song
they'd all doubt me;
they'd get mad,
and say i was wrong.

chorus:

    because i am not a unicorn,
    and you are not a goddess,
    i guess;
    except i know you are.
    and you and i together
    are not the center of the universe;
    except - 
    that is what we are.

and if i told how it goes
when you walk in the room, and what happens to my toes
in a song -
and i sang it -
to an audience - i wouldn't last too long

when i write this song
i'll try not to ramble on
i have to tell the truth, 
but tell it slantwise or nowise
and i can't talk about your eyes at all...
or maybe i'll just play, after all.

credits:
tjw: classical, electric, and 6- and 12-string guitars, electric bass, ukulele, drum pads, organ, sitar, vocals

Candy Hearts

Andy Adelewitz