stunning and beautiful percussion I like your style, so I added you to my playlist - FRIENDS OF THE ROAD: SEPTEMBER, 2022

very clever and addictive tune. loving layers of sound and space.

Very creative and original sound design, so beautiful!

The harmonic lines in there are really like a signature of yours, no doubt you have an absolute distinct style, and this track is awesome

Fantastic atmosphere you've created with all these rich sounds bubbling up, awesome sonic tapestry!

Odd-shaped Cloud

Odd - Shaped Cloud

LYRICS:

I look the other way 
Like any other day
And brace myself for anything that comes my way
I live in a world of my own
A place I like to call home
When you see me phasing out just leave me alone
Just leave me alone

Days and months and years
Don't interfere
Gone and then it's here
Don't interfere
Go on my own way
To seize another day
Hope amid the drear
Don't interfere
Don't interfere

There are so many things to say
A heavy price to pay
A simple truth that I must live with every day
I'm lost in a world that's my own
Zone out and turn off the phone
When you see me phasing out just leave me alone
Just leave me alone

Days and months and years
Don't interfere
Gone and then it's here
Don't interfere
Go on my own way
To seize another day
Hope amid the drear
Don't interfere
Don't interfere

Follows me around
Me around
Follows me around
Me around

Days and months and years
Don't interfere
Gone and then it's here
Don't interfere
Go on my own way
To seize another day
Hope amid the drear
Don't interfere
Don't interfere

Rain Chime

Don't Interfere

As the old Soviet joke goes, “In the Soviet Union, we know what the future holds. It’s the past that’s always changing.”      (lyrics below, after the song description)                                             
                                                     ****************
In this small, quaint college town, the town-gown relationship, for most of the 150 plus years since the college’s founding, had been productive.  The town benefited economically,  & students appreciated the town's charm, history & heritage.   Often on sunny days, classes of students would visit the park at the downtown square, brought by their history professors to learn not only of the town's history, but also about eleven young local men lost in America's Civil War, memorialized by the modest statue of a lone soldier, who had stood like a sentry at the the park's entrance since 1905.

But times change, don't they...
                                                   ********************

More Americans died in the American Civil War than in any other war in our country's history, including each of the World Wars.  In my song, the word "Daughters" references the Daughters Of The Confederacy, a women's civic group formed in the 1890's by daughters (and wives & nieces) of men lost in that war.  The attached picture is the inscription on the base of a statue of a uniformed soldier, standing in a park in Dallas, Georgia, a small town 30 miles northwest of Atlanta.
                                                            



Lyrics....
My name is McKenzie, and Jenkins and Embry,
And eight other names you still hear in these parts,
For over a century, I stood quiet at the entry,
On East Main into Lafayette Park,
A plaque was engraved, told why I was placed,
On those gardened grounds,
In this Small American Town.

Commissioned in 1905,
By the Daughters for fathers who died,
I was erected to honor eleven so bold,
Not a single one knowing he’d never grow old,
On these boys account I’d forever stand proud,
Stand sturdy & stout,
In this Small American Town.

The kids from the college on Heritage Hill,
Would hold class in the park’s warm sunshine,
They learned of this cruel war we waged with ourselves,
How 600,000 had died,
And of eleven from here just about their age,
Small farmers & blacksmiths & craftsmen by trade,
None fought for cotton, not one owned a slave,
And they learned why the Daughters placed me on that mound,
To keep those boys’ memories around,
In this Small American Town.

But enlightened new students don’t meet in that space,
Through new glasses old wars just don’t look the same,
Now scholars say men who went off to that war,
Fought not out of duty, but hate,
I feared I’d be forgotten by Heritage Hill,
Yesterday’s soldiers, obscure battlefields,
But alas, rearranged history determined my fate,
                          **************
Wise men have long warned of changing the past,
Of purges & vengeance & iconoclasts,
Then one fateful night there was smoke rolling down from the Hill,

Quickly surrounded by torches of fire,
Cursing & spitting & rage in the air,
Rope round my shoulders, a cheer by the crowd,
I came crashing down to the ground….
                         **************
An uneasy quiet in the town since that day,
Hushed conversations about how things have changed,
But up on the Hill it’s all smiles & goodwill,
For it’s the 2nd weekend in May,
Ceremonial speeches, awards all around,
Uncles & aunts & parents in town,
To watch the sweet children who torched & burned me to the ground,
Be awarded their caps & their gowns,
In this Small American Town.

Small American Town

Some of Us is Me

2022 Janine Levinson
Guitar: Jonathan Beckenstein  @jonathan_beckenstein
   
I’m sorry that I’m not somebody else    
I’m sorry if I let my people down
I didn’t ask for anybody’s help        
I’m sorry that I waited for this long

But it’s like trying to move your life ahead with a stranger at the wheel 
While trying very hard to get along

I’m sorry that I wrecked my lover’s heart
I hope he knows I wrecked my own heart too
I should have looked somewhere outside myself
I hope there’s room for me inside of you

Cause I’ve been trying to stand up straight when I am broken past repair
And still trying very hard to fix what’s wrong 

Some folks have got it made 
Frolicking in the shade of live oak tree
But some of us we don’t sing so loud, 
And we’re looking down
Some of us is me

I sometimes wish tomorrow wouldn’t come
But yesterday has problems of his own 
Next to you’s the only thing I’ve got
I wish I knew someplace where I belonged   

And I’ve been trying to stand up straight 
‘Cause I was thinking you might share--
And make my little world not feel so wrong

Some folks have got it made 
Frolicking in the shade of live oak tree
But some of us we don’t sing so loud, 
And we’re looking down
Some of us is me

Some Of Us Is Me - with Jonathan Beckenstein

secrets

Secrets

Love...as a feeling you get when you go over Niagara Falls in a barrel?

That image was developed by simply approaching a collaboration (with UK musician, Anthony Gee - Liquid on mp3u) with the "start where you are" wisdom. What is more iconic for people working with a Canadian than Niagara Falls? 

Anthony had been exploring electronica using a midi keyboard, but had never written a rock tune. Ever ready for opportunities to help others, I asked Anthony for a keyboard progression as a foundation, since he was taking piano lessons at the time, and from that foundation the rock track would be built with the addition of lyrics, guitar, and harmonica. Eventually the song needed an instrumental, and that was where the real learning for Anthony took place - he had never learned to improvise, only to read music. Thinking out of the box and feeling the music is a little intimidating for some. So, many file-exchanges later, he had let his hair down enough to try that rock organ phrase that appears here. 

Here's to learning, to experimenting, to learning to give control over to others and to celebrating life-long learning. Who ever said you can't teach old dogs new tricks?

Lyrics:

I thought love was so simple,
But it turns out it's really complex,
With a lot of inuendo
There's body language
There's the subtle conversation,
And it's driving me mad
I feel I'm in a barrel going over a falls
In a barrel, going nowhere at all

I thought love was the cure that I needed
But it seems I was wrong
And there's no doubt about it
Love can be easy, like a lazy river
But when the current picks up
You better know how to paddle
I feel I'm in a barrel going over a falls
In a barrel, going nowhere at all

(instrumental)

I thought love was gonna take me to places
My heart hadn't seen, and I was anticipatin'
The joy and the bliss 
That I had found with your kissin'
Took me too far from shore
And now I'm self-destructin'

I feel I'm in a barrel going over a falls
In a barrel, going nowhere at all

Anthony Gee: piano, organ, bass
Terry: lyrics, vocals, harmonica, guitar

In A Barrel (With Anthony Gee)

IN A DOORWAY
IN THE SHADOWS
AS THE RAIN MUTES
THE NEON SIGNS


HANDS IN POCKETS
OF A SLICKER
MIDNIGHT STRAGGLERS
MEANDER BY

HOLLOW PROMISE
REMINISENCE
LIKE AN ARCING
ELECTRIC LINE

4:00 IN THE MORNIN’
SHE’S AT THE AFTERPARTY
NO ONE IS WARNIN’
SHE SHOULDN’T LEAVE ALONE, NO…

EVERLASTING
I DON’T THINK SO
EVERY BARGAIN
WILL BE BETRAYED

JESUS TOLD ME
I AM SPECIAL
CLOCK IS TICKING
IT’S JUDGEMENT DAY

FADE TO BLACK
SHE’S NOT COMING BACK

FADE TO BLACK
A FRESH MANIAC

Thanks to Janine Levinson, Cheesemont Paisley-Paisley, and Wheelwright for consultations various.

Amour Noir

LITTLE MISS CURL (Mastered With Thunder )-OdinsLair

Written and performed by Bluebird
Produced by Richard brown

Lyrics:

I go to a movie and all I see is you
I move to an island cause all I want is you

The lonely hours keep bringing me back to you
I'll keep bringing you flowers cause the colors remind me of you

I see crystal waters that only wave to you
A new sensation how can this be true?

The lonely hours keep bringing me back to you
I'll keep bringing you flowers cause the colors remind me of you

I'll keep, I'll keep holding, holding you near.....

The Lonely Hours

Improvised soundscape by I Shudder, Broadbeach, Australia, April 2024. Image: I Shudder, March 2024

Odd - Shaped Cloud

arse-myth

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