singing songs - latest versions

LIKE 4 LIKE PLAYLIST!

I just had the courage to record and post this one this evening - a ballad I learned half a year ago for floor singing - after in-depth working with the text, even including verses from American versions ("The Brown Girl"), want(ed) to tell a story! My heartfelt thanks go to a unique and amiable English lady who took her time to go through each single line with me...

Never sang it with accompaniment before yesterday... Of course there will a compromise to be made between best singing and best playing the instrument. I chose the vocals over the backing, but nevertheless both parts had been suffering, but this is my work in progress...

'Twas quite a challenge however to make such a long-running live recording, but since live music is what I'm into I fought back the temptation of recording bits and pieces and glue the together, it's again one take from first to last, with some flaws inevitably occurring, but that's it folks... :)

Lord Thomas & Fair Eleanor

didn't feel like including take 2 in my "selection" playlist, so I guessed it was time to record (and possibly post) take 3 - so here it is (well ending a bad day as for me), with take 4 being scheduled for another day...

Piper to the End (take 3)

Pinhead.
Ramones cover.......Ramones composer.
From the Ramones Leave Home album.
My tribute to Tommy Ramone who died recently.
Pappy: Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Production.
July 2014

Pinhead

No Johnny explicitly involved this time - obscure title since it doesn't return in the verses or chorus... (a variant of Trooper and Maid)

As I Roved Out

Obscured By Clouds.
Pink Floyd cover (Gilmour/Waters composers).
An old track that got blocked on You - Tube.
Re-mixed and re-loaded.
Pappy 2012

Obscured By Clouds

Concertina.net TOTM July 2014 - first rough take of this well known tune from the renaissance ages with later Air XLIII from the baroque Beggar's Opera

(no "gangsters" but "gamesters" of course...)

Packington's Pound - Thus Gamesters United

LITTLE MISS ELUSIVE
EPHEMERAL MESSIAH
YOUR MIST IS HERE A LITTLE WHILE
THEN QUICKLY DISAPPEARS
	
WHY DO I KEEP TRYING
WHEN TRYING BRINGS YOU NEAR
WOULD THAT I JUST CLOSE THE DOOR
PRETEND THAT YOU’RE NOT HERE

BRIEFER THAN THE TWINKLE IN A MAYFLY’S EYE
LIKE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ACID THAT MELT UNDER SUN
LOVE; A BIRD OF PASSAGE IN A TRANSIENT SKY
APPEARING / DISAPPEARING LIKE THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

WHY DO I KEEP CRYING 
WHEN NO ONE SEES THE TEARS
WHY DO I KEEP REACHING OUT
WHEN NO ONE EVEN CARES

WHAT’S THE POINT OF CRYING
WHEN NO ONE SEES THE TEARS
WHEN FRANKLY DEARS DON’T GIVE A DAMN
AND LOVE IS INSINCERE

BRIEFER THAN THE TWINKLE IN A MAYFLY’S EYE
LIKE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ACID THAT MELT UNDER SUN
LOVE; A BIRD OF PASSAGE IN A TRANSIENT SKY
APPEARING / DISAPPEARING LIKE THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

LADY PRIMADONNA 
QUENCHER OF DESIRE
RAINS ON EVERY LOVE PARADE
AND QUELLS THE INNER FIRE

INDIAN AND GIVER
EQUIVOCAL DOVE
BRINGS THE GIFT OF TROJAN LOVE
THAT TAKES YOUR WILL TO LIVE

BRIEFER THAN THE TWINKLE IN A MAYFLY’S EYE
LIKE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ACID THAT MELT UNDER SUN
LOVE; A BIRD OF PASSAGE IN A TRANSIENT SKY
APPEARING / DISAPPEARING LIKE THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         INDIAN AND GIVER                                                                                                                                                             AMBIVALENT LOVE
WHO CAN FATHOM YOUR ORIGIN:
BELOW OR ABOVE

CHANGING LIKE THE WEATHER
AN INVISIBLE AGENDA
THE GREATER EIGHTH WONDER
AND THE GREATEST PRETENDER

BRIEFER THAN THE TWINKLE IN A MAYFLY’S EYE
LIKE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ACID THAT MELT UNDER SUN
LOVE; A BIRD OF PASSAGE IN A TRANSIENT SKY
APPEARING / DISAPPEARING LIKE THE STAR OF BETHLHEM

WHY DO I KEEP WAKING UP 
WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE
WHY MUST I DRINK FROM THE CUP
OF OVERFLOWING TEARS

WHAT’S THE POINT OF STAYING
THE FATES ARE SO UNFAIR
MY SEVEN DAYS OF WAXING PASSED
I’VE WANED FOR SEVEN YEARS

EPHEMERAL MESSIAH vocal

SOME OF US AFRAID THE WORLD WILL END (SOME OF US AFRAID IT WON'T)

revisited 7 months after - hopefully improved (raised by two semitones to better fit with my singing voice

Now The Tyrant Hath Stolen

my first "great" English ballad (back in 2014) - revisited (at least not that breathless, and pitch raised)

Barbara Allen

Having played a bunch of pretty different instruments but mainly the piano for some decades, I luckily  took up the English Concertina in the summer of 2011 out of instant inspiration and can't get my hands off of this great little box (which is such a fine solo instrument as well as allowing some modest self-accompaniment when singing songs). Find more content at concertina.net.

Update: After a  hiatus due to technical failure of the beautiful instrument shown on top of my page I resumed my playing in October 2017 following the acquisition of my "new" Wheatstone model 24 (while the Lachenal Excelsior is awaiting some future restauration)

Update II: Having finished my denying the need of a Tenor-Treble to myself, I now own and am playing a beautifully (looking and) sounding metal-ended Aeola as well, which happens to be my main instrument - however the ET is still not being neglected...

Update III: Happily added the 20b Anglo (Lachenal and Crabb) and Crane Duet (again Crabb) to "my" instruments as of October/November 2018 :)

Piper to the End (take 3)

blue eyed sailor