Jonathan, You are amazing! Your lyrics are excellent beyond adequate description. Your vocals are always song appropriate. Spot on every time.  And your instrumentation including spoken asides, dog whimpers and other sound effects are like diamonds in the path.  All of your songs and tracks are simply amazing.  ;-)

What is it about your voice? So loving and gentle, calculated, I could go to sleep listening to it :-)

Kingsmill soft white, Benecol Olive and Jarlsberg cheese - singing along "Barbara..."! Catchy as hell! Great start of the night! ;-) Do you refer to the Latin Quarters in Paris? You've been? Anyway great storytelling!!!

Your songs are totally addictive. I started to listen to this and had something to deal with but had to shelf that in order to give your song my full attention. Great story as always and some winning lines throughout. I think Amy would forgive you for such a good application of the drum loop. I'll have to dig deeper o your cloud or maybe just wait until you re-share the ones you're fondest of. I think I'll be growing fond of this one. Thanks and cheers Jonathan, Mark

Very nice Broker. I have to learn how to add these other elements you add. Great sound and lyrics!

Yes, I loved this all the way through as I knew I would: the nostaglia of the introduction sounds, all the lyrics (which are excellent), to the whole feeling of being afraid of someone without knowing why. A haunting song somehow.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3dPaPD819h1OuFm9C5Goga?si=YXojaSYFSQSYE7lS3uG05A&utm_source=copy-link&nd=1
http://www.continental-collision.com
https://continentalcollision.bandcamp.com/track/the-route-to-tomorrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMiidrWf6sM&list=OLAK5uy_mC-35nmJO3s19Cjj5Aet7UP0XGkLu3ido
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2moo0YwEYPM

Music, piano, bass, guitar solo and programming drums & synths: Rodolfo Planes (@rplanes)
Lead & backing vocals & lyrics: Mark J. Bennett
Backing vocals: Cecilia Mastropasqua: @cemastro
Rhythm guitar: Gonzalo J. Ares: @gonzalo-julian-ares

Featuring backing vocals by Cintia Galeano 

Image (view of Edinburgh from Gullane, Scotland): Courtesy of Douglas Corrance

This was my third collaborative song with Rodolfo, which we started in 2020. The original instrumental piece he gave me sounded like determined optimism and at that particular moment the pandemic made its way into anything I wrote although the beauty of the song is that anyone can bring their own interpretation to its meaning. Its original title was ‘Camino a Mañana’, that I translated as ‘The Route To Tomorrow’ - I guess I liked the alliteration - even though it was a bit of a tongue twister to sing.

I instantly loved the rhythmic punch of this track and recognised early on that it would require a punchy lyric and vocal. Initially I sung the harmony vocals that Rodolfo devised, but as we later developed into the band ‘Continental Collision’ it made sense to draw on all of the talent available in Ce and Gonza, and here introducing Cintia Galeano. Huge thanks to my wonderfully gifted collaborators, you helped make this song shine. I was stunned (as always) by Rodolfo’s attention to detail, his glorious guitar solos and particularly the drumming throughout. Although I might not add to the instrumentation personally, Rodolfo always encourages me to give him feedback. I am particularly fond of this collaboration and each time we work together I learn so much more. Hope you enjoy it too and many thanks for listening. 

Finding the way,
To get through night and day,
Is just too much.
Making your way
Once more through the fray,
Without losing touch,
Is too much,
For me, yeah.

Waiting in line, 
With no hint of a sign,
Is just too much.
Pretending I’m fine 
Knowing that you’re not mine,
It’s too, it’s just too much,
For me,
All of the time.

This is the route to tomorrow,
Beg, steal or borrow,
To getting through to the other side of all this sorrow.
This is the route to tomorrow,
That I have to follow,
To make it through to the other side of all this sorrow.

I’ll be OK, 
Whatever they say,
I can take it.
Know I can’t stay,
Gotta get me away
From here.
Before it gets too much for me, here.

I can survive,    
I might even just thrive.
If I make it.
I’m still alive,
Watch me as I arrive,
At the other side of all this pain and sorrow  

This is the route to tomorrow,
Beg, steal or borrow,
To getting through to the other side of all this sorrow.
This is the route to tomorrow,
That I have to follow,
To make it through to the other side of all this sorrow.

The Route To Tomorrow - Continental Collision (featuring Cintia Galeano)- Now on Spotify!

A tale of two presidents. One as murderous and conniving a villain as anyone could ever imagine, crushing the spirit out of his own people and anyone who would oppose him; the other an unlikely hero, a beacon of decency and integrity in the midst of darkness and danger, bringing inspiration to all.

I know which I would rather be.

Ordinary people are being thrown into a maelstrom that was not of their making by a malevolent and deranged dictator.  However dark it gets though, the light will prevail, but for many there will be ghosts of what was lost in the struggle.

Many brave journalists are risking their lives to make sure the truth is documented and passed on to us, while the dictator tries to suppress and twist the facts. Some journalists have been deliberately ambushed in attempts to kill them. Many journalists in the dictator's country have been assassinated or imprisoned.

The voices in this track include some of those brave people:
Orla Guerin BBC journalist
Lyse Doucet BBC journalist
Clive Myrie BBC journailist
Sarah Rainsford BBC journalist
Volodymyr Zelensky, President.
I am amazed by the citizens of Ukraine. xx

Ghosts of Kyiv

Ghosts Of Kyiv

This is not the first version of this song that I've recorded. I keep returning to it - I clearly love it. It appears, augmented, on The Rowan Amber Mill release Golden Strings To Tether The Sun. Here is the UnMilled version, and as close to my idea of how it sounded in my head as I can make it. At present it's only a rough mix. I hope to find someone to mix it properly. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy it.

Bushes And Briars (rough mix)

a sea as

Too happy to play The Blues

Bryan Ciliberto: Drums
Ib Delight: Saxophone
Anna Houck: Backing Vocals
Joseph Houck: Vocals, piano, guitar, bass, synths

Mixed and Mastered by Bryan Ciliberto. 
New Album "Haunts & Wants" Out 10/6/23

My new single "I Will Never Forget" existed in its earliest form some fifteen years ago. While I've not changed some of those initial verses, I've written different versions of the song through the years. A few might remember an earlier incarnation I posted on SoundCloud about a decade ago. While the song has evolved, the central idea has never changed. It comes from the drive to cherish, extol the exploits of romantic love. 

 For the lyric video (below), I filmed short clips of scenes along the road where I live:
 https://youtu.be/TfXZTLraEVk?feature=shared

I Will Never Forget (2023 Version)

Taken from the album 'Found' available as a limited edition box (1000 signed and numbered copies) containing postcards of the photographs that inspired each song, full lyrics and a cd from http://www.paularmfield.com/product/found/
or as a download from https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/found/id1045532185

09 From Tip To Filter

teensy bit of theft going on in the drum loop - sorry Amy, you were still alive back when I nicked it.



Barbara

I don't mean to be a drag about my illness
Not the rowing boat motion, it's the water's stillness
Somewhere on the bottom I thought I saw a sacrificial lamb              
I don't have a clue why I'm still afraid of you
But I am

Careful up ahead, that's a water feature
If you start drowning on me, I'll never reach you
And I know if I did, you'd only haul me overboard too
I don't know why I distrust you so
But I do

Barbara, why am I here with you?
Barbara, it was only meant to be a beer with you

I should've walked away in Trafalgar Square
You were feeding the pigeons, I was standing there
From the corner of my eye I thought I saw a lion statue move
And I don't know what talking to ghosts 
Is meant to prove

Barbara, are you mad with me?
Barbara, after all the fun you've had with me

Let's go catch a ride to the Latin Quarter
Or the Giant's Causeway, whatever's shorter
We'll both stand in line and whoever blinks first gets the bill
I don't know how you'll destroy me now
But you will

Barbara, even now you're a mystery
Barbara, why do you want to do all this to me?

Barbara

I Don't Like It (Any More Than You Do)

Borderline Blues. stevek

This is a new song featuring Jen Young on vocals. Clearly the present situation in Glasgow, Scotland, makes it harder to get away than it usually is.

Never Let The Sun Set

We should get away
Take ourselves 
And our love
Head on out
Far away from here
Let our poor heads clear

Yeah we could leave today
Pack a bag
And our song
And put this place
300 thousand miles behind
And out of mind

Did you ever see a train run out of steam?
Never let the sun set on our dream
Never let the sun set
Never let the sun set

And I’ll travel with you
For the rest
Of our lives
We could be
Crossing land and sea
With our liberty

Yeah we should get away
That is all
I came to say
Take this love
Round the world with you
While we’re able to

Did you ever see a diamond lose its gleam?
Never let the sun set on our dream
Never let the sun set
Never let the sun set

Never Let The Sun Set - with Jen Young

My debut album, Time On My Own, is now available on bandcamp. You can find it at http://brokerjonathan.bandcamp.com There's a review of it here: 
http://www.folkwords.com/reviewarchive_90495.html
Long ago I wrote some songs which were rubbish so I tried some more. They were not much better so I kept at it. No one asked me to do this. The world was not short of good songs. It had shitloads already. It was only short of good songs by me. Other people didn't seem to mind about this in the slightest, but I found it bothered me, so I was trying to do something about it. I guess I still am. This page is where some of the more recent attempts to rectify an intolerable situation appear.

Barbara

Broker Jonathan

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