Picket Fences

My morning commute can get pretty ugly, so I dug deep inside my soul for this one to explain the madness I experience at 8 AM on the platform to head toward the financial district.

It's the first song I've written on the gourd banjo. The plan was for it to be a gut and gourd piece with Dan. 

 I put an earlier version up on my other SC page and Martin took notice and wanted to put some sarod on it. The idea certainly seemed damn fine to me! Check out Martin's page https://soundcloud.com/martin-k-g

Dan then chimed in with mandolin, harmonica, slide, electrics, gut, washboard, triangle, and all sorts of good things. I went a little nuts on midi percussion and cowbell stuff. I like to get weird with the cow.

Hope you enjoy!


Lyrics:

Rush Hour Drag


Waitin’ by the tracks
with my bag on my back
Hotter down here than a damn steam stack

Minutes click by
with the sweat in the eye
Prayin my train comes before I fry

Step on the car
and it smells like a bar
Someone looks like he travelled too far

Two crazy eyes
He's a big tall guy
Yelling at ghosts about telling him lies


CHORUS:
Sometimes  you gotta take it
Sometimes you gotta give it back
Zombies with touchscreen jackels
Someone untie me from the rail road track

Monday hits
Like a ton of bricks
All this coffee just makes me sick

Wednesday plays
With the train delays
All these transfers tie a maze

Friday comes
Gonna hurt someone
So much grief with nowhere to run

Mondays back
By the railroad track
Trains gonna give me a panic attack

CHORUS
Sometimes  you gotta take it
Sometimes you gotta give it back
Zombies, pole hugging rascals
Someone untie me from the rail road track

Sometimes  you gotta take it
Sometimes you gotta give it back
Where is, this all going?
Someone untie me from the rail road track

Rush Hour Drag: G&B with Martin Kirwan

Martin brought us this tune and asked us to have fun with it. He'd written the melody and recorded it for sarod and guitars (hear the original at https://soundcloud.com/martin-k-g/out-m4a) and was looking for something bigger. Our initial focus was on reinforcing the amazing drones & overtones from the sarod's sympathetic strings, but as we worked on it more lines toward the melody and rhythm became clear. As it got toward finishing, the great Chris Okunbor took the time to bless us with lilting and slide that belie both her British Isles heritage and her love of the blues.
The result is a polyethnic, panchronological world fusion jam reminiscent of some of my favorite music of the 1990s (a recurring theme in my recent Soundcloud posting). We've got musicians from three different continents playing instruments with roots in five  different continents and spanning the last 40,000 years or so. 

Martin wrote the music and played sarod, ukulele, acoustic and electric guitars. 
Chris played slide guitar and sang.
G&B played banjo, clarinet, cigar box guitar, jaw harps, dulcimer, bass, hand drums, chimes & digital percussion, melodica,  dulcimer, ngoni, kalimba, didgeridoo, Korg monotrons .
Jeff did a bang-up job producing.

Thanks to Martin and Chris for being such  great collaborators. Each has already posted this, so thanks for listening and reading again if you've heard it before. If not, check them out for more incredible music.

Martin: https://soundcloud.com/martin-k-g
Chris: https://soundcloud.com/chris-okunbor

Picture: my 10 year old out for his first solo paddle, on a small Poconos pond.

Lost At Sea (Martin Kirwan, with Chris  O(2) and G&B)

Child #286, aka The Sweet Trinity, The Golden Willow Tree, and others, which dates back to the early 17th  century at least and seems to have begun as a tale in which Sir Walter Raleigh plays the villain. Learned from the singing of the one and only Pete Seeger, this one doesn't feature Sir Walter but does bear the hallmarks of the ballad: an attack at sea, a cabin boy's saving the day, and  a captain's treachery. There are plenty of other versions out there, but few save an obscure one from shanty singer Stan Hugill have involved the call-and-response mechanics of a sea shanty proper. This one definitely doesn't amount to a sea shanty proper, but hopefully the influence of the art form can be felt in the group chorus; we aimed to take that influence and combine it with a massive soundscape for  a version that would evoke aesthetics associated with both work and rest. 

To do this, after the basic vocal was  established, all three of us created our own drones along with some basic melodic input to accompany it. We all sang too,  even Martin (who I think we can all agree should do so more frequently), to try for a sea shanty feel.  Jeff worked his way methodically through all of it, combining it as he does in just the right ways  to make the perfect folk wall of sound. Again, with such a delightful yet tragic story being told, we hope that the music helps convey the emotions and tensions created by the players' actions - the cabin  boy's not-quite-selfless heroism, the captain's utter selfishness, and a resigned and tragic ending in the low and lonesome sea.

G&B sang and played banjo, whistle, dulcimer, guitar, cigar box guitar, MIDI organs, melodica, pocket synth, didgeridoo, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting
Martin Kirwan sang and played sarod, guitars and droney things

 Martin: https://soundcloud.com/martin-k-g

A nice think piece on The Golden Vanity from our friends at Murder Ballad Monday: http://singout.org/2015/03/30/golden-vanity/

Oh, there was a lofty ship, and she put out to sea
And the name of that ship was the Golden Vanity
As she sailed upon the low, and the lonesome low
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea

Oh, she hadn't been at sea, more than two weeks or three
When she was set upon by a Turkish revelry
As she sailed upon the low, and the lonesome low
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea

 And then up spake our little cabin boy
A-sayin' 'What would you give to me, if I do them destroy?
If I sink 'em in the low, and the lonesome low?
If I sink 'em in the lonesome sea?'

'To the man who them destroys,' oh, the captain then replied
'I'll give five thousand pounds, and my daughter for a bride,
If he sinks 'em in the low, and the lonesome low
If he sinks 'em in the lonesome sea.'

Then our boy smote his breast, and down jumped he
He swum until he's come unto the Turkish revelry
As she sailed upon the low, and the lonesome low
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea.

And he's had a little tool that was made for the use
He's bored nine holes in her hull all at once.
And he's sunk her in the low and the lonesome low
He's sunk her in the lonesome sea.

Then he's swum until he's come unto the Vanity's side
A-saying 'Captain, pick me up, for I'm a-wearied with the tide,
And I'm sinkin' in the low, and the lonesome low
I'm sinkin' in the lonesome sea.'

'No, I will not pick you up,' oh the captain then replied,
'I will not pick you up, I will sink you in the tide.
I will sink you in the low, and the lonesome low
I will sink you in the lonesome sea.'

'If it were not for the love that I bear unto your men
I would do unto you as I did unto them.
I would sink you in the low, and the lonesome low,
I would sink you in the lonesome sea.'

Then our boy bowed his head, and down sank he
Farewell, farewell to that Golden Vanity
As she sailed on the low, and the lonesome low
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea.


Picture: Townshend's Inlet, 2014


The Golden Vanity (with Martin Kirwan)

Remastered by my friend Jon Hasz, of Ramona Music
Didn't know he was gonna do this, so it's an awesome surprise... 
Thanks Jon! https://soundcloud.com/jonhasz

Lyrics:
I’m watching the northern lights 
Unendless fear in my eyes as I try to hide from the northern lights 
The pain, just as the train, goes by 
We relinquish a sigh, relieved of any further crime 
The crow outside my window slays its glide 
It sits atop the thicket pines, and runs a block of picket signs 
I’m watching the northern lights 
Unendless shame floods my sides as I’m trying to hide from the northern lights 
Star-gazing towards the city of wine 
All of the bystanders align; I can’t help but to stay behind 
Shipwreck in my dream from what she’s shone 
She’s got me tremblin’ to the bone, but she has left me all alone 
I’m watching the northern lights 
Unendless fear in my eyes as I try to hide from the northern lights

Northern Lights (Remastered)

Thread Of Hope

World On Fire

Valeria Kosherieva - Love Song

Dusty Bar.MP3

Final Exit by Tom Mitchell.

www.mitchellmusic.co.uk

Twitter: @therealtommitch

TOM MITCHELL - Final Exit

Won't Tell

Brother and sister fronted band based out of Edmonton. If you dig our stuff please 'like' us on Facebook and follow on twitter. We'll be happy to return the favour :).

Won't Tell

cadence&nathan