Love the disco vibe. Guitar playing is first rate, production; top shelf. Funky, cool story line.

Wow! This is niiiice! Goood work. The groove is on!

Mike  created this wonderful song .  I am so glad he asked me to participate .   I just love this old tune also recorded by Merle Haggard.   Such an emotional  song with deep meaning.  Thanks again Mike for letting me join in on your excellent version   I hope SC listeners feel the same

If I Could Only Fly (Blaze Foley cover by Lefty Mike and Chuck Aaron)

What can I I say, so many John Prine songs and I love them all.  Would have loved to see him in concert but we still have his music

Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness( Cover - John Prine)

My State of Mind

What do you do when your horse is losing ground at every turn, running out of steam while your rival appears to be gaining strength, and you’re not sure you’ll even get to the finish line?  Maybe you should talk to the “officials”.  Have that big mean orange horse declared illegal, and locked in a cage.  Yeah, that’s the ticket….

Or wait….how about this?  Just change horses.  Dump your old horse, & get a new one.  The new horse may be clueless, but she’s got fresh legs, & can (probably) run in a straight line for the final stretch.  Yeah, that’s an even better ticket…..

But just in case, don’t give up on Option # 1…..  
*******************
For this one, I rounded up my fantasy band, the Famous Texas Men Of Note, to perform at the imaginary Seven Sisters Dance Hall, just west of Austin in the heart of the Texas Hill Country.  The crowd wasn’t huge that night, but it was plenty raucous.  Needless to say, we brought the house down.  We always do.
                                  
LYRICS
Finally bagged the prize,
Event commemorated with a photograph,
A delightful list of crimes,
Got ‘em prancin’ with the lawyers down the primrose path,
The scribes down in the court,
Breathlessly report,
With a glee they can’t contain,

Oh they’re giddy….

Giddy like the rats that swarm the sewage slag,
Giddy like the vultures, feasting on the rotted culture,
That has spawned them from its womb,
And they tell us all how grateful we should be,
Cause they’re doing it to save democracy.

Yeah all fortitude & grit,
Our protectors wouldn’t quit,
On this noble quest,
There would be no rest,
Staged sudden raids, drew dossiers,
Tried Russian links, threw kitchen sinks,
To cage the dreaded pest,
Damn the proper form,
They’ve snared Le Bete Orange,
Slam the gavel, bring the charge,

And now they’re giddy…..

Giddy like the buzzards circling o’er their prey,
Giddy like the varmints, chewing on the hated target,
While the judges hold him still,
Giddy like the frantic hawks, flailing with their shrilly squawks,
The fear they just can’t kill,
Damn the coming storm,
Now they’ve booked Le Bete Orange,
Slam the gavel, bring the charge,
Hey, the law may be applied unequally,
But it’s the only way to save democracy.

I beg you Lovely Lady, turn your head away,
Away from the shame, away from the pain,
America, America, how did we let it get this far?
We are your sons, what have we done?
What have we done……….

Ah but giddy doesn’t last, when the vengeance & the wrath,
Shred the piers that bear the load,
No it won’t be so hysterical, when even Heaven’s miracle,
Can’t keep our father’s code, 

Oh but decision day is nigh, & the beast is still alive,
And far too many still believe…..

So arrest the Monster!...show it on TV,
Silence him & anyone who won’t concede,
There’s no time for constitutionality,
When the mission is to save democracy.

Giddy (now with lyrics)

February brings a slower, pensive, ballad from the WAG fellas. Perhaps we're feeling a little sentimental, or reflective in the bleak midwinter?  Maybe it is the approach of Valentine's Day slowing things down, or is it simply age, and the desire to capture anew, the childlike wonder of looking up in a gentle snowfall?

Change is the key to being fresh in our creative approaches to music. One For The Eye is a poem I wrote in celebration of the winter season. It was adapted by Keith to better fit an easy listening composition I had sent to him earlier. Keith ran with the challenge to make a song out of these parts and delivers a song that, we trust,  gives one pause to conjure up those moments from childhood in the snow, and smile. 

Two observations offer a frame for this song:
This week, Nova Scotia, where I have family, received a record setting dump of snow (Sydney N.S. received 1.5 m), and that is where the muse opens.
The other observation is that in the west, in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where I also have family, there is too little snow accumulation leading to worries about water tables, crops, and forest fires this summer. Too much or too little is not good.

Lyrics:
One for the Eye 

Too much can be an undesirable burden
Too little leave all hopes abandoned.
One at a time,
One on the tongue,
and one in the eye.

Or could it be a warm iconic postcard?
Or would it be much better left just as Mother intended
One at a time
One on the tongue
and one in the eye

A light descent from heaven
It may be euphoric
Though always seen,  
never heard in the falling

One at a time
One at a time
One for the tongue
One for the tongue
…and one in the eye


Wigmore: Original poem, music, production
Allen: adapting lyrics, vocals, bass.

One For The Eye

Keith purges some demons in this one. I came along to help.
Track 7 from the Wigmore Allen Gibbons album called SHYLING which can be found at : https://www.terrywigmore.com/wigmore-allen-gibbons

Cuts Like Ragged Steel

    Unfurl your banner…sound your trumpets
    Surely you will know
    To you of dull wit…all I ask for is watch until she glows

    (CHORUS)

    She floats like a ghost, like a ghost in the winter garden
    Floats like a ghost to me
    She floats like a ghost, like a ghost in the winter garden
    Floats like a ghost to me

    She cuts like ragged steel, she cuts like ragged steel
    She cuts like ragged steel through me
    She cuts like ragged steel, she cuts like ragged steel
    She cuts like ragged steel through me

    The time has flown… the light has left this page
    That read of her own doom
    A lady that was full of Grace…forever walks alone

    (CHORUS)

    (INST)

    She cuts like ragged steel, cuts like ragged steel
    She cuts like ragged steel through me
    I shoulda turned back the tide, shoulda torn down the walls
    Shoulda ripped apart the world for you
    For you
      
Wigmore: Drums, Synths, Additional Vocals, Production
Allen: Music (Guitars, Bass, Vocals), Lyrics 
2024

Shyling

Cuts Like Ragged Steel

Jerry Reed- I have his autograph on my old Takemine that is just about faded out.  Jerry was just inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year.  Love this man and his music.  I have tried to play his claw type of fingerpicking, but it is so difficult and so many types of tuning.   I dropped my guitar down 1/2 step and played in drop D tuning.  The best I can do is to try and capture a little of his style

500 Miles (Cover of Jerry Reed)

You found this boy you took him home 
You said its empty we’ll be alone 
My fathers drunk, my mothers mum on the shift tonight  
We stole some gin, put music on 
We knew the words to that Neil Young song 
You took my hand said follow me, turn off the light  
Make up, clothes and fluffy toys 
Childish things and adult ploys, 
Your bunk bed filled with biscuit crumbs and magazines  
Shoes off you said, we rolled around 
I held my breath didn’t make a sound 
The ceiling glowed with stars in neon green 

I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream, 
You could have been anyone to me  

The sound of voices woke me up 
I was lying on the surgeons slab 
A doctor and a Nurse were staring down at me  
I said is it bad just tell me straight 
He held my heart out on a plate 
Tomorrow you’ll be feeling great like you never did before   
I left the house before the dawn 
Your room still dark, the curtains drawn 
The years since then have passed me by so fast  
But Facebooks got so very smart 
I recognised you from the start 
It’s true - Nobody can escape their past   

I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream, 
You could have been anyone to me

Night Shift

Copyright Daniels & Durgy 2019
Featuring Larry Deming on Violin/Fiddle
and Mike Yarrish on Bass.
Credit to Julie Blick for the photo cover (with thanks).

Our most sincere thanks to Mike and Larry for lending us your amazing talents on this track! 

Ever Again
Lyrics:

We used to talk the night away
now I mean nothing to you,
We could say most anything,
now I don’t know what to do...

‘Cause inside I feel so broken,
Like the words we fail to say
Since you left and took your lovin’
Like a ship that sailed away..

Chorus
But You... You remain, 
in this moment with me for all time,
And I know, I’ll never love someone like I loved you... 
Ever again.

There’s no point in expectations,
It’s not how to love someone,
But I could never keep you grounded,
I’d let you fly into the sun,

‘Cause I'd rather love you freely,
than force you into loving me,
And though you’re bound to love another,
I know your heart is still with me,

Chorus
But You... You remain, 
in this moment with me for all time,
And I know, I’ll never love someone like I loved you... 
Ever again.

Instrumental 

But You... You remain, 
in this moment with me for all time,
And I know, I’ll never love someone like I love you... 
Ever again, Oh you remain, in this moment with me for all time!
And I know, I'll never, love someone like I loved you...
Ever again...
Ever again.

Ever Again

Copyright Daniels & Durgy 2019
Written & Performed by Nat Daniels & Craig Durgy
Featuring Jonathan Beckenstein on Guitar solo.
Our utmost thanks to Jon for lending us his utterly exquisite talent on this track! 
To view his music, click here: https://soundcloud.com/jonathan_beckenstein

Lyrics: 
Breathing slow.. Darlin’ don’t let go
Through the night,
You will find this burning light...
Take my hand, We will silence Ancient sands.

Breathing slow, Breathing slow...
in a secret place that only we know.. 

Chorus:
‘Cause I’d live a thousand lives to be with you..
and I’d give my heart if you would ask me to..
and I’d breathe your name until the stars lost all their glow..
Breathing slow… Breathing slow..

Instrumental 

We both know, time’s a fateful friend,
But the glow of this love will never end..
Say it slow, 
And together we’ll ascend.

All the sinners and the saints.. 
They cant hide from what we all are meant to make.
 
Chorus:
Tell me how to stop this heart from loving you?
I’d still live a thousand lives to be with you..
and I’d give my heart if you would ask me to..
and I’d breathe your name until the stars lost all their glow..
Breathing slow… Breathing slow..
Breathing slow… Breathing slow..

Between You and I

Breathing Slow

Breathing Slow (ft Jonathan Beckenstein)

This an another one of those semi-live recordings. We took an initial iPhone recording of mine that was meant to be a simple test run and decided to keep it as the base to which Nat added her lovely harmony vocals and piano. It’s a very gentle, quiet love song that expresses how our deeply personal core is really one with nature, with God, where only the truest of spirits can find a home to share in love. The pine trees know and the dawn reveals such truths.

Written, produced and performed by: Nat Daniels & Craig Durgy
Craig Durgy: guitar & vocals
Nat Daniels: piano & vocals
Copyright 2024 Daniels & Durgy / Gentle Rain Records

Lyrics: WANTING

What I want is simple 
As stand the swaying pines
So quietly a symbol
Of this heart of mine
Reaching for the sunlight
To gain the heavens’ view
And when each storm expires
Will solemn watch renew

Yes, simple is my compass
It steadies on one light
It quiets the presumptuous
Withstands the darkest night
And deep within my wanting
I hear the pine trees sway
A call so low and haunting
To watch you slip away

Yes, I know well my longing
I watch, and there’s the sound
Of stars that rest with dawning
As the sunshine comes around
The warming of my inner-most
With gray and green and blue
Wanting is no more a ghost
The pine trees sing of you

Wanting

Wanting (live)

I'm putting up new original material on my Spotify channel https://open.spotify.com/artist/2PtcG937rHfQWJwv0Zi4um?si=t1ppLngORgmuqz9qeoDOzw 
Mostly original tracks, a few covers here and there. Thank you for even getting this far. Thoughts, opinions, suggestions all welcome. It's pretty lonely out here toiling over every sound wave and grubby plugin. Any feedback is appreciated and if you've got a track you want me to hear send it over - what comes around goes around etc. A huge shout out to Len Rice for all his production suggestions on this and other tracks of mine - a true expert, check him out https://soundcloud.com/lenrice
One day I hope to get some collaborations going and a far off dream is to re awaken all these tracks in a live environment with a live band and maybe even a live audience. For now the dream keeps me going. Thanks for listening.

I'm trying to use as much real instrumentation as possible: a Taylor and a Norman acoustic guitars, a Fender Strat Roadhouse that goes out of tune if I even look at it, a cheap Vintage mandolin that hurts to play and listen to, an 80 year old zither banjo that screams 'I was never destined for this' and a borrowed Aria Pro II bass that a friend can can never be bothered to take home on the bus. Synths are a plasticky Roland FA06 and a fun but dumb Korg minilogue. Throw in some Native Instruments software primarily for smoochy piano and strings, a £15 melodica full of tramp spit, some harps in impossible tunings, and a box of percussion and assorted prehistoric flints (are you really still reading this??). 

All recorded on Logic Pro X on an ancient iMac that is going to explode any minute and take my entire oeuvre with it. And most likely burn the house down.

Night Shift

C h r i s t i a n T W a l s h

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