Here’s a new collaboration with Steve Andricks.  The song grew from a core idea on acoustic guitar into an elaborate piece that is almost symphonic in nature.  It’s a  work that feels like you’re listening on a well-worn LP.

It features me on acoustic guitars and Steve on synths, bass, mellotron and programming.  

Copyright Dan Swanson & Steve Andricks 2025

I Thought I’d Told You

Music, lyrics, ac. guitar & vocal : Grave
Other instruments & mix : PJ Project

Caffeine

This song is for the person that you love. 

One of my earliest memories is watching the 1985 Chicago Bears win the Super Bowl for American Football. I have always loved Chicago sports teams, and have rediscovered my love for the game after many years away. 

On December 20th, my daughter and I watched the Bears vs. Packers game on TV.  They are intense rivals, and the Bears had lost against them just two weeks earlier in a very close game that came down to the wire. During halftime she went to sleep because quite frankly we weren't playing all that great and we were losing.  But after the break, the Bears slowly started finding their game, and made what was one of the most improbable comebacks in NFL history.  

I wanted to wake her up and tell her, but it was past midnight when the game finished because they went into overtime. But her favorite player, DJ Moore, caught the game winning touchdown in the most dramatic fashion. So this song is about how I would have to wait until the morning to tell her the good news. 

It’s You

When you had left for bed
You’d never think we’d win
The way that we came back to prove
It wasn’t just a fluke, for every time we’d lose
But this time there was no excuse
But now I’ll have to wait
To say to you it made
All the waiting worth the ache

I wish tomorrow here at last 
So I can tell the day that passed
When I’ll wake up and see the face
That takes me to a brighter place
It’s you, It’s you, It’s you

Some days I wasn’t sure 
If we could ever win
Most times I couldn’t bet to lose
And every time I think
I’m lost beyond the brink
You were there to pull me through
And though we struggled at the line
This time we made it through!

I wish tomorrow here at last 
So I can tell the day that passed
When I’ll wake up and see the face
That takes me to a brighter place
It’s you, It’s you, It’s you

And now today is here at last
And I have seen enough that’s past
And what we have is all we need
I can be the best me
With you, with you, with you

It's You

In case you can help Benny 🙋🏽‍♂️ Cheers

https://www.justgiving.com/page/marcin-man?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL

_____________________

The Beautiful Dark

Born of space
Just black and fields
With not much haste
Mighty matter congeals
Near' ineffable time
Our hydrogen ark
Grooved gravity grind
Till star light spark

We are now Sun
Light for these fields
The beautiful dark broods heavier yields
Near ineffable time for our fallible fixed
Cometh life for dark space remixed

The beautiful dark to the beautiful light
Let's not confuse this hydrogen bright
Space trees
Space leaves
Space beings
Feelings
Reason on you as to what it all means

We got scared by our short time
So we made life after our fleeting fine
Maybe attention doesn't tend to time full
Maybe no fear thanks real life till time cull

We are now Sun
Light for these fields
The beautiful dark broods heavier yields
Near ineffable time for our fallible fixed
Cometh life for dark space remixed

_____________________________

Decided to write one for my artist name. TBD refers to a couple of things. We come from the black of space and once we accept the unimaginable amounts of time relative to our short lives that evolution needs to make us, that looks to be our reality.
I also feel we can only know our good/light sides by knowing and controlling our bad/dark sides so in a very real way, we can only appreciate a moral good with a reference of what we truly feel is morally wrong. So I do strive to be as good a person as I can be but I accept that I have the potential to be an entity which doesn't benefit the evolution of our collective too and can learn and observe those traits from too many dark and evil dickheads on this planet. I think we need to appreciate the full spectrum of behavior to be able to settle on a course for our lives which can make this a better life and hopefully a better world before we check out.
So for me my artist name is an existential reference and it's not a negative meaning which it may come across as. It's laying bare what I believe we may miss, to appreciate our dark sides properly through conscientious observation of our own self and others so we can avoid being that being of unessesary suffering. That way we can endeavour to be people born of the sun accepting the cards we've been dealt, the moments we've met, in the place we happened to find ourselves and that's so amazing.
We are alive and we get to paint our own meaning to this beautiful life through thick and thin 🔆 Thanks Universe 🌌

The Beautiful Dark

For Tom V. and Richard L. with gratitude and much affection.

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gamma ray croquet
i’m comin’ over
auto da fe foreplay
i’m in

i crossed today

walk away renèe
i double dare you
ascension day today
climb in

i crossed today

i am clear
i am free
i don’t like it
get drinking!

ascension day
wrong way

i crossed today


I Crossed

All Together All Alone

When you’re back
Written and Recorded by TJG Nov 2025
Written in A-flat Major messing around with quartals  😉
Trying for a vintage sound jazz composition. Thanks for listening. 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Technical Details:
Rhythm Guitar: Gibson ES 175
Lead Guitar: Gibson ES 335
Guitar Amplifier: Fender George Benson Hot Rod Deluxe
Fender pedal board: Line 6 delay
Bass Guitar: Fender Squire recorded with API 505 DI
Mics: a pair of Royer r10 ribbons on guitars
Mic: AEA R44 vocals
Mic preamps: API 312
Spatial effects: analog reverb
Mixer: API 32 channel summing mixer (8200/7800)
Stereo Bus processing (API EQ and API compressor)
Final mix down to a MARA MCI JH110 1/4inch 2-track at 15 ips using ATR Master Tape.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you’re back (in my mind) 

I’m always keeping time
When you go away
When you stay away
When you stay away

It’s a blue night
It’s a green sky
It’s the ocean in your eyes

It’s a blue night
It’s a green sky
It’s the ocean in your eyes

When you’re back
You’ll be coming up the street
When you’re back

It’s a blue night
It’s a green sky
It’s the ocean in your eyes

The clock keeps the score
When you fade away
When you fade away
When you fade away

It’s a blue night
It’s a green sky
It’s the ocean in your eyes

When you’re back
When you’re back
When you’re back
When you’re back
You’ll be coming up the street
When you’re back
In my mind

When you're back

THE HARBOR is my first song written for 2026.  Based on the metaphoric saying
  " riding ones coat tails."  Set in the early days of wooden ships , romance and exploration. Around the year 1781  This idea came to me in a dream .
Lyrics by Glenny G and Performed by his " One Man Band"
THE HARBOR
Yeah You want to come along
You won't because you don't belong
Yeah You want to ride along
Your lost in another song
I have to go , I have to go , I have to go away
Sitting in a parlor 
Drinking tea from a silver cup
Waiting by the harbor
The girl and  her lonesome dove
 I have to go , I have to go, I have to go away
You want to come along 
Because Your coat is way to long
You want to come along
Together it  feels so strong
I have to go I have to go away
( Guitar Solo )
You want to come along
Your coat is way to long
You want to come along
But Together it all  seems  wrong
I have to go, I have to go, I have to go

The Harbor ( Original With Lyrics ) song one 2026

An original country-folk song that laments lost love with the regrets expressed through a  Wizard Of Oz analogy. Essentially all play and no work will catch up with you….

Craig Durgy: acoustic guitar, harmonica & vocals
Nat Daniels: production & additional instrumentation
©2026 Gentle Rain Records
Music & lyrics written by Craig Durgy

I guess it was overdue, ain’t no surprise
That another man’s over you
Looking deep in your eyes 
If I’d only stayed sober you might never have gone
Now I’m left to get over you
And you’re moving on, yeah, you’re moving on 

You, were half of my party girl
And I, was the Wizard of Oz
Where houses take flight
And the Tin Man, he gets tight
Where love seems to be a lost cause 

Now I know it was Kansas, guess we took a wrong turn
Cause a scarecrow that dances, 
Will surely get burned 
Looking over my shoulder to know you weren’t far
Now I’m left to get over you
Guess I ain’t too smart, with no courage or heart

You, were half of my party girl, 
And I, was the Wizard of Oz
Where houses take flight
And the Tin Man, he gets tight
Where love seems to be a lost cause
(Somewhere over the rainbow, that’s where I’ll find you)                                   Where houses take flight
And the Tin Man, he gets tight
Where love seems to be a lost cause
Love seems to be, well it always seems to me, uh huh huh

Getting Over You

This song came into my mind when I once was standing at night at the window looking outside and thinking about the world and life. You probably know this situation.
I rediscovered my old violin and had the idea to make a song with it. I haven’t played this instrument for many years… was the second instrument I learned after the recorder. 
I usually record particularly the vocals bit by bit, and usually several takes and then decide which to take. In this song for the first time there are parts where I could not decide, so I left 2 tracks. Can you hear this? At the beginning before the drums start, there are parts with 2 vocals tracks. When the drums begin there is always only one vocal track.
Yes, I know that the stars will not always shine…but compared to our lifetime…

At night by the window
Looking outside through the window wide
Dark trees stand dark on the left side 
The stars above shine bright and clear
But the danger feels always near
Outside the cold I’m sheltered here
Despite all I feel no fear

We are so small in the night
Under the stars endless light
What do people seek every day
Before they fade away?
All seeking answers where their future lies
Who can find peace before their eyes?

At the window I stand alone
The world outside is so unknown
So huge to show how small we are
But in my thoughts nothing is far

I guess the stars will always shine
But this is not our time
I hope I can find my way
Beyond the doubts that make me stray

Here inside the air is warm
Protected from the winter storm
At the window I still stand
Watch outside the quiet land

I guess the stars will always shine
But this is not our time
The world outside moves slow and cold
I can’t tell if it’s young or old

At Night By the Window

With all the wars (despite Trump's claims to be a peace-maker),  new wars on top of old wars, tariffs, threats on sovereign nations -  perhaps it is time to lay Hope to rest in 2026?  An inauspicious start to the New Year, and a mournful longing for something better.
* Native Instruments Omnia-  for choral elements
Track 5 of the 2026 collection from Wigmore Allen Gibbons called Life In Tense : https://www.terrywigmore.com/wigmore-allen-gibbons

Requiem for Hope

Hope is the dream…of a waking man
Hope is the dream…Hope is the dream
Hope is the feather with the wind on its wings
Hope is to wait for beautiful things
If this was the end of our story
You would wait for another thousand years
Dream…to dream…

(INST)

Sing…Dooby-Dooby-Doo


Hope is the dream of a waking man
Hope is the feather with the wind on its wings
Hope is to wait for beautiful things


Wigmore: Music and Production
Allen, Guitars, bass, lyrics, vocals
(c) 2025

Requiem For Hope

This site is a mix of some of my compositions and solo guitar performances.

I Thought I’d Told You

The Music of Dan Swanson