by Kent Aitken and David & Laurie Easterling © March 11, 2021 Charlottetown, Canada, and Oak Ridge, TN, USA

Mars was rising as the sun went down
I sat waiting waiting for the sound
Of your piano through the walls every night 
And I pick my guitar by candlelight 

At first I hated these thin apartment walls
And the noise echoing down the halls
Slamming doors, lovers’ quarrels, footsteps, and doorbell rings
at 8:08 sweet piano strings

Play me a song
And I’ll play along
All I want to do 
Is accompany you
Play me a song
And I’ll play along
All I want you to do 
Is play me another song

It gets me through my toughest times
When you stopped, mid-song, at 9:09
I was scared I’d never hear you again
A blue songbird with a broken wing 

Sun rises and sets but your silence remains
Toughest of times lead to darkest of days
Learned your songs, got them wrong, my old guitar, with worn-out strings
When I played at 8:08 I heard you sing

Play me a song
And I’ll sing along
All I want to do 
Is accompany you
Play me a song
And I’ll sing along
In time and in tune   

Play me another song

Play Me A Song (w/ David and Laurie Easterling) - Song a Week 2021, Week 10

capo 3

A m             G.              D/F#
1.Let’s get back to basics
G.            D/F#.      Em
Can  we start again
Build a new foundation
G.     D/F# em.          C
Like we only just met 
2.I’ll Laugh at your old  jokes 
Like they’re new to me
You ll be sweet
And charming 
We'll spend days by the sea 

3.I’ll try and watch all the football games
You’ll sip Licorice tea 
I’ll even  learn the  players names
You’ll collect sea shells with me

CHORUS
C.                                          G.     EM
Well not speak of what ever then went wrong 
C.                                 G.                                  D
We wont dredge up the thoughts of the past 
C.                             D                  EM.             G
We will dream of golden days and all that's to come 
C.                              D.                 EM
 Lay down those  old  lies at last

BRIDGE
EM                                   G
You’ll put up with my anxious heart
C
adrift on the waves
              G
And the salt spray of life
We walk on now not torn apart
C
From shadows and caves into the bright light

week 10 foundations- song a week

Stephanie told me that all those tattoos 
on her ex-husband's face and his neck were to try to 
protect from attack - there to keep people back
'Til all anyone saw was that armour he wore
It looked kind of fearsome but all that it said was...

Fragile - handle with care
All it said was fragile handle with
all the care that you can muster
Fragile - handle with care - Fragile

Taking a walk trying to clear out my head
When this dog in the park sets to vet me instead
and he's growling and barking and driving me back
Like a dangerous invader set foot on his land
I saw on his collar a sign there that read….

Fragile - handle with care
What it said was fragile handle with
all the care that you can muster
Fragile - handle with care - Fragile

So the next time you notice me snap or I snarl
I want you to know I don't mean to be cruel
It's a side that comes out when I'm 
weak and I'm low on reserves

Then there's the opposite site of this dance
My beautiful victims with sensitive hearts
Cause the people I growl at they tend to be closest
They’re the people I'm wanting to care for the most
Cause maybe the label on everyone's heart says

Fragile - handle with care
What it said was fragile handle with
all the care that you can muster
Fragile - handle with care - Fragile

Fragile

It's My Time to Shine
                                                
I find the words , then the notes  and magic finds the strings
Catch it quick before it's gone,another one begins
It’s not too late, I’m not too old
I’m digging deep,I’m mining  gold
It’s my  time to shine

I see it in a headline, I read it in a book
I hear it in a movie  and I feel it in a look   
My feet can tap out rhythm, my head can burst with rhyme
And when a song is building , I’m lost inside that  time  

Some arrive in a flash, some take a while
Everyone’s a treasure and each is like my child
Some write for fame & money, some write to hear their voice
Some want to send a message, for me I  have no choice

It's My Time To Shine

The fifth tale of Snow and Cherry

No more Mr. Nice Guy

he's the type they bring home to family dinner
he's the kind they don't know they're looking for
because who wouldn't want to date a winner
just you wait for lines outside his door

dude is so good at bending over backwards
counts the days for his favors to return
he thinks he deserves everything for being nice
but everybody knows nice guys finish last
the only way out is through

no more Mr. Nice Guy
no more Mr. Nice Guy
no more Mr. Nice Guy
no more Mr. Nice Guy

he's so tired of pretending to be simple
there is only so much a man can hide
it's no wonder he can't tell why he's single
all he learned to give is an eye for an eye
the only way out is through

no more Mr. Nice Guy
no more Mr. Nice Guy
no more Mr. Nice Guy
no more Mr. Nice Guy

he thinks he deserves everything for being nice
but everybody knows nice guys finish last
the only way out is through

Tales of Snow and Cherry

No more Mr. Nice Guy

"There's Only One Of You" (#450, 210401)

 * co-written with Jeffrey Joslin & Steven Cade * 

I think of Thomas Edison when I turn out the lights
Compare my life to his even though I know that that ain't right
Ask myself what good I've done as I board a crosstown bus
Thinkin' 'bout miss Rosa Parks and all she did for us

Do you ever wonder at the end of the day
Why will they remember my name?

There's a song that only you can sing
And a dream that only you can dream
There's a story only you can write
With words you carry deep inside
There's seven billion people that's true
But there's only one of you

Aretha she's the queen yeah and Elvis was the king
But once upon a time someone taught 'em both to sing
And years before Neil Armstrong took his steps on the moon
He crawled before he walked across his parents' living room

You might not see yourself up there
But you gotta' start somewhere

When it's tough and you feel like giving up
And you're scared you'll never be enough
When everything beneath the sun
Already seems like it's been done
If you're looking everywhere for something new
Well there's only one of you

And what about the man who came from Galilee
Who made the lame to walk and he caused the blind to see
Marked his words in yellow two lines from John 14
Even you are gonna do greater things than me

There's a song that only you can sing
And a dream that only you can dream
There's a story only you can write
With words you carry deep inside
This world is full of souls
But it's you that makes it whole

When it's tough and you feel like giving up
And you're scared you'll never be enough
When everything beneath the sun
Already seems like it's been done
If you're looking everywhere for something new
Well there's only one of you

Week 14a - There’s Only One Of You (210401)

I continue to be so impressed with all the wonderful writers on Song of the Week.
Although I contiune to write (just a bit slower at the recording) and  just so I stay in the loop I'm uploading something I loved singing for awhile back.
This one always makes me feel so good and I love the production of it.
Nikki Dean

ROOM TO BREATHE

DANCIN' IN THE LIGHT

Copyright Erin Wolf 2021

NICU
April 2021 (7-in-7) Fearless Songwriter Challenge
Day 4 Prompt: All this concrete
SAW Week 16 Prompt: Words through windows

For Jordie K

*Note about the song: Inspired by the real story of my eldest's premature birth and subsequent NICU stay. Rough start, but she's now a teenage Black Belt (Tae Kwan Do), cat lover, budding designer, and one of the kindest humans anyone could ever hope to meet.*

I see you there inside
This place where you hide
Away from all this concrete
And all these city streets

Wish I could come in
But begging won't win
So words through windows will have to
Suffice for now for me and you

Promise I will come everyday
By your window I will, I will stay
'Til I can bring you, bring you home
After all this, all this unknown

Alarms and bells alert the team
Waking me from a dream
I see you're fast asleep, love
Safe for now, thank God above

Promise I will come everyday
By your window I will stay
'Til I can bring you, bring you home
After all this, all this unknown

Never thought this would start 
With such a bruising of my heart
Little child, you changed everything

Never thought this would start
With such a bruising of my heart
Little child, you changed everything

NICU

We could go back, but why would we want to?

Nowhere

Week 20 of Song-A-Week had the prompt "Some 
People's Kids". Here is my attempt at writing a song about that. 
Note: The family pictured has no connection to the events in the song.

Lyrics:

You read that sad things happen to some people's kids
never thought that "some people" would include your mother and me

The first 4 weeks of joy with you (our) baby boy
turned frustrating at the start of week 5
when you started to fuss, this was new to us,
and you kept it up all thru the night

your condition had gone undetected
too late we found out your heart was defective
You read that sad things happen to some people's kids
never thought that "some people" would include your mother and me

not until your face turned all blue
did you end up at Children's ICU
where all they ultimately could do
was to let you go while in your mother's arms

your condition had gone undetected
too late we found out your heart was defective
You read that sad things happen to some people's kids
never thought that "some people" would include your mother and me


Image AND Song Copyright © Claes Akerblom 2021

Some People (demo)

The skies of November (clipped his wings)
(Mark I. Anderson)

Today, I saw an eagle – swimming in the sky
Circling the water down below
So stately and regal – I watched as he tried
Coming home to someplace long ago
But all his trees were gone – yeah, they were now long gone
Progress isn’t good if you can’t fly
It must have been the thieves – and I know it was wrong
Now, he’s a crazy swimming in the sky

(Chorus)
Hey hey bird – swim away
This sky ain’t the one that you remember
Swim away – just swim away
I’ll see you in the skies of November

I guess it was the man – who rearranged the sky
Rearranged the way the eagle flew
Trees were cut to low – and the buildings they grew high
It replaced the sacred path the eagle knew
It’s a story that grows older – and every time we hear it
Progress isn’t good if you can’t fly
I guess they clipped his wings – he just won’t go near it
The crazy eagle swimming in the sky

(Chorus)
Hey hey bird – swim away
This sky ain’t the one that you remember
Swim away – just swim away
I’ll see you in the skies of November

(Bridge)
The skies of November – that’s where memories go
When both spring and summer have gone
Like a flickering ember – they just won’t let go
Swim on eagle swim on

(Chorus)
Hey hey bird – swim away
This sky ain’t the one that you remember
Swim away – just swim away
I’ll see you in the skies of November
Swim away – just swim away
I’ll see you in the skies of November

It's My Time To Shine

Danielle

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