Love this song! so simple, sweet but profound!

SONG VU GIA 
     This is a composition that I wrote about the "Song Vu Gia" river in Vietnam. The river and its adjacent roadway played a big role in our lives on Hill 65 during my first six months in Vietnam. We would sweep the road that followed the river for mines every morning and blow up what we found or whatever unexploded ordinance the children would bring to us. (We paid them for the ordinance) Sometimes over the years, along that road… our Marines missed something and a truck would explode ahead or behind the one they were in though. The rusting remains could be seen along the side of the road. The road was our lifeline for mail from the world too...mail came from Hill 37 by truck for some reason.
         Our daily sweep team would follow the Vu Gia for several miles. All the way Westward past Hill 25 and clear on out to out to hill 52. (This was the farthest and last outpost of the Marines before Laos.) Sometimes they said we were in Laos when we swept past 52 for the “ARVN’s” on a hill out there a ways. Looking at the map now, I don’t think we went that far at all.  Much of the road sweep was ugly and sad to look at but, there were also amazing and really vast scenes of what would typically be called pastoral beauty.
     Although the road itself was just an oily dirt path to be swept for mines and booby traps, the river was life to us and the Vietnamese. We drank the water, though it was laced with dioxin from “Arizona” across the river. Seen in the upper left of the picture. (We all got the same rash from the water and dirt we contacted). To the North, as we swept along the road, was "Charlie Ridge" a two or three thousand foot high spine of mountainous jungle populated with NVA and VC. To the South across the river was "Arizona". A bombed out, defoliated moonscape that seemed to be more bomb craters than actual landscape.

     The Vu Gia River valley could be breathtakingly beautiful at sunset. The river was mostly lined with tall elephant grass which we hated for what it might be hiding from our eyes. The river itself seemed timeless and indifferent. The villagers along the way seemed that way too sometimes ... Vu Gia was there before the war and would be there long after we left. In time, it might even recover from our poisoning it.

     It looked for all the world like a peaceful valley with a deep swift river as we descended from our fire base on Hill 65 in the misty early mornings to follow the river banks along the road but, it was not. For a few minutes each morning, I saw the beauty and felt the peacefulness That was possible in that place...then we all chambered a round into our M-16's and took a, "long hot walk in the sun" as we called it. It was then time to focus on staying alive and making it home. The South Vietnamese had the latter covered but, they had the same problem with staying alive.


"Song Vu Gia" -  Vu Gia River - Hill 65, 1970 - Copyright

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Alan Logston - Shades of Steel - (Instrumental) POP/Rock

Here are the lyrics:

YOU CAN’T TAKE A SPIDER WEB HOME

VERSE ONE

THERE ARE THINGS IN THIS WONDERFUL WORLD OF OURS
THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO CLAIM
BUT SOME THINGS ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL
WHEN THEY REMAIN THE SAME

CHORUS
OH, YOU CAN’T TAKE A SPIDER WEB HOME WITH YOU
YOU CAN’T TAKE A SPIDER WEB HOME WITH YOU
THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO
BUT YOU CAN’T TAKE A SPIDER WEB HOME

VERSE TWO

YOU CAN HAUL A GREAT BIG PINECONE
YOU CAN CARRY SOME SPONGY MOSS
YOU CAN LUG A LUMPY LAVA ROCK
YOU CAN SAVE A PRETTY PIECE OF BARK

REPEAT CHORUS (WITH BUT ,YOU CAN’T TAKE…)

INSTRUMENTAL INTERLUDE

VERSE THREE

A SPIDER WEB IS PRETTY; THAT IS TRUE
AND THE DEW SHINES BRIGHT WHEN THE SUN SHINES THROUGH
IN BUSHES AND GARDENS, CRANNIES AND NOOKS
IF YOU FIND A SPIDER WEB JUST STOP AND LOOK

REPEAT CHORUS 


DIANE HURST © 2009


You Can't Take a Spiderweb Home

This track is from the album A James Manuele Concert and is available for purchase on CD Baby here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jamesmanuele

Spanish Dance No. 2 :

This was so much fun to do. I experimented with echoes, layering loops in a weaving sort of way and the oboe ties it together along with some irregular beats. Just having fun. All rights reserved.
https://featherheadmedia.com

Film Music 1 Echoes

Gretsch 6122-1959 Guitar.
Loosely based on what I remembered of Chet Atkins version of this hit tune.

Yesterday By Paul McCartney- Solo Guitar-Asteri

Love Today

Love Today - with Anna Tivel

4. Home

This song was written for a Psalm 23 song challenge for NCS. 

Lyrics

V1
Through dark places
You light my path
When my walk is weary
You place my steps

Ch
You fill my soul
Your spirit spills into
Overflow

V2
In open fields
you catch my roam
My lips don’t dry
Your cup overflows

Bridge
you lay me down
by still waters
but you never let me down
my good father
cause you overflow


Words and music by David Watson

Overflow

Over time I saw you
Over time I saw you

You wrote a message on your side
Now there's nothing left to hide

Over time I saw you

I see you now
I hear you now
I feel you now
I need you now

(Guitar performance by Jake Gale)

Overtime

I'm a singer-songwriter.  For the past 8 years, I've been writing songs in a variety of genres: folk/Americana, children's music, gospel/Christian music, and also some mostly happy blues.

You Can't Take a Spiderweb Home

Diane Hurst

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