Exit4luv

Cairokee - Kol Haga Bet'ady Studio Session كل حاجة بتعدي - كايروكي من الاستوديو

When Tiff and I first sat down to write this song we had an idea or a basic premise for this project. Tiffany and I are an interracial couple and that by its self in todays world is not out of the ordinary. What separates us from the ordinary, is our age difference. And it is the age difference that initially brings out most of the awkward stares, the doubting looks, and the initial surprise when first meeting us. To Tiff and I, age is nothing but a number. We don't see our age differences because we look past the obvious to what really matters, and that is what's in our hearts and soul. But we recognize and respect other peoples feeling and or opinions. We try to be respectful as we present ourselves to the world. For the most part it has not been a difficult journey, but at times it has caused us some sadness. But because of our love and respect for each other, we move on and live our lives.The song "Unique by Design" written by Tiffany and I was our attempt to capture the challenges, the opportunities and the unconditional love of committing ourselves to each other. We wanted to share how love can be designed and agreed to. Recognizing we are a unique couple, we felt the name for the song would appropriately be, Unique by Design. We have been married now for over fourteen wonderful and challenging years. We did much brainstorming and had long evenings talking about how to present this song. We wanted a song that had a beautiful melody to convey how we feel about our lives. At the same time we also felt the need to express in words how we see ourselves and more importantly how other people view us. So the lyrics were important to us. Tiffany and I have always felt the need to collaborate because when in a bind between the two of us we always manage to find what we feel is the right approach or solution. This song challenged us. When we write music, Tiffany is usually the one who comes up with the words and phrases, while I begin to assemble the musical idea and look for a solid melody. But this song was personal to us. So what would normally be easy and fun to put together became a brainteaser. I saw my wife working to put together meaningful words and expressions but this was a tad bit more complicated. So as we always do, we stopped, challenged and chose something that we both came up with. Then we applied the idea until it fit. The same holds true for me when working the melody and the groove. Long story short this song was like baking a cake, we molded the ingredients till it hopefully tasted good. I guess the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.In any event, this song "Unique by Design" is the result of a labor of love. It became an exciting project to work on. Tiff is the singer in our family, yet she encouraged me to take on more singing than I normally like too, while at the same time, I challenged her to put a strong piano part in the melody. A fun part in making music is when momentum becomes obvious. Momentum challenged us to do try riskier harmonies and delicate timings. It was a fun song to play and sing. On the music side, I was having fun with my guitar tracks. The blending of the guitars was my objective. I had a blast setting up the guitar parts.The drumming and the bass parts were more challenging but as usual, I never turn away a chance and/or an opportunity to find a groove.Assembling all of the tracks is the fun part for me. Tiff is amazed as to how I can listen to each track and balance to tonal qualities and using the equalizers. My Tascam DP32SD is a versatile and reliable recorder. It allows me to multitrack and master the song. I like to use EQ and some basic form of compression to finalize the song.So until next time, Tiffany and I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to those of you who like our music. Music is the universal language of love, so thank you for listening to our music. It is truly a labor of love...Best Regards,Gary & Tiffany AKA "Exit4luv"

Unique by Design (Exit4luv Original)

We are pleased to introduce our newest song from Exit4Luv Originals, "Invisible Existence."

February 21, 2025

Invisible Existence (Exit4Luv Original)

We are very excited to introduce our latest Exit4Luv Originals song, "If You Please." This was a labor of love for both Gary and I. The basic premise of the song was around Garys military service. Gary enlisted in the Navy when he was 17 years old. He spent the next six years doing two extended tours in Vietnam and was preparing for a third tour when the Military started to back down. Gary was assigned to a ship that supported the brown water Navy and all of their "River Patrol Boats" in the now infamous "Mekong Delta." This focused the ship to patrol and to operate extensively along a very hot and active demarkation line between North and South Vietnam.
Long story short, my husband is now fully retired and is 100% disabled. He is beginning to notice that he feels like he and his generation of "veterans" are being ignored by the military and life as they knew it was beginning to fade into the sunset. This song, along with it's gentle sarcastic statement of "if you please", tells the tale of what veterans feel at the beginning of their transistions from active men, to men appraching their golden "twilight years" of their lives. The fact that these men are beginning to feel less relevant and now even more irrelevance, is a telling and sad fact of life for our brave veterans regardless if you were on the front line or in a support role. As a wife of a disabled "incountry vietnam veteran" it has opened my eyes to the many challenges that these veterans will now have to navigate in order to be heard clearly. Which in part is what this song is all about. 
Gary and I play and sing all instruments. Gary is a multi faceted musician in that he can play lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums. I play keyboard and am the lead singer. Gary and I do all of our own multitrack recording, mixdown and mastering in our newly completed inhouse studio. We are very blessed and thank our lord daily.
We hope you enjoy our lastest song "If You Please." You can follow us on Facebook, instagram, YouTube and all other streaming platforms.
Be safe out there.

If You Please

Hello everyone here is our song written on behalf of my husband Gary dedicated to veterans like him in particular called "Thank You for Your Service." This song illustrates the story about veterans such as my husband who is one hundred percent disabled who risked his life paying/lived the ultimate dues of serving his country honorably. There is an often described phrase that veterans who returned home from battle live by that being, "All gave some and some gave all." This simple phrase truly summarizes in part what many veterans have gone through in service of their country. However as they serve their country under oath sworn to secrecy, many of them, not all, but some, also have their very own "stories that has been untold." When a combat veteran survives a tour of combat, or have engaged in some form of "fire fight", they often come back with permanent "battle scars" either physical and or mental. At the time, these very same listed adjective's were described back then as "shell shocked", a term which over time euphemistically has rebranded itself to something benign like (PTSD). So it remains critical for the Veteran's loved ones to understand their quiet suffering, when transitioning out of military service. For the veterans who are clinically diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) it is like fighting another battle. The words of this song come in part "first hand", from a combat veteran perspective, who has been through two tours "in-country" in Vietnam. 

When it came to this song we decided to take our time and carefully write meaningful lyrics for this song to do it justice. Gary helped me throughout the song to grow as an artist, I felt much confidence especially towards the end as it started to make more sense. So I was pleased to sing back up vocals. I also felt compelled to put in a horn section in the song. I am proud of my husband playing all of the guitars including lead guitar, bass, and rhythm guitar. I am also honored to have invested the time we have into this song together. He also played the drums lively with great dedication, energy, and delightfulness. So I hope everyone can enjoy our presentation of this song.


Thank You For Your Service

Hello everyone, we would like to present one our favorite songs "Twilight's Reckoning". I truly enjoyed singing this song as I became more comfortable adding my flare to it. I also enjoyed singing the harmony part in order to make the harmonies as tight as possible. 
It was a real challenge to do this song justice. My husband Gary did a marvelous job helping to come up with the chords and arrangement along with the lyrics. I wanted to make this song my own and to put my signature touch to it, so I did. I remember practicing this song repeatedly  with some passion and determination to energize the song. I appreciate Gary playing all of the guitars, bass, and drums with commitment and passion as well. He puts his best effort to mix down and master this song and what a great job he has done. So we are proud of this song and we hope you enjoy. 

Twilight's Reckoning

We are pleased to announce "Nowhere Bound" our newest song influenced by the current political "blues". Because of the difficult times, we decided to take our time to let things settle down and resolve themselves. We are very proud to present this video. We then focused on our singing style. It was a pleasure for us to take our time creating this video content frame by frame. I loved matching the scenery to the lyrics of the song by connecting with the mental side of this song. Whenever I play the video it brings a certain vibe based on how the music is played to the video scenes throughout the video. It is something truly special to see this video and music combined come to life coming from our ideas mentally and into reality.  It also was my pleasure to sing with my husband Gary the harmony parts. So enjoy and feel free to leave a reply.

Nowhere Bound

I love it when a "thought" comes to life. We were watching the news the other night around this Mask issue, when we turned to each other and said, "time to write a song". Here is a bluesy funk styled song "Masks", Exit4Luv Original, lightly having fun with all the choices put before us.
On a musical note, the more we play, the more we stay curious, and the more confidence we get. This is both cathartic and inspiring. Tiff and I are unique, because we have the time to dedicate ourselves to our music as well as the time to dedicate without interuptions. We push ourselves to get better each and every song. I will challenge Tiff on her keyboard and she will always challenge me to sing. We feel we are turning a corner especially in our musical development. Tiff is our lead vocalist and keyboards player. I am multi-instrumentalist playing Lead, Rhythm, and Bass Guitars as well as all Drums on our tracks. I am a "wanna" be singer thankfull for any and all chance to sing our "own" Songs. All vocals and instruments are played by Exit4Luv. All words and lyrics by Exit4Luv and are all copywrite protected. You can follow Exit4Luv on all major streaming platforms.
Until next time please be safe in all that you do.... 

Masks

Every now and then a song comes along that forces you to focus on your level of skills because it pushes our limits. Our ideas sometimes also force to evaluate our song and forced us to learn new thigns in order to keep up our high level of standards in our music. Gary and I are learning how to play music not by what we hear on the radiom but by what we write and how we write our music. This is easier because Gary and I are muli instrumentalist which allows us versatility. In order to keep up with our high level commitment of writing high level purposeful songs, we discuss every instrument being played before we lay down any tracks. This is our process of how we ensure that our music at least has some meaning, although we jest alot in our expression of our songs. We hope you are enjoying our musical jouney and we welcome anyone who wants to comment on our song. 
p.s. We have always believed in sharing the lyrics of our songs to those who may have a desire. Starting now we will include lyrics as part of the intial song download and as time allows we will start adding lyrics to our other songs.

Enough is Enough
(An Exit4Luv Original)

Been walking down this road, been counting the years,
Old smoke in my lungs, ringing static in my ears,
Our truth got twisted, it got bent at the seams.
Walkin’ a line that don’t lead nowhere,
What’s real don’t feel real—just somebody’s dream.

Veteran man down on the corner, he’s got a cardboard plea,
"Lost my will, lost my fight, now the world lost me."
People nod, they sigh, keep movin’ along,
Sympathy don’t pay when the rent comes strong.

Preacher says, "Change starts inside,"
But his mansion’s too tall to hear the street’s high cry.
Dealer says, “This’ll soften the blow,”
Ain’t salvation, but the high feels close.

Tell me when enough is enough,
When talk ain’t cheap, when truth don’t rust
If conventional wisdom can’t stand, and reason ain’t tough
Then tell me… when enough is enough
(Instrumental)
(Bridge)



Outro: Lyrics
People swear by daylight, but dance in the shade,
Words weigh so heavy, but meaning still fades.
Passive hands agree, nodding to the scene,
When it’s time to stand—ain’t nobody came.

Tell me now, tell me true,
Is the fight in us all gone, or just hid from view?
Did we bow out, fade into dust?
Or did we forget what enough ever was?
Tell me when enough is enough,
When hope ain’t lost, when trust ain’t tough
If wisdom can’t stand, and reason ain’t rough,
Then tell me…when enough is enough



Enough is Enough

We are very proud to present our newest song "Bluesman With His Queen of Blues". Thanks to my husband Gary he helped out tremendously with this song. He was able to take the time to come up words to fit the melody. This song took some quality time and effort to create. It was an honor to particpate, play and sing with my husband. This is a song about schools and how building walls of doctrines impact students. Indoctrination is the precurser to DEI and as such we explore the good and bad of the intentions of DEI. We hope you enjoy our music.

Bluesman With His Queen of Blues

One of the pleasures of retirement is the ability to have the time to start a musical project. "A Two-Year Lease On Love" another Exit4Luv Original, was one of those writing projects where everything lined up where they should be and soon after, I had a groove. I enjoyed the liberty of playing a raw blues rhythm riff and stepping out of bounds every now and then. And as usual we love to poke fun at ourselves with our self deprecating humor. We had fun putting this song together in all aspects of the process. From Copyright protection to performing, and then on to "streaming" distribution it takes a concerted effort to remain focused and find the time to have fun with it. We hope you enjoy our newest release "A Two-Year Lease On Love". We are in the final stages of our Exit4Luv web site. Currently we are putting the finishing touches on some of the inter-active (fun) sections. We will keep you all posted... 

A Two-Year Lease On Love

We are please to present to you another Exit4Luv Original, "Struggles and Tears" a fun song that touches lightly on the importance of our colleges and their responsibilities to our youth and any or all citizens. This song because of the groove allowed us to work on our vocals, which is what we work on all the time. We are looking to combine my somewhat heavy voice to that of Tiffs. We both love the brilliance of Harmonizing and recognize that it will take constant adjustments to keep working on our vocals. Thankfully Tiff has a good handle on her singing style and technigue. It is also fun to watch Tiff work her songs into a blues style format. I think she has grown significantly in her ability to sing the blues. If you agree give tiff a "shout out" and let her know...

Struggle and Tears

Indie Pop Love song by lyricist and songwriter Stan Countz

I'd Never Lived Before Your Love

Every now and then a song comes through some form of observation or a critical learning. We put this song together to send the message of hope. That with all things being equal, we should all lead happy and interesting lives. "No I In Goodbye" was a interesting song to put together, although we went through one complete iteration, we were not happy with it. Tiff and I love to sing so as with any song, we place special emphasis on tightening our harmony's, writing challenging lyrics, and believe me, we have have had some great times writing, playing our songs for you.

No I In Goodbye

The new Exit4Luv Original, "Truth To Power" is one of those special songs highlighting the difficulty we as American face, as we learn to settle our differences in communication and trust. Our country is in a perilously dangerous place at the moment. Our country suffered a dark moment last week and it was important to Tiff and I that we understand the term "Truth To Power" so that maybe just maybe, we can all drop our defenses masqueraded as biases and stop the negative rhetoric. 
Tiff and I sat in shock as we watched the events unfold. Neither of us followed in any detail the history of the struggle but we agreed that violence is not the solution. We sat down, did the things we do (music wise), talked about our approach and objective, which is to help understand what "Truth To Power" is. We talked on how and what to do to get the courage to hold a reasonable conversation where all we would do is to help all of us understand just what our differences are, and maybe find a way to help all sides step back and "Stop, Challenge, and Choose" just what it is we want to say. Once we lay out just what it is we hope to accomplish, then choose and speak "Truth To Power". Life is way too short to waste energy on hateful rhetoric. Serves no value nor does it make our world a safer place for all. 
Until next time, be safe and keep your eyes wide open...


Truth To Power

Hey all....

(Entry December 2023.)
Time really flies. It's been roughly nine years now since I wrote that original bio. We are now into our thirteenth year of marriage and a whole bunch of songs. What a journey it has been. 
One day while driving back from Houston, Tiffany and I were talking about our music, which we both played together on and sometimes collaborated on original songs, when we decided to give our music some legitimacy, and decided to give our music project a "band name".  
After what appeared to be a long extended moment of silence, we realized just how hard it was to find a name for our band. For miles and miles we tossed one name out after another, yet nothing stuck or sounded legitimate. Finally after what appeared to be hours and noticing our gas tank was getting low, we decided to get off the freeway to get gas and hopefully a bite to eat. We then decided to find an "exit ramp", and all of a sudden a lightbulb went off in my head. 
We are very much in love with each other and usually out of nowhere and at any time, one of us would look at the other and just say, "I love you". Well it just so happened that as I was looking for the nearest exit off ramp to fill up our car, Tiff looked at me and told me she "loved me". It was at that moment when I saw the exit ramp coming up, she told me that she "loved me" and I said wow this is an "Exit4luv" off ramp, so I looked at her and smiled. What if we called our band just that? So there is a little insight into how we named our musical project, Exit4luv. True story. It happened on interstate 10 just outside of New Orleans. 

(Original Entry 2015.)
As you can plainly see and it's not too hard to notice, Tiff and I are kind of a unique looking couple. We stand out in a crowd in many different ways. It has not been easy on the two of us by any stretch of the imagination, however, don't ever doubt our love for one another. The bond forged between us runs deep and true. However, the actual secret to our love and understanding of each other is really kind of simple. Tiffany who is younger, is really old beyond her young years, she is kind of like the proverbial "old soul".  Where I, the actual "old person" on the other hand, has never grown up.  I say this "tongue and cheek" of course. 
Actually at first, she thought I had the maturity of a 15 year old. She was actually being generous, just kidding... 
I think right now I act and feel like I'm still in my early twenty's. To our way of thinking, age is truly just a number. 
So you see, this is where we are as a happily married couple. Sounds intriguing and funny, in a cute kind of way, yet it is so very true.
To play my guitar, my drums, and teach myself the bass guitar all the while trying to learn how to record music was my retirement dream. Life was just too damn busy to do both, provide for my family and play my music. 
For some reason that only God knows why, after working for what appeared to be a lifetime and felt like an eternity, I find myself living that dream. 
I raised a family, earned my Doctorate, retired from management, became an entrepreneur and taught college as an adjunct professor of "applied mathematics".
And fortunately for me, after what appeared to be a pure chance encounter, I met Tiffany in 2010.  Unbeknownst to her, she understood my passion and zeal for music and encouraged me to focus and prioritize my life, and to stay true to that dream. It is so cool that I can say "dear friend", because after a couple of years,Tiffany became my wife. We became friends first which was important to both of us.
I am retired, and a two tour Vietnam combat service disabled Vet. I have lived a great life. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams. 
The rest is just Blah, blah blah...

Unique by Design (Exit4luv Original)

Exit4Luv

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