Very emotionally evocative vocals.  Love the minor tones and your harmonies.   This song is so deep and very moving.  One of your best IMO.

Sometimes simple is better.  You really nailed this, Chris!

So sad. You definitely captured the feeling of this situation with this arrangement. Good tune man.

OMG please flesh this out if you think it's incomplete.  this is a masterful down tempo ballad - something I'm not sure I hear you do that often.  melody, changes, harmonies, and that chorus oh man.  all special stuff, and weaves together so beautiful.  instant classic tune man.   these chords are slaying me.  the verse riff is giving me a alice in chains unplugged vibe - coupled with the beatles.  lots of towering beauty to be found in this track by and large though.  know how I know this is an epic keeper?  I thought it was too short when it ended.  then I noticed it was actually a very normal 3 minutes in length.   so basically I just didnt want it to end.  awe inspiring work on this.

Haunting, beautiful melody and great guitar part! :) Big fan of the harmonies in the chorus too!

nice work. I agree with mark - hang on to this one. cheers!

Chris this is great. It's been cool seeing your style evolve over the years, and with this one you've really dialed in a delivery that's both effortless and commanding. You're hitting on something I've been learning recently as well... sometimes a sparse production is evidence of a songwriter's confidence in their compositional and vocal ability.

If you have to set it down and come back to it, cool. Just don't scrap it! I love the melody and harmonies!

This is a very well put together slow jam.  Throwback vibes!

Here's a song I wrote and played.

If I rang you up 
On a Saturday
And I told that I thought 
We ought to run away

Would you laugh at me
Would you take a beat
Would you pack a bag
And meet me on 183

Out by the Park & Ride
Leander Station
Or is this another one way conversation

If I rang you up
On a Saturday
Valerie

When the lion roars
Do you understand
Can you tell tomorrow's promise
In the desert sand

And it all burns down
Would you walk away
Would I find your shadow chasing
The last light of day

No, I know you'll stay
Stay right here with me
We'll be dancing in the ashes
'Til we're old and gray

That's a guarantee
Just you wait and see
Valerie

Valerie

Hip Joints - High Time for a Good Time (demo)

What You Don't Know

Believe

There’s just a touch of innocence underneath a broken smile
could she be a fallen angel or a devil in disguise
she swears that she’s a gemini, who was born before her time
as she ponders an existence that she does not recognize

and she’s desperate to be strong
but sometimes it’s just so hard to breathe
when all she really wants is something to believe

and the clouds of angst & worry, they come along with every dawn
so she pours a bowl of mini pops (jr) and tries her best to carry on

she yearns to understand, but she’s lost in all the insecurity
and all she really wants is something to believe
something to believe
something to believe
something to believe

so she goes out every night and she stares up at the sky
and she reads the constellations, she’s searching for a sign
she’s sure it must be there somewhere in between
the planets and the stars, up there begging to be seen
she raises up her hands and she falls down on her knees
she’s not asking for that much, all she really needs is something to believe

There’s just a touch of innocence underneath a broken smile
could she be a fallen angel or a devil in disguise

Believe

A Change in the Air



I saw an Old Tree that showed me how to reach for the sky

It was adorned orange and red

Caught in a cold breeze it told me the reason why

All of its leaves would soon be dead




When you are forlorn

You needn’t mourn when the losses begin

You will be reborn on the cusp of Autumn Winds 




Now theres a change in the air

The moment will come you must shed all you know

Leaving your soul bare

To prepare for winters snow

A Change In The Air

You Don’t Know Me

It was just a momentary fire that shoulda been smoke on the wind
But you pinned it on the wall like a photograph of someplace you have never been 
Now here we are back in the same old place, and I just want to let it go
Why everything with you is so god damn hard I’ll never know, I’ll never know

You paint a picture with jaded eyes 
I never know whether to laugh or cry 
Or why it took so long to realize that you don’t know me, you don’t know me at all 

Sometimes I wonder were you like this on the day that you were born 
And was I just a fool to feel the presence of a rose among the thorns? 
Decade ago, we might have worked things out, tried to find a common page 
Well, here we are, and I guess I know now you’ll never change, you’ll never change 

You paint a picture with jaded eyes 
I never know whether to laugh or cry 
Or why it took so long to realize that you don’t know me, you don’t know me at all 

Feels like 1000 years digging through the lost and found
I want to let it go, turn and walk away, pour spirits on the ground
Agree to disagree, I just wanna live
And you don’t know me I guess you never did 

You paint a picture with jaded eyes 
I never know whether to laugh or cry 
Or why it took so long to realize that you don’t know me, you don’t know me at all

You don’t know me

In a lonely field of emptiness
In the darkness of my mind
In between the pools of wasted breath and seas of dandelions, dandelions 

Lies a feeling that I’ve know before 
long forgotten friend of mine 
like Iron claws the chains have pulled me down a thousand times, a thousand times

But when the morning comes under a broken sun I fear your innocence will fade away in the light of day

Hollow voices in the autumn mist
Acidulous and voluble
Neighbors intimate I do detest if at all, if at all

But when the morning comes under a honest sun I fear your innocence will fade away in the light of day

And oh my love I can’t find the will can’t find the way
Oh my love I can’t turn my back on yesterday
Until I feel the morning sun, until I feel the morning sun, until I feel the morning sun upon my face 

So I lie here a chrysalis lost in technicolor dreams 
Soaring high above the dark abyss on brightly painted wings, painted wings 

But when the morning comes under a broken sun I fear your innocence will fade away in the light of day

light of day

I heard you said that you don't love me, as if I didn't know
and now you're telling everyone that I'm back out on my own
I heard you said that I was lucky, you kept me for so long
and that I'd probably fall to pieces the moment that you're gone

Well the world's still turning round, I don't know if you noticed
but the Sun's still going down then coming up again
I could not believe my eyes, imagine my surprise when I woke up and found both my feet on solid ground, and the world still turning round

I heard you said that you don't love me, baby that's all right with me
I had forgotten just how good, it felt to be free
and the world's still turning round, the music is still playing
and suddenly I found, it's so much sweeter on my own
in the state of my demise, I guess I failed to recognize all the choices that abound, all the lovely sights and sounds, of a world still turning round

you think I had no warning, had my head stuck in the sand, I guess it all depends on your point of view
to me it's a beneficial morning, not quite the tragedy you planned, in fact I'd say it's closer to a dream come true

and the world's still turning round, I don't know if you noticed
but the Sun's still going down then coming up again
I could not believe my eyes, imagine my surprise when I looked up and found all the lovely sights and sounds
when I looked up and found both my feet on solid ground, and the world still turning round

World Still Turning Round

Southern New Mexico

As the sun climbs over the Organs, and crawls across the high desert plain,
outlines your face in the light of the morning, you turn to me, and whisper "it smells like rain"
and it feels so real I can taste the idle dust. 
Summer's in the air, and I miss you.

This time of year always spurs the memories, faded pictures, and the ghosts that I can't let go.
Your sun browned skin and your long hair fluttering against a backdrop of sand as white as snow.

You always had a radiance divine under the brightly painted skies of Southern New Mexico.

and I want to remember every single detail of every moment we ever spent.
yeah I want to remember, even if it would hurt less to forget.
I wanna drive back down through Tularosa, head east on 82, back where no one knows my name.
Hike up high in the Sacramentos, stand with you and watch the sky go up in flame.

Oh I wanna take a ride back to Southern New Mexico.

What You Don't Know

Chris Donahue

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