Strangers

Calm The Waters

Motherland (DEMO)

TRACK NOTES
Strangely enough given the title, the verse melody of this song came to me in a dream, in which I was watching a stranger play it on a guitar. I woke up and found the words (and the chorus) in a day or so, starting with the very first line. It's about a couple's journey. Thanks to Irish artist Martin Gale for his kind permission to use an image of his painting "Couple".

CREDITS
Debra Donahue - harmony vocal
J.M. Kearns - lead vocal and guitars, harmonica
Thanks to Irish artist Martin Gale for his kind permission to use an image of his painting "Couple".

LYRICS
I will stay when the weather is warm
And drink to your health, far from the storm
In the sun, we’ll dance really slow
And sit on the cliff where the green river rolls

CHORUS:
But don’t ever dream
You will find
Me walking away
When life is unkind
Don’t ever dream
You will see
Me turning my back
When you’re down on your knees

If you find a mouse in your bed
I’ll go for a ride, and free it instead
When the cold and the wind and the rain
Are shaking the house, and you are in pain

CHORUS
Instrumental

I will stay when life is a bore
And I’m much too old to laugh anymore,
When the light is starting to fade
You’ll sing me a song ’bout that plan that we made:

I will stay when the mist on the lake
Is lifting at dawn and there’s coffee to make
We will sail in a crimson canoe,
Away from the world, and bid it adieu
Away from the world, and bid… it… adieu.



Dont Ever Dream

written and performed by: andrew vogt

“Red Letter Day"

I woke up this morning
That’s a red letter day
There’s still water left in the ocean,
Sun when the clouds roll away
I don’t need anybody else to tell me
It’s a red letter day

The new girl down the street got married
That’s a red letter day
But I got up before my third alarm clock rang
I didn’t lose a day
If you open up your mind just maybe
You’d think the same

I stopped to smell the roses
It’s a red letter day
Your best friend’s baby just took their first steps
And they’ve got another on the way
Although our situation’s different
Its still a red letter day


Red letter day, don’t need no calendar
Red letter day, don’t need no words on a page
Red letter day, I know exactly what it is I wanna say
And I don’t need anybody else to tell me
It’s a red letter day


Well your mother won the lottery
mmm, Red letter day
But I remembered to do my laundry
That machine didn’t break
No matter how you cut it
Its still a red letter day

Your wife finally got promoted
It’s a red letter day
I still haven’t burned the house down
Despite what my friends all say 
Don’t know what tomorrow brings but I know
Todays a red letter day


Red letter day, don’t need no calendar
Red letter day, don’t need words on a page
Red letter day, I know exactly what it is I wanna say
And I don’t need anybody else to tell me
It’s a red letter day

If you don’t stop and take a breath
If you don’t think you’re always blessed
If you don’t open up your mind, you’re missing
Another red letter day

FAWM 2024 #8 Red Letter Day

Last Act

Lyrics:

Out of town but my thoughts are the same
I try to stop it but it’s stuck to my brain
Try to keep it from eating away
But I can’t seem to catch a break

You stayed home
For fear of change
I moved on
But you stayed the same
Sometimes I wonder who’s to blame
But its not my problem anyways

That’s why
You’re turning 18
Think you got it figured out
But you’re 18
All you know is how
To hate your parents
And want to move out
Leave your room looking worse than if you burned it down

It makes sense
It you think about it
But your 18
And all you think about
Is living inside out
While you’re turning the world upside down

Make a difference
By making your bed
You’re too busy
Thinking up in your head
I try my best
To ignore you instead
But I don’t know how long it will last

Cause you’re turning 18
Think you got it figured out
Well you’re 18
All you know is how
To hate your parents
And want to move out
Leave your room looking worse than if you burned it down

It makes sense
It you think about it
But your 18
And all you think about
Is living inside out
While you’re turning the world upside down

I don’t know you anymore
I don’t know you anymore
I don’t know you anymore
I don’t know you anymore
I don’t know you anymore
I don’t know you anymore
I don’t know you anymore
All I know is that you’re

Barely 18
But think you got it figured out
Well you’re 18
All you know is how
To hate your parents
And want to move out
Leave your room looking worse than if you burned it down

It makes sense
It you think about it
But your 18
And all you think about
Is living inside out
While you’re turning the world upside down

18 (Acoustic)

We are pleased to present Ten Thousand Tiny Fingers, a Music Network commission by Bróna McVittie for our February 2024 Tour. Bróna wanted to create something in memoriam of all the innocent civilians killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict, particularly the children. The song is also born of her own experience of conflict growing up in a segregated society during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Speaking to Bróna about the commission, she said the song was born of her own experience of conflict growing up in a segregated society.

The track was recorded at Station House Theatre, Clifden, Co. Galway on 6 February 2024. 
Performed by Niamh Dunne, Bróna McVittie, Cormac Breatnach & Seán Óg Graham and recorded by Donnacha Moynihan.

Ten Thousand Tiny Fingers

10,000 Tiny Fingers - Brona McVittie - Music Network Commission (2024)

Mirage
By Christina Rossetti

The hope I dreamed of was a dream,
Was but a dream; and now I wake
Exceeding comfortless, and worn, and old,
For a dream’s sake.

I hang my harp upon a tree,
A weeping willow in a lake;
I hang my silenced harp there, wrung and snapt
For a dream’s sake.

Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;
My silent heart, lie still and break:
Life, and the world, and mine own self, are changed
For a dream’s sake.


Music: February Night Acoustic Guitar by William King

Mirage by Christina Rossetti

6.  Whiskey

The seahorses dance around me.
They sing and laugh. It's a symphony.
They read my mind pretty clearly.
They tell me then : "You seem so angry"

"Why is it so, my dear Willy?
You should be mellow under the sea"
I tell them fast my little story.
"It's not that bad. Stop being angry »

The seahorses dance around me.
I feel at last mellow and free.
I even forgot why I was angry.
I can’t help it. I let it be.

The Seahorses (Picking)

Hi, friends. My new album is now in preview on Bandcamp (just go there and search on Before the coffee and you'll find it). Please enjoy it there!

"Always, no matter what else was going on, I wrote songs." - JMK
BIO:
April 1977. At age 30, driving cab in Toronto with a PhD in hand, J.M. Kearns was at a crossroads. He’d been writing songs for five years, and it felt like a mission. He yearned to head for California where his kind of music was now in full bloom. On the other hand, a career in academic philosophy was the “expected” move. What to do? The songs won: he skipped town, thumbed all the way to Los Angeles. At the outset there were startling near-breakthroughs — an audition for Electra-Asylum Records, a song meeting with Warren Beatty — but then life got real. A person has to eat. After a stint as a telegram-singing donkey, Kearns bit the bullet and became a bureaucrat ... exchanging molecules with huge office buildings. 

Meanwhile the songs just kept coming, folk-rock in the footsteps of Dylan, Prine, and Leonard Cohen. Some of them were about the secret thoughts of cubicle dwellers, some were about love and fear and time. And he was now recording them in his home studio. All very well, but there was something missing. Up to that point he had done a few open mics, but he had a bad case of stage fright, and Kearns the songwriter was not adequately represented by Kearns the performer. In fact the performer was nowhere. 

That changed when he moved to Nashville. After a thousand open mics, he was given his first real gig ever, at the tender age of 55 — an 8:30 slot that paid $27.50 on Friday nights, at a notorious club called the Gold Rush. There, a band spontaneously formed around him, starting with ace percussionist Kathy Burkly (on an overturned water jug). Other members joined, the band was dubbed the Lonely Mammals. They built a cult following, mostly at Brown’s Diner, and Kearns finally found his natural, playful self as a performer.   

His first CD came at the tender age of 61. It was called Death or Life. It was recorded live in one afternoon in 2007, down and dirty, let it bleed. Elmore magazine gave it a rave review. Also that year, he landed his first book deal. His novel The Deep End was well received (you can find it here on Amazon). But Kearns had sunk too deep in debt, and soon he experienced his own financial crash along with the country. 

After angelic intervention, he landed in Cape May, NJ, a small, historic beach town at the southern tip of New Jersey. What did he do there? He formed a band called The Squares with his partner Debra Donahue and their friend M.Q. Murphy. Recorded a CD for them. And of course, kept writing songs. 

Now in the prime of his 70’s, J.M. Kearns figures it is about time to release his first studio album. It drops on May 17th, 2024. It’s called Before the coffee gets too cold. Its 12 cuts include his latest songs, as well as some that he wrote during the eras mentioned above. Most of the recordings are new — done in the last year. You can preview the album on our Music page, and from it you can access the full album on Bandcamp, with liner notes, credits, lyrics, and photos. 

This album is the tip of an iceberg. In the next two years Kearns will release four more albums of songs that no one has heard. Songs of a lifetime, you could say.

Dont Ever Dream

J.M. Kearns

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