Worried about what less fortunate people might be 'taking' from you? Scared of people who wear different hats than you? Read different books? There's a good chance you're part of the problem. 

(demo)

That map of the stars
that you paint on your skin
is the same one they gave 
to our 'hallowed' kin
to lead them southwards over the brine

They took what was here
and they stamped it 'mine'
when we look it now 
we just call that a sign of the times

You keep saying they've got it too good
You say they've got it too good
Have they got it that good? 

Now you've turned this wide shore 
into a picket line
waving sign after sign that says: 
"fuck off, it's all mine
won't you take all your pain
all you wretches and run
back into the maw of that waiting gun
back into the crater you crawled out from"

You say they've got it too good
You say they've got it too good
Have they got it that good?

What I want to say 
to this moral decay
to this child's bleating of
"I want it my way"

Is that your fourth TV set isn't hardship and debt
And your third fucking car in your second garage
And those lawyers in line to be the first to your side
And you still say you've got nothing to share?

It's you that's got it too good
It's you that's got it too good

You've Got it Too Good (demo) [explicit]

A warts-n-all demo and document of some songs I've written over the last few years. Self-recorded in a rehearsal studio and a bedroom over just two days in July 2016, mixed and tweaked up a wee bit by the fabulous Nick Larkins.

I Forget (demo)

This song's a moment of clarity in a bad time. Everyone's got some light to let into the world, don't ever let yours go out.

I wonder how could you
take the walls you knew
and tear them all apart?

I wonder when you knew
the warmth was leaving you
when the frost began to bite

But I’m still glowing warm
like we were before
with one foot out the door
you said ‘I’ll be back soon’

I guess you got lost…

I wonder how you’ll go
like a tree in northern snows
just the bones of what you’ll be

But I’m an evergreen
so I grow right through the snow
Girl, the winter’s hard, I know
all your leaves are falling down
but spring is coming soon
and it’s so much warmer then

So don’t go out
don’t let the light that you’re going to be
go out, don’t go out
don’t let the light that you’re going to be
fall completely

This here’s an endless coast
like a road unwinding, dear
We are ever new
things they’ve never seen before
But I wish we only knew 
how light we all can live

So that’s the rule
that I long to adhere
I’ve grown out of old names, all
now I’m the wellspring here
like we were before
a tooth pulled in a door
set me on a road so much wider than 
when I was undersold

So don’t go out
don’t let the light that you’re going to be
go out, don’t go out
don’t let the light that you’re going to be
fall completely, just cross that line so sweetly
and pour down on me, and heal my eyes completely
that’s all I’m hoping for

So don’t go out
don’t let the light that you’re going to be
go out

Don't Go Out (demo)

A song about when breakups go right. Wouldn't it just be easier if you both realised at the same time when it wasn't gonna work?  

It was the last warm night of summer
But we didn't know it at the time
You were sitting on the front porch
Picking fruit flies from your wine
Out of a mug with a broken handle
But you say "it does the job"

And while I sure loved that about you
It just hit me too close to home

'Cause good enough's not good enough for you
Good enough's not good enough and if you have to make believe
Then you're just falling down slowly

Lying on our backs and staring at the ceiling fan
It was turning perfect circles 
we could never understand
I had pulled out of your orbit
And you away from mine

How'd it take so long to notice
You'd gone and got so far away? 

And now we're staring down the barrel of never again
and we're shaking with the thought of all of that emptiness 
but this cul-de-sac's a trap, it's a quiet hell
and you're better off turning around
than settling down into habitual, ritual, obligate ties
so we've got to let this down
softly down ah huh.

'Cause good enough's not good enough for you
good enough's not good enough
and if you have to make believe
Then you're just falling down slowly

Now it's the last time that I'll cry with you
And it's the last time that I'll lie with you
And I can barely breathe ah huh
But I've a hope I feed tomorrow we'll be free

A warts-n-all demo and document of some songs I've written over the last few years. Self-recorded in a rehearsal studio and a bedroom over just two days in July 2016, mixed and tweaked up a wee bit by the fabulous Nick Larkins.

Last Warm Night of Summer (demo)

Quicksilver, flashing through your skies. 
Reach for it, hold that precious child
How much older
and how much bolder
Do I have to be?

A golden voice that never fails
To call you eager towards the stage
Love is always so ordinary
Compared to thee

For all my little life
I've had to be 
winning
Joy is what I've got
inside of these 
few minutes

Bronze oil, platinum for sale
Take the orders
Make those mothers mend
How much older, how much bolder
do I have to be?

All my little life I've had to be
winning
But joy is what I've got
inside of these 
few minutes

Believe me, I'm not going down for this
Believe me, I'm not taking the fall
Believe me, if losing half of who you are
for one tenth of what you're worth is fine
You can leave me out of it
You can leave me out of it
You can leave me out because
I'm not gonna be there when you all fall.

Quicksilver (demo)

I home-recorded this version of the famous traditional Irish folk song to be played at my grandmother's funeral.

The matriarch of our irish-descended clan, she was immensely proud of our heritage, and used to come to my gigs and heckle me to play it, but I never actually had a chance to play it for her while she was alive.

IrishFolktraditionalsadukuleleSolohome recording

Danny Boy, Ukulele Version

I wrote this song a few years ago, and never got around to recording it. I feel like it's more appropriate now than it ever has been with all the mess in the world. So rather than wait to do a proper proper studio recording of it, I made this little bedroom recording so you can hear it. 

This is a song about grief. About the terrible severing that conflict causes to loved ones and about the fragility and ephemerality of existence. 

But it's also about picking up, and getting on with life in the face of that grief, and knowing that the people around you have go your back.

Jim O'Neill