"This One Night Stand Could Stand Just One More Night" (#386-#389, 200817-200828)

 * co-written with Melvin Purvis * 

Buckled up my jeans slipped my timepiece on
Headed downtown to the honky tonk
Goin' where I know I can find a dance and a drink

As I pulled up in the truck I thought I spied
Pretty little cutie with those Monroe eyes
Said a quick prayer she was there lookin' for the same thing

I held the door open and she walked right in
Knowin' how tonight could end

Never mind the same old pick up lines
Just one question your place or mine
I don't even care if we close the blinds
This one night stand could stand just one more night

I went what do you say we grab a cold one for the road
She said you got game but this ain't my first rodeo
Yeah she saw me comin' from my watch down to my boots

Like an old time cowgirl she headed me off at the pass
Every time I opened my mouth she shut me down fast
Kinda' started thinkin' that I bit off more than I could chew

Sittin' there wonderin' how the night would end
When she grabbed me by the hand

Never mind the same old pick up lines
Just one question your place or mine
I don't even care if we close the blinds
This one night stand could stand just one more night

When we wake up tomorrow we can flip a coin
But we both know where this thing is goin'

Week 35a - This One Night Stand Could Stand Just One More Night (200828)

The seventh song from Deconstructed

Solo para ti

Cada que me besa
con esa destreza
sabe cuanto me gusta
su mirada traviesa
Cuando ella me mira
pierdo la cabeza
Baby soy de ti
sólo para ti

You're what I want for me
and I can't go on así
so baby just let me be your man

Ay, you’re the one for me
sabe cuanto me gusta
su mirada traviesa
Ay, tú eres para mí
Baby soy de ti
sólo para ti

You're what I want for me
and I can't go on así
so baby just let me be your man

Deconstructed

Solo Para Ti

At the Glasgow Songwriting Festival, Emily Barker asked  us to write a song about a River and mine turned into a song about a Dam.
Whaley Bridge is a town in The Peak District in the UK and just just over a year ago a dam nearly collapsed. My children use to sail in competitions on this water. If it had it gone it would have taken out the town(and much of the surrounding area with it). We heard the helicopters going in and out from our house.  The hard work of the rescue services and the town stopped the disaster.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/02/whaley-bridge-dam-raf-helicopter-collapse-peak-district

That Dam Wall

Sure, "Prove It" was the Week 14 prompt. But I didn't finish this song then. Don't think I finished it now.

*****

It's easy to say
We'll hold everything dear
Like we do right now
When the ending is

The ending is
What we make of it
You're going to be what we need right now
Prove it
Prove it to me

Everything starts to shake
Everything starts to blur

I can barely sleep
You're  early morning dreams
You're talking half to me
And half to you

Get inside my head and pull me out
Pull my body through when it calms down

It's all coming home, if you feel that darling
Pretty lies we were ready for

I remember rain, I remember sun
It's been so long it's gonna come, it's going come
Prove it
Prove it to me

Get inside my head and pull me out
Pull my body through when it calms down

Prove It - Song a Week 2020, Week 36

"I’m Ready Now" (#392, 200905)

 * Co-written with Paul McDonnell *

I'm looking for a place to put these chances I won't take
There's no more space the closet's full door's about to break
Gotta' clear some room by throwin' out these broken things
Collectin' dust from dawn to dusk beneath this old box spring

Like the halo that I used to wear, and my broken magic wand
There’s the shoes I never walked a mile in, should have tried those on

Well I’m ready now I’m singin’ it out loud
I'm breakin' free of what I can see I'm better off without
Yeah these nights are long but this ain't about what's right or wrong
It's just about me throwin' out my doubts and I think I'm ready now

My rosy tinted glasses they've been down there for awhile
Next to all the hours I spent wishin' like a child
A clover with 3 leaves it never seemed to grow a fourth
The pedestal that leveled all my lovers to the floor

The first stone that I couldn't cast, the tears that didn't help
Fallin' on the pages full of words I told myself

Well I’m ready now I’m screamin’ it out loud
I'm breakin' free of what I can see I'm better off without
Yeah these nights are long but this ain't about what's right or wrong
It's just about me throwin' out my doubts and I think I'm ready now

Pictures from the past like a movie in my mind
I can change my story when I leave them all behind

Week 36a - I’m Ready Now (200905)

You say
I am f ine
But you’re not
I say I m doing well
thanks a lot
Behind it all were far from what we long for  and  ache
We are not AOK

You say
Things look good in the dark
I say great but its cold in my heart
Behind it all there lies a veil to cover  up mistakes
We are not AOK

This is the truth
We are wanting to know
All will be well
All that is broken made whole

Behind it all were far from what we long for  and  ache
We are not AOK

You say  I am here for the haul
I say YES  LETS wait on the dawn
A sacrifice our  paradise
A friend FOEVER stayS
Makes us A OK

A sacrifice our  paradise
A friend forever stay
Makes me feel  A OK

This is the truth
We are wanting to know
All will be well
All that is broken made whole

A sacrifice our  paradise
A friend forever stay
Makes us A OK

AOK SAW 36

"Give My Best" (#393, 200906)

Some lovers find you like a penny
Others leave you with a scar
Make a mark before they shut the door
A tattoo on your heart

Some lovers hold you like a midnight
Close their eyes and drink you in
Others lift you up and watch you float away
Like a feather in the wind

Give my best to New York City
She's always on my mind
The way she kissed my winter cheeks
Her breathe in the summertime

Autumn rain doesn't look the same
Outside my new address
I'm moving on but never really gone
Give my best

Some lovers break you like a mirror
Little pieces everywhere
Until the next one tapes you back together
To show how much they care

Give my best to New York City
She's always on my mind
The way she kissed my winter cheeks
Her breathe in the summertime

Autumn rain doesn't the look the same
Outside my new address
I'm moving on but never really gone
Give my best

She misses me I know it she's just too sad to show it
If you see her take a moment and give my best

Week 37b - Give My Best (200906)

It rained all year
We swam through 94

The fall, I fear
Can't hold it back no more

And gives way
To the winter dead

And gives its best
To an endless summer bed 


After all is through
Starts to drift away
Leaving in its wake


So let it go
Drive out to meet the sea

On a worried coast
Made of fragile strong beliefs


After all is through
Starts to drift away
Leaving in its wake

An empty echo sings
Funerals and weddings
Funerals and weddings


Rain through the leaves damping flowers down
Everything stays never the same
In the year of rain


After all is through
Starts to drift away
Leaving in its wake

An empty echo sings
Funerals and weddings
Funerals and weddings

Violins with broken strings
Funerals and weddings
Funerals and weddings

Year of Rain (Give My Best) - Song a Week 2020, Week 37

I got electricity that's shooting out my fingertips 
feel it when I walk into the room
I got sexuality that's bending all of space and time 
Find the world revolves around me too

The elixir of life - the elixir of life
I got the the goddam font of youth with me tonight
The elixir of life - the elixir of life
it's coursing through my veins
I'm set to set the world alight

I been every hole you ever sold your soul to leave behind
I been broken down and left to die
I tried every way to shake the naked devil off your back
Can you see the twinkle in my eye

The elixir of life - the elixir of life
I got the the goddam font of youth in me tonight
The elixir of life - the elixir of life
I feel it's coursing through my veins
I'm setting everything alight

I got on top and
Ain’t gonna stop
Ain’t gonna stop now - no
I crashed out
I’m back now
Bringing something to the light

The elixir of life - the elixir of life
I got the the goddam font of youth in me tonight
The elixir of life - the elixir of life
I feel it's coursing through my veins
I'm set to set the world alight

Elixir Of Life

At the time of writing this song, Argentina has been on quarantine (or mandatory preventive social isolation) for 180 days. This song represent almost every thought I had through it, since the beginning when we celebrated birthdays through videocalls with our family and friends and we said "this will be a cool memory to tell our kids" until the most recent ones where rich people are leaving the country because they can afford it and because it feels like it's all going down here, and media covers it like it's the most important thing in the world and most of us just DON'T CARE anymore.
Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't even taken the train this year. The first time I took it, there were officers everywhere making sure you were actually allowed to take it. 
It's not the easiest time for everyone. Our country is split between the ones who support this isolation, and the ones who doesn't. Many political, economical and ideological reasons are in discussion, often forgetting that we're here because there's a virus out there, and some places can't even handle it anymore. It's scary, because you can feel the riot in the air which is the last thing we'd need right now.

Milligrams is the song I've been wanting to write for a long time. An honest song about what it's like to face your feelings in times of uncertainty. Sometimes you just wish you could numb all of them, like when you take a pill for the headache or something. A lot of feelings are several years old, but you know what they say, quarantine is a great time for introspection. I keep remembering my life before this and thinking "will I ever get even a small piece of that back?" Hopefully, I will. In the meantime... take care.

Lyrics:

They got the money, so they can runaway.
I don't get what they think I'd even care.
My planet Earth has been reduced to these walls,
haven't seen the city since long ago.
And we spent our birthdays through videocalls,
it felt cool for a memory to tell your child,
until I took the train feeling exiled
craving the freedom of a hunter running wild.

And it's a weird time, yes, they say it all the time,
like it would make a mend for the trouble in our minds.
And drop bombs on this already lost battlefield,
with the excuse to keep our eyes peeled.
Now I move by inertia almost all the time,
measuring my comfort in milligrams.
A little bit of this, a little bit of that
and our happy smile turns dark mad.

My moral has a double side,
don't look at me like this, yours is just like that.
And I've been screaming at you silently for so many years,
I thought my vocal cords would disappear.
So go ahead and tell me I just need a job,
like it would surgically remove these intruder thoughts.
Cause maybe I've wasted seven years of my life,
but I'm terrified of giving them up.

I believe they're all liars, including me
and that's why I'll never know what I need.
I think they're onto something against us tonight,
but we're hypnotized by this permanent blue light.
And I'm scared of every citizen,
cause when they raise our flag, I know what it represents.
I'm a red button away from calmness...
(Cover my mouth with blissful ignorance)

Now I move by inertia almost all the time,
measuring my comfort in milligrams.
A little bit of this, a littl bit of that,
and our bright smile turns dark mad.

Now I move by inertia almost all the time.

Milligrams

The words of the poet Robert Frost made into a song at the Shetland Songwriting Festival

The Aim Was Song

Before man came to blow it right
     The wind once blew itself untaught,
And did its loudest day and night
     In any rough place where it caught.
 
Man came to tell it what was wrong:
     It hadn’t found the place to blow;
It blew too hard—the aim was song.
     And listen—how it ought to go!
 
He took a little in his mouth,
     And held it long enough for north
To be converted into south,
     And then by measure blew it forth.
 
By measure. It was word and note,
     The wind the wind had meant to be—
A little through the lips and throat.
     The aim was song—the wind could see.

The Aim Was Song

Nashville songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Godin Guitars Official Artist and Founder of www.songaweek.org.

His catalog of 500+ titles includes collaborations with hit writers Mark Narmore, Elliott Park, Steve Dean, and Pete & Pat Luboff, among others internationally from England to Australia.

Redding's music has landed cuts by numerous recording artists including Dan Whitehouse, Emma Gale, and David Easterling.

Week 36a - I’m Ready Now (200905)

James Tristan Redding