Ghost Town 
Words and music by John David Lawson
---

Used to greet friends on the street
Walk the dog, maybe go for wings
See the neighbours in their driveways
Truckers and trailers crowding the highways
That was then, now it's quits
Wonder how it came to this

Ghost town, ghost town
Everywhere I look around
There is no one to be found
Ghost

Used to know up from down
Used to be the best place around
Can't we have what we had before
Everywhere it's fear and shuttered doors
Hard wind, dry to breathe
Rusty weather vanes, tumbleweed

Ghost town (tumbleweed) 
Ghost town (tumbleweed)
Everywhere I look around
There is no one to be found
Ghost town, ghost town

In the dusty distance
There's a rumble down the track
A great light approaches
Gonna take this ghost town back

Ghost town, ghost town
Everywhere I look around
There is no one to be found
Come and visit my ghost town
Come and visit my ghost town
My ghost town

Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/photos/ZiuL3lWgQiM

---
Credits:
All vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, bass, flute, harmonica, VST's - John David Lawson
Drums - "Masonator" on fiverr (USA)


Change log
2022-10-31 Sweetened vocals, aligned guitars, added bass
2022-11-11 Added Drums

Ghost Town

Listen with your heart
Listen to your feelings
That could be a very good 
way toward healing
Livin' in your brain
Can be overrated
It can make you old and jaded

Wonder with your eyes
Gazing all around you
Take in the surprise 
of the one who found you
Aim towards the skies
Rise up from the ground you
made a very good start 
Now let life astound you

Whootndoot

Old pathways lead to nowhere
Old patterns are unscrambled
The past is gone, just left where
So much of everything got mishandled

Never buy the lie
That everything is separate
Take heed of the cries
Of the lost and desperate
Moving through this life
Find a deep affection
Got to line up right
In time for the connection



---
Credits:
Vocals, Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Flutes, Accordion, Melodica - John David Lawson

"Listen With Your Heart", music and lyrics © 2021 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

Listen With Your Heart

"The Falalala Song" (A Song About Christmas)

“Were not our hearts burning within us?"
     ~Luke 24:32

Come and sing a song about Christmas
One about the lovely baby Jesus
Who came with light to pierce
Through all the darkness

Bright stars and shining angels
Wise shepherds, ordinary people
Guided by a thrill of hope 
To a humble stable

That one day we might join Him at His table

Hallelujah 
Jesus is brought to us this day
So with the Heavenly Host 
We sing His praise

Fa la la la. fa la la la-la-la
Fa la la la. fa la la la
Fa la la la. fa la la la-la-la

Our hearts were groaning within us
For the dawn of Light at Christmas
This is the morning 
That would change everything

Peace and goodwill to everyone
Bought by the one Begotten Son
Fa la la la
Fa la la la-la-la!

----------

Credits:
Vocals, Guitar, Toy Whistle, Production - John David Lawson
Upright Bass - Stephen K. Donnelly (Canada)
Baritone Sax - Dabido (Canada)
Accordion - Ratko Pavlovic (Germany)
Drums - Mario Ibarra (Zacatecas, México)
Conga, Maracas, Güiro, Cowbell,  - Alejandro Pérez Morales (Colombia)
Additional Percussion - Andres Linares (Argentina)
Clarinet - Stasys Makštutis (Lithuania)
Background Vocals - John David Lawson, Giuliana Benedetti (Italy), Jim Snedeker (USA)
Artwork generated in collaboration with DALL-E 2.0

Change log:
2022-11-17 drums and extra guitar added, chorus extended

"The Falalala Song (A Song About Christmas)", music and lyrics © 2021 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

The Falalala Song (A Song About Christmas)

The Falalala Song

Sometimes it’s a gospel day 
When everything turns out our way
Get to feeling we’re okay 
After oh my such a long time

The sun is streamin’ through
The sun is streamin’ through
So good to look at you 
When the sun Is streamin’ through

Open up the window wide
Let the bad air escape
Let the room be filled with light
When we open up the drapes

Can’t say how good it feels
Knowing that our love is real
No more cons or shady deals
’Cause the sun is streamin’ through

Everything seems bathed in glory
Tomorrow may be another story
But that's how I feel today
Please tell me you feel the same

Credits

Vocals, guitars, flutes, production - John David Lawson
Bass Guitar - Romeo Luna (Ukraine)
Drum loop - LANDR

"The Sun Is Streamin’ Through", music and lyrics © 2022 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

The Sun Is Streamin’ Through

Let's swim tonight
The water's right
As daylight's died and dusk fades
I'll read your lips and you'll read mine
Make me cry
Let's swim tonight

Let's go under
Go down deep
Down to where the crayfish and the minnows sleep
And waters cool like ancient clay
Offer to soothe and carry cares away
Until it's day
Let's swim tonight

(work in progress)

Swim Tonight

"Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (Everything can change)", music and lyrics © 2021 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

-------
Credits:
John David Lawson (Canada) - Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Accordion, Vocals, String Arrangement 
Mario Ibarra (Mexico) - Drums
Andres Linares (Argentina) - Percussion
Valery Foyniak (Ukraine) - Violin


-------
Lyrics:
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Talk to me about loss
I'm all ears
I'm up to them in tears
Everything can change
In the blinking of an eye
I don't know how to say 
Good-bye

Yesterday 
She looked at me the way
That made me feel known 
But today she's gone
Now I sit alone
Stricken to the bone
Lord knows I don't know
How to move on

Morning, full of life
Noon, half paralyzed
Evening, all the light 
Had drained out of her eyes
I held her until morning 
Then she died

Then I picked up the phone 
To ask you why

Elisabeth Kübler
Kübler-Ross
Kübler-Ross

-------
The song journey:

It's an absurd, short ditty, but significant to me for the progress it represents in advancing my production skills.

As one approaches 60, one starts to think about death, trying to become accustomed to the idea as an inevitability. To muster up one's courage against an unknown future. I guess I have been stuck in that phase for a while, turning the idea over in song after song.

Here, the main character's wife dies in his arms and he dials the phone to ask the famous author for help. It is 2 minutes long to dramatize the swift passage of time.

In the tradition of the Everly Brothers' Bye Bye Love, this is a happy song with sad words. The stupendously brilliant Jacob Collier suggests such pairings ironically amplify the emotion of a work. 

A podcaster on death and dying had a call out for unusual music that "would not be played at a funeral", upon which I immediately wrote this, thinking it rather silly. I had a gig writing blog articles for a mental health agency, so EKR's 5 stages of grief had been on my mind. The idea was absurdly to codify them into song form. Later I recorded all the vocals into Audacity, which I outgrew, where they languished. 

Recently I imported them all into my new DAW, Reaper, added (I think) a killer bass line and started building out and finessing the track over a period of weeks as time permitted, using it as an exercise to bring all my newly acquired skills together into one project. 

I tried some interesting experiments. Hired a musician on fiverr.com to supply a violin line, which I multiplied five times then pitch shifted to create a string section. I kept the main vocal very dry then doubled it and placed the doubled part way back in the mix while soaking it in reverb. I feel like that made the vocals both lush and crisp at the same time. I received some cow bells and bongos and nudged their tuning into the same neighborhood as the song's. 

I have difficulty hearing some frequency bands associated with drums and percussion, so I mixed those much lower than I would prefer, thinking if I can hear them, they will be too loud for everyone else.

There is a third verse I may incorporate later. I performed all the parts (on natural instruments) except the drums, percussion and violin (credits as noted). I am proud of this result which feels like a significant leap forward for me. In the end it is just a short, quirky pop song, but it means a lot to me as it gives me a sense of what I can achieve going forward.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

My asthma flared up when the Canadian forest fires of 2023 began to rage in earnest. This song began as selfish complaint with a slight rewrite rendering it less sarcastic and more hopeful. I recalled summers on a tree planting crew and reflected that tree planting is an inherently hopeful act. (Written Canada Day, July 1, 2023)
---

When Canada Burns (Send the Brigade)

When Canada burns my lungs hurt
from flames a thousand miles away
A populace wheezes, yearns for breezes
praying for some falling rain today
They can see it on the way to work
Brown sickly haze over New York
when Canada burns

We laughed at the joke
when scientists spoke
from ivory towers in the sky  
Now animals choke on poisonous smoke
while wild forest flowers wilt and die
Time to pack their things and go
Leave behind everything they know
when Canada burns

Back to working summers memory flashes
sowing saplings row on row
in the rich furrows ploughed from ashes
Now I wonder what will grow
Gonna teach the kids my tree planting ways
Send them out with saddle bags and spades
Gonna send the brigade

-----
Credits

Words and music (c) John David Lawson, 1 July 2023
G-tuned guitar, bass, vocals and whistling - JDL
All sound sources originated in the acoustic realm; no VSTs harmed

Thanks to replant.ca for use of the classic tree planter image (replant.ca is a site "designed to provide information and education about Canada's tree planting & reforestation industries.")

Technical notes
Still learning how to track and chasing that elusive tone
Acoustic guitar - a Tony Snyder OM-1 based model tuned in G and tracked in stereo with DI and M-Audio Sputnik tube mic
Bass - Fender Precision bass played into a Golden Age Pre-73 Jr.

When Canada Burns

Sometimes I wonder am I a clone
A pale facsimile of a better one
But I don't ponder until the day's done
Sometimes I wonder if I am one
Sometimes I wonder am I just goo
Waiting for a robot to tell me what to do
My moves are jagged, my gait is choppy
Am I just a sloppy copy of you

Am I a clone
What if I got no Mamma to take me home

Sometimes I wonder am I a drone
Waiting for the next gig to glow on my phone
With instructions on where I gotta go
Sometimes I wonder am I a drone
But there's a boy inside who sings
Nobody is pulling his strings
Rides his bike over fields of green
Parks it on the bank of a crystal stream 

Is he a clone, he doesn't know
What if he got no Mamma to take him home

I'll forgive my dreams for betraying me
'Cause they live in places nobody can see
Am I a clone, am I a clone
What if I got no mamma to take me home
Am I a clone, am I a clone
What if I got no Mamma to take me home
What if I got no Mamma?

------------------
"Am I A Clone" - words and music (c) July 2023, John David Lawson 
Vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, bass, production - John David Lawson
(no VST's or pitch correction used on this one!)

Am I a clone?

In the lottery of significance
Old dreams don't make sense
Is it talent or coincidence
That lets a nobody outwit chance
You can use the royalties
To buy a coffee for a homeless man
'cause he might be me
So put money in the can

Family and friends they say
They gonna love you to their dying day
But when it comes to what you create
They shuffle nervously and back away
Maybe one song I make
Will help someone to celebrate
Help somebody break away

So when my passionate lofty plans
In the end don't add up to squat
Throw my ashes in a coffee can
Stow the tapes in a banker's box
And you all can auction it off
In the doughnut shop that time forgot
And bury it all 
in an unmarked plot

The Doughnut Shop That Time Forgot

Why I don't cry is if I started 
Water would rise
And I do not float
How to swim, never did know
So send a lifecraft before you go 

And I will be Noah building my boat
Set my sights and in forty nights
Gonna cry, "Land, ho!"

I will be Jesus holding his friend
Cryin' out Lazarus breathe again
I will be Mary painting his feet
With perfume and tears
Bitter and sweet

Loss is a deluge, grief overtakes
Leaves a hell of a huge wave in its wake
Some seek refuge in the caves
Some still wait to be saved

I'll be the mother bathing her son
Washing the scars so bitterly won
I will be Yahweh thundering loud
I will be stormclouds letting it out

And I will be Noah building my boat
Set my sights come forty nights
Gonna cry, "Land, ho!"

Noah

Folk noir. When it comes to avenging a middle school grudge, our main character plays the long game. 

A "quarter" used to be a coin worth a quarter of a dollar, or 25 cents, which at one time was the price of an ice cream bar.

A "tuck shop" is a nook within a school or institution stocked with junk food.

---

The Quarter You Lent

We met on the first day of school
You smoked cigarettes I thought you were cool
You let me borrow 25 cents
Next day I paid back the quarter you lent

Bought an ice cream bar at the tuck 
For the girl I wanted to meet
Wouldn't you know it was just my luck
she bumped into you not me
Six inches taller than me

Six inches, can't win it
Race is over before we begin it 
That's what happens to 25 cents
Melted ice cream all over your pants
   
At the shotgun wedding she smiled
There was not one dry eye for miles
If there were secrets they were kept well
But there is something I never did tell

Years later, see your kids grew
One looks a lot more like me than you
Says, Dad may I borrow some cash 
Come tomorrow I'll get you paid back

Six inches, can win it
Race is over before we begin it
That's what happens to 25 cents
If you have a little to invest

----
Credits:
JDL - vocals, guitar, bass, flute, keyboards, production

The Quarter

19 year-old me performing The Violin Song. Recorded at Elora Sound in 1983. You can hear tape wobble from the old cassette, along with my allergies and lack of experience as a singer. First song I ever wrote (1979). I wrote the violin parts, inking them by hand on manuscript paper for my friend Taras Zienchuk to play. Probably my greatest hit, performed at many coffee houses back then. I used to invite audiences to sing along with the "La-la" chorus, joking that "the words are easy".

The Violin Song (Feb. 5th, 1983)

Hey, Banjo
Words and music by John David Lawson

Hey banjo
Can you give me a happy tune
Isn't that what you do
If I could learn to play you
Would you tell truth?

I could whistle
Toot on a pennyflute
Strum two chords on a uke
Maybe those things would sound cute
If they weren't so cruel

My piano 
Gathers dust in the studio
Harmonica just blows
Cello is far too mellow
Accordion bellows

Hey banjo 
Can you help me with my head
To write again, at least try
To forget what a friend had said
Hoping it was a lie

'Cause someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
Someone's in the kitchen ohh
Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah
The rest you know

Hey banjo 
Guess I got played by you
Got taken in by your tune
And if I never hear five strings again
That would be too soon

-----

Credits:
Vocals, piano, guitar, banjo, harmonica, accordion - John David Lawson
Photo by Morgan Lane on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/wlY66otjq28

"Hey, Banjo", music and lyrics © 2023 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

Hey, Banjo

Did you just butt-dial me?
Surely that's what it must be
Did you realize you'd caused such pain
I'm surprised I have to explain

You had nothing to lose by being honest
Instead of presuming the worst of me
It's okay for people to think differently
Yet remain in each other's company

But two years have passed and the moment is gone
If indeed there ever really was one
So do me a favor, delete my number
And keep your cheeks away from your phone

-----

Credits:
Guitar and vocal - John David Lawson

"Cheeks", music and lyrics © 2023 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

Cheeks (Did you just butt-dial me?)

The Surrender Flag. Written, arranged and performed by John David Lawson.

Lover, I have been stumbling
Covered in war field sufferings
Angry artillery is rumbling
Loudly within my heart a-thundering
Offers of help are muffled mumblings
When, to the sea, my thoughts roll tumbling
Over bodies fallen from the ragged crag 
Piling under a surrender flag

I feel the tides of distant memory
Taking turns loosening the sands of time
Returning back to you the good in me
Until we hear the bells of freedom chime
Courage is not what has us pressing on
Ah but the promise of a better path
As grains of healing trickle one by one
Down through the gauntlet of the hourglass

A rod of iron's woven through my spine
A steel trap is how I've set my mind
By this machinery I stay alive
But I can't tell you that I'm doing fine
In dreams I see you in the waterfall
Fountains of sunlight bouncing off your hair
Down through time immemorial beyond recall
Oh baby maybe one day we will get back there

Credits:
Acoustic guitar, bass, VST's, vocals - John David Lawson

Music and lyrics © 2023 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

The Surrender Flag

Tonight I'm tired of the grumpy old men 
who still want to run the world. 
Never wanted to end up like them, 
time to get my knuckles uncurled 
from the worn handles I've been trying 
to keep my grip on. 
It's time to sing a new song. 

Never wanted to be a jerk, 
always thinking my way would work, 
always first to grab the perks 
no matter who it hurts. 
But all the pundits are going berserk 
at what I have done. 

I've messed up, said rough stuff, 
still dressed up how gentlemen should be. 
But that was so last century, and now, 
they're all gunnin' for me. 
Where did I go wrong thinking I was right? 
What made me think I could win such a fight? 
But I've won nothing tonight. 

We had role models we learned to follow. 
Now their words ring hollow, absurd to swallow. 
And tonight, tonight, 
I'm just an old guy. 
Just an old guy.

Credits:
Vocals, piano - John David Lawson

"Just An Old Guy", music and lyrics © 2023 John David Lawson. All rights reserved.

Just An Old Guy

Our dog is getting on in age and has some health issues. She sleeps and sleeps and sleeps and sometimes has little micro-seizures. She won't be around forever, and when her time comes, I hope she will pass at home, in her sleep. "Our Dog." Written and performed by John David Lawson.

Our dog sleeps and sleeps and sleeps 
all day long under the sun
I pray the Lord her soul to keep 
until her doggie days are done.

Our dog lies around all day, 
wags her tail and chases squirrels away, 
opens her eyes once in while 
but she's only half awake.

Ahh and I'm trying really hard, that's for sure
to keep my eyes from crying over her
but I've finally come to knowin'
can't stop the ones you love from goin'

Outside, puppies on the street
tumble playfully with one another
waiting to come in for a treat
and one last time, to see their mother

Ahh we will miss her when she's gone, that's for sure
I guess not so very long is left for her
Our dog sleeps and sleeps and sleeps
Lord, I hope she sleeps in peace
Our dog

Credits:
Guitar, synth and vocals - John David Lawson

Our Dog

The kind of omnipresent, chronic anxiety that lives like a ball of molten lead in the pit of your stomach, telling you you're no good, saying you won't make it, and that bad things might happen.
----

Unspeakable dread busting down my door
What lies ahead, can't contemplate any more
Got to take a break
Catch a breath for heaven's sake
And just pretend to ignore 
Unspeakable dread

Unspeakable dread twists its dagger in my gut
Liquid lead... bloody red, flaming hot
Can't be what I'm not
Claw back the years I've lost
Or untangle the knot 
Of unspeakable dread

Fear wears many faces
Drives you through the paces
Lives in secret places under the bed, its name is
Unspeakable

Then they came, words that crushed my confidence dead
And the shame; absurd I trusted what they said
That all would be okay if I'd only learn to change
And kill the longings in my head
But I kept them instead

Acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocal: John David Lawson
Words and music: John David Lawson
Thanks to Andy Dolphin and Jim Barrett for suggesting tweaks to the lyrics

Unspeakable Dread

2023-12-16 

Everyone was hoping for a little snow this year
But everything is soaking wet around here
And the rain falls down, oh the rain 
Yes the rain falls down on this town

Once there was rock star out for a ride
The bus just rolled along while the fans waited outside
And the rain falls down, yes the rain
The rain falls down to the ground

Up there the billionaire rules from on high
Drinking his martini and telling us not to fly
The rain falls down, yes the rain falls down
The rain falls down from the sky

Heard the preacher calling on demons to go
Everyone in the stadium thinks they're in the know
And the rain falls down, the rain falls down 
Yes the rain falls down not the snow

The Rain

Big beautiful moon, how do you do? 
Always so good to look at you
Bathing the night in hues of blue
Big beautiful moon, here's looking at you

Big beautiful moon, big beautiful moon, big beautiful moon

You've got me feeling all right
Anything could happen tonight
To colour in the shade with light

Big beautiful moon, big beautiful moon, big beautiful moon

Do you remember the walks we took? 
The street lights flickered
The elm trees shook

Electricity in the air 
excites the atoms in my hair
Letting my head know that my heart 
is still there

Big beautiful moon, big beautiful moon, big beautiful moon

Big beautiful moon
Big beautiful moon
Big beautiful moon

----

"Big Beautiful Moon" written by J. D. Lawson. All performances performed by J. D. Lawson: vocals, acoustic 6-string, acoustic G-tuned guitar, flute, pennywhistle, bass, percussion (hand drums, güiro, shekere, tambourine, triangle, finger cymbals, frog, maracas), VST instruments (piano, horns).

Big Beautiful Moon

I want to honor you to my friends I do
As I am drawing near to the end it's true
For you have chosen to walk with me
Always faithful as can be

For every flower, every wind
Every hour and every second
For all those things and for all of you
I'm so grateful that I knew

My friends, friends
How less a heart glows
Without your love
Friends, friends
I can't take you with me
But thank you

I am tired I must sleep
I am taking your kindness with me

Friends
How less a heart glows
Without your   love
Friends, friends
I can't take you with me
But thank you

Music and Lyrics by John David Lawson and Jim Barrett
Vocal and Piano - JD Lawson

That Flying Dream

I love to make new songs with smooth organic sounds and vocal harmonies that remind me of favourite bands from the 1970's. If you like Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, America, Neil Young, and Nilsson, you might enjoy this music too.

These songs are fictional vignettes and stories. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

I facilitated worship in congregations for many years, and some songs here were written for that purpose. If you find a one you'd like to use, I would be happy to provide a chart.

John David Lawson

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