Another of your amazing songs that I am only now hearing for the first time. Such outstanding songwriting and just a classic folk performance. A great pleasure. Durge

beautiful tune, beautiful tempo and beautiful vocals

Powerful insight at work here Pravinand. Great song.

I missed this one. You are such a great writer. This is so simple yet so powerful. Hats off to you brother!

Such a gift to the world this song is. Beautiful Johnny.

You should got the prophetic touch - totally engaged with your subject

Ethiopia  
Words & music: Pravinand Maharaj (Johnny Minstrel)

Your fear has overcome you
And faith is just a matter of doing what you really doubt
Your strength has slowly left you
And everything you lost are the only things you cared about

Your dreams in shattered jars of clay now
Scattered all across the world and everybody knows
You scream through another day now
But all you hear are echoes of yourself the valley throws

Chorus
So far you couldn’t remember Eden
So down the road you don’t know who you are
So close to the post of the one left scourged and bleeding
On the desert road back to Ethiopia

The light is slowly fading
Edges of the darkness are creeping on your soul
Your queen back home is waiting
Waiting for the gift that can’t be bought or sold

Chorus
A sound and your heart it freezes
Till a voice tells you be not afraid
Just be strong
There’s a man and he’s sent by Jesus
As your fears disappear
You ask him what took so long

Chorus




Ethiopia

A song inspired by the events following 7 October 2023 to express my sorrow about the 80 years of tragic injustice and destruction imposed upon the people of Palestine.

PALESTINE

A modern Christmas carol for you all. The lovely Mark J Bennett has provided the vocals (and artwork) - all at rather short notice too which is typical of his generosity.

We hope you enjoy it and that it encourages some thought about the Christmas message (which, let's face it, seems to have got a little lost in recent times....)

May the deep peace of the running wave be yours.

Music (based on trad tune)/Lyrics/Backing Vocal - enlimila
Vocals - Mark J Bennett.
[Audio-clip of children playing courtesy of garuda1982]

THREE BOATS
I saw three boats come sailing in,
Come sailing in, come sailing in.
I saw three boats come sailing in,
On Christmas Day in the morning.

One of those boats won’t sail again,
Not sail again, never sail again.
For that boat sank with all its men
And all its women and children.

The second boat its engine died,
Its engine died ‘cos the smugglers lied
And the waves crashed down on the folk inside
That little boat in the morning.

Those desperate folk held hands and prayed,
Held hands and prayed, as the sea it sprayed
’Til at last they sank beneath the waves
On Christmas day in the morning.

The third boat managed to reach the shore
And the folk inside all prayed some more.
Then the politicians began to roar
With rage on Christmas morning.

“How dare these strangers reach our land
Expecting us to lend a hand?
Our inn is full and we have no room.
Let them go home and face their doom.”

They went to church to sing and pray,
To sing and pray, to sing and pray,
And watch their kids in Nativity plays
On Christmas Day in the morning.

Three Boats

A real joy to have Karin-Maria Brunner join me on this song. She has really done an amazing job with my basic track. My grateful thanks and deepest appreciation to you, Karin-Maria. (@user-53145152-479345033)
https://soundcloud.com/karin-maria-brunner

K-M: Epic pad, Vintage synthesiser strings, harp, violin, viola, cello, crash, bass, processing, mixing and mastering 
Me: vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards

Promise Me (Brian Peters)

It's hard to believe
Takes courage of man to admit it
There's a memory within me
The sound of your name recalls it

We're living in days
Dancing too close to the heat
There's pockets of fires
Scattered all over the streets

*Promise me baby
You won't let another come between our love
Promise me baby
You won't imprison the dove*

They tied up the servant
They killed the messenger
Made a home explosive
Marked it ‘return to sender’

There’s a crack in the conscience
A finger of light in the skies
There’s bug on your telephone
Your windows are full of eyes

It’s the day of the aliens
Night of the UFOs
They took all the war brides
The baby boomer girls

There’s halls of illusion
Perverted sex on the screen
Young minds in confusion
Old men with adolescent dreams

The prophet is dishonoured
Especially in his own home
I’ve been reading Borges
Listening to Leonard Cohen

There’s sex on the telephone
A hundred iniquity dens
But the women are sexless
There are no real men

There’s blood on the doorposts
The angel of death is near
Speak softly, darling
Even the walls have ears

There’s a place in the hills
It’s like the top of Masada
It’s the gateway to paradise
Or the scene of a murder

Well, the world’s getting smaller
It’s like a one horse town
But the circle gets faster
As it spirals down

And the more things are changing
The more they are the same
And I sound like my daddy
I guess he felt the same

Promise Me

https://soundcloud.com/gautamkarnik - violin
unearth noise - percussion, guitars, electronics, arrangement

the value of a tear (w/Gautam Karnik)

I've been away from SoundCloud for a while working on my new album and several writing projects, but the album's nearly done, so I thought I'd emerge from my cocoon and post this song, which means a lot to me. It features my good friend Akmaral Zykayeva on violin. For the past ten years, I've been doing a lot of consulting work in Kazakhstan. I met Akmaral in Almaty, Kazakhstan about six years ago. She is a hugely gifted composer, singer, and violinist who records as "Akmaral Mergen" and also as "Mergen" (Mergen means "woman warrior" in Kazakh).
For this song, Akmaral wrote a beautiful six-violin arrangement, playing all the parts herself.
The photo on the cover is the view from my hotel room in Almaty on one of my trips. In the foreground is Almaty Opera House and in the distance are the snowcapped Tien Shan Mountains (the "Celestial Mountains"). Beyond the mountains is Kyrgyzstan. 
Main guitars on this song are my Taylor GC-5 acoustic and my 1966 Guild Starfire XII (electric twelve-string).
The cricket and bird sounds at the beginning and end were recorded by me with a field recorder in a wild area of southern Wisconsin.
(This song can be found on my "Twilight on Tunnel Road" album, which I'm happy to say won the Alternative Album of the Year award from the Madison Area Music Association.)
LYRICS:
"Let Me Go”
Words & Music by Timothy Walsh

Nothing I say to you makes it untrue.
Let me go—I can’t say how much I love you.

Taking it all away, I can’t bear the day.
In the night I just see your face staring at me.
Let me go.

Seeing I don’t know why, why you must try
to go far away now, climb mountains so high.

Every single day, I’m making my way.
I can’t deal with you gone and I’m not okay.
Let me go.

I don’t say you should not go—closing off the future before you can know.
I just can’t get loose from your strings,
they’re wrapped around my heart entangling all things.

I remember how we used to play, how we used to dance, how we used to run,
dissolving in the moonlight as if we were one.
And all those days, all those times, all those nights we held to each other,
held so tight as if we might lose the one thing we love.

And I think that I can’t go on now,
without you I’m lost, I just don’t know how.
Now the light has gone out of my life,
nothing ahead but torment and strife.

Twilight on Tunnel Road

Let Me Go

Dear friends, 
our lovely little Granddaughter will be nine years old in a couple of days.

In Swedish
En tjej på nio

Hon kommer som en vind - som en vind från öppet hav
med glädje tjut  -  hon flyger in
i vårat hem -  och nu blir allt väldigt ljust
Det är alltid fint med dom som sprider mycket glädje omkring

Det finns en tjej  soom kan - tala med naturen
hon talar med  -    myror och med bin
hon älskar dom  - och dom älskar henne med 
Det är alltid fint med dom som sprider mycket glädje omkring

Det spritter i hennes ben  -  hon kan inte sitta still
hon är som en  -  evighetsmaskin  
det livar upp  -  alla gamla trötta folk
Det är alltid fint med dom som sprider mycket glädje omkring


In English
A Girl of Nine

She comes like a wind - like a wind from the open sea
with joy howl - she flies in
in our home - and now everything becomes very bright
It is always nice with those who spread a lot of joy around

There is a girl who can - talk to nature
she speaks with - ants and with bees
she loves them - and they love her too
It is always nice with those who spread a lot of joy around

It splatters in her legs - she can't sit still
she is like a - eternity machine
it enlivens - all the old tired folk
It is always nice with those who spread a lot of joy around

En Tjej på Nio (A Girl of Nine) Lyrics in English below

I feel so lucky that Dave Orestes 1 allowed me to record a rendition of his wonderful song " What Is Rich" ! 

Written by Dave Orestes 1 
https://on.soundcloud.com/JG7gH

Recorded/Mixed: Audacity
Guitar: Cort MR710 LH NS
Mic: Rhode USB Mini
Tam Jennifer: Interpretation, Vocals, Guitar, Mix & Master

Lyrics (Dave Orestes):

What is rich? You're asking me
Rich is so simple, don't you see
It's not what you own but what you do and say
.
What is rich? You're asking me
It's not hard to explain
It's all about what you feel
And not what you touch
Every day
.
Rich is how well you sleep at night and
your thoughts on your own death bed
when you have few regrets
few regrets
.
Rich is passing on
the prospect of hope
so that all have a chance
to prosper and grow
Rich is not how tall 
Your sky scrapers grow
no no no no
.
Or the number of seats
in your stadium row 
It's not how many toys
in the attic you've stowed 
oh no no
that's not it
.
What is rich? You're asking me
Oh it's not hard to explain
It's all about what you feel
Not what you touch every day 
.
Rich is when
All the children are fed
And each of them has 
A warm safe bed
Rich is how 
You care for people 
That, you've never met
.
It's not hard to explain 
It's all about what you feel 
And not what you touch
Every day
.
Doo da doo da doo
Laa la laa la laa
Laa la laa la laa
Laa la laa
La laa la la
.
© Dave Orestes 1, Tam Jennifer Hastings, 2024. All rights reserved.

What Is Rich (with Dave Orestes, 2024)

WHEN YOU FINALLY L:EAVE

Future sunset Omarama
Knowing only you will see
It’s a low brow shrinking ceiling

A contract without words
It’s the thick of family
Harbinger of lonely hearts
The fate of you and me

And when you finally leave
We gotta face it courageously
When you finally leave
We gonna have to suck it up – it’s the right thing to do
We gonna have to draw down on memory 

Fate is born by trajectory
Attraction mangles fences
Leaving snow grass blowing free

And how the years were kind to us
Yearning for the workplace
The weekends oh so bleak

And when you finally leave . . .
Instrumental
You got a date stamp – a black hole in the sky - And I got to make way

You and your Omarama – we’ll both be conscience free
But how will we feel? . . . 

Cause when you finally . .

When You Finally Leave

My first songwriting effort of 2024 with vocals, piano, bass, percussion, strings and clarinets. 😊🎶🎵🎼🎤❤️

Thank you to my lovely Sander for this fine mastering job. @wane-of-summer for his wonderful music. ❤️😊❤️

Answer to my prayers

"Until The End Of Time"

Original Song and lyrics by Linda Straub

I want to sing you a love song,
but your face is masked  in pain,
so I'll just sit here by your side,
and let you sleep and rest again. 

I look at you and watch you breathing,
then reach out and hold your hand.
I picture you as you used to be,
strong, full of life, my loving man. 

It's hard to feel this helpless,
when I want to sweep your pain away.
All I can do is be by your side
as you slip further away each day.

All the wonderful times we've shared
are memories flooding my mind,
each one fills my soul with gladness,
for the joy we've had throughout our lives.


Sleep my darling, for when you wake,
I'll be here, steadfast by your side,
for I am your woman,
until the end of time,

for I am your woman,
until the end of time.





Until The End Of Time (Original)-

I'm a singer-songwriter from Durban, South Africa. Having being raised in the church I was advantaged with a ready-made audience. Their kindness, patience and ecouragement gave me the confidence to improve my songwriting and to take it quite seriously. At times when the lyrics had a touch of controversy, they never thought it scandalous, which further encouraged me to write on social issues, love songs, and songs with just a story. 
By my mid-teens I was heavily influenced by the hippy gospel songwriter Larry Norman, which may explain why into my 50's I still have long hair! Through his music I learned that songs do have a greater purpose. 
As a young upstart I was blessed with a kind and forgiving congregation. Today I'm blessed with a very tolerant family and a bunch of great friends. I love what I do!



Ethiopia

Johnny Minstrel

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