Rodrigo's death scene from the opera 'Don Carlo'

Rodrigo's aria

From the opera 'Carmen'. Escamillo, a bull fighter, toasts his ringmates and, not-so-surreptitiously, himself. And yes, that's TOTALLY me in the photograph. Character research!


Votre toast

O du mein holderabendstern

Memory

Wash Me Down

A cappella version of my favorite Christmas tune.

Silent Night

Rough sketch.

My soul's broken into so many pieces
That I don't know how to collect
Please stoop to help me conquer
Before I fall once and for all

Save me save from my sins
Any day before the Devil creeps in
Close the door open wide your heart
Save me save me when the tidal wave starts

Man and woman they walked in the garden
Hand in hand they knew no shame
Then and there they had it all
The Serpent rattled his tin and set the world to spin

Beg or borrow, cut, kill or steal
I'd sell my daughter for one more meal
Desperate times, desperate measures isn't that what you say?
Well your tactical strikes they made me this way

Rain on the rooftop wakes me from slumber
But the sound of sirens jolts me from bed
All around bombs thud and percuss 
I hold what's left of my son as his world is undone

Blame me blame me no more for your woes
Tell please tell where should this agony go
All that I had is buried deep underground
May whatever you've lost not ever be found



Collateral Damage (C'est Dommage)

Been lonely in the summer
Been alive to feel the springtime die in my weary bones
It's not the memories we forged so long ago
But the ones as father-son we never had
I hope the worst is over now
Though it hurts I'll get on somehow
Someway

Time is a healer
That's if you're one to reckon with what has passed
Pain is a dealer
Damage done may beckon but we outlast
I begrudge no more what you did to me
If life is lore, I'm a might tree
Set free

Finding words
Still finding words for all the silent years

By Summer's End

Singer/writer/melody maker. Finding words for "All the Silent Years".  I can be found staring across the musical landscape shared by Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, Leonard Cohen, Antony and the Johnsons, Over the Rhine and Nina Simone.


Johnny Campen