℗© Copyright Ian Stokes. All Rights Reserved
Recorded, mixed and mastered in Logic.
Guitar played: Taylor 714CE in standard tuning 
Photography: Thanks go to Nigel and Libby Hume at Hume Photography.
Song Notes and Lyrics:
This song imagines one of those occasions when you by chance find yourself in a place where there is some great live music that somehow just seems right.....
Lyrics:
Somewhere in New York City
Or was it down in New Orleans 
Could have been in San Francisco
Or maybe it was all a dream
I was walking by an old blues bar-room 
When I heard somebody playing with some style
So I bought myself an ice cold beer
And listened for a while

Looked like he’d lived a whole life-time
Beard gone silver grey
The people in the place seemed spellbound
Happy just to hear him play
At home on stage under the spotlight 
Keeping time with his heel on the floor
I bought myself another beer
I stayed and Iistened some more 

He wore a fine silk waistcoat
Jacket on the back of his seat
Hat pulled down to his cheekbone
Boots tapping out that beat

He played until the bar-room closed
Right sound right time right place
He walked off into the night
With his old leather guitar case
Never knew his name
Don’t even know if he still plays
But I’ll picture that stage and hear that sound
For the rest…of my days

He wore a fine silk waistcoat
Jacket on the back of his seat
Hat pulled down to his cheekbone
Boots tapping out that beat

Fine Silk Waistcoat

Krosan by Night

Krosan By Night

Frida's Wings – The Skeletons
April 2024
Duration: 2:50
A shorter version was previously included in the “Art Expressed in Music” series
Painting: Frida Kahlo Painting Self Portrait.
Music for Danse Etoile Ballet (www.danseetoile.org) who will be performing Frida's Wings, a ballet based on the life and works of Frida Kahlo, June 2024 in Colorado.
Thanks to John-Marc Ventimiglia @john-marc-ventimiglia for creating the “rattling bones” sound library
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self portraits and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.  Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain. In most of her self-portraits, she depicts her face as mask-like, but surrounded by visual cues which allow the viewer to decipher deeper meanings. Aztec mythology features heavily in Kahlo's paintings in symbols including skeletons and skulls.  In the painting, Dream of The Bed, painted in the year of 1940, Frida expressed her feeling and interception of death, which depicts a skeleton on the canopy of her bed (as she had in her real life). Her husband, Diego Rivera called the Juda, Frida's lover, but Frida said it's just an amusing reminder of people's mortality. Frida Kahlo spent much of her life in pain.  As As a teenager she suffered a horrific bus accident which left her unable to have children and meant she needed more than 30 operations on her spine. Eventually her withered leg had to be amputated and she died at 47. She said in her diary: “Feet, why do I need you, if I have wings to fly”
For guitar, accordion, trumpet, violin, double bass, sound effects and percussion

Frida's Wings - The Skeletons

Cast of Characters:

J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- organ, electric piano, drums, synth sax, synth bass, composition, and arrangement 
Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- Tez – guitar
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– guitar, production, mix, and mastering
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–ehru 
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – lap steel

This ripe piece of funk started with JJ essentially composing it on the e. Piano, organ, drums, synth sax, ands synth bass. He had the Eclectic Collective in mind when he did so, though. JJ actually is playing his drum kit on this one, so funkily that we decided to keep his drums in there. That didn't leave a whole lot of room for Ken to get in on it, but he managed to add a really cool ehru part. The ehru is a two stringed Asian violin with a distinct high percussive sound. JJ's bass line was so well played and solid, we decided to keep it in there, too, which also left Josh searching for a place in the mix. He decided to go last with the lap slide to anchor the foundation of the blues idiom. But he did that after Stephen and Tez cast their spells on the song with their magical guitars. Tez can be heard with the trippy, delay-heavy staccato lines, and Stephen with the silky smooth crying blues lines throughout. 
  Of course, every great song needs a great mixer and producer, and we're lucky enough to have Stephen to do the honors on this one for us.
  This song represents The Eclectic Collective at our funky finest, and we always enjoy and appreciate when JJ starts a song for us. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it. 
  If you really dig it, and have read the whole way to the bottom, please consider sharing this, too. We all appreciate your ears and support.

Sly Willy Blues (Eclectic Collective)

I had a holiday in Sweden in August and went on a steam train.  This is what it felt like to me.

Where The Steam Trains Go

Cast of Characters:

Llanpsych-- @llanpsych -- Tez – foundational acoustic and electric guitars, distorted electric guitar, and the seed idea
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– 5-string banjo solo, electric guitar
Mistermark – @the user-432503709 – Mark – vocals, lyrics, high organ, toy piano, percussion, sound effects, production, editing, mix
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- low organ, piano, synth flute, sound effects
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums, percussion 
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – 4-string fretless bass
Composition – The Eclectic Collective

This song began its life as a hauntinly exquisite guitar chord progression that Tez came up with and shared with the rest of us. He also stacked a couple of other guitar tracks in there for good measure. Ken was first up, adding his drums, then later his pots and pans percussion. As he was doing that, Josh was coming up with his bass line, and they did their little dance of back and forth until the rhythm section was set. Mark came in around the same time, though, and added his unique, Waitsian vocals with the lyrics that he wrote for it, too. He also added some really amazing organ parts, a toy piano which you can hear right after the bajo solo, and percussion that add a solid foundation for his voice and add magic throughout the song. Stephen followed shortly after with the big stroke guitar chords, and also came up with the amazing banjo solo you hear in there, too. Last, but not least, JJ came in with his organ and electric piano to seal the deal with the melodies and ambience. Then he and Mark added the cool sound effects you hear throughout, too.
  Every great song needs a great producer, and Mark filled the duty on this one. He has proved himself to be a masterful editor, producer, and mixer, and we are lucky to have him as part of the team.
  This one is an homage to Tom Waits in a deliberate way. We're all big fans, and tried to do something in his unique style. We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it.
 
Original lyrics by Mistermark:
I got something hidden in my closet 
that I don’t want you to see 
A little like a shady deposit
And it’s bound to incriminate me

Well now some might call it a skeleton 
Like a raincoat filled with bones
See I been hangin’ it there since I don’t know when
And I just can’t leave it alone

Me and Bill rolling bones in a gambling hall 
I threw snake eyes but Bill counted three
I took his accusation just a little too far 
Then everybody went quiet as they stared at me

Now the finger bone’s connected to the trigger
And the hand bone’s connected to me
And every day my secret’s gettin’ bigger
Soon enough I’ll be swinging from a tree

Coz I got something hidden in my closet 
that I don’t want you to see 
I done made a shady deposit
And it’s bound to incriminate me

Well now some might call it a skeleton 
Like a raincoat filled with bones
See I been hiding it there since I don’t know when
And I just can’t leave it alone
(repeat)

Bones - The Eclectic Collective

Lyrics written by Andrea Brennan.
Music written, arranged and performed by Del Griffiths.

Lyrics

Baby, I know your favorite things
Like strawberries and burgundy wine
Yellow daisies in summertime
The view of Atlanta’s skyline

Oo, oo, oo
I want to give them all to you
Every day of my life
Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
All my love for you
Every day of my life
Will you be my wife

Honey, I share your future dreams
A little place outside the city
With a front porch and tire swing
Where we can start a family

Oo, oo, oo
I want to give them all to you
Every day of my life
Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
All my love for you
Every day of my life
Will you be my wife

Darling, I know what’s in your heart
And I believe that it beats for me
Hopes that we will be together
Forever and eternity

Oo, oo, oo
I want to give them all to you
Every day of my life
Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
All my love for you
Every day of my life
If you’ll only say ‘I do’

Derek Griffiths's Album

Every Day of My Life  - Collaboration with Del Griffiths

Vital 134 BPM

Cast of Characters:

Roy Roy – @user-967672349 – Roy – foundational guitar, composition, and arrangement
J.J. Terrell-- @j-j-terrell—JJ-- organ, electric piano, synth sax, synth strings, synth brass, production, and mix
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– whah guitar, and mastering
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums, percussion 
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – 4-string fretless bass

This song began as a well developed, funky disco idea Roy came up with on his guitar, and shared with JJ. JJ added a wonderfully complex orchestration of various keys, including brass, strings, and the sax solo you hear towards the end. 
  JJ invited Stephen Stephen first, who came up with the funky ass wah guitar that also carries the groove. Of course, JJ realized that this is a disco song, so he enlisted Ken to come up with one of his awesome beats to carry it along. JJ had a rudimentary bass line that he played himself, but decided to get Josh to do the honors instead. So, Josh came up with a totally new bass line designed to shake your cheeks.
Once it was in the can, we decided to ask have JJ mix it for us. This is a first time JJ has mixed a song for The Eclectic Collective, and we were all impressed with his work. Stephen mastered it, as he is a master masterer. 
  We're all really impressed and delighted with the experience of working with Roy and his music. He is a very talented artist with a lot of great music to check out on his page, too.
  We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed creating it, and that it makes you shake your hips while you're doing the dishes, too!

Shag Carpet-Eclectic Collective

Dear friends - this is a little song to my dear brother - in - law on his Birthday.
We wish him a Happy Birthday


Kjell’s visa (Kjell’s Song)

Lyrics in English

In the middle of a burning war, a little boy was born
and after a few years
he becomes a tall and stately man
and he loves nature
and takes care of everyone who flies
but the most important thing for him
is the wife and grandchildren and children


Lyrics in Swedish

Mitt under brinnande krig en liten gosse kom till världen
och efter några år
han blir till en lång och ståtlig man
och han älskar naturen
och tar hand om alla som flyger
men det viktigaste för han
är frun och barnbarn och barn

Kjells Visa (Kjell's song) Lyrics in English in description below.

01 - SA - HZS - 60 Cellos All Standard - C Sord PP Long Soft CS
02 - SA - OPW - Ice Piano
03 - SA - OS - Woods High - Combo Swarm
04 - SA - Aperture - Refractions - Tremolo_Refractions - Normale
05 - SA - WE - Intense Sirens
06 - SA - BDT - Ensembles - Flute & Pic.soft_Ensembles - Bass & CI Soft

On The Way Back [Hans Zimmer Strings]

"Magic is what we do. Music is how we do it." -- Jerry Garcia

Welcome to my page, my peers, associates, friends, and musical family. I'm a lifelong, multi-instrumentalist musician who records prolifically and joyfully. You'll hear me play guitar, bass (regular four string, and four and five string fretless), mandolin, banjo, keys (piano, organ, synth), lap slide, sitar, and sing on my recordings here. I've been in a few dozen bands in my life, playing everything from bluegrass, jazz, rock, jam band, reggae, funk, afrobeat, Middle Eastern, traditional Irish, singer/songwriter, pop/covers, to experimental/avant garde. 
  Since I found SoundCloud a couple years ago, I've found many talented, creative people with whom to create music. However, in the summer of '23 I formed a band called The Eclectic Collective with some of my favorite musicians I've met through here. It started as a loose collective of musicians and coalesced into a core group of musicians who find other musicians with whom we'd like to make music, then run their songs through our process, and in effect add a full band. That core of The Eclectic Collective includes Tez (Llanpsych), J.J. Terrel, Ken (K2 and the Three), Stephen (Texmex Shaman), Chris (cgmaness), and Mark (mistermark). A couple of other musicians are frequent collaborators, as well, including Artur of Surfers Like Us, and Steve Vervaet of Steve's World. More recently, we've been joined by Carl of The Beautiful Dark fame. 
  The magic of music is amplified exponentially by each person adding to it. So, we really try to add our sorcery all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. Sometimes, we keep it within the group, but a lot of what we do is collaboration with other artists. Therefore these days, 100% of what I do is collaboration, within the group or with other artists on the side.
  I, and we, are also available for hire if you have a song or lyrics and you really want to add bigger instrumentation or a band and good production to it. 
  A small sampling of the artists whom I consider primary influences, and whom you will hear coming through my fingers include Phish, The Flaming Lips, The Grateful Dead, Radiohead, Rye Cooder, Steve Earle, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti, Arcade Fire, Mikey Dread, Yellowman, Purpleman, The Meditations, Michigan and Smiley, Lee Perry, Dillinger, Django Reinhardt, Impossible Recording Machine, The Allman Bros Band, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Bela Fleck, Les Claypool, Sam Bush, David Grissman, John Prine, Talking Heads, Beastie Boys, MMW, Moe., Morphine, Ween, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, John Scofield, Victor Wooten,  Cannonball Adderly, Thelonious Monk, Flea, Parliament Funkadelic,  Frank Zappa, Prince Paul, Pete Rock, Thievery Corporation, Amon Tobin, Chet Baker, Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Carol Kaye, Tame Impala, Mumford and Sons, Japanese Breakfast, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, Sean Lennon, and Billy Strings, but of course there are many more. I also really like and am influenced by traditional Iranian, Palestinian, Indian, Sri Lankan, Sudanese, Mauritian, Somalian, Egyptian, West African, and Syrian music. I welcome anyone who plays non-western music to contact me for a collaboration, too.
 I'm overjoyed to have found my community on SoundCloud. This is a truly unique forum where everyone is sincerely trying to build each other up. The profoundly supportive and positive SoundCloud community has really opened up an exciting new world of collaboration for me. That is the main reason I'm in the Cloud, actually, to connect with other musicians and make music that I enjoy listening to, and hopefully others do, as well. I am ALWAYS looking to collaborate with interesting musicians, mostly though BandLab, which is where I record almost exclusively. It's a solid, free digital audio workstation hub where you can share recording projects, even if it's not where you make your recordings.
  Everything I do is live instrumental, not programmed, and using no computer beyond my phone. That's not to say that I would be opposed to using that kind of tool, it's just not my preferred medium with which to paint. If you like my music, please share it. If you want to collaborate, my BandLab handle is @bingo_pajama. Feel free to contact me at cornbreadband@hotmail.com, as well, even if you aren't on BandLab.
  If your music is primarily AI, please don't come around my page, as I'm not at all interested in complimenting a machine.
  Here's a link to music I've recorded live with a group of musicians here in Pittsburgh called The Northumberland Street Ramblers.
Check out The Northumberland Street Ramblers on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/fU4Me