Beautiful guitar... Great melody and cool lyrics. Also, an especially fine vocal performance, James. Well done!

Really good music to those lyrics James. I also really liked how it grew in intensity when the vocal jumped an octave at the bridge. Sweet!

Loving the guitar and the truth of the road even more ... I was holding my breath! 😢🤷🏼‍♂️💔👏🚙

Your ability to showcase a song with the same simple nylon guitar and vocal track week after week just amazes me. It's like always dressing in black - classic and timeless and a perfect canvas to imagine a bigger band setting while powerfully holding its own. Great collaboration, stunning performance!

Wow incredible! I wont even have words to give it justice, through and through it’s tremendous!

Rocking those nylons, baby - I love the way you always put your sweet guitar in the service of the song :) - voice sounding great here too

Man, sometimes I'd love a GoPro / JTR's-eye-view video of you playing

Just a boy Angus and Julia stone cover

"Kent Aitken Also Saved My Life" (#437, 210216)

It was dawn but also midnight
And somehow also 3am
I was moments from my last rites
Until I saw a man named Kent

It was Paris and Nova Scotia
And at the same time Annecy
He was sort of like a human Visa
Everywhere you want to be

So where's the conflict where's the drama
Where's the problem you may ask
You see I'd come across a deadly llama
That nearly ended my sorry ass

Why was he angry this crazy mammal
What was his problem his urgent strife
Turns out the llama had just been rankled
By Nik Newark's drum and fife

The creature charged me with nostrils flaring
I saw my life flash before my eyes
The lights were blinding the music blaring
I thought I just might die tonight

But then around the corner racin'
Came a man with a plan
The one and only Kent Q. Aitken
A banjolele in his hand

He lulled the llama by strummin' gently
Into a state so calm and soothed
And it got sweeter and downright friendly
Instead of freaked out by their tunes

So while I was once saved by the music
From Nik Newark's drum and fife
There came a night when in the confusion
Kent Aitken also saved my life

Week 07 - Kent Aitken Also Saved My Life (210216)

WEEK 7
Nik Newark DRUM N FIFE 
CAPO 2
Am
We all recall that moment back in time
when Nik Newark saved our lives
well hold your horses for a moment shut the gate
the songs of nik are rising up again 

his poetry it warms the coldest heart
his falsetto brings you to tears and tears you apart
he ll write an epic song just for you
                           G
on drum 'n' fife mouth trumpet or kazoo

** there’s more to life than drum 'n' fife that’s true
         G
but relentlessly he chases down each perfect tune
Am
whatever genre tempo theme pursued
                                            G
what cannot Nik Newark do

some things in life hit hard and take their toll
we need the art that serves and calms the soul
on these days oh so much more than we've ever known
no one can live by bread alone

his poetry it warms the coldest heart
his falsetto brings you to tears and tears you apart
on drum and fife on triangle and spoon
he ll write an epic song for you

NNDNF SAW 7 - 19:2:21, 8.33 am

"What Else You Got" (#438, 210218)

 * Co-written with Dan Rivers * 

Packed it all up in a rental van
Guitar a girl and a half assed plan
Heard that it's a 10 year town
Better start makin' the rounds

Fifty cold calls 'til they let me in
Tiny office and a guy named Slim
Thought my first song had a pretty good shot
Then he said, "what else ya' got"

I got mouths to feed I got bills to pay
A dog and a wife and an H.O.A.
I got high blood pressure one bad knee
And a Volvo leakin' antifreeze
To top it all off one verse and Slim said stop 
What else you got 

Hot take from my Uber driver
What I needed was a great co-writer
Said he was Tim McGraw's third cousin
Hell he'd written almost a dozen

We wrote a track just right for Garth
Got as far as the driveway guards
Sang it through the intercom
A voice came back, "what else you got"

I got outta' state plates and two flat tires
And a radio tuned with needle nose pliers
I got bootleg cable and uh, Obamacare
And holes in all my underwear
Dann Huff told me son you're really good, NOT
What else ya' got

I got to thinkin' how hard could it be
To start a publishin' company
Get the writers all lined up around the block
Just so I can tell 'em what else ya' got

I got smoker's cough I got whiskey shits
And a mother in law that just won't quit
I got plumber's crack I got athlete's foot
And I'm still a long way from Brentwood
There goes the mansion, the Rolex and the yacht
What else ya' got

Look out Music Row I'm comin' in hot
What else ya' got

Week 08a - What Else You Got (210218)

"Run Down" (#439, 210219)

 * Words by Jerry Frohlich, music by James Tristan Redding * 

Another town another show
Didn't seem that long ago
A one night stand and off I go

Run down I hit the road again

Haunted by the highway sound
I close my eyes the lights go down

Echos distant in my mind
The days are long and the nights are longer
As I stare out the darkened window

Run down I hit the road hit again

I feel the eyes of all the fans
They all watch me as I stand
On stage again

And as we drive away
I feel so empty
But left them wanting more

Run down I hit the road again
The band, my friends

Run down I hit the road again
Yeah rock the night away

Run down I hit the road again
Another town another show

Run down I hit the road again

Week 08b - Run Down (210219)

V1:
I know that it's hard now
I know that it's taking all you got
Just to stay calm now
Just to be stuck here in this spot

I know that it's hard now
I know that it's more than you can bear
I KNOW it seems far now
To travel the road that'll take you where
You long to be…

Chorus:
Hang on - everything's gonna get easier
Hang on - everything's gonna turn round
This pain so raw won't hurt no more
This storm will blow itself out
Come on - there's treasures out there to be found

V2:
If you're going through hell now
It's better TO keep going than it is to stop
But you can have help now
People who’ll show you care and love

And you can be well now
You can have the time that it takes to heal
And you can have love now
To give you the strength that it takes to feel
Each part of you - the old and new,

Chorus:


Mid8
Em - Am  

If there's part of you
That doesn't think that way
If there's part of you
that doesn't want to play
Well to that part of you of you
I say it's ok, 
you can stay, 
in this hole another day

Chorus:

Everythings Gonna Get Easier

The Words I Heard

Where the Buses don't Run

Song A Week 2021, week 8 the theme was "Change, please".
Please excuse me, if I ended up sounding a bit political again, but these were the words that came to me when faced with those two words.

The ice is melting, the white bear's escaping to town
The waters rising, soon the old coast is nowhere to be found
Wildfires are raging, raging out of control
"This isn't global warming, just something cyclical", we're being told
And Mother Earth is crying out; 
"Change, please change your ways before it's too late.
Change, please change your ways. This wasn't meant to be my fate" 

Storms - devastating, lives and possessions destroyed
The crust is crumbling, as we're greedily fracking for more oil
while Mother Earth is pleading;
"Change, please change your ways before it's too late.
Change, please change your ways. This wasn't meant to be my fate"

This after all is our home, that I,m talking about
If the roof is leaking, foundation breaking, you'd want to fix it, right?!

And Mother Earth keeps crying out;
"Change, please change your ways before it's too late.
Change, please change your ways. This wasn't meant to be my fate"

Song and image Copyright © Claes Akerblom

Change, Please (demo)

"(You Could Turn Back But) Why Would You Want To" (#442, 210226)

 * co-written with Rob Lannan * 

Morning air smells like your perfume
Layin' sleepless in my bedroom
Day is fadin' to a full moon
Feels like a perfect time to lose you

From Hawaii to the bayou
We ain't shinin' like the stars do
Spark is burnin' out between me and you
Gone as midnight in the afternoon

Won't forget these moments with you
But what's been done baby we can't undo
Open up the goodbye door and walk on through
You could turn back but why would you want to

Drew my smile on like a cartoon
We can't change who we turn into
Engine all but runnin' on fumes
Close as hand grenades and horseshoes

Won't forget these moments with you
But what's been done baby we can't undo
Open up the goodbye door and walk through
You could turn back but why would you want to

We gave up there's no shame
Can't light a candle in the pourin' rain
I'm just gonna' say it I think we always knew
Someone had to walk away it might as well be you

[ image credit: "freepik", which I assume is just a ... pik? That is free? See link below, or I mean, don't, w/e ]

www.freepik.com/free-photo/close-up-candle-rain_2231309.htm

Week 09 - (You Could Turn Back But) Why Would You Want To (210226)

On every corner
On every street
It’s where they eat and pray and wait
And where they sleep

In rags in bunches 
Cardboard boxes
They lie in wait beneath the pain 
Of a life discarded

And we’re just people
We walk on by
Our children asking questions
With tears filling their eyes
 What going on here ma 
cant we try to make it change

change
please please
change

In every playground
In every school
The innocent unsuspecting one 
is called a fool

The weight of terror
The sting of lies
Each word that hits a broken shell
Who’s lost the will for life

And we’re just people
We walk on by
Our children asking questions
With tears in their eyes
 What going on here dad can we try to make it change

And in the darkness
Beneath the glow
Of neon skies and bad mens lies
Of pain she’d never knowm

Her dream a vapor
A faded hope
There’s nowhere here to run
There’s no safe place to go

And were the people
Won’t even try
To answer all the questions
That fall from our children’s eyes

What’s going on here
Can’t we make a change
Please can’t we can’t we try

change please - week 8 2021 SAW

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 08b - Run Down (210219)

JamesTristanRedding

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