"The Silver Lining" (#444, 210306)

 * Co-written with Mark Anderson / @mark-anderson-474835928 * 

Half the prayer on earth lives in hospitals and prisons
Guess that's what it takes to get soul to listen
A simple conversation can break your heart in two
Funny how we learn to love what we're just about to lose

Doesn't matter who or why it hurts to say goodbye
But even then it's sometimes been a blessing in disguise
Every season I been seein' more and more examples
Life's for livin' and we ain't given more than we can handle

Like hot and cold like salt and pepper
Oh God sure knows how to weave it all together
I can make a plan but I gotta' trust His timing
And find the silver lining

You know that moment when you wake up from a dream
Ain't awake ain't still sleepin' you're somewhere in between
Damn near twenty years I walked around like that
Couldn't see the forest through the trees the good inside the bad

Like hot and cold like salt and pepper
Oh God sure knows how to weave it all together
I can make a plan but I gotta' trust His timing
And find the silver lining

Movin' on when someone's gone is something you can't measure
Holdin' hands or golden bands nothing lasts forever
Wasn't always pretty but it made me who I am
I think I understand

Week 10a - The Silver Lining (210306)

you could turn back but why would you want to (rough demo)

Before us there’s a mountain
We never faced before
The breaking and the ruin
Like bare stripped souls in war

Render all that’s worldly
Each stone each step to take
And carve your way to wonder
Set free from hurt and fate

Its pain will be our keeper
And carry many scars
Forever tell a story
Unravelling old lies

Into the depths of oceans
The sky on highest heights
Is where we find the promise
To blind us with fresh eyes

And ever sing in freedom
In life and love and hope
A joy all for the taking
The crown of life and home

you could turn back but why would you want to SAW 9

by Kent Aitken and David & Laurie Easterling © March 11, 2021 Charlottetown, Canada, and Oak Ridge, TN, USA

Mars was rising as the sun went down
I sat waiting waiting for the sound
Of your piano through the walls every night 
And I pick my guitar by candlelight 

At first I hated these thin apartment walls
And the noise echoing down the halls
Slamming doors, lovers’ quarrels, footsteps, and doorbell rings
at 8:08 sweet piano strings

Play me a song
And I’ll play along
All I want to do 
Is accompany you
Play me a song
And I’ll play along
All I want you to do 
Is play me another song

It gets me through my toughest times
When you stopped, mid-song, at 9:09
I was scared I’d never hear you again
A blue songbird with a broken wing 

Sun rises and sets but your silence remains
Toughest of times lead to darkest of days
Learned your songs, got them wrong, my old guitar, with worn-out strings
When I played at 8:08 I heard you sing

Play me a song
And I’ll sing along
All I want to do 
Is accompany you
Play me a song
And I’ll sing along
In time and in tune   

Play me another song

Play Me A Song (w/ David and Laurie Easterling) - Song a Week 2021, Week 10

Heartland Boys.mp3

"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)

"(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)

Photo from https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-jbapq/download under CC0 https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/.

You Could Turn Back, But Why Would You Want To - Song a Week 2021, Week 9

Copyright Erin Wolf 2021
Instruments featured: Concert Ukelele, Guitar, Mandolin
Video (from "The Songs We Write" showcase): https://youtu.be/8fEsTn8kFik

Week 9 Prompt: You could turn back, but why would you want to?

meet me at the willow tree
where i'll give my love to thee
true to you i'll always be
together 'neath the willow tree

oh my dear
can you hear
our time is near
step out together - no fear

down by the crackling fire
i lay myself down on the wire
no matter what will transpire
here beside the crackling fire

oh my dear
can you hear
our time is near
step out together - no fear

you could turn back but why would you want to
when you know this love is true
side-by-side we'll see it through
you could turn back but why would you want to

oh my dear
can you hear
our time is near
step out together - no fear

meet me at the willow tree
where i'll give my love to thee
true to you i'll always be
together 'neath the willow tree

The Willow Tree

I wrote this when I was living in London England about my mood at the time. 
Recorded with producer Mark Keefner in LA years later.
The late Jimmy Griffin from the group Bread was a big fan of this song!

ROOM TO BREATHE

SOMEBODY'S BABY

"Fountains Foundations & Frontiers" (#443, 210305)

Concrete in the mixer spinning round and round
Two by fours in ditches dug into the ground
Sweat rolls down the faces squinting in the sun
At what they created in a cloud of dust

Sculpture in the center posing with a dove
Shaded by the shelter of cirrus clouds above 
Fishes in the water frozen as the sky
Waiting on the winter underneath the ice

Modern man must imitate the screen 
Even if we don't know what it means
On the edge we stare at the abyss
And wonder who made this

Somewhere in the desert where there they built no road
Is my buried treasure that's where I will go
Leave behind this palace let this place decay
Find myself a cabin dream the days away

Week 10b - Fountains Foundations & Frontiers (210305)

https://www.heligan.com/explore/estate/woodland

There is a living statue in Cornwall in the Lost Gardens of Heligan. She sleeps and changes with the seasons

Sleep, Sleep, Sleep

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

JamesTristanRedding