In the absence of feedback on those Dylan echoes I layered into my first cover of "Walking on a Wire," here is the Thompson song without any shades of Dylan. Contrast and compare and let me know your thoughts, thanks!

Walking on a Wire

[Remastered and available for D/Ling again here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/la-chanson-des-vieux-amants  ]

Cover of Brel's brilliant piece with Korg harpsichord and melodica accompaniment.

La Chanson des Vieux Amants

[Heard here http://www.mixcloud.com/nick-thomas2/sounds-from-the-cloudno-to-the-g-word-special1-aug-2013redruth-radio/  AND here on Feb 13, 2014: https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/54428 ]

As a novice of songwriting, I'm finding every composition involves some unique inception story, and this one's no exception. [Probably true, too, for veteran and masterful songwriters, but I only know it of my greenhorn experience.] I'd been thinking for a while I wanted to cover Neil Young's "After the Goldrush," a beautifully simple song I dearly love to harmonize with whenever I hear it. But I wanted some unique angle to covering it and determined it might work very nicely to a reggae rhythm.

A text file where I kept Young's lyrics was where I'd also stowed a four-line start to a poem idea of mine. While I was scanning through "Goldrush" and fitting it to my reggae beat, I noticed my own stanza fit with the rhythm just as smoothly. So I got to work writing four additional verses with a couple of repeated chorus lines and a minor-key melody and, voila!, a wholly original, multi-track piece emerged that employs most all of my instrument arsenal plus some percussion loops.

It's always said you need to "write what you know." Well, the story I share below takes a page directly from personal experience several years ago.

              LOVE REIGNED

I had settled in the City of Angels,
But a lucifer whisked me away
To a Second City, so windy, no pity.
Soon he left me one fall day.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a dark and a hard time on my way to you.

All alone and on edge in Evanston,
Edge of winter and of the Lake;
As the nights grew longer, my hurt grew stronger.
My heartbeat kept me awake.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a dark and a hard time on my way to you.

Came a day in May at the waterside:
The tears spilling down my face
Turned from pain to joy on that rocky shore
Within a flow of a glorious grace.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a right and a light time, I'm on my way to you.
   
I felt love washing all around me
Deep connection to every thing.
To each grain of sand, to the family of man
And every atom in between.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a right and a light time, I'm coming to you.

I floated home to my carriage house
With a great grin for all I greet
That's returned in kind, and now forgiven behind
Me is that devil in his defeat.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a right and a light time on my way to you.
[On my way to you/ On my way to you / On my way to you
I'm on my way to you / I'm coming to you / Coming to you]

Love Reigned

Video by JT Lindroos here  https://youtu.be/BezN4R-WZRI
[can D/L remastered version at: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/black-crow-blues ]

When I came across this title within my old set lists, I remembered actually that it—and not Mitchell's "Last Time I Saw Richard"—was the very first song I pecked out the piano part by ear as a teen, note by note from my vinyl of "Another Side." Never trying to transpose the key—where's the piano capo, inventors?—it was a bad fit for my high soprano back then. Now, however, I've nicely aged into the chesty alto needed for that original key. So there's your upside to getting old. 

I'm having some fun around the 1:50 mark with my "Hit it, gals!" shout-out to my honkin' and tonkin' band of one.  :) 

Black Crow Blues

REMASTERED version for D/Ling anew here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/colours-remaster

At YouTube:  http://youtu.be/dDqkUJq4HJw
and heard here on Mar 27, 2014: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/54998 ]

As my first hitch of hiatus found me steeped in nature (still more downtime yet to come), it seems only natural my first easing back into recording would feature something simple, gentle and pastoral. So here's my stripped down cover of Donovan's "Colours"—just a gal and her Guild plus a minimalistic mouth organ bit to boot (please, someone, REboot my harmonica part with a better execution of your own?! :)

Colours

[for Margaret]

This was one of my mother's favorite songs—certainly her favorite Elvis tune. I have fond memories of singing the upper harmony to her melody line whenever it came on the radio. It was a fitting choice then as the closing song for a live set performed at her senior center shortly before her death. That was the last occasion Mom had to see me sing and play and also the final time for me to hear her say just how proud of me she was.

There is a first here, too: I've included a few phrases in the "Flute" mode of a new Yamaha keyboard. I've had very little time to become acquainted with this machine while off in the wild, but I'm hopeful it can fill in some gaps in my one-woman ensemble for future productions.

Lyrics written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss [a person per verse?]. The melody is based on "Plaisir d'Amour" (1784) by Jean Paul Egide Martini. 

Can't Help Falling in Love

[can D/L remastered version at: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/i-shall-be-released ]
(Sisters and brothers, saints and sinners in the congregation of the Everlasting Light of Hope, please open your hymnals to p. 330 and join me in making a joyful, hopeful noise! :) 

First time I heard this song as rendered by The Band on "Music from Big Pink," it hit me like a hymn, and that's how I've always interpreted it. Here I've changed up the rhythm and added several keyboard and melodica tracks instead of my original guitar-picking version, but I've kept in my ending "A-men" chords.

When I realized how it was shaping up with this altered rhythm, I quickly caught the haunt of "Stand By Me." For a while I toyed then with the notion of mashing the two together in some fashion, but the project was already becoming overwrought with tracks. (Maybe someone else would like to tackle that?)

The end result here is sort of sloppy—my "ensemble" could be tighter and the harmonies could be truer—but JT convinced me that leaving as is rings more authentic and interesting. (Hope you're right, hunaja! :)

I Shall Be Released

May 27, 2015 remastered version here: 
https://kat330.bandcamp.com/track/swamp-guinea-2015-remaster

by K.A. Martin (Sept. 19, 2013)

[Heard Sep 11, 2014 here: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/57252]

I've layered in much from my new keyboard here [drums, organ, trumpet, sax and sundry sound effects] over my Epiphone (rhythm + lead), piano, kantele, bongos, "cowbell" and vocal tracks. The only imported sound here is the chicken bawk. If nothing else, I hope the amount of tediously time-consuming production and engineering effort here is realized and appreciated.

CREDIT: Spot-on caricature art and swamp froggy shouts are provided by my hunaja (JT Lindroos).

DISCREDIT: Similarity to anyone living or dead may or may not be purely coincidental. But about every lowest middle-class neighborhood (such as ours) in the US south, or putative south (such as Knob Knee), has a "Cindy Vinny" in residence. As for the "Swamp Guinea" epithet itself, I had never come across the term until JT—who also had no prior knowledge of it—overheard a neighbor use the term and told me of it. I thought it was colorfully descriptive of a certain "southern trash" harridan hen who is often wedded to a redneck "Jimmy" rooster. If it has ANY other connotation to anyone reading and listening, rest assured it's nothing whatsoever to do with my context here.

CHORUS:     
        (She's a) Swamp Guinea
        A nosy ol' biddy
        (Such a) Swamp Guinea
        So mean, so skinny

(Could be) her name's Cindy Vinny
And she puts it over Jimmy
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
'Cuz Jimmy's always chorin'
While Guinea is a-snorin'
[CHORUS]

She is lackadaisy lazy
Always actin' kinda crazy
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
Still Jimmy is a-sweepin'
While Guinea is a-sleepin'
[CHORUS]

She is proud to be a bitch
And to never work a stitch
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
Jimmy's sowin' and a-mowin'
While Guinea's on her phone
[CHORUS]

Hubby hasn't got a clue
That his Guinea is a shrew
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
'Cuz Jimmy's chainsawin'
And his Guinea's just a-jawin'
[CHORUS]

                                                                BREAK
                                    She's a little off her rocker on their porch [gossip scorch!]
                                    Never playing with a full one on their deck [what a wreck!]

Always up to no good
She's pollutin' the 'hood
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
Still Jimmy's garden tillin'
While Guinea's just a-chillin'
[CHORUS]

She's always talkin' smack
Making dirty little cracks
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
Yet Jimmy's weed whackin'
While Guinea's sittin' back and
[CHORUS]

Looks of warmed-over death
Guinea must be doin' meth
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
Watchin' Jimmy pitchin' twigs
She's just suckin' on her cigs
[CHORUS]

Up the block she walks
In a bathrobe and her socks
(Swamp Guinea, a nutty ol' ninny)
While Jimmy's hedge trimmin'
She's above-ground swimmin'
[CHORUS]

Gotta hand it to the Guinea
She sure puts one over Jimmy!
[CHORUS REPEATED]

Swamp Guinea

Sept. 30, 2013

I always heard my cover of this Newman gem with a cello part in my head, and now I can achieve that with the Yamaha keyboard. Sort of, anyway. The blown bottle and ending organ and bass sounds are also new additions to my early rep version of harpsichord-only accompaniment.

The 1970 photograph I've chosen for a visual is one I snapped as a teen of a "Brussels sprout" hard at work on a sidewalk in that city on my first backpacking trip to Europe. Our plane was diverted from Luxembourg to Brussels due to dense fog and, come to think of it, it did rain that day.

I Think It's Going to Rain Today

(Richard & Mimi Fariña cover)

Still waiting for my mojo to pique re-interest in my planned and unfinished creations, but I'm ALWAYS up for a bit of harmonizing. So here is some of that plus kantele plucking contributions to Tom Peterson's (kodiaktom) fine rendition posted less than a month ago:  http://soundcloud.com/kodiaktom-1/children-of-darkness-richard

As I said in a note on his track, I'd always sung the harmony of this above the melody rather than under it, but below was my only feasible choice here. The kantele adds some higher sweetness I hope. Thanks for the opportunity, Tom!  :)


Children of Darkness (kodiaktom w/kat330)

[NEWLY REMASTERED version for D/L here: http://kat330.bandcamp.com/track/haunted-house-of-the-rising-sun-newly-remastered]

Heard on WFMU here http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/59351 and here http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/59384 on Feb 10 & 12, 2015 [Liz Berg DJ] and Oct. 30, 2014: http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/57901 and here: http://www.mixcloud.com/nick-thomas2/a-happy-halloween-specialsounds-from-the-cloudredruth-radio31-oct-2013/ 

October 17, 2013

The back story on my arrangement here: I had recorded the guitar, bongos and lead vocal several weeks earlier. Then last week in the middle of the night when my mojo was still in slo-mo, the Muse visited and sang into my ear the haunting strains of Big Brother & the Holding Co.'s "Summertime" intro. I quickly grokked that a takeoff on this theme would open up my rendition of "The House of the Rising Sun." And, much as I echoed Marty Robbins' "El Paso" in my "El Preso" cover, you'll also hear a musical allusion to Gershwin's "Summertime" melody in the first verse.

Given the song's setting, I decided on New Orleans brass and Dixieland reeds for delivering the Holding Co. riff, but not until I started layering the sections for the intro did I begin to hear a dirge, a NOLA street funeral procession, which evolved into this unique take on the classic folk ballad: The singer has recently died, and her spirit is accompanying her casket as it moves down the street, wailing of and warning against all the wrong turns her too brief life has taken. By the time the organ part enters, the marching band and casket have arrived at the brothel for the wake. And it is there, back in the House of the Rising Sun, where the singing ghost will remain to haunt the House and its patrons ever after.

Something else I'm doing in this arrangement is loosely tying the characters to specific instrument lines. No "Peter and the Wolf" scope mind you, but the mother's the clarinet, the father's the trombone, baby sister's the flute, and I am the high French whor—I mean, HORN!  ☼;)

Haunted House of the Rising Sun

October 24, 2013

First heard this sweet and cheery song, and so many others I performed long ago, on Judy Collins' treasured "Wildflowers" album, and likewise, I learned my piano (Korg harpsichord mode) accompaniment from her superb "Songbook" of the period. Cello, oboe, harp and flute parts produced on my synth keyboard. Glad this offers a counterbalance to my most recent NOLA dirge (Haunted House of the Rising Sun).

The artwork is JT's deft actualization of an image I had in my head as I recorded the vocal track.


Michael from Mountains

Nov 11, 2016: Leonard Cohen, R.I.P.   ♥
[hear the remaster (w/volume!:) here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/sisters-of-mercy-remaster ]
Another page -- four actually -- from the Judy Collins' "Songbook" and probably my final production from that source. This short and very sweet song was never part of my early repertoire, but cfriverdog wondered aloud if I happen to do any Cohen covers. (Thanks for the nudge, Corey!:) Keyboard sounds here include harpsichord, recorder, bassoon, harp and a bit of tremolo strings to begin and to end it.

Obviously I can't presume what's in Cohen's mind when he wrote and performs this, but personally I've always imagined the Sisters to be the nine Muses of Greek myth. This was reinforced when I spent a month in Greece less than a decade after he penned the piece, even ferrying to the isle of Hydra where, as I was told, Cohen had a residence at the time.

Sisters of Mercy

Nov. 25, 2013 [recorded piecemeal amidst our alleyway cacophony]

Another cover of Mother (Superior) Mitchell off her sublime "Blue" album. I make it a point never to revisit any song I cover before recording my own spin on it. This usually means I miss a lot of the original musical boat -- often lyrics as well -- but it also can help ensure a more unique version as opposed to a merely faithful cover. For e.g., I know my intro / outro dissonance sections are way off from what Joni does, but I had a lot of fun finding a variety of synthstrument sounds to layer for my take on my aural memory of it.

Her lyrics here (and everywhere) resonated with me as a young girl and still do today. Even if I no longer "wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive," I still "wanna be strong" "wanna have fun" "wanna laugh along" "wanna shine like the sun" "wanna belong to the living" and "wanna be the one that you want to" hear. 

Warm Thanksgiving wishes to all U.S.ers!   :)

All I Want

[can D/L remastered version at: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/brass-in-pocket or support with purchase here: http://ldr.fm/GzUxx  thank you!]

02/14/2014    [14/02/2014]

H♥ppy V♥lentine's D♥y! This one's for all you special guys and gals who need no brass in pocket to give one another some inventive attention. Use your imagination to have a ball tonight while you heat up under a warm cover song! ;)

∞ My hunajUHa: ALL is because of, to and for you always and forever after! ∞

Arranged, performed and produced by Kathleen Martin
[Art by awesomeblossompossum at deviantART w/ tweaks by JT Lindroos]

Brass in Pocket

[Hear a new remix in .wav here https://kat330.bandcamp.com/album/if-6-was-3 or in .mp3 here
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin/If_6_Was_3 ]

July 1, 2014: For my husband and my best friend, JT Lindroos. Happy Birthday, hunaJuha!)

Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" and "Natural Woman" by King & Goffin are two favorite songs of mine from any era and any genre. Well aware I'm unworthy of covering either on its own, I thought I could at least make a wholly new song and sound from mixing up my performance bits of both together, much as I did in "From C to Sharpened C." I think this experimix is more successful than that one though, at least I personally like to listen to it more than last month's mash-up, and hope you do, too.

This track was completed weeks ago (June 9th) before the news about Gerry Goffin (R.I.P.), and the first instrument part I recorded was the Finnish harp (kantele). Over the vocals and harp came bongos, and later I added the synth keyboard lines of piano, celesta, music box, cello, flute and French horn to fill out the arrangement. I've returned to the song structure of "Resolution #9" in using its "power of 3's" scheme here by repeating a section twice again before the bridge bits. In total there are three to start followed by a bridge, then three more sections followed by a second bridge and then winding down with a final group of three. The sections differ slightly within any triad by either adding or subtracting instrument lines within them.

Among the films, CDs and books on JT's birthday wish list was this line item: "song." Well, hunaja, this is your one unwrappable surprise and wish fulfilled! You so make me feel like a natural woman and, truly, God only knows what I'd be without you!  ♥♥♥  [please ck. out his other b'day ditty at http://soundcloud.com/kat330/birthday-song-to-be  and Philo's own wild SC sounds at http://soundcloud.com/philo-gristle ]

Arranged, performed, recorded and produced by Kathleen Martin

(God Only Knows) You Make Me Feel

July 11, 2014

The back story to creating this tale of woe -- as in how I totally backed into it -- is worth the price of admission alone. Recently I'd found myself with a long and sturdy thumbnail, rare enough given gardening, housework, etc., and took the opportunity to record a guitar part remembered from my youth. I adopted this self-taught playing style of plucking down the strings of a chord with my thumbnail when that and strumming were all I had in my teen trick bag. (A few years still until a fellow Chattertock at Brown U. showed me how to include my fingers in a rolling pick style.)

For some of you I suspect it's Child's play to recognize the source tune here -- which shall remain unnamed just to see who's bothered to actually read these notes and also knows his/her traditional folk music ;) -- but I could only recall the first lines of lyrics in 209's refrain. This is not often the case with my old repertory, rarely having to look up lyrics except for a word or two here and there. I would like to say it's because they were too morbid to remain in memory, but my own version below clearly belies that as any excuse! No, I think it's that the original words didn't speak to me well enough, as is usually the case when I encounter a problem with memorization.

So I thought, why not pen my own story to the mournful melody? I'd already had "Lady-in-waiting" as a working title for something else original, but those words were present day, personal to me and didn't fit the song structure. The title, however, led me to briefly looking up some background info on historical ladies-in-waiting, which led me to a glossary of heraldry terms, and so on. My imagination latched onto "mistress of the robes," "lese majesty" and "jessant-de-lis" (cf. JT's cover design), and therein this tragic tale was formed. I was tempted to write several more verses -- to expose more fully notre dame's betrayers and their plot to seize the throne -- but unlike our Mistress of the Robes here, I kept my head about me.  xxxooo

LADY-IN-WAITING

REFRAIN:                                     [echo]
A Lady-in-waiting is her lot in life, [A Lady-in-waiting]
And likely all she'll ever be,       [and all she'll ever be]
Longing for an end to her strife.
She is eager for delivery.    

Whilst the Queen's loyal Mistress of the Robes
She's falsely linked to treachery,
A foiled plot against the throne,
And stands accused of lese majesty.

REFRAIN:
[...]
At the hands of wicked knavery.

She knows not the villains who sealed her fate
But for a glimpsed escutcheon
Blazoned with a leopard's face       
As she's led to the castle dungeon.

REFRAIN:
[...]
By the knight who bears jessant-de-lis.  

Three days passed of pacing her cell,
Not a morsel partaken she.
Her only thought was "Why, pray tell,
Has my dearest Queen forsaken me?"

REFRAIN:                                        [echo]
A Lady-in-waiting no more in this life, [No longer waiting]
Her execution has started.             [She's at the guillotine]
It has come to the end of her strife.
Head and soul from her heart have parted.

Written, arranged, performed, recorded and produced by Kathleen Martin
Cover design by JT Lindroos

Lady-in-waiting

June 16, 2015: Posted at the Indie Media Weekly site here: http://tinyurl.com/pg5m87b

Nov 27th [Thanksgiving for US]: Preferred if this lighthearted piece wasn't already in the pipeline given the sickening injustice of Monday's Night of No Indictment. But having a minor scale taste of local corruption and injustice this year myself, I found turning to humor helped me carry on. Perhaps we must rocket off this terrestrial plane to finally find a universal justice, which is my segue to: --> The first moment I heard the soundclip of the comet "song," I hoped to work it into a composition somehow. I've also wanted for a while to feature in a piece a wordplay bit I wrote decades ago, to wit: So he says to the shapeshifter waitress, "Keep the change." And the third element tying this production together is something I recently wrote in my profile at the Free Music Archives [http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin ], citing my trusty transistor radio as a major player (ahem) among early influences. I'm giving her here a rather unRealistic perSonyfication.

I provided all earthbound vocals, guitar, Finnish harp and keyboard/synth sounds. Comet sound alone can be heard hear: http://www.space.com/27737-comet-song-rosetta-spacecraft.html and radio tuning clips were from found sounds now lost. Written, composed, performed, recorded and produced by Kathleen Martin. Design of catlike Comet 67p holding the Rosetta lander and my tranSister by JT Lindroos.

NOTE: I posted a 95-second longer version of TS over at my kat330 Bandcamp site where I have no time constraints like here. The .wav file there opens with 76 seconds more of the celestial comet-song and kantele, and the same also extends the ending.

COME To meet my transistor sister
A radio active, ship-shape shifter
She is taking orders at the Comet Café
Her tube top nametag reads Rosetta Ray
Make her sing, and she will make your day

Anode you can semiconduct her
Current and her wave creation
You can boost her storage cell
For signal strength modulation

COME To meet my transistor sister
So far out that you cannot resist her
When she moonlights over at the Satellite Diner
You won't find a broad beam that is any finer
Shines in keys both major and minor

Fiddle a little with her knobs
You will change her amplitude
And receive her full transmission
Frequency that hertz so good

COME To meet my transistor sister
A radio active, ship-shape shifter
She will take your order at the Comet Café
Her tube top nametag reads Rosetta Ray
And when she sings, she will make your day

Coda: [She has a] Fully integrated circuit
          And she knows just how to work it

Tagline: So he says to the shapeshifter waitress, "Keep the change, sister."

Transistor Sister

Received an overnight visit from The Muse a while back with an insistence I cover this wonderful Bob Mould piece in a waltz tempo. It's not a song I knew all that well to start with, but I'd heard it on the radio in the preceding hours and, well, The Muse simply will not be denied. Per usual I did not wind up close to the production I hear in my head: Limitations of hardware, software and musicianship always leave me wanting. Still I trust it's at least a unique and not a wholly unpleasant version.

I got the jangly guitar sound from a direct feed of my Epiphone into my laptop along with some miked acoustic Guild touches here and there in REAPER's "dark corridor." The Epi is forefront in my hardware limitations since it simply will not hold a tuning and has a permanent 6th string buzz, but at least a direct connect means no need to constantly stop-start for outside noise interferences.

The cello and music box flourishes are courtesy of my Yamaha keyboard. There is also an underlying C note heard throughout most of the track. If anyone can guess precisely what I used to record that drone sound, I'll award you a Dewey button (or whatever equivalent the kids are saying today ;). [Arranged, performed, recorded and produced by Kathleen Martin 1/2015]  See Mould's superb performance here: https://youtu.be/oNGsacYoGec

See a Little Light

Been a minute since I composed a new piece—over 6 yrs in fact. Political activism and a continental move during a global pandemic intervened. Because I had sold all of my electronic equipment before my move to Finland, I was resigned to embark on no further recording. Then in September 2024, I was struck with an idea to create a novelty piece culled from a collection of my aphorisms and taglines. I had barely begun a stanza or two when I received a midnight visitation from The Muse, who generously gifted me with a memorable melody to match my title sentence. A solemn, minor key, however, so I shifted lyrics from my trademark wordplay toward a more somber composition. It soon evolved into a Latin rhythm but still sounded so melancholy, I decided to make a point of ending my sad lyrics on an upbeat note. I had no wish to lower anyone's spirits—including my own!—one solitary scintilla beyond wherever they landed at year's end. Plus after the election results for US, I was especially glad for a hopeful ending on I'm Friday's Child (IFC). 

Since I no longer owned synth gear, I presumed new music production, if ever I returned to it, must rely on a collaborator for additional instrumentation. After I had a rough guitar and voice part set for IFC, I immediately contacted my Nice friend, Damien Riba, for a piano habanera part. A bit later I discovered the library here in lovely Hämeenlinna—hometown of Sibelius after all!—contains a well-stocked music studio with decent microphones for vocal recording and at least two synth keyboards connected to a Mac with GarageBand software. I was back in business to create my own orchestration of IFC you hear here. [Meanwhile, Damien came through—brilliantly as ever!—with a delightful orchestration of his own. You can hear his arrangement of IFC under my vocal at https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/ifc-orch-by-d-riba

The arrangement here features my classical guitar throughout—kat330's avatar as seen in its early days and now well into its 6th decade—along with a very basic piano part on an old Hellas upright piano gifted by my mother-in-law. Synth bits include cello, violin, organ, oboe, clarinet, accordion, trumpet and percussive accents. I could not use a capo to raise the key to a better vocal range for myself because of a chord slide-up several frets on my short-necked Guild. Rather than ditch the guitar riff I had latched onto, I dug deep to sing as an alto here. 

I have run out of free time for anything further here at SC. So for a purely instrumental version of IFC, please find it at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin or "Kathleen Martin" at Bandcamp. Many thanks to JT Lindroos for his great partnership in using the library's Mac software—I’d only recorded vocals/synth parts in the past with a PC using Reaper software—and, as always, for his cover art (li'l Kat at 4 pic used). How appropriate then to release IFC to the world January 4, 2025 on our silver 25th wedding anniversary!

XXXOOO 🤗
😽 Kat (a Friday's Child)

LYRICS

I'm Friday's Child living in a Wednesday world,   
A world full of woe for me and any girl,
Who's loving and giving at the time of birth
And stays that way all her days on Earth.
I'm Friday's child living in a Wednesday world.

A Wednesday world can break a Friday heart.
This world of woe can tear that heart apart.
There was a time I seized the days,
They struggled free and slapped my face.
I'm Friday's child living in a Wednesday world.

A Wednesday world can crush a Friday's Child.
Can make her meek, and woe can drive her wild
With walls of pain built brick by brick,
A pincushion pierced prick after prick,
When a Friday's child living in a Wednesday world.

All Friday folk, let's forge a Friday world.
Each woman, man, all boys and every girl,
Who are loving and giving at the time of birth
And stay that way through their days on Earth,
Come Friday folk and make it a Friday world.
Yes, Friday folk can make this a Friday world!

—Kathleen Martin © 2024

I'm Friday's Child

Happy Day to All Mothers!

My new Gristle cigar-box "Kat 330" guitar is featured here, whee! With its fret spacing and neck length, there are a limited number of tunes I can cover with any "panache," but this old repertory chestnut is one of them. I recorded the guitar first, continuing it on to the 3:30 mark or so. When I started fitting in the verse sections, I realized I had played six total, but Beddoe's lyrics only stretch to three plus a repeat of the first. I could have cut out two sections, but decided instead to write two new verses myself. 

Now, other than portraying Daisy Mae in a Lake George resort's production of "L'il Abner," I have no experience with moonshiners nor the culture of that era's area; but I know the hills here and of Appalachia are alive with the sounds of music and morel mushrooms. So hopefully I incorporated both in the 'shinin' spirit of A.F.'s lyrical intent.

Layers include harmony (ending in my ™ trio to finish), tambourine (too loud when mastered, but had recorded it along with main vocal and not worth redoing all vocal layers); a banjo pluck and jug blow here and there, a brief entrance and exit of fiddle (recognize the musical allusion?); and effects of crickets, pouring liquid, a frog and a single owl hoot. I certainly had a hoot assembling the parts of this production and hope you have one when listening! xxx <-- for kisses AND the iconic markings of a moonshine jug  ☼:)
[John Laurence remastered this and it can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/john-poletti/copper-kettle-jl-remaster

Lyrics by Beddoe (+ Martin)

Get you a copper kettle
Get you some copper coil
Cover with new-made corn mash
And never more you'll toil

CHORUS: You just lay there by the juniper
                    While the moon is bright
                    Watch them jugs a-fillin'
                    In the pale moonlight

Build your fires of hickory
Hickory or ash or oak
Don't use no green or rotten wood
It'll choke you by the smoke

My daddy he made whiskey
My granddaddy did too
We ain't paid no whiskey tax
Since seventeen ninety-two

[Next two verses by K.A. Martin]

Our cabin's in a holler
Nestled by wooded hills
Momma can fetch top dollar
For a mess of wild morels  
                                              
Ol' Beaufort bows the fiddle
Bobby Joe blows the jug
I tap my toes and whittle
As June cuts a jitterbug

Copper Kettle

July 16, 2015: How appropriate that my probable "swan song" here at kat330 was inspired by a bird a couple of weeks ago, a talented wood thrush to be specific! From his 6-note song, I heard a waltz melody in my head and began writing lyrics to fit. It was an unexpected yet joyous journey getting into the guise of a male songbird courting a mate for this narrative.

My Guild provided the simple chords and rhythm, and to that I added keyboard sounds of harpsichord, cello, pan flute and orchestra harp, even some flourishes of kantele near the end. The thrush song you hear interspersed is from a field recording at a Brown County, Indiana, forest on July 1st and an instrumental only version is here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/waltz-to-a-wood-thrush

This song might seem like something Maria would teach the Von Trapp children and will be too twee for many to appreciate—as my Major Melon Farmer and Swamp Guinea lyrics are 180-degrees too snarky for many—but all my pieces reflect a full rainbow of sentiments and aspects of my persona, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Beyond this last upload, I'll continue creating new sets now and then while still remastering some of my older tracks to upload for downloading anew at my kat330repost site, but this account is now filled to the gills. Unless and until I remove pieces for more time, any new composition will be found at my repost, Bandcamp and Free Music Archive pages. Thank you, dear listeners and sound friends!  xxxooo

Written, arranged, performed and produced by Kathleen Martin (c) 2015

(Owed to a Wood Thrush)

On a bough above her,
Calling out I love her!

Catching the ear of my May meadow queen,
Clear as a bell I am heard yet unseen
Cloaked in the green of this forest ravine.

Will she come and follow
My song from the hollow?

I can see her, but she cannot see me
Camouflaged up in the tree canopy
Winging her way on my sweet melody.

{Interlude: I sing to thee, wing to me! / Come to me, run to me! / Fly to me, hie to me!}

Here I am, please reach me
On this branch of beech tree!

Silken as thistledown my song is sent.
As true as a whistle now my testament's
A sonic epistle vowing my intent!

As she neared she spied me.
Soon appeared beside me.

Dear lady thrush see the nest that I built for us!
Cozy and lush, it's the best in the forest!
But there's no rush, hear the rest of my chorus:

True words love together!
Two birds of a feather!

Waltz to a Wood Thrush

Ironically the people this piece is inspired by will never hear it because, of course, they're far too busy to push play. :) The religious community has its share of holier-than-thou, self-righteous hypocrites, but the secular set has its own version of puffed-up self-importance as well: the busier-than-thou folks. You know the type, traveling on a 1-way road fueled by superego. You do for them and even do it again and again, but mostly they're too busy to spare you a moment claiming they can't find the time when, as we all know, they'll easily make time for what matters to them (video games, tweeting and texting ad infinitum). Always *implied* when you're told "I know you did but sorry, I haven't got time to reciprocate" are: "You just don't matter that much," and "How lucky you're idle enough to find time for me"—your courtesy and effort taken for granted and brushed off with the same lame excuse of "super-industry" as they slap you on both cheeks at once. How cheeky of them!

Well, a musical influence here, Steely Dan's "Pretzel Logic" asks, "Where did you get those shoes?" B-t-t Blues responds, if the sneaker fits, make like Nike and just do it! If the penny loafer fits, spare the dime and do the time! ☼;) As always, I thank you greatly for *your* time in listening and reading this far!  ♥ xxxooo

Bass and Electric lead throughout: Jim M (Telefan) https://soundcloud.com/telefan
Acoustic guitar, keyboards, vocals, song lyrics and mixing: Kathleen Martin
Bee pic idea by Kat and magically 'shopped by JT Lindroos

[Full Chorus]
I've got the biz-biz-biz-biz-biz
Those BUSIER-THAN-THOU BLUES;
And it really brings me down now
How come [Why does] everybody think(s) that he's
The busiest person [The only busy dude] around [in town]?

They say you want somethin' done
You got to ask a busy man.
You can't be what you claim then,
'Cause you won't and rarely can.

[Partial Chorus]

If you cannot spare the time, girl,
To return what you are given,
You take up space in this world
But you sure ain't truly livin'.

[Full Chorus]

You keep takin' from the kitty,
But you ain't no playful pup.
Get all your ducks in order now,
'Cause it's time to ante up.

[Partial Chorus]

When pleased by someone's kindness
It makes you seem a fool 
If clueless they'd be pleased by yours
That's called the Golden Rule.

[Instrumental Break]

Now a one-way street will take its toll
And become a cul de sac.
You're headed for a dead end
Unless you route some back.

[Full Chorus]

The door here it swings both ways
Get and give's what it's about
Push and pull it all to your side
Bound to bang you on the way out.

[Full Chorus]


Busier-than-thou Blues

[May 1, 2016—Happy May Day! Please see additional info on this global collaboration in notes at the shorter version here https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/thing-called-love ]

Raitt omitted Hiatt's second set of bridge lyrics perhaps only because of the "wife" rhyme, but I imagine the "obey" rhyme is not something women are comfortable with after finally getting it removed from most marriage vows. So I rewrote that section keeping the original idea mostly intact (I think) but better suited to a female POV:

Before all humankind I'll love you as my man
To cherish, honor and to care for.
This kind of life was never part of my plan.
Who knows the how and whoever knows the wherefore?

Finn Bårdsen (Autopilot Club): https://soundcloud.com/finn-slide-guitarist/tracks Slide guitar lead and rhythm
Gary Reeves (Mountain Songs): https://soundcloud.com/mountain-songs/tracks  Percussion
The vocals, synth for bass/piano/steel guitar/trombones, and sundry guitar bits along with mixing / production work by Kathleen Martin (kat330): http://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/tracks 
JT Lindroos: Cover design (and Garageband effects on spoken vocal)  https://www.facebook.com/people/JT-Lindroos/100003643716049 and http://jtlindroos.tumblr.com/ 

Thing Called Love (add. lyrics)

Nov 3, 2017: Here is Chapter 2 of this high seas fling: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/no-myth

https://youtu.be/ct_BGvKhJqM  [Heard at 10:30 in Ep 1 of "Sailing the Sea Bear" by Shawn Meyer]
[Oct 26, 2016] "Some Choice Words" could be this song's subtitle, because its inception began with hearing in my head rhymes for certain unusual words that have caught my attention over the years. I even found a way to include "bulwark," which is the first word I consciously recall having a fascination with whenever singing "A Mighty Fortress" in church as a preschooler. The melody that arose for intro, verse and bridge was completely driven by the lyrical content as it spilled out of me, with the need to hit accented syllables and make the rhyming pairs stand out within the lines.

As the narrative took shape—"ship" shape and "naughty-call" as it turns out—I apparently started channeling my experience with Noel Coward's song and play writing works to complete the piece. In my 20s I starred as Amanda in Coward's "Private Lives." The director had me sing some of Cole Porter's "Easy to Love" early in Act 1 and, to taunt Elyot while we fight in Act II, had me perform a camp, cockney version of Coward's "Mad About the Boy." It was after the fact I recognized the couple in my "Shanghaied" are cut from the same spoiled rich brat cloth as Amanda and Elyot, and I could hear the British Music Hall influence of Coward's song in this composition as well.

The violin is from my Yamaha synth, and I think this piece could benefit from a "brush"y drum track after the Intro section. Any violinist or drummer out there who'd like to add these real parts to the piece, please drop me a line. A huge debt of gratitude to Damien Riba for providing the delightful cabaret piano track here. Merci, Damien! ♥  A thank you to Marty Lucas for his early involvement in this project, and also a very special thank you to all those SCers out there still making an effort to unearth and take the time to listen to tracks at my buried 6-feet-under-Soundcloud websites.  XOXOXO

Piano by Damien Riba, Courtesy of Mangalyan Records. Discover more Damien here:
soundcloud.com/damien-riba
damienriba.bandcamp.com

Written, produced and otherwise performed by Kathleen Martin
Track photo/design of me in nautical cap by JT Lindroos

SHANGHAIED   by Kathleen A. Martin  © 2016

INTRO
When you sailed onto the scene,
I pegged you as a player:
A callous cad and libertine,
A practiced lady slayer.

Yes, you always seemed a gent,
But I would never take the bait;
And I ignored your every hint
To come aboard as your first mate.

Now you've lured me on your skiff
And launched us on a cruise for two.
The tide has turned; I get your drift;
I'll ride these waves with you  . . .

VERSE 1
It was high time I'm sidelined with you,
But dang, I've been shanghaied by you.
And now how I kowtow to you.
Blimey, I'm stymied by you.
I'm dizzy when busy with you,
All rosy cuddled cozy with you;
And woozy, kinda boozy from you
Though sober; I'm over the moon for you!

BRIDGE 1
It's more than fundamental—
So tender and so gentle.
A pair this complemental
Is something transcendental . . .  

VERSE 2
We'll muster a cluster of fun
In full dark, a bulwark bar none,
Rambunctious and unctuous as one
Warming 'til morning has come.
I'll wangle a tango with you,
Explore some dorsum with you,
And fashion high passion with you
When in bed; I'm head over heels for you!

BRIDGE 2
You break my concentration
When tuned to your vibration.
No time for contemplation,
I'm led into temptation . . .     

VERSE 1 (partial repeat)
Maybe it's high time I'm sidelined with you,
But dang, I've been shanghaied by you.
And now how I kowtow to you,
My chipper skipper, blimey, why me?! Sidetracked,
Bushwhacked, hijacked, gobsmacked! "Touché" you say.
My guy, I sigh ... Clearly, I'm dearly in love with you!

Kat Originals

Shanghaied

Shanghaied [ft Damien Riba on piano]

[heard on airwaves in Louisville, KY, area Apr 20, 2018, and found at 49 mins. here: https://soundcloud.com/chradio/kentuckiana-blues-radio-102]
Mar 25, 2018: Maybe this is a straightforward "he done her wrong" song. Maybe it's a wider metaphor for how our nation's no.1 confidence man has sold our national pride for personal gain and has dried up the dreams of too many, making it clear we must VOTE him GONE along with his enablers in Congress to bring back the best in US. I leave it up to you.

The familiarly marvelous piano part is provided by my absolutely favorite Nice person, who Cannes only be Damien Riba, courtesy of Mangalyan Records. Discover more Damien here:
@damien-riba
damienriba.bandcamp.com

Written, produced and otherwise performed by Kathleen Martin 
Love, courage and hugs to my listeners!     X♥X♥X♥
[hear an alternative arrangement: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/up-to-me-alt-arr

UP TO ME lyrics —  Kathleen Martin © 2018
 
Up to me, he sidled and said to me:
"Hey, honey, I'm your destiny!"
He swore to bring out the best in me,
And I felt it.

So charming, he really got to me.      
His confidence was so hot to me.  
Resisting him was not to be,
I just melted.

Next you know, I'm his bride-to-be;
Then he lied and lied and lied to me.
He leached out all the pride in me,
And he sold it.

He drove off the drive in me.
He rode off all the ride in me.
My dreams dried up inside of me,
And I folded.
                  
Now he's gone and sealed my destiny
To a life that's always testin' me.
On my own, I'll find the best in me—
I can take it.
Up to me to bring out the best in me—
And I will make it.

Up to Me

Up To Me [ft Damien Riba on piano]

REMASTERED and new D/Ling:  https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/someday-soon-remaster

This second self-recording is of Ian Tyson's "Someday Soon," which became part of my folk repertoire after hearing Judy Collins cover it back in the late '60s. I've revised Tyson's lyrics a tad, however, so I could still sing it with some authenticity, albeit it with much sarcasm. It's no rodeo now. That young girl of the original is several years down the pike and clearly has some serious self-esteem issues still mooning over her abusive loser of a man.

Hearing it on headphones through REAPER, I can hear our home's ambient birdsong at beginning and end drifting from outside in.

Someday Soon

REMASTERED version here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/el-preso-numero-nueve-remaster

Used on PBS program here: http://www.pbs.org/food/original-fare/season-3-episode-2-childhood-search-puerto-ricos-lost-pepper   (Muppets left, Kat arrived ;)

Oct. 31, 2014: Never fear that downloads of this track have maxed out here! Unlimited DL's (w/ more tracks to come) at: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin/

My "apologia" to Spanish speakers everywhere! I was in my mid-teens when I first heard H. Cantorell's "El Preso Numero Nueve" ("Prisoner Number Nine") as performed by Joan Baez on her 1960 eponymous album. I was given my first guitar several months before I ever discovered Baez' early association with my newly-beloved icon crush, Bob Dylan (though that order of discovery was likely reversed for folk fans several years older than I), and curiosity had me seek out her early albums.

The version I'm performing is pretty much the same as what I taught myself all those years ago at sweet sixteen, so it's like an old aural snapshot, a performance on the fly caught in amber. Along with a very basic Spanish guitar strum, I learned the foreign lyrics by repeated listens to her singing them with the tedious action of lifting the needle and setting it back down to repeat a phrase. The album vanished from my collection while in trusted storage somewhere or other, but I believe the Mexican lyrics were also printed on the LP's back cover or sleeve. This might have helped my pronunciation and memorization much more if only I'd been a student of Spanish rather than of French and German in school!

In any event I never revisited the Baez lyrics nor any other version after I had it set in memory for frequent performance back then. Which means, whatever I got wrong by phonetic rote to start with -- plus whatever syllables and phrases have mutated even farther afield over these many interim years -- will be painfully evident in this track. I do know the general gist of the lyrics and the tragic tale being told, but probably it will be a challenge to any Spanish-speaking listener to fully comprehend this version. Again, my apologies in advance.

Side notes: Recording this song all these decades later showed me a personal development and growth in myself; my youthful perfectionism-to-the-point-of-paralysis has relaxed to where now I can allow for and be OK with some mistakes (as can be heard in the track). Also, the opening melodica phrase is a haunting homage to Marty Robbins' "El Paso" only in a minor key. I'd considered carrying it through with that song's other triads in minor, but decided to KISS and leave it as is.

A final note: Another special connection to "El Preso..." is that it won me various talent contests at the time, and I even performed the song as my talent portion in the Indiana Junior Miss state pageant. A bold move on my part to play Spanish guitar and sing in a foreign language at such apple-pie-American-patriot-flag-waving-Hoosier fests and, apparently, good fortune there were never Spanish-speaking judges of these events in the late '60s.  :)

El Preso Numero Nueve

Written to the lovely, bittersweet melody of Cat Stevens' "Sad Lisa" off “Tea for the Tillerman,” my new lyrics here were inspired by the October 1, 2010, Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) found at this link: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap101001.html. The substitute poem was posted at my blog  here  http://kat330.tumblr.com/post/3242646193/owed-to-apod  where you can also read my brief editorial about the planet's discovery.

I had it in mind to record my "filksong" for a SoundCloud upload ever since I opened the account here, but just never got around to it. Then I really wanted to post it soon after Neil Armstrong's passing, as my own nod to him and wink to the moon, but allergies intervened. So my silly "Warmup Olio" was posted instead.

This is a straightforward vocal with piano accompaniment (not my own), albeit my voice is still compromised by some congestion. 

Glad Gliese (to "Sad Lisa")

[REMASTERED version for D/Ling anew here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/since-youve-asked-remaster

JT got the proper wiring so REAPER can finally groK my Korg, and now I can proceed with self-recording some of my keyboard repertory. I probably will rework "Rose, Lis..." and "Hard Lovin' Loser" eventually. In the meanwhile here's a short and simple tune from the Judy Collins' "Songbook." While now the keyboard is recording loud and clear, I'm none too pleased with my vocals here. Allergy season is taking a stiff toll on my cords this mid-spring. Perhaps I'll rerecord vocal sections sometime down the line.

Besides the Korg (on harpsichord/chorus mode) and vocals, I've included melodica and kantele tracks. I'm pretty happy with these additional theme snippets I devised.

Since You've Asked

[REMASTERED for SC D/Ling anew here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/candy-man-remaster ]

Oct. 31, 2014: Never fear that downloads of this track have maxed out here! Unlimited DL's (w/ more tracks to come) at: freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin/

It's my own arrangement, and the lyrics are changed a bit here and there to suit me better, but I learned this ditty way-back-when off my vinyl of "Just Dave Van Ronk." In this mix I'm on acoustic guitars, vocals, Korg piano (vibes mode) and drumsticks, as well as those melodica, slide whistle and electric bass snippets—a veritable circus of one, whew and wheeee!

Candy Man

[Hear a new remix in .wav here https://kat330.bandcamp.com/album/if-6-was-3 or .mp3 here
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin/If_6_Was_3 ]

Serendipity steers our lives far more than control freaks are willing to admit. Something on SoundCloud a few days ago (of June 2013) had me thinking of the great "Rogue River Suite" theme by François Tétaz from the independent Australian thriller "Rogue." Within this same timeframe a local public radio station (WFPK in Louisville, KY) played Gary Jules' cover of "Mad World" from the soundtrack of the cult indie film "Donnie Darko." Then yesterday in an instant, unbidden moment, the earworm of one met up with the earworm of the other. My eyes widened with the thought these two hauntingly lovely themes would fit together like hand in glove, both melodically and rhythmically.

I found out they most certainly do indeed, and this mash-up track I've woven together is the result of my little earworm epiphany. The first 42-seconds are from "Rogue" alone, then both tracks play out in their entirety with minor adjustments on my part here and there. Hope you enjoy!

Rogue World (Tétaz +Jules mashup) [43]

The Arsenal here: two vocal tracks, Korg piano, classical + electric guitars, melodica, and harmonica (newly added to The Arsenal after I co-opted my recent present to JT of a 3-harmonica set :) 

This is a cover of Richard Thompson's poignant "Walking on a Wire" interwoven with shades and echoes of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" for sort of a she says/he says mash-up of two great songs about relationship breakdown. If you're familiar with "Wire" (from Richard and Linda Thompson's superior "Shoot Out the Lights" album), you know there's a typically prodigious guitar part and solo by Richard. (You truly MUST hear it if you have not, even though it makes my version pale to nothingness in comparison.) The acoustic guitar here is often just a slower tempo of my "Don't Think Twice" guitar part, and the electric is mainly functioning as my bass per usual.

As for the original piano arrangement: After much experimentation, I found the only Korg mode to minimize any hiss noise is the harpsichord. I suspect some noise is still underlying, but the lack of legato in this mode somehow masks it best. At this point then, I'm recording all future piano tracks in that mode only. It's a shame since dynamics along with any smooth, connective phrasing so effective in many of my arrangements will be forfeited as a result. 

Finally, I might upload a version minus all the shades of Dylan depending on reaction and recommendations to this one, so please let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Walking on a Wire + Don't Think Twice

FMA Blog features Kat tracks: https://freemusicarchive.org/blog/kathleen-martins-new-tracks  This site is for music fans who think outside the boxy confines of genre labels. Find here and at SCannex my originals and covers on anything from felons to lovers, arranged for and performed on a variety of instruments, for sounds ranging from sweet to sassy and reedy to brassy; from lofty to lowdown and soulful to hoedown; from serious to silly and urban to hillbilly.

I am so grateful you are taking the time to listen to these self-recordings, many of which required an enormous amount of my time and effort to produce. If I also introduce you to a singer-songwriter you never knew, or if something I wrote or recorded brings a smile to your day, well, that's just the sweet icing on my aim-cake!

Hope you will seek out the original artists' versions of cover tunes unfamiliar to you and, please, share my sounds with any like-minded listeners. I also urge you to click on individual track titles to read my production notes and lyrics before or as you push play. Some notes are informative, some are entertaining and some may be neither or both. ☼:) Kathleen xxxooo

kat330

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