Always proud to cooperate with you, Kathleen ! Cheers...

We All Rock For Meg Tilly

It's been a minute since I composed a new piece—over six years as a matter of fact. Intervening was a call to political activism followed by a relocation to a new continent during a global pandemic. And because I had sold every bit of electronic equipment before the move to Finland, I was resigned to embark on no further recording or production work. Then in September 2024, I was struck with an idea to create a new novelty piece culled from a collection of my silly aphorisms and taglines. I had barely begun penning 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. It was a solemn minor key, however, so I shifted lyrics away from my trademark wordplay toward a more somber composition. It soon evolved into a Latin rhythm but still sounded so melancholy, I decided I should make a point of ending my sad lyrics on an upbeat note. I had no wish to bring down 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 that hopeful, major chord ending on I'm Friday's Child (IFC).

Since I no longer owned any synth equipment, I presumed new music production, if ever I returned to it, must rely on a collaborator for additional instrumentation and possibly for vocals as well. So 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. Monsieur Riba came through—brilliantly as ever!—with a habanera piano part in a delightful orchestration for me to use and post here, courtesy of Mangalyan Records. His arrangement accompanying my vocal includes piano, accordion, violin and percussion. Merci, Damien! [Check him out at www.damienriba.com and www.cinelovers.fr ]

To hear my own orchestration w/vocal: https://soundcloud.com/kat330/im-fridays-child  Unfortunately, I have otherwise run out of free time to post anything further whatsoever at SC. So for my own purely instrumental version of IFC, please find it at freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin or at my Bandcamp "Kathleen Martin" account.

Last but never least, multiple thanks to JT Lindroos for his great partnership in using the library's Mac software—I had only recorded vocals and synth parts in the past with a PC using Reaper software—and, as always, for his cover art contribution (photo of li'l Kat at 4 used). How appropriate then to release IFC to the world on January 4, 2025, which marks our Silver 25th wedding anniversary! 😊

😽 XXXOOO 🤗
Kat (a Friday's Child)

I'M FRIDAY'S CHILD

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

IFC (orch. by D. Riba)

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

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 soundcloud.com/kat330/tracks 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

IFC (orch. by D. Riba)

kat3thirty

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Mangalyan Records

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