Inside the mind, life is never easy. Outside in the world, it only seems to worsen.

Sinner

“Selkirk”
Words & Music by Rick Sparkes

Ear to the ground, bound by your lover’s words
Pouring down distilling the eau de vie
We all unwind end over end over the end
You quoted Derrida, I took my leave
Before falling apart.

Museum glass and the time it took ol’ Selkirk to fold
Tautology, the brightest colours mark the eye
Jump the bridge, swinging in a summer’s daze
Gloat over it, always going back to the market for more.

I search you out, we always find a way around
Mercy me, springtime keeping it all afloat
Manhattan ‘92 the Will Rogers Follies featuring
Keith Carradine and the 5-7-5 love haikus I wrote

Selkirk

{Gist (noun) - the substance or essence of a part of speech or text.} The debut album from Gerson is a collection of 9 songs, each with its own unsavory, unreliable, or unfortunate narrator. Weaving through multiple musical genres, Gist explores the anxieties of young adulthood with both sincerity and ironic detachment.

Know It All

Tangos lÃ­mbicos

Ansias

Ghost

niet genoeg

Sto affogando nel Blu

Adrity Peruano

Composed:
Sunday 16th Nov 2025

Instrumentation
-Live Ovation Acoustic (Tuned to Open A) and Vocal
-Native American Flute played on keys
-Ibanez 5 String bass (std tuning)
-Epiphone Electric guitar picked
(Capo 5 & tuned to Open A - open strings are E B A C# G E)
-Epiphone Electric Lead (std tuning)
-Shaker on keys
-Cajon on keys
-Piano on keys
-Rain Sample
-Falsetto backing vocals

Update:
Monday 17th Nov 2025
-Additional choir voicings
-Harp added

To Rain 💦

May the rain reveal
Let the snow fall
Spirit sending some drops
A clear elixir call
Asking arid to end
To hydrate your soul
Nature, don't pretend
Clouds east, Please roll

Fill the lakes
Run with the rivers
Moisten that land
Mend dryness shivers
Carbon cycle please wake
Deliver your voice
For beauty larks sake
Give drink now by choice

May the rain reveal
Send snow to fall
May you wet all piped steel
Trend water torrents to galls
Hydrate their real
No sanctions for luck
End this double edged sword
Water fill every brook

Rearrange your letters
You'll find your place
As drops make better
Bring some smile to face
Tame the farms
Sucking human race
Rearrange your letters
Rain find that grace

May the rain reveal
Make the snow fall
Spirit sending some drops
A clear elixir call
Asking arid to end
To hydrate your soul
Nature please don't pretend
Clouds east, Please roll

-----------------------------------

Life getting a bit dry in Iran at the mo so this is a song wish for some rain to arrive there. I realised making the song that Iran is an anagram of Rain which for a wordie was a neat discovery!

Musical tip
I use a keyboard played choir line as a guide for my voice at times during the recording process. I match it and then delete the keyboard guide. It's a handy way of nailing the falsetto and ending up with nothing artificial in your piece.

Subsequent takes then generally allow for better expression on pitch changes and economy of breath as you become your own reference and can on the fly realise where you can improve on the previous take.

In a land where we have to sidestep so much artificial singing sold as whatever.... I think it's worth pointing out the uniqueness of our voices...

My music teacher, Mr Kelly used to say the human voice is the most beautiful musical instrument of them all. I tend to agree with him.

What is amazing about our voices is no one voice is the same. Finding your voice in the sense you get it to a point where you enjoy the result is a challenge for most of us but this technique is a very nice way of using the tools well to end up with a completely natural result and also for pushing the boat out on your range and technique. It also makes you more compositionally acute as you are thinking about the notes you are singing and referencing them with another instrument, so both vocal and instrument expression sees improvement.



Let's go rain 🌍💦🌏

To Rain

Sixteenth from the upcoming release: REDUX - The Acoustic Sessions

Written for my youngest son, Cobi

Sinner

Melodiva