A snippet of an instrumental I'm working on.  Thinking about adding drums/ percussion and made some slide guitar...  wrote this a while back with my favorite Danish artist, Nikolaj Nørlund (www.norlund.com), who played keys and nylon string guitar on this. Bass, recording, co-production: Henrik Krog Christensen.  Vibes: Emmy winner, Lenny Williams.

Untitled (work in progress)

Donovan cover recorded to 4 track.  All insts. and vocals, MH.

26 wear your love like heaven

Recorded in Denmark (with whiz kid, Henrik Krog Christensen).  Previously unreleased. sugary power pop with a reference to The Replacements.  My favorite line:  "Astronauts.  Now, there's a way to make a living.  I'd go up if I thought that she would notice..."

24 here comes alison!

More powerpop...  Mark Helm and HK Christensen all insts.

16 shopping list

out-take from A&M records 1994 release JAMIE BLAKE.   Vocals: Jamie Blake, Guitar and Bass:  Mark Helm, Drums:  Josh Freese; writer: Mark Helm.

09 week of days (jamie blake version)

Wrote this for my 80's-90's band radioblue.  james lee on lead vocals, me on answer vocal/harmonies.  james is playing the jangly rickenbacker, i'm playing an ES-345 and mandolin. Steve Engle on Bass...  Catch little tune about my long estranged father...i guess

02 Busy

My favorite song from the radioblue "just like jane" record.  James lee, our lead singer, imagined this after watching the movie of the same name, based on an amazing story, 'Marianne Dreams,' a scary and wonderful children's fantasy novel by Kensington-born Catherine Storr ((born Catherine Cole; 21 July 1913, London – 8 January 2001, London).
The only song I don't play guitar on because there are 2 bass parts...Steve on the lower, root-based notes and me on the higher register melody.  James played the wonderful piano part, and he and I wrote/played the string arrangement with the best samples available in the late 1980's.

03 Paperhouse

the artificial heart 

well if you're gone now
i won't be forsaken
there is another waiting
to take me and over
my shoulder i see the white 
light it fills up the whole 
frame aboutface
i'm leaving you
what's not enough
to save a life

why do i do
all the things i do
who's up there
manning the controls
and pulling levers
we could patch my heart
thread the needle
rig the rest
with gum and glue
but it only holds
together for a while

and when it does
it does so good
short-circuits
my VACANCY sign

love can save our lives
if love can't save us
why do you still burn
the front porch light

yeah those stars 
are beautiful
but they're so far 
away so far
i just love you

every other day...

-mark helm


01 artificial heart

Instrumental demo. Song my Mark Helm and Nikolaj Norlund (www.norlund.com).  Engineered by Henrik Krog Christensen.  Produced by: Helm, Christensen, Norlund.



2k3.helmNewwithNorlund2short

Lu Bango, Evan Pollack and me in the now sadly defunct (and brilliant club), IOTA in Arlington, VA.  I honestly don't remember what year.  After the little technological blip, we sing one of my songs, "Haircut" before the real gem here, Lu's song, "I'm Gonna Make an Example of You." The three of us threw this show together with only a few days of practice, but I'm happy with how well we played together...friends, man....friends.  Anyway, "Example" is typical Lu--deceptively simple, but richly textured and ripe with genuine, honest human sentiment. Sadly we lost Evan almost 4 years ago... more in another comment soon. But his loss left a huge hole in my life... in many lives that his spirit touched.

mhelm

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