Name: Murphy's Law by Michael J. Johnson in Demos, Rough Mixes, Etc
Duration: 3 min 58 s
Description: One of my 1990's songs. Drums and some backing vox by Chadzilla Johnson, everything else by Michael J. Johnson. We were calling ourselves "Sonic Cinema" at the time.

Demos, Rough Mixes, Etc

Jeremy Fox's newly-updated arrangement of Blackbird, featuring Dan Shimon, bass singer, Emma Midcalf, soprano, and Jasione Veil, tenor and improvisation.  With Jaden Tabor, soprano, Lily Malone, alto, and Elijah Thiessen, baritone, and Jeremy Fox, piano & drum set.  Published with Sheet Music Plus. 

All you have is now. 
Your history won't determine who you choose to be.
Look to the open sky: 
You have space to fly, time to breathe
Can you remember who you dreamed you'd be?
You're not as broken as you thought you'd be.
Discover your wings can set you free.

Blackbird 2023

Funky Track 2 (2022)

Proyecto final para Vocal Writing. Original!

Sin Ti (May 2023)

Para DAW Writing & Production. La idea era usar Massive y Battery en Pro Tools

First Pro Tools Beato (Oct 2023)

Traca (Sep 2023)

One of my 1990's songs. Drums and some backing vox by Chadzilla Johnson, everything else by Michael J. Johnson. We were calling ourselves "Sonic Cinema" at the time.

Murphy's Law

Another '90's-era track, and my first large ProTools session. I did this on my own time in the wee hours of the morning when I first started at South Beach Studio. I've long since lost the session files. The song is inspired by Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and it's about a vampire who wishes to end his immortal existence.

Sting

Soul Magnets

Courage - adapted from the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement, sung as protesters were being taken to jail and as a way to learn people's’ names in the jail cells. 
Courage, my friend, you do not walk along. 
We will, walk with you, and sing your spirit home.

Courage

I Choose You - Berklee 2017

This simple and beautiful layer song from Karisha Longaker of MaMuse is an easy, delicious one to teach in community singing groups of all sizes and levels of experience. It is arranged here in 5 parts for Wholehearted Chorus, with one or two audible additional parts that can be added by soloists or additional divisions of the chorus. 

Original song by Karisha Longaker. Oh River is included in this song library with permission for the purposes of oral tradition singing and teaching. If singing this song for performance or recording for profit, you must get permission from and pay royalties to the composer.

Recorded by Lisa G. Littlebird, with base arrangement track from Karisha Longaker.

For details about the song including lyrics and all the individual part tracks, please visit: http://thebirdsings.com/oh-river/

Oh River by Karisha Longaker of MaMuse

recorded by Aly Halpert, Sol Weiss & Margot Seigle

I believed in solid ground until I saw the earth in motion,
in the winds of steady change and in the ever-rolling ocean.

All moves on in perfect, perfect motion.
All is change and ever-rolling ocean.

from Annie: 
Blessed Motion is a 4-part acknowledgement of the nature of Life as an unpredictable, ever-changing movement toward itself. The melody came squatting on a rock next to a fast moving fork in the Trinity River, where salmon were in their first week of journeying to their spawning sites in northern California. Martin Prechtel said after surviving the Guatemala earthquake of 1976, during which he witnessed the ground beneath him rising up and swallowing people and villages whole, that solid ground is a myth believed by people who live on the earth rather than in it. This idea has stayed with me through the years and provided partial inspiration for this song. This is a big song! It travels through two dimensions, the first, a three or four part set of repeating lines, the second, a layered riff topped with a solo section.

Blessed Motion - Annie Zylstra

You're (*not) #Woke
Self-Explanatory.

link.amreed8.com/woke

Music and Lyrics by AMReed8
Copyright © 2020. All Rights Reserved.

[VERSE 1]
Look at you
Re-posting the trending story
Images, horrifyingly gory
As you sit in your comfy seat
Look at you
Donating to an online charity
Your name displayed in clarity
Yet, what about that bum on your street?

Listen to you
Talking about this situation
Disgust in every single nation
Taking selfies holding a sign
Listen to you
Saying how you’re not sexist or racist
Yet, still can’t see on a one-on-one basis
Are you on the side that’s mine?

[PRE-CHORUS 1]
I could’ve used a savior 
When I was young, way back then
You overlooked my bruises 
Blending into my dark skin
Now you’re open-minded
Unlike those sheeple folks
Yet, my pain’s the current fad
And it feels like a joke, ‘cause

[CHORUS]
You’re not woke
I see behind the mirrors and the smoke
You’re not woke
Only outraged when a little guy gets choked
I put my pointer against my cheek
As my chin rests on my thumb
And say, “You’re not woke”


[VERSE 2]
Listen to you
Denouncing capitalism’s might 
All over Zuckerberg's website
Using Jobs’ pricey device
Listen to me
If I disagree with you
Somehow I’m the ignorant fool
‘Cause you have the best advice, right?

Look at you
Belonging to my trampled tribe
You only claim me if I subscribe
If I don’t, then you kick me out
Look at me
Looking from the outside in
By myself, without a kin
My face is ready to shout

[PRE-CHORUS 2]
You replace love with superiority 
And you still refuse to listen
I could have used a savior 
When I was young, way back then
Please, take time to know me
I’m not quite like other folks
Just to matter to you as I am
But I know that you won’t, ‘cause

[CHORUS]
You’re not woke
I see behind the mirrors and the smoke
You’re not woke
Only outraged when a little guy gets choked
I put my pointer against my cheek
As my chin rests on my thumb
And say, “You’re not woke”

You're (*not) #Woke

Michael J. Johnson is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer/engineer. He is also a professor at Berklee and New England Conservatory in Boston.

Murphy's Law

Michael J. Johnson

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