Stuff I find interesting to write about mainly.

Mike tunes

So Blue    Lyrics and Music © 2024 by Mike Dampf; Bass - David Leadbitter; vocals & flute - Becky Sora; sax & organ - David Lavkulik; drums & mixing - Tim Bovaconti

The morning sun screams red
'Arise! Arise! get out of bed
go find a pulse and fix your head
The devil give, the devil take
T van Zandt and sweet Nick Drake
come down to give your soul the shake

They're so blue babe. so blue babe
They're so blue babe,
so blue

The Jesus bell swings high noon
Rosetta belts a gospel tune
Redemption must be coming soon
High and holy, headed home
a smoke, a silent telephone
go light one for Nina Simone

You want to live upon a moon
where there's no happy tunes
to bring you down

Sunday evening coming down
spin some Johnny Cash around
a man in black, that lonesome sound
Love is sweet and that's a fact
shut the door till it come back
but keep it open just a crack

So Blue

Until Your Heart Believes       Lyrics and music by Mike Dampf © August, 2024         Flute - Becky Sora; Bass - David Leadbitter; Vocals Jerneja Medved and Mike Dampf

I can see you hurt
I can read the signs
You smile through loneliness
like winter sun through the pines
this kind of wound is slow to heal
and I know how it feels

One light is on long before the dawn
a half moon rises and then it's gone
soft wind rustles the willow leaves
dreamless, until your heart believes

I see you nearly every day
your eyes say it all
it's just 'Hello' and then you look away
like you hit some kind of wall
Sure, you're fine, nothing's been revealed
but I know how it feels

Look at me
look at you
we shouldn't be alone anymore

Until Your Heart Believes

Too Old to Die Young (music and lyric by Mike Dampf © October 2024)    Becky Sora: flute, percussion, mandolin, vocals/ Dave Leadbitter: bass & vocals

You're really gone, not just gone away
I hurt in the spaces where we used to play
if music is love, my love goes unsung
I'm not too old, just too old to die young

Rumors of an angel, flowers on the breeze
you walked into the room, I went weak at the knees
Like in a church, sweet bells were rung
I'm not too old, just too old to die young

I laughed at love, I thought I had time
I played the game until pride made me blind
Thought I was a rock until 'lonely' cracked open my mind

God knows the reasons, I can't say why
this beautiful summer's so fast drifting by
each leaf's gonna fall as the pendulum's swung
I'm not too old, just too old to die young
I'm not too old, just too old to die young

Too Old to Die Young

LIFE AIN'T BUST          Original song by Mike Dampf © November, 2024  Bass by David Leadbitter; Harmonica by Becky Sora/ Original painting by Jay Dampf

Sometime up, sometime down
this old life is a steady pound
freezing rain, burning heat
best step aside if we meet

Give me things that I can trust
Show me how this life ain't bust

Stand in line, hurry, wait
one at a time through the gate
fold your arms, hide your fear
ask yourself why you're here

Give me things that I can trust
Show me how this life ain't bust

Keep quiet, don't gripe and don't make a big fuss
They need you alive but beware 'cause this life
is gonna break you down to dust





Life Ain't Bust

Deranged Christmas

Pretty Loose music and lyrics © 2025 by Mike Dampf and Dave Medcof
Bass: David Leadbitter; Mandolin, percussion, vocals: Becky Sora

Buddy called, said 'Get off the couch'
you're old but that's no excuse
let's meet at the station with a pint and a plan
everything's been getting pretty loose

So we met on up and we strolled on down
down to where they bury 'who vamoosed'
had a drink and a tear over long gone friends
then we started getting pretty loose

He said 'I heard there's a party just down the line
jump a trolley to the Long Branch Loop'
so we climbed aboard, left the dead behind
and rolled along feeling good 'n loose

It was a-pull down the guitar, rosin the bow
treat your liver and your banjo with abuse
sing out the heart, forget about the head
and everyone was getting pretty loose

The good Lord made many lovely things
I've seen a beaver, a cougar and a moose
but nothing's half as lovely as the way I feel
when the music is getting good and loose

Now it's late, I'm back on the train
so sleepy that I drag my own caboose ...
yes I'm old but the day is young
and everything's been getting pretty loose
Ya everything is getting pretty loose!

Pretty Loose

A love song for strangers. Music and lyrics by Mike Dampf and Becky Sora © February, 2025 Becky plays mandolin, vocals; David Leadbitter plays bass. 

THIRD EYE BLUES

God has nothing to say to the sober
He leaves them high and dry but they don't complain
And God knows there ain't anything faster
Than a fall from grace, I'll never clean that stain

Do you know anyone here, you whispered
We were strangers sitting in a pew at the Church of the Homeless Angel
No but I'm gonna know you, I whispered
And by the way you really rock red at a funeral

I'm gonna live forever if it kills me
And I'm gonna love you for all time
Whatever made you want someone this crazy
I've got a third eye but sometimes I'd rather be blind

We balance on the edge of the moments between hope and fear
It seems to me
You and I ring, we're each other's everything
And alone together isn't so lonely

Third Eye Blues

Writing songs and kitchen party playing with my many musical friends ... pretty much sums it up.

So Blue

Mike Dampf

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