Just one guitar and one voice...

This playlist holds four originals:
① The girl with the flowers
② Always
③ One is we
④ One and one
and one special collaboration: Crossroads with Mike Sobel's guitar composition and guitar performance, lyrics and vox by me

See track descriptions for details.

Thank you much for listening!
Mike

One Guitar, One Voice

'Strong' is a song I wrote after a policeman instructed me to leave a city’s shopping street while I was working as a street artist. I was so… can I say ‘pissed’? So I had to write a song about it. This was 1992. I played the streets a couple of years when I was a student.

The lyrics of the song (below) point to a broader and still current subject. Staying strong in dynamic times is important for every one of us I think. Today more than ever probably. Follow your personal believes in peace all :)

Mike


Lyrics, music, vocals, guitar and copyright Mike Spring
Guitar is a Crafter or a EKO steel string acoustic, I'm not sure
Recording: live, analogue (Tascam 4-track)

This is a recording of a song 'just written'. In this respect I should have uploaded it on my other page https://soundcloud.com/sketches-from-holland/tracks but I didn't :)

Mix: In Cubase I edited a small guitar part around 1:03 minutes because I played one chord a little too long which interrupted the meter of the song.
Master: The stereo WAV track I used had been mastered before so it was not clean when I mastered it again. 
Equipment: Steinberg UR824, Ozone 7 adv. (EQ, Imager and Vintage tape) plus Lexicon LXP Native Hall Reverb VST
Picture by Anthea Molenaar, 2011

Lyrics:

Hey what’s your name
I’m not a game to play
Hey we’re the same
You should feel ashamed to say
I don’t belong to this day

[chorus:]
If you think you’re strong
I’ve got something for you
Cause I feel strong
I think my way
Nothing’s gonna change that
I think my way
It makes me what I am
I feel strong
I feel strong

Day by day
Strongen my way   [note: I know this is not proper English 😉]
Leaded by the inner words I pray
Hey I’m not afraid
To feel the shade
Because I know who I am

[chorus]

Strong

Strong (live recording / 1992)

This tune has 'always' stayed in my mind and I played it often through time but never recorded it. Enjoy all and thanks for listening...

Song podcasted here https://hearthis.at/barclaybunch/i-heard-this-on-hearthis-at-05072014/

Acoustic guitar and vocals recorded together with one small mono mic & mixed in Cubase
Written about 20 years ago. Recorded July 2014.

photo http://www.flixya.com/photo/1921722/Romantic-love-hand-in-hand-

Always

A love song in the singer songwriter / folk genre. Enjoy all and thank you much for listening and commenting. Much appreciated...

Live recording, vocals & guitar & 2 mics
  
Peace
Mike


The girl with the flowers
Is slowing the hours
By offering her grace
With a smile

It seems not substantial
Still feeds my essential
Dwelling in my heart 
For a while

She asks without saying
Inviting me, playing
By offering me
Colors and shine

The girl with the flowers
She slows down the hours
Gently make me
Feel fine

I could easily embrace
Her flowers, her face
And wipe every trace
Of my pace

I bought all of the daisies
From this lovely lady
We dwelled in our hearts
For a while

The girl with the flowers
Is slowing the hours
By offering her grace
With a smile

It seems not substantial
Still feeds my essential
By dwelling my heart 
For a while

For guitarists: the chords are played with only a shifting E-chord with open 1st and 2nd high strings  (note: hE = high open E, 1 octave up)

hE – D – A – G – A  (all with open low E string) 
hE – D – A - G

G – A – hE – A   (all with own bass line)

A - B – hE – A    (all with own bass line)
G – A – hE – D  (all with own bass line)

C – D – hE – C  (all with own bass line)

 G-A-C-hE                   (all 3x with open low E string) 

(low)E – D – A – G – A       (open low E string)] 
hE – D – A – G – A    (open low E - all 2x)

hE –D –C – G – A  - hE

The Girl With The Flowers

Hi guys

As my fresh studio computer broke down twice while still inspired to record something new -  I decided to do an analogue recording. It is a simple acoustic song - written spontaneously for my love <3 
The recorder is an old Tascam four track analogue tape desk. Since I only had an old notebook at hand and my studio software not available I downloaded a free trial version of - IZOTOPE  OZONE 6 standard edition - to make some small adjustments mixing the analogue original. 

Guys -thank you for listening - as always!
Mike


I see you (analogue folk)

'All art is unstable. Its meaning is not necessarily that implied by the author. There is no authoritative voice. There are only multiple readings'
- David Bowie - 

This acoustic classic rock song I recorded for a dear friend of mine, Beatrix. This was just before Christmas 2015. 

David is gone now. I feel very sad about that. The day before the announcement of his death I went to the 'David Bowie is' exhibition in my country. How harsh was the news the next morning...

That being said, I want to dedicate this cover as as well to David's great creative mind and to the fabulous artist I admire so much..

Space Oddity is a song written by David Bowie released in 1969. The song was recorded and released again in 1972. David Bowie introduced a new album January 8th 2016. Watch the video of 'Black Star' here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw
In the Netherlands there have been several art events related to this artist so unique. For an overview of the 2016 David Bowie exhibition in the Netherlands watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXy0ErpeTKM

Space Oddity (acoustic cover)

Netherlands based singer-songwriter/guitarist/composer/sound engineer.
headphones recommended

Strong (live recording / 1992)

MIKE SPRING