The Safetool Sessions is a collection of instrumentals (though some songs do have lyrics), about half of which are gentle and the other half not. Most of these tracks were started in 2005, for a short film with the title character "Sergeant Safetool" (the film was not made, as far as I know). Over the years, I have reworked them, and I added two additional tracks to fill out the album.

All Music by David Michael Turnbow, except "Memorial", which is by David Michael Turnbow, John Crater and Alec Rooney.

All tracks are comprised of software instruments, using Garage Band and Logic as DAWs, and produced by Dave Turnbow.

The Safetool Sessions

It would be more accurate to note that the puppies were wrestling on the kitchen floor and then fell asleep in a pile; the Zen garden setting was a hyperbolic flourish on my part. I could be even more accurate to note that the puppies were a fabrication. But if there had been puppies, I would have wanted them to be cuddling, and in a Zen garden. So the title is entirely true, conditionally.

Music by David Turnbow

Puppies Cuddling in a Zen Garden

An (instrumental) elevator-music version of one of my most popular songs ("Butt Naked")...

Dave Turnbow—software instruments

Music and Lyrics by David Turnbow

Butt Naked (in an Elevator)

"You'll be hearing this song every time I'm in the wrong."

Voice by John Swasey. 
Music Performed by Dave Turnbow and John Crater.

Written by John Crater and David Michael Turnbow.

LYRICS
So many years, we have gotten through them all
When one of us was weak, the other broke the fall
No time to lose, life can fly by oh so fast
Let's keep our streak alive, leave this fussin' in the past

You know what's in my heart: sweetness and devotion
Despite it sounding gooey and trite, you gotta admit: I'm right
I know what's in your heart: forgiveness and salvation
And so you'll be hearing this song every time I'm in the wrong

How lucky am I, how did I ever get in the door
'Cause back in those days, you had suitors by the score
The gab from their lips; words so clever and cool they'd coo
But my drama queen turned away those nights to cuddle with her fool

If we took a trip down that slippery memory lane
There's mud enough from each of us to hide our heads in shame
Although there's been tears; hey, it happens to the best
There's always been a love so strong it passes every test

You know what's in my heart: sweetness and devotion
Despite it sounding gooey and trite, you gotta admit: I'm right
I know what's in your heart: forgiveness and salvation
And so you'll be hearing this song every time I'm in the wrong

Fussin' (feat. John Swasey)

An instrumental version of "There for Me"... the first half is the elevator version, and the second half is an 80s lobby version

Dave Turnbow—software instruments

Music and Lyrics by David Turnbow

There for Me (in an 80s Elevator)

Thinking of what is to be... I promise. And nothing to do with an elevator. An edited improvisation.

You Promised

Dogs... dogs... crazy dogs...

Music by David Turnbow

Cool Dogs

It’s getting chaotic, this drama episodic

Voice, Instruments and Programming - Dave Turnbow

Music and Lyrics by David Michael Turnbow

LYRICS
They says she’s so cruel
I think she’s a jewel
And a rare one at that
A drop-dead beauty in a green felt hat

I met her at a sports bar
You’d better have a sports car
If you wish to impress
A pageant queen in a designer dress

I make a decent living, but I need to make more
If I ever want to get beyond a foot in the door
If I was more of a man than a mouse
I might not end up living in the poor house

It’s oh so frustratin’
I think that we’re datin’
But she says “we’re just friends”
Then off she goes in her Mercedes Benz

And I drive a Ford and I can’t afford
To buy her things when she’s feeling bored
My billfold’s empty and my credit is maxed
Now I know why it’s called a luxury tax

It’s getting chaotic
This drama episodic
And I just want to flee
So here I go on one, two, three…

Four, five, I’m still here
I have to be near her
I guess I’m just a sap
A puppy lying in her Vera Wang lap

I’m just a dollar short
I’m just a dollar short
I’m just a dollar short
I’m just a dollar short

Dollar Short

A tribute to my home state, ten years after I had left it; music and arrangement influenced by Texas Tornados

MUSICIANS
Dave Turnbow - guitar, bass, vocals
Fred Shepard - lead guitar
Pete Rubens - accordion
Pete Kassal - drums, background vocals

Music and Lyrics by David Michael Turnbow

LYRICS
I left Planet Texas in a beat-up pickup truck
I had heard all about the great U.S. of A.
I made it to Tennessee; I took off my hat, but it was taken from me
So I haven’t shed my boots since that day

Well, that pickup truck broke down outside Nashville,
So through the land of Opry I did stride
With no way to get home, I knew I’d never see that Dome again
Just then, a mule named Garth offered me a ride

When I can’t sleep, I count jumpin’ armadillos
When I can’t think, I make myself a big bowl of chili
When dancin’ is what I need, a dose of Carrasco is guaranteed to please
And when I need to cry, I fire up some Willie

On lonely nights, my mind slips back to Waco (Laredo)
That’s where I last saw my pretty señorita
She ran off with a balladeer named Marty, or so I hear
To her memory, I raise my margarita

The Venerable Beads

Planet Texas

A good excuse for a slow A-minor jam, avec guitar solo

MUSICIANS
Dave Turnbow - vocals, guitar, guitar solo
Fred Shepard - guitar, background vocals
Pete Rubens - bass
Pete Kassal - drums, background vocals

LYRICS
You know, it seems like such a long time ago
Since I climbed on the board and dived in
Floatin’ on the feeling that it gave me
Till I started to sink, forgot how to swim

Socrates said unto Plato,
“What man knows ain’t worth knowin’ at all”
Stretched my mind like a ball of Play-Doh
Thin to a thread all through my head

I’m gonna cash in my chips
While I still got some chips left to cash

Once had the world in my hands
And then the world turned into sand
Now it’s all slippin’ through my fingers
Not so sure, but the memory lingers

I’m gonna cash in my chips
While I still got some chips left to cash
I’m gonna cash in those chips
While I still got some chips left to cash

Cash In My Chips

Third of 3 from the V Beads' EP... when the muse is over

MUSICIANS
Dave Turnbow - vocals, guitar
Sean Jensen - bass, background vocals
Pete Kassal - drums, background vocals

LYRICS
Appearing as a light
A beacon when I’ve had too much to think
She guides me through the night
Quells my deepest fear with a wink
She bids me not to weep
Lays my head against her perfumed breast
She lulls me lovingly
Caresses sculling me to needed rest

She makes my life alive
Animates my soul
A zombie no more

Misty is her flight
A vapor into nothingness
Distant, out of sight
She disappears with my duress
I dwell upon a tear
Taste the sweet and bitterless
The essence she confides
A gift too dear to be possessed

She lifts me from myself
And into something else
A mortal no more

Life Alive

And now... a moo-ment of zen, courtesy of "Big Cow Blues"...

MUSICIANS
Dave Turnbow - vocals, guitar

Pastoral Sorbet

An updated version of this uptempo instrumental

Go Chase

An instrumental version of a song originally written for Pong (Austin TX band)... 

Buy and Buy

Touch

I Am Wrong

A spiky trek in rondo form, containing a hint of cha-cha

Yella

Meccanik Char Char

Meccanik Funk

Mellow instrumental
Music by David Michael Turnbow

remixed recording from 1986, with Fred Shepard (lead guitar)

First of May

Written as Opening credits music for a western movie

Ballad of Joe Theme

A moment of self-awareness when time is running out. A song of the past, from my past.

Instruments recorded long ago on 4-track cassette; vocals re-recorded August 2025

Music and Lyrics by David Michael Turnbow

LYRICS
Horizontal rays of crimson disappear
And a breeze blows dust into my calloused mouth
And now, a visage like one I’ve never seen
A feeling, an image, a force
I know I’ll never live down

Head too woozy, I slip off my steed
Weak and wounded, steeped in scarlet’s rage
I stumble, bleeding, within and without
No clot can stop, no fear can steer me clear
Of where I now must go

My hemorrhaged past has caught up with me
I bite the bullet I should have bit long ago
Propped up against a boulder, my tombstone
“It’s over,” I mumble to myself
And to the great unknown

Here they come at last: my only friends
Word spreads fast; they’re decked in funeral black
Call me Buzzardbait, the Wayward Carrion
The sun pours down its heat, but me… 
Me, I don’t feel a thing

Borderline

Last Piece of Jerky

Ancient serendipity using a Fairlight synthesizer. My John Cage experiment with some xenochrony

ZapCage

ZapCage (1991)

A collab featuring the fantastic guitar playing of Paul Hartshorn https://soundcloud.com/onefingermusic. 

Rhythm tracks and vocal used (in part) for the collab https://soundcloud.com/nostrumuva/settle-in by Echodust, Jimmy The Mule, Dave Turnbow, NOSTRUMUVA, Flying Kiwis and Brendan Dempsey

Dave Turnbow - vocals, rhythm baritone guitar, fretless bass
Paul Hartshorn (OneFingerMusic) - all other guitars

Music and Lyrics by David Michael Turnbow
©2025 All Rights Reserved

LYRICS
Our past is gone: poof, no goodbye 
The last line drawn: truth, knowing why
What dreams we had; quaint, large and small
What seemed so bad ain’t far at all

Our future's found: four circles deep
Come slosh around; more misery reaped
What woes occurred: cursed, fate foreseen
What does the word "worst" even mean? 

A fitting gloom: stark, rank and sour
A fetid tomb: dark, dank and dour
We should have known how ends begin
This is our home now; settle in
Settle in

Circle Four

Circle Four (feat. Paul Hartshorn (OneFingerMusic))

And I'm glad she did!

Music and Lyrics by David Michael Turnbow

LYRICS
She found me mired in a mess
My life was drowning in distress
She saw a diamond in a lump of coal
I tried to tell her “No. Go away. I’m a toxic soul”

I fought hard; she was standing strong
And soon, she convinced me I was wrong
Still can’t believe that it was me she picked
Still expecting she’ll wake up and feel she had been tricked

I’m hers now: body, heart and head
To me, she’s all things A to Zed
I never thought that love could bring such glee
There’s no one in the world who could mean more to me than she

She Found Me

Sleeping Ghost

A derivative work of the (4-voice) L'homme armé mass by Palestrina, to make it less directional. IIRC, I took away the accidentals and shifted a few things around.

L'homme castré

Part 1 of a  four-part exploration, performed via Roland GR-33 guitar synth.

Bells, Pt. 1

Part 2 of a four-part exploration, performed via Roland GR-33 guitar synth.

Bells, Pt. 2

Part 3 of a four-part exploration, performed via Roland GR-33 guitar synth.

Bells, Pt. 3

Part 4 of a four-part exploration, performed via Roland GR-33 guitar synth.

Bells, Pt. 4

Pop and Ambient/Instrumental works.

I'm a home studio composer/songwriter/musician with poor self-marketing skills and no allegiance to a style/scene. In an earlier age, I played live music (guitar, bass, vocals) with various originals bands... but I've always been much more interested in writing+recording (or jamming with talented musicians) than playing for an audience.

I'd describe the majority of my vocal music as pop (in various subgenres) with interesting lyrics, mostly performed by myself with a few instruments+microphones and some software. I also have quite a few instrumentals (adapted chamber music, soundtrack etc) that I'll be posting.

Occasionally, I also play bass in a band that plays some of my songs, as well as a lot of Grateful Dead: https://soundcloud.com/savage-gulf

Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoy it! Play away, and leave a comment to start a discussion; likes and reposts are also appreciated :-)

NOTE: Lyrics reading have been moved to a separate profile: https://soundcloud.com/user-647643083... Read by Luci Christian, Patricia Duran, Adam Gibbs, Andrew Love, Monica Rial and John Swasey

Dave Turnbow

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