I wrote this song for my daughter. 

Heaven Blessed

A confident woman for all to see
Taking on life, so easily
She’s the kind of person, I’d like to be
Thoughtful and kind, a little wild and free

Now, rumour has it, she was born this way
Came to the game, ready to play
And she’s winning hearts, along the way
This raven-haired beauty, does what she may

Can you see who she really is?
Love’s her target and she can’t miss
Puts God and dogs at the top of her list  
The kind of girl who’s heaven blessed

Tough as nails, but as soft as love
She doesn’t suffer fools no, g’head pack your stuff
A beautiful soul who’s pure and true
A better friend, I never knew

Can you see who she really is?
Love’s her target and she can’t miss
Puts God and dogs at the top of her list      
The kind of girl who’s heaven blessed

	Like a wild horse that you can’t tame
	To break her spirit would be a shame
	Let her be her that’s why she came
	A divine gift I can’t explain

Can you see who she really is?
Love’s her target and she can’t miss
Puts “must love dogs” at the top of her list       
The kind of girl who’s heaven blessed (repeat)

Cover Art: Wolf, Todd J McLean

All rights reserved

Heaven Blessed

It's a special honor that my dear friend Michele Ansani asked me if I would like to work on a song he wrote years ago called 'Alla Fine della Fine delle Fini' (To the end of the end of the ends) which is a great track. When I listened to it I said to Michele that I thought the song is already finished and asked what I supposedly could do with it. He said, that he wasn't going to publish it and wanted me to work on the root idea of the song to create something new.  Thank you so much Michele for being so generous to leave the basic song idea to my purposes (all flaws are mine).

Listen to his wonderful music here, you all know him anyway: https://soundcloud.com/michele-ansani

Michele Ansani: Seed idea
Me: Instruments, vocals, lyrics, arrangement.

Photograph from the top of Half Dome, Yosemite NP, CA, USA by A. Besinger  2022

One day I walked the shores of time
Wiping away the footprints left behind

Tossing stones into the sea  
Just to watch the ripples making their way back to me  

What if these dancing rings were just memories
Would they come to life once more to set me free?


Abandoned this place that I called home ￼
and took that boat I was hiding for so long 

Facing the storms, past the sirens song
The love of gods in mind may have led me wrong

Set course to the end of the end of the ends
So when you step off the edge of the world 
Make sure that your wings are spread 

When I stepped through the gates of Plutonion
Caught between Scylla and Charybdis I would be found

Sacrificed the ones to whom I belonged
A wise man would rather be envied than being wronged

Set course to the end of the end of the ends
So when you step off the edge of the world 
Make sure that your wings are spread 

Set course to the end of the end of the ends
So when you step off the edge of the world 
Make sure that your wings are spread

Off the Edge of the World (with Michele Ansani)

❤️❤️ Thank You so much for over 2000 plays! ❤️❤️

Little improvisation made after watching Fracture Sounds "Hemisphere" trailer and turned into track. The ad set the emotional state and choice of instruments. NO A.I. INVOLVED!

What I played sounded so melancholic that it reminded me of the thoughts I had while walking with my wife. Every playground we passed was empty. It contrasted with times when our son was little - finding a free swing for a toddler bordered on a miracle. Now it's a miracle to see children swinging on them. Could the "Universe 25" experiment have predicted everything that is happening now?

I played it in one take, then did some editing and added cello, harmonics, bass and ambient sounds. I used only three instruments: two from free Spitfire LABS libraries: Ambient Guitars and Cello Moods. Bass is sub patch from Native Instruments Massive.
I used one sample from the BBC Sound Effects library: Children: Playing - Fushun: Children playing in snow.

The genotype of this song definitely includes two of my favorite This Mortal Coil songs, "The Jeweller" and "Tarantula".

I secretly hope that You may like it. Let me know in the comments what You think about the music and what lies in its heart.

Thanks go to my testdriver kavvka ••ꝁ𐌰v̷̷v̷̷ꝁ𐌰•• @grzegorzkawka who always gives me courage and accurately points out the elements that need improvement.

Picture from Pexels by Robin McPherson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-metal-swing-908970/

A Miracle I'd Like to See

A song from 'way back when' newly recorded for Valentine's Day.

Words & Music - Graham Williams
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar & Bass - Graham Williams
Percussion & Strings - Cubase

Artwork inspired by Keith Haring.

Another Love Song

One theme , 4 different versions. With the huge help from my mate Wonder Georg !

The 4 Colors Pen w/ Georg Boehme

A song for us all

@rick-4-1 on Drums
@phil-mcwalter on The Other Stuff

Do You Know What I Mean

D' Ya Know What I Mean? - [revisited]

Sounds odd but I think I more or less agree with these lyrics. The "purpose" of life or for that matter anything is subject to interpretation. However i do think we spend far too much time and energy searching for a reason or purpose when one probably does not exist. Life is a wonderful accident. This distraction of searching for "meaning" distracts us I think from the practical task at hand: caring for each other and the planet.

lyrics
I walked through the woods on a sunny day
nothing on my mind to get in the way
I looked to my left,I looked to my right
I looked straight up at the sky so bright
when I stumbled uopn something hard to explain
6 big trees in a circle so perfect
there HAD to be a reason
There HaAd to be a purpose
who could have done such a wonderous thing
Deep in the woods away from everything

As I left the trees and walked along
my eyes now firmly fixed on the ground
I didn't look left, I didn't look right
my ears had gone deaf,my eyes had gone blind
my mind was too full
my thoughts too profound
a circle? why a circle?
so perfectly round
what was the purpose?
A reason MUST be found

I kept walking with those trees on my mind
to my surprise what did I find
a big empty field of broken swords and shields
piles of bones of horses and men
a glorious battle here must have been
I saw 2 banners, one red and one blue
facing each other as the cold winds blew
one bright and proud of this I was sure
but now dull and tattered,ripped and torn
each of them stained with the blod of the other
I wonder who won this epic struggle

I picked up a skull and looked into the eyes
and started at the empty space inside
why did you fight? why did you die?
where is your gold? where ids your glory?
Is there no one left to ell your story?
what was the cause? what was the purpose? it must have been great to cause such carnage
but the forest was silent I heard no answer
there was no reason why
I thought of the circle I thought of the skull
so I left the clearing  with a step that was light
I looked to my left I looked to my right
I looked straight up at the sky so bright

we work too hard sometimes it seems 
to give a purpose to everything we see
and no longer have to ask mysellf why?
now I can look up at the sky

the circle and the skull ( are we kidding ourselves??)

I'm glad to present my second collab with Mathieu Torres - who added his brilliant guitar.
Definitely hot spice ! :-) https://soundcloud.com/mathieutorresworks

Fragments / feat. Mathieu Torres

What did you make with

Cover Art: Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm (right), portrayed by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1855) PD-US
Music and Lyrics Copyright 2025 Joe Stroffolino

Hansel and Gretel were abandoned by their parents in the forest all alone.
They stumbled across a delicious looking candy-coated home.  A cannibalistic witch captured them and put them in a cage. Those were the kind of stories they used to tell children at a young age.

The brothers Grim told stories that were a reflection of their time
There was disease famine and poverty and things were not going fine 
We had to sanitize the stories because our modern stomachs are weak
And you’ll get in trouble if you read a book to kids, and it makes them shriek

Three little pigs were in a brick house trying really hard to survive 
The big bad wolf came down the chimney, fell in a pot of water and was boiled alive.
Cinderella’s stepsisters wanted to marry the prince, but they couldn’t fit into her shoes so they chopped off their heels and toes because they had so much to lose 

The brothers Grim told stories that were a reflection of their time
There was disease famine and poverty, and things were not going fine 
Little Red Riding Hood in the bedroom with a wolf dressed in human clothes.
Wondering why her grandmother had sharp teeth and a snout instead of a nose. Jack climbed the beanstalk, there was a giant who wanted to grind up his bones and make some bread. He stole the magic harp and the hen that laid golden eggs and the giant ended up dead

There’s days when you want to take a sheet of tin foil and stick it in your baseball cap
To keep all those negative thoughts from getting in your head and making you a miserable chap
Did it all start when you were a child, and your mother read you that bed time story that perhaps in retrospect may have been a bit too dark and gory

The brothers Grim told stories that were a reflection of their time
There was disease famine and poverty and things were not going fine 
Now we environmental devastation, nuclear weapons and milk that might have bird flu
Just turn on the news you don’t need a fairy tale to put the fear of God in you
But if you take away all the parts that are dark, sick twisted and gory. 
Do you have anything left that actually resembles a good story.
***
Vocals and backing vocals -  Joe Stroffolino 
Guitars - Joe Stroffolino ( 2 Strumming tracks: Taylor 114ce and Fender Squire and I picking track:Taylor114ce)
Bass, Saxophone, Horns: PG Music Real tracks
Piano andi Strings: PG Music and Native Instruments
Drums: EZ drummer 3
Recorded, mixed and mastered with Logic Pro 11

The Brothers Grim

Philou

!!!HOT NEWS!!! New Valuable Friends vinyl album and CD available! See link below. Pre-order now for release on 12th Aug! (Release has had to be moved back from 7th due to unprecedented demand!)

Composer/Guitarist/Producer

Songs: We find them unpainted in our hands, throw them up into the air of our imagination, turning them in the colours we see after we close our eyes until they feel just right, and sometimes we catch them perfectly, without blemishing them...

My music is on most platforms for your ease.

Wow!!  417K+ plays and 4,000+ valued followers and friends on SC alone, that provide lots of wonderfully helpful comments that fuel the next track! Really big thanks to the SC community for listening and providing such brilliant feedback and support. It means so much to myself and my collaborators - huge thanks.

I work in different styles, as the inspiration, dreams or bubonic plagiarism comes! I use Logic Pro X on Mac.
 
I write, produce and play all my own stuff (unless otherwise stated), play vintage Tokai Strats mainly, PRS Torero, Steinberger, Gretsch G2627T, Classical, Fender Dreadnought, Yamaha and Rickenbacker basses, keyboards and sax. I use Native Instrument's Komplete, Omnisphere 2 and my own organic samples.

I mix on Sennheiser HD 280 Pro's and HD 650's (closed and open headphones) when not making a bigger noise through my Yamaha HS8 studio monitors. I use Focusrite Clarett 2Pre ThunderBolt and Apogee audio interfaces, Neumann & iSK condenser & AKG dynamic mics. 

Hardware: Feb 1978 Marshall JMP 50W Combo, BOO & BOSS stomps

I love collaborating with other musicians and will compose with, play guitar for, produce, arrange, master or even just hum along with other SC musicians. Please ask!

P.S. I am a long standing member of the Performing Rights Society and PPL through my old TV and theatre work as well as my record and publishing deals.

D' Ya Know What I Mean? - [revisited]

Phil McWalter