how can it have taken 5 mos to be here listening? Shirley this is *incredible*

this beautiful song reminds me of Joni Mitchell, and your melody fits very well with your friend's poetry

cool song Shirley...fab job on the harmonies

A beautiful poem, so deftly sung, I love the lightness of touch in the vocal delivery.

Drums: David Lopez
All other instruments: Sam Reaver

Stock crash middle class 
Counterfeit crime of a century
Cutthroat don’t choke
Better him than you on the brink

Cool breeze charismatic
Grave robbing scam of a century
Drill baby thrill baby
Burning up an Anthropocene

It’s been a long time since I lost my mind in a symphony
It’s been a long time since I realized I couldn’t relate
I’ve been craning my neck trying to see if there’s a sign that was meant for me I said it’s been a long time since I lost my mind in a symphony

Bring it back

Pill-poppin priest talkin trash 
Through the crash of a century
Blind luck dumb fuck 
Jamming up the waves on my scene

Flip top shock jock 
Certified creep of a century
I see you don’t know how to read
But you write like you know what it means

It’s been a long time since I lost my mind in a symphony
It’s been a long time since I realized I couldn’t relate
I’ve been craning my neck trying to see if there’s a sign that was meant for me. I said it’s been a long time since I lost my mind in a symphony

Bring it back

Lost in a Symphony

Hey… thanks for dropping by. This is a simple Blues song. Songs, such as this, happen when I find myself in a songwriting slump. Lack of inspiration and ideas exacerbate the situation, pushing me back to the Blues. I grumpily relent then wallah, a song. And what better Blues theme than relationships? Seems I mine that gold often, which maybe says more about me than I’d like to reveal. But who cares? It’s the Blues. Here, Winter will not let go. Bitter, unrelenting winds, near horizontal snowfall, and minus 18F tonight. I looked outside this morning and a rabbit was waiting by the front door for me to put some carrots out. All the birds were hunkered down in thick pines, except for some ravens scavenging the neighborhood. There were some high flying geese as well, that flew by. They always seem to panic in the frigid weather. It almost sounds like they’re honking… ‘let’s get outta here.’ I don’t blame them. The deer are more wary now for some reason, and I only see their frozen tracks and fresh tree/sapling rubbings. I wrapped a couple trees to protect them, buried others in snow, but left 4 where they had scraped the bark bare. I will probably have to cut those trees down, but will wait to see if they survive. After getting some garden carrots for the rabbit, I decided to shovel some snow and work on my ice beard. It was cold enough today that condensation from my breath froze on my beard. They have an ice beard competition here and post pics of the best ones. There are some maniacs who stay out in the cold to ‘grow’ solid ice beards, and a chance at winning. Some have icicles hanging off their chin. No cheating with pouring water on your beard. Just having snow blowing into your beard along with some condensation from breathing. I let my face thaw out, when I came inside. Later in the afternoon… I walked down the the mailbox in the wind and there were tiny little horizontal icicles on the latch. I had to walk around a semi truck, completely blocking the road. The truck driver tried to turn onto our street and got stuck in a deep snowdrift. A neighbor came down and pulled the semi out with his tractor. I watched for a bit, then headed home. So now I am glad I am inside. Take care, Mark

Lammbone's Album

Wrong Turn Blues

Acoustic guitar driven track with three part harmony and current, newsworthy lyrics

NoWhere Ok

Groovin The Moves - Remastered

RISING

collaboration with Noxpox,Vox Jaya.Check out noxpox (page 12) on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/hQNUK

Punkys Drop Out-Noxpox

When my songwriting friend Colin Macduff (find his beautiful debut album 'The Past and the Sky" here: https://www.birnamcdshop.com/product/colin-macduff/) shared his poem 'The Rope', I asked if he'd mind if I tried to put a melody to it.

I did. This is the demo version which I'm hoping to record in a studio soon. There's an accompanying video created with footage from my phone: https://studio.youtube.com/video/yhxZxWGo0wY/edit


The Rope

Coiled, crossed, entangled in a corner
Old and wise and silent, silent as a snake
Left aside beside the new, unwanted
You dream of hands, the touch, their grip, their shape

Once you ran the span and moored our vessels
Safe between the capstan, the capstan and the quay
Once you were the rope that held us steady
Once you were the rope that cast us free

The push the pull, the swing, lasso and ladder
The tug of war when we were in our teens
The give, the take, that bound us all together
The start, the end, the knot, the way and means

Life line, last line, frayed and poorly
In my hand your strands so soft, soft and slack
In my dreams you’re running on beside me
With me all the long way – the long way out and back
With me all the long way – the long way out and back

© C Macduff & S Barr 2023

The Rope - Demo

Is anyone still out there?
Well hello there if you are taking some of your valuable time to read this! As the lyrics to this (probably)final song say, its been a long while……
The last time I checked into Soundcloud was maybe last December, wow…. 
I packed up for a holiday in Hawaii, ran the Honolulu Marathon, watched a volcano erupt, cast my dog’s ashes into a lava field and drank a tropical island's worth of cocktails while watching the sunset with my wife. And then returned a few weeks later decidedly unenthused about the Cat and my collaborator.
Gina had been making noises about returning to an on again / off again musical partner. That wasn’t unexpected and was actually a bit of a relief as I hadn’t been enjoying this for a while. Our last few songs had been tortuous to finish, including this one which was finally finished I think way back in October 2022.
Cat Came Back was always a lot like an arranged marriage - nothing at all in common but we kind of made it work 3 minutes at a time. But by late last year, it had become very hard work. And as you fellow Soundclouders know, outside of personal satisfaction, the rewards for all of that hard work are not very large. So, if the personal satisfaction is gone, there’s not a lot left to motivate oneself. 
In addition to that, there were a few rather large elephants in the room regarding my collaborator that I won't go into but nevertheless constantly weighed very heavily on my mind throughout our time together and I was finding these increasingly difficult to continue to ignore for the sake of making music together.
So anyway, when I returned a perhaps brief hiatus accidentally turned into this - silence for what, 7-8 months? Haven’t picked up an instrument in all that time and they currently sit in my garage gathering dust. Took up Chess, what a rabbit hole that is! Continued running. Listening as always to a lot of old jazz. Continued seemingly never ending renovations to my house. Spent a lot of time with my lifelong friend, William Styron’s Black Dog, as a matter of fact he's here sitting right by my side now. 
So what now? I sat down a few days back and listened to a few things that were unfinished as of late last year. Maybe its time to start again. Find a new collaborator or two? Anyone know anyone who might be a match?
In the meantime I’ll dip my toe in and check out what some of my favourite Soundclouders have been up to while I was away. I'm sure I've missed out on some really great stuff.

Minor Exotica (Turned To Black)

Enter the mesmerising world of "Mantodea," a musical journey that delves into a future concept of the female species metamorphosing into a captivating Praying Mantis hybrid. In this enthralling narrative, we explore the evolutionary phenomenon where these ethereal beings transcend the boundaries of mere mortals, embracing a newfound prowess, and a captivatingly mysterious existence.

Allow yourself to immerse in the hauntingly harmonies, embodying the strength and grace of the evolved Mantodea. The music's dynamic interplay symbolises the complex dance between these enchanting beings and their male counterparts.
(Thanks Chat GPT !!)

As Vincent Van Gogh once said :-
Thank you for lending me your ear and if you like the sunflowers don't forget to repost, like and follow.

Mantodea

A boat, beneath a sunny sky
 Lingering onward dreamily
  In an evening of July
   Children three, nestled near
     Eager eye and willing ear
      
       Pleased a simple tale to hear
        Long has paled that sumer sky
         Echos fade and memories die
          Autumn frosts have slain July
           Still she haunts me, phantomwise
            Alice moving under skies
             Never seen by waking eyes
              Children yet the tale to hear
               Eager eye and willing ear
                
                Lovingly shall nestle near
                 In a wonderland they lie
                  Dreaming as the days go by 
                   Dreaming as the summers die
                    Ever drifting down the stream
                     Lingering in that Golden Gleam
                      Life, what is it but a dream
    
           Poem by Lewis Carroll
 adapted to music and additional lyrics by Arma Ignifera
a B-Dub production, produced by Herronsound Llc mix update 9/9/2023

08/15/2023

Linger In the Golden Gleam ~ Monaco '66

Huddled in a hallway making secret mindless chatter
A finger that points at you and the giggles that come after
Spreading all the latest news, those Lilliputians
Find their strength in number

Walk towards a noisy room, deathly quiet when you enter
Look across those shallow eyes that turn and smuggly whisper
Wait your turn in line, (I am waiting), but the teller
Shuts his wicket on your number

Had enough of this, small talk
The most useless information
Oh Small talk, making worse my situation
In ignorance grows, way out of control
When you're the last to know

Mutated seeds that snowball down the biggest mountains
Contaminated water flowing from never ending fountains
And it's carried on by all the empty lives
Living someone else's

Had enough of this small talk
The most useless information
Oh, Small talk, making worse my situation
In ignorance grows, way out of control
Had enough of this small talk
The most useless information
Oh, Small talk, making worse the situation
In ignorance grows, way out of control
And you're the last to know

When you're the last to know
Small talk, enough of that, small talk, ya,
Small talk, enough of that, small talk
Small talk, enough of that, small talk

V3.21

Small Talk

Working freelance as the marketing manager for Universal Hall Promotions in Findhorn l was already immersed in live music, but in 2021 I discovered a passion for writing and performing my own songs. Since then I have taught herself to play tenor guitar and shruti box, incorporating these and looped samples to create multi-layered soundtracks for my lyrics. I can often be found out and about with my Zoom recorder, capturing moments in nature to weave into my songwriting.

https://shirleybarr.bandcamp.com/track/hardest-hand

The Rope - Demo

Shirley Barr

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burn-it-smith

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Llanpsych

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