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

Have a listen to my album "Curiosities Of Outsider Art" (Sept 2025). Quirky and interesting tunes.
Thank you for listening!

I try to write with rich lyrical details and self-deprecating humor about the human condition. Plus, that unique Shade Structure sound!  It sounds best with headphones. Thanks for any comments, reposts or likes.

Discography: Available under Album tag on my Soundcloud main page. 
* Curiosities Of Outsider Art (Sept 2025)
*All this Useless Beauty (2025)
*Rockers (2024) 
*Arrhythmia & Blues (2024)
* The Curse Of A Good Looking Ghost (2024)
* Low Profile (2024)
* Smilers (EP 2023)
•Short Songs For Tall Minds"  (2022)
•Friends, They're Gonna Get Your Story Wrong (2021)
•A Suburban Dadaist With Some Store Bought Beats (2021)
•All Feel and No Technique (2020)
•This Is How I Spend My Nights (2019)
•California Songs (2018-2019)

All sounds contained within are home-made/DIY recordings. Most songs are short stories, as I am influenced by Musicians & Writers like Raymond Carver, Warren Zevon, Mountain Goats, Tom Waits, Mark Eitzel,  Randy Newman, Destroyer, Steely Dan, Captain Beefheart, Loudon Wainwright III, Leonard Cohen & The National. Most songs have the lyrics on the song page. Thank you for listening!

Just trying to make sense of the chaos.

Simple, heartfelt songs.

Under Construction
derekfahy32@gmail.com

Some photography provided by Dave Root

https://instagram.com/david__root?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==

If you enjoy our music, please let us know and repost! 
Count on our support as well.

Big thanks to you all!!

Thank you for visiting my Soundcloud page. 
It's great to connect with so many talented musicians here on Soundcloud! On this page you'll find my original songs (including 4 albums) and acoustic guitar instrumentals (including 2 EP's), together with various notes about guitars played, tunings, recording etc.

I am in the process of writing my fifth album which I hope to record at some stage during the autumn and winter months of this year.

Musical influences for me have been many and varied including for example Bert Jansch, John Martyn, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Mark Knopfler, BB King, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Fairport Convention, Paul Simon,  JJ Cale, Eric Clapton, Colin Hay and John Mayer.

Hope you enjoy listening to my music.

Photography: Thanks go to Nigel and Libby Hume at Hume Photography.

Psych sounds, dub vibes and a whole bunch of FX in operation
SoundCloud collabs most welcome. Remixes, guitar bashing, conceptualising (a big word for a guitar player, I know) or whatever you have 😎

Member of the transatlantic music machine that is The Eclectic Collective

Member of Mid-Wales’ premier cheezepunk band The Recursives - watch us get down and boogie!!

https://youtu.be/f0CnN7FsIzM?si=4yCzlCMsylbIjKLx

https://youtu.be/E_tYwc83XPs?si=MjmQbwNeRpNXRhQS


Logo and cover art by Marianne

You may wish to check out my older dub based stuff here 
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/TwJYv9QgWsDdKNvu9

Shirley Barr may be late to the table, but her recently discovered passion for compelling songwriting and performance shows she’s earned her place. Quirky, insightful, and sumptuously layered, she melds beautiful melodies with novel lyrics to create soundscapes that leave you wanting more. Summer 2024 will see the release of her debut EP, Begin Began Begun.

Thanks for visiting. This is a retro eclectic music mix with looming influences from among others Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Lou Reed & Jon Lord. Mostly I write about the human condition.

I am always looking for a guitar player that wants to collaborate. Would be fun to find a real drummer also.

A Gat is a cat in Catalan - it all makes sense if you’re me. The (s) stands for many collaborators.

I encourage everybody on SC to listen more and be less transactional.

.
International Vermin Consortium
.
.
The vermin will outlive your grand children's grand children.
Like Mickey Mouse the vermin is eternal.
: )
Antifa is my cousin.  I heard some people were looking for her.  Since I like to be helpful when I can, she was in Alexandria last time I talked to her, three weeks ago.  I think she mentioned going to Zurich in the near future.
.
...
Is it 1984 already?!?!
...

I have not been able to recover access to my other account [https://soundcloud.com/ha-kekong] for a couple of years.  I have tried a few times to get back into it but SoundCloud doesn't trust me.  Same phone number, same email addresses, and they still claim that they can't verify my identity.  I created that account about three years ago as a substitute to my regular account which SoundCloud temporarily closed.  They closed it as part of some upgrade procedure in their system, the result of a bug that affected many accounts, about two years ago.  Since SC did not inform its users I didn't know if that was permanent or not, so I created that other account which I can't access.  Don't be mad if I have not replied to your message in the past two years, that's because I never got them ; ) ... You can always reach me here though.
...

This one here (957729823) is for regular folks.

I love you, both.

...

You can't see it because of the angle with which I took the shot, aiming down, but beyond those blocks is the sea.  To the left is the Mediterranean, to the right is the Atlantic Ocean.  No it's not Gibraltar, but a little bit further West. ... Actually I checked recently and it is further North more than West, I thought I was facing South when in fact I probably was facing the Atlantic ocean, which is why I suppose the waves were of a decent size where we were.
...

My face and the bike are a courtesy of Joël Vaudreuil
[https://vimeo.com/user8897093]  ... Merci Joe!
I then went ahead and butchered his work with a borrowed helmet.
... Sorry Joe. =(
...

I'm trying to promote what I think is good music, so if you want to help out a bit I'd rather you [like] or [repost] my *playlists* rather than my field recordings, if you don't mind, unless you are a die hard fan of those things. Thank you ; )

I speak French, so if you send me a private message, and that you are a francophone, please write in French, thank you.  ... I mean, you don't absolutely have to, but I would prefer it. 

All my field recordings (except for when I record a person) are public, freely downloadable by anyone who is able to click on the button.  I encourage anyone interested to use them in any way whatsoever, on purpose or accidentally. No need for permissions or credits or any other kind  of administrative maneuvers.
...

Anarchists give me hope.

I'm a big fan of EFF.  Love ya EFF.  (no connection with the above line)
... and of course Richard Stallman and Linux and all the others.  Bless yous.

Now don't be lazy, go find out what it is this "EFF" that I'm talking about.  I'll give you a hint: it has to do with computers.

You have a nice day now.  Hugs & Kisses.

There is so much talent and variety here, and most of the people are pretty cool too. I love being part of this community. Listening to your music and being heard in return is enough.

Still reading? OK I'm gonna muse a bit. It's hard to fully convey how much this forum has meant to me. There are people I've never met that feel very much like old friends -- and in a very real way they are.
If I follow someone I make every effort to listen to and support their efforts. It's certainly not a transactional relationship but I do tend to limit my follows to people who engage in mutual listening and engagement. If you listen and leave a comment I always try to listen to *your* music when responding! If you follow at random without any feedback I hope you get something out of that too... ; )

Hello! I’m a university professor of history who enjoys playing guitar and piano/keyboard, and occasionally composing — unpretentiously, just for fun. I’ve been here for at least 10 years, but only recently have I started using the platform for something other than just external digital storage.
Most of my recordings (made with a KorgD8, Audacity, and more recently Reaper for MIDI and the Spitfire Audio libraries) are entirely homemade and decidedly imperfect. And yet, I think that lately I’ve learned to do something a bit more - and better - also thanks to greater commitment.
My music includes old songs (all written back in the last century; here I’ve only shared the ones I’ve reworked in recent years) as well as both old and new instrumentals — usually in several versions, some of which eventually disappear because they’re simply unlistenable.

Thanks for stopping by and giving something a listen; in the description you’ll often find explanatory notes or translations of the lyrics.
Here I’ve discovered a community of talented musicians and songwriters, and plenty of beautiful music to enjoy. Whenever I like, comment, or repost a track, it’s always the result of attentive listening. For the same reason, I’m not interested in trading empty “likes” without real engagement, and I won’t reply to messages from would-be promoters — follower counts don’t matter to me in the slightest.

Update (2024, September 9). Completed the "AI & (fake) songwriting project". Here: https://soundcloud.com/mick-hansan 

P.S.: A prayer, a humble request to those who publish songs: use the description area to make the lyrics available... This would make listening to them more complete and enjoyable!

I've posted some 'live' homemade performance here: https://www.instagram.com/michele_ansani/