Set the Roses on the table

This is my second try working with a microphone and recording in a DAW, first time recording piano.
Started writing this song a while ago but am trying to finish this one up as part of FAWM. There's a few elements that I am not happy with yet but also several that I love. Trying to figure out how to fix the stuff I don't like

Hollow Dance

Verse 1:
I fell for those eyes, deep and blue, Thought I found love, something true. We laughed and danced till the world spun round, It was just me standing, heart on th’ ground.
Pre-Chorus:
Your touch was warm, your smile a flame, But love was a game you never named. I was singing my heart out, a one-girl show, While you kept quiet, just watching the glow.
Chorus:
Ohh-ohh, it was a hollow dance, Ohh-ohh, just an empty chance. Ohh-ohh, I spun, I swayed, But you just stayed, you just stayed. Ohh-ohh, it was a hollow dance. hollow dance. 
Verse 2:
The rides at midnight ended too soon, Your promised whispers (under a) silver moon. I poured my love like rain in the drought, But your silence was louder, no doubt.
Pre-Chorus:
You held my hand but didn’t hold on, A lighthouse beaming, but never drawn. I reached out, felt the rush, felt the rain, But touching you always came with pain.
Chorus:
Ohh-ohh, it was a hollow dance, Ohh-ohh, just an empty chance. Ohh-ohh, I spun, I swayed, But you just stayed, you just stayed. Ohh-ohh, it was a hollow dance. hollow dance. 
Bridge:
A fire that only warmed my side, A book half-written, pages denied. I wished on stars that fell too fast, Dreams built on moments that couldn’t last.
Chorus:
Ohh-ohh, it was a hollow dance, Ohh-ohh, just an empty chance. Ohh-ohh, I spun, I swayed, But you just stayed, you just stayed. Ohh-ohh, it was a hollow dance. hollow dance. 
Outro:
Yeah, I spun, I swayed, But you just stayed. In a hollow dance, I stayed.

Hollow Dance (Worktape)

Burning out

Best Song I've Ever Written

Track made for the Melodics Beatmaker Bootcamp 2025 while also doing during FAWM 2025. My spin on a very familiar melody.

Twinkle

 One of the themes that recurs for me in music and in life is that true love is worth the hard work.I wrote this song during February Album Writing Month for Becky Warren's SongSideKick Song Circle. Thank you to Wobbie Wobbit for mixing it for me.

Somewhere Warm Again With Me
Nancy Cunningham

It’s February, and I’m tired of the slushy sidewalks
February,  I’m tired of the bitter cold

Would you go somewhere warm again with me
 Somewhere that you’d still like to see
How long can this last
 I’m almost scared to ask
Could you go somewhere warm again with me

If you wanted, we could both get off our islands
We could thaw out, maybe make something to eat

Would you go somewhere warm again with me
 Somewhere you’d still like to be
How long can this last
Am  I too scared to ask
Could you go somewhere warm again with me

I know I froze you out for a couple seasons
Silent nights, rehashing all my reasons

But would you go somewhere warm again with me
Somewhere where we both still long to be
How long can we last
If we stay too scared to ask
Will you go somewhere warm again with me

In the car or at the table, in the bedroom by and by
Let's find a way, let's turn back on the sun

Would you go somewhere warm again with me?
Would you go somewhere warm 
Could you come somewhere warm again with me?

Somewhere Warm Again With Me

I was trying to go for an indie song when I initially worked on this and then the next few days were hell and I came back to this and made it blues, while trying to also steal a little from that sort of british invasion folk scene like Sweet Lady Jane, or whatever it's called. But yeah, seeing weird creatures in the woods is just something my mind jumps to by default. Romancing them as well, for some reason. Let's not peel back that too much. Anyway, I wonder how many dudes eaten by ghosts and sirens were deadbeats. I know in Nicaragua or Guatemala there's at least one water-witch with cheaters as her preferred victim. I think after FAWM is done I'll finally pick up that guitar so I can learn indie chords and stuff.

Cow-Tailed Witch

This is a thought my brain goes to an unnatural amount is the idea of pest moths just vibing while the outdoors may be hostile. The savage, cold air would immediately bring them down all at once.
I figured I'd made some sad, angsty tune about it. There's the germ of an idea for it. Maybe the concept would be better to some winter synth, but I really just know my banjo.
That or focus on eating dumplings while feeling sad. I could go for a pierogi...

Cold Dumplings Light Pollution

Just was thinking about late into the fall where a couple plants stubbornly hold on while others go woody and dry. A miniature orchard of dead basil plants.

I was initially going to be a little more ambitious with the art for this one, but as it was the final picture to do and I kept getting distracted, well ya know? It was my goal for every song to have a piece of visual art. Some was rushed and others done well after I finished fawm. February sucked and my mom's death left me feeling like a machine for a solid month at least. Simultaneously, art was the only thing keeping my brain running a little more sane. I had to do those last few songs.

Paper Gardens

I really rushed this one out due to a combination of respecting peoples' sleeping schedules paired up with these next few days being really rough. Music keeps me sanity in equilibrium, so tossing licks to the wind with ten minutes to go I just rushed it out.
Anyway, it's a song from the perspective of a tapeworm. I only partially kept it vague cause my partner is eating in the same room.
G tuning, capo'd to B-flat.
Lyrics

Chorus:
A proglottid, you just can't stop it,
when I wanna have my mac and cheese.

Can I pick your brain yet,
There ain't much to find here.
But I wanna stare right through your eyes and maybe chart my height.
Chorus
You're so hungry, and dark inside,
But in the Kingdom of the Blind,
I'm truly doing fine.
Oh, that sunshine,
I hate that sunshine.
Please don't ever, bring me forth.
Just keep feeding me all the pork cutlets.
Please don't take the darkness away.
A proglottid, you just can't stop us.

Proglottid Pal

#banjo #acousticonetake
This has been an awful month and music has been one of my outlets for feeling normal. It doesn't make the music easier though. I worked on 3 or 4 other ideas today, just sitting at my PC and strumming.
Then I remembered a folk-punk type of song I was trying to put together within the first few days of FAWM and shelved.
It's truly not folk-punky enough or at all. I will I could do my favorite genre with more ease, but whatever. It's been great doing FAWM with all of you. I suppose now I can just scroll and praise other peoples' songs. Thinking March is when I finally try picking up a bit of guitar.

Update: I spent about 10 minutes practicing guitar and later bought an electric bass I keep neglecting. Tbf, it can take some insane dedication for me to fit in an hour of banjo daily. Especially when pulling a lot of OT. Well, it's in the title.

Pulling A Lot of Shifts Song

Once upon a time, I wrote music and played in Bellingham Washington--in the 90's coffee shops, or busking at the park. Then I joined a cult (whoops) and was kidnapped by a beast who ruined the album I was working on with white boy beat boxing to "surprise me." Surprise! It took me decades to afford the time and the equipment to start over again. Oh well. Every superhero needs an origin story, and that's mine.

I recorded these songs during FAWM 2025, intending to share them only with my grown children. But, you know, plans change. Here I am. Here this is. My words, pulled gaily (never straight) from Cerridwyn's Cauldron, flung into the wind like a spell. 

Let the Green Lady return and claim her kingdom.

Eustace

Struggling Free

The Death of Queen Jane

Despite the Rain

The Green Lady's Instructions

Five Leaves

The Solitary Crone

The Green Lady and the Hoya

Singer-song writer, acoustic guitar, enchanting voice, Nordic, folky sounds. 
originals and covers.

I write songs with people and on my own.  I love the way a song can light a match and illuminate a story or a feeling or a character. I'm especially drawn to Americana and Country.

I spend every February writing at fawm.org (February Album Writing Month). It's a great place to hang out if you've ever wanted to sing, play, write, compose, listen, or discuss music. You can find me there as nancycunning.

 I've gotten to write with friends in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington Wisconsin, as well as Canada, France, England, Finland, Germany, and Peru.

I am a singer-songwriter, poet and artist from sunny South-Africa.

I know why a raven is like a writing desk, and why it said "Nevermore."

New tracks tagged #FAWM