Words and Music by Roger Whittlesey. All sounds made by Roger Whittlesey except:
Guitar by John Mason.
Some background vocals by Christy Bluhm.
Click here to watch the music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_8XsJy9lJg

Sunshine

Someone trying to make a better life for themselves with a new start in another city.

Only One Direction

Primitive

Waves

Come my love, don't dwell upon the things that we have lost
Pride and passion, honour, love, sought at such a cost
We never did understand the twisting of the ways
It will serve us best to lift our heads and think of better days

Base Photograph for cover art by Anna Gru on Unsplash

Better Days

Another jam over one of Sebastien Zuninos cool backing tracks, thank you Sebastien for allowing me to take your backing tracks and add my DNA.

https://sebastienzunino.bandcamp.com/

Cloudy Skies

lyrics, vocals, mixing by Tam Jennifer, on synthetic guitar loop (anon.) Two loops have been chopped up, arranged and mixed in with the vocals to accent emotion. 

Indie experimental trap. 

Vocals recorded and mixed using Audacity and RODE USB Mini Microphone

FOR MY MOTHER

Cover generated using Stable-Diffusion.. design by Tam Jennifer. 

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I originally recorded a version of this song just two months after she died. Here is the original. 

Listen to Mother mother (DEMO 20191118) by Tam Jennifer Music on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/r6jbs

Where Did She Go ( I Wanna Know, 2022 )

SynthStrange

Back at my acoustic piano for my new song here! 😊🎹
Thank you so much to my lovely Sander for another gorgeous mastering job. @wane-of-summer 😊🎶❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

PERFECT SENSE (acoustic piano & vocals)

(Free WAV Download available here under '••• More'; and eventually, as part of a future solo album)

Greetings my friends. I admit up front, this is a strange write-up… culminating from years of trying to navigate a world that no longer makes sense to me. And maybe that’s a good thing. We all needed a wake up call to just how ineffective and unsustainable it all is? And the last few years have provided examples of that… in abundance. 

Speaking of abundance (or in this case, lack thereof), Cheer and I have been discussing this one a lot lately; specifically in regards to the shops and restaurants we frequent. I finally gave up on building a DIY, music-centric desk I designed, because none of the local hardware stores had enough of the pieces in stock. We’ve watched our favorite Romaine lettuce disappear from the shelves, to be replaced by something half the size and twice the cost. Several of our favorite restaurants have closed permanently, and the wait times at others is painfully long now. 

Apparently, shop and restaurant owners can’t get anybody to work for $15/hr when it costs $30/hr to afford rent and groceries now. (How could we have ever predicted or prevented that? One might speculate.)

It’s enough to make the average mind go a little panicky. “Why don’t you have that in stock?”, ‘Why did the price on this just double overnight?”, “Why have we been waiting for 20 minutes just for the menus?”. All of these are very real, and very concerning… specifically if we never stop to question how much of that thinking is the result of being programmed to think like consumers our whole lives.

How often have you heard a commercial say something along the lines of “You deserve this because you are worth it.” Or “You should fear this. And our product/service can protect you.” Or “You should take this prescription, despite the list of side effects being longer than the list of benefits.”

I suggest we ask ourselves ‘Am I thinking with the mind of a consumer right now?’, and then be very willing to let those developing thoughts roll around in our heads for a while. 

Cheer and I concluded (with minor alarm) that we are both profoundly brainwashed by ‘consumer’ thinking; and it shows every time we feel a sense of panic in the store. Sure, things are a bit more scarce than they were 5 years ago… but does anyone (old enough) remember 30 years ago, when the stores contained half of what they offer now? (And none of us were freaking out over a lack of choices then). How about a time when you couldn’t have something shipped to your door overnight (many of us can still remember a time when 6-8 weeks was a decent shipping window).

Maybe the path to changing this paradigm is for us to get out of that ‘consumer’ thinking, and focus more on a ‘grateful for all the amazing things we have’ kind of thinking. I can still go to the store and choose from an abundance of fruits and vegetables, a teetering display of chips and dips, a bevy of beers from around the world. There are still more choices than my simple brain truly wants to think through, even if they are sold out of the Smoked Salmon and Ketchup flavored Cheetos I was specifically looking for.

So my plan going forward is to TASER myself (at least psychologically) every time I catch my brain being consumery. And the goal is to reach a point where I’m not thinking “It’s not fair my favorite restaurant closed.”, but instead thinking “How cool is it that I had that experience; and got to support the family that owned and worked that restaurant.” 

We’ve reached some critical tipping points that are well on their way to determining our future; and I believe a healthy attitude (dipped in gratitude) is the thing that’s going to keep us from gnawing each other’s faces off over the long haul. Them’s my weird thoughts for the day. Take em with a grain of salt (assuming the store carries the brand you like). I hope you enjoy my latest musical offering, ‘I’ll See It When I Believe It”. :)

WTF! The Musical

I'll See It When I Believe It

beat, backing track - IPG1 aka Ian Greaves (Lou Osiavo)
flute, final mix _joerxworx
You can visit this talented artist: https://soundcloud.com/joerxworx

Where Did She Go ( I Wanna Know, 2022 )

Ben - Tam Jennifer