A short demo of a 6/8 rhythm improvisation on a clay drum I made in the 1990s, when I was making and selling a lot of these drums under the name "Earthen Instruments", in Ann Arbor, MI.  This gives you a little taste of what these drums sound like.

Clay Drum demo 1

A second short demo of an improvisation on this clay drum I made in the 1990s.  This one is in 4.

Clay Drum demo 2

A song about boa constrictors that I co-wrote with a six-year-old girl.  This version was recorded during a rehearsal with my former bandmates.  I'm singing and playing cajon and cymbal; the other instruments are bass (Sammy Underwood), beatbox (Matt Honold), Irish flute (Bill Carini), and keyboards (Chantal Thomas). Sammy and Matt also sing harmony on the refrain. I hope you enjoy it!

Boa Constrictors

A song by Trevor Thorpe with additional lyrics by Sammy Underwood and myself, performed live at a house party by "the band in question"  ;^) (we never chose a name, and then some members moved away):  Sammy on flute and vocal, Matt Honold on bass and vocal, Chantal Thomas on keyboards, Bill Carini on Irish flute, and myself on cajon, cymbal, and vocal.  Trevor has a band now called Big Upstate.  You can find them here on soundcloud, on facebook, etc.

My Kin - Live

An old one!  I wrote and recorded this song on a portastudio (4 track cassette) in '85 or '86, around the time this photo was taken.  It features my dear old friend Liz on harmony vocal.  Liz died in 2010.  We used to sing together fairly often, but this is the only recording I have, so it's a special one.  

Things Happen

The original version of Boa Constrictors, co-written and recorded with a six-year-old girl when I was doing music with the kids in an after school program in 1999.  Recorded on 4 track cassette with electric guitar, bass, and drum machine.

Photo credit: "Boa constrictor, Vaňkovka, Brno (2)" by Pavel Ševela. 

Boa Constrictors (original version)

Another one from when I was doing songwriting with the kids in the after school program in the late '90s.  This boy was about 7, and, with my help, he wrote this awesome rap about growing lettuce and did a great job recording it.  I'm thinking about remixing and mastering all these recordings and putting out a CD.

Jacob's Lettuce Rap

One more of these original songs co-written with young kids.  This one is a rocker about Matt's remote control race car.  My good friend Randy Herman rocked out on the piano on this track (Randy has a recent record out: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RandyHerman).  Matt left it to me to sing it; I hope it did it justice.  
Maybe by sometime this fall I'll have a CD out of all these original kids' songs.  Keep an eye on my facebook page for the word on that and other stuff: https://www.facebook.com/luthipoeticmusicographyartworksbytoddrose  

Matt's Car

A very sweet lullaby written by my friend John Shaw.  Played on a ukulele I've just finished making, a new one of the "brave new uke" design.  Recorded in my bedroom on a Zoom H2, no fancy mics or signal processing of any kind.  Just a bare-bones take, mistakes and all.  :^)  I hope you enjoy John's song and the sound of the uke.

Sleep (new uke recording)

Here's my good friend Dan demonstrating his brand new steel string guitar that I designed and built for him.  He's basically noodling here, playing some nice licks and exploring some of what this guitar can do.  First he's playing with his bare fingers, then midway through he picks up a flatpick.  This is recorded with a Zoom H2 in an ordinary room.  No fancy mics, no signal processing, just rough and dry.  I wish you could hear this guitar in person -- Dan and I are both floored by how great it sounds.  That's the guitar in the photo.

Dan's bluesy demo of the guitar I made for him

Here's the old time tune "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes", played on this unique uke I made, to give you an idea of how it sounds.  This is the first instrument I've made of this new design.

I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes

This is a rough demo recording of a new original song, recorded, in part, to give you more of a taste of the sound of this new concert uke I made.  My good friend Marc Bruell deserves co-writing credit, as this song was inspired by one of his, and lifts some of his melody and chord progression.  But don't blame Marc for the words - they're entirely mine.  Thanks for listening!

Todd Rose 2

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