Liking this Gary, as well as reading about the process and players. Your sound on this reminded me of my 'shed' days, a decade or so ago, as I hung out with some local country players and learned some country for the first time. Good luck with the song.

Classic country instrumentation, but the vocal & lyrical style are pure bluegrass, to me.  Ever done it with banjo / fiddle / mandolin? Also, like the way you slip in an extra little vocal line at the end of each verse.  Good writing, Gary.

Great story and insight to how the song came about - love it!

Nice one, Gary. Sounding very good. Like the ironic theme too.

Man, Gary you got such a good sound and love this country flavor-- excellent music and recording-fine writing !!!

Avant le téléphone , internet , les femmes de soldats partis à la guerre attendaient les lettres de leurs fiancés et maris . Les enfants étaient témoins de leurs angoisses et de leurs larmes ...
Compositeur Arrangeur : Philippe SEGUINARD Auteur Mélodiste : Guillaume DULER
Lyrics :
La guerre c'est le bruit d'une pointe de crayon 
C'est le regard absent dans les yeux de ma mère
C'est une longue attente blanche une prison
Des mots qu'elle lisait des lettres qu'on espère

C'est le son d'un amour à la lumière dansante
C'est le goût de tous les jours , sans saveurs sans saisons
C'est apprendre qu'il y a des choses qui te manquent
Des semaines d'inquiétudes , des rides sur son front

C'est elle enveloppée dans la fumée des cigarettes
Comme dans un nuage porteur de larmes amères
Et puis c'est le silence soudain des nuits défaites
Colmatés d'espérance pour fuir le vent d'hiver 

La guerre c'est savoir qu'elle peut te dénuder
Jusqu'à la moelle d'un père qu'elle t'aura volé
Que les jours qui suivront seront jamais comblés
Que hurleront impitoyable les vents glacés

Before the telephone and the Internet, the wives of soldiers away at war waited for letters from their fiancés and husbands. Children witnessed their anguish and tears ...
Composer and arranger : Philippe SEGUINARD Author and melodist : Guillaume DULER
Lyrics :
War is the sound of a pencil tip 
It's the absent look in my mother's eyes
It's a long white wait in a prison
Words she read Letters we hope for

It's the sound of love in dancing light
It's the taste of every day, without flavors without seasons
It's learning that there are things you miss
Weeks of worry, wrinkles on her forehead

It's her wrapped in cigarette smoke
Like a cloud of bitter tears
And then it's the sudden silence of empty nights
Clogged with hope to escape the winter wind 

War is knowing that it can strip you bare
To the very marrow of a father stolen from you
That the days that follow will never be filled
That the icy winds will howl mercilessly

© Guillaume DULER / Philippe SEGUINARD  2022

La guerre      TRANSLATED

This is a cover of an Arrows of the Sun. All words and composition are Arrows of The Sun. 

For this version of the song:

S. Drysdale : Vocals, Electric Guitar, Bass, Keyboards
A. Reed: Engineering and Programing

Keep On Running

The war within.  The war.  Humans

Get out the bone saw
Put on your rubber clothes
Get out the bleach
Hook up the hose

Don’t think about the children 
The husbands or the wives
It’s just the cost of doing business 
They pay it with their lives 

(Chorus)

Wipe the blood off your shoe 
It is what we do 
With a certain 
Ingenuity

Here on the assembly line 
At the business of cruelty 

In the middle of the day 
Oh They scream so loud 
At night you lay awake  
Hearing that sound 

Oh but take another pill
Oh Whistle while you work 
You gotta hold em still
They know it’s gonna hurt

(Chorus)

Bizness Of Cruelty

Back around 2015, I started taking guitar lessons from an instructor who was really into Bluegrass Music. I soon discovered that didn't have an aptitude for the guitar and didn't have a great desire to practice enough to make up for any natural ability. 
I did mention to my instructor that I had written a couple of songs and maybe our time would be better spent learning how to record these songs.
One day I tried to write a 'bluegrass" tune and titled it, "I've Done It Again." We recorded it. Years later, I wanted to revisit some of my earlier recordings and see what they might sound like with professional musicians. Nicky V. Hines, currently the lead guitarist with Shenandoah acted as musical director, guitarist, arranger, engineer, and producer for me on this finally finished new version. (Several versions have been posted on my SC page throughout the years. This will be the Spotify, Apple, Amazon etc version of which I shall make .002 of a penny every time it is played.) On bass is Martin Motnik currently a member of the popular European Heavy Metal Band "Accept." (Trust me, I have no idea how a country bumpkin like me ended up working with Heavy Metal - but I dig it.) On keyboards is the wonderful Tim McDonald , out of Nashville. On drums is another Nashvillian, Travis L.. Super people and very, very talented and experienced.
I like this version very much - musically. I think the mix is excellent (Nicky V. Hines) and I like how he took down the reverb on the vocal, it sounds a bit edgier, a little more vulnerable, and real. 
What's the song about? It's about not being able to take off the "masks" and take down the walls . Although "good lover" is sexual certainly sounding - we can mess up good love in other ways too - family, friends, etc. And, although we can deeply feel the pain of our actions, sometimes we just can't seem to get out of our own way. 
It is a song about being human. Thank you Nicky!

I've Done It Again

A past lover keeps showing up in my dreams and reminding me of my failures.
From my new LP " Low Profile". My best tracks from 2023. Thanks for listening!

Lyrics:
I get my melancholy straight from the IV drip
A Xanax, a red eyed flight on the sky ship
That's when you appeared
I'd been gorging myself on 
Televised violence
It's like synconized swimming
You were grinning while the plane was rapidly descending
(You smiled all the way down)
The atmosphere was colorless
Odorless
Void of all surface and all texture
I'm reveling in my psychosis
You reminded me I never finished my
Junkyard magnum opus
You still show up in my dreams

We were entering into 
An impressionist painted landscape
With a language that we just didn't understand
You reminded me that I'm a big believer
In blindly believing
And I need to start drinking in
A little bit more in what I'm seeing
We're like suburban dadaist
Coming in, out of the rain
My mind was racing
Like those 808 beats
There all the same
Well, that's the way the Goddamn wheel rolls
You headed off into the night
You never told me to change the angle of the light
You still show up in my dreams

"You never even had it even when you had it your hands"
You've got to bring it right down
To where the sideways ends in the light
I'm digging down deep
I'm digging down slow
I'm striking oil 
Or the fires down below
You still show up in my dreams

You Still Show Up In My Dreams

Why?

This is a song for my Mary, but it is applicable to all Mary's. 

This is my first attempt at recording new material since last summer, I've been writing and playing a lot, but I just haven't had the time lately to get my ideas on tape. So it's nice to get this one out, and hopefully, it'll not be as long a wait for my next. 

Thanks for all the listens and support, it's greatly appreciated as always. cheers!

lyrics

don't let the world dictate to you
be your own girl
in a world that's you

don't always swim against the tide
time won't always be on your side
so don't go wasting all your time 

don't let the world
loose from your grasp
come up for air
whenever you get the chance 

don't always swim against the tide
time won't always be on your side
so don't go wasting all your 
wasting all your
wasting all your
wasting all your
wasting all your
wasting all your time

you always think there's somebody 
better off than you
don't listen to the boys 
they all screaming that it's true

you always think there's somebody 
better off than you
but there's nobody out there
can do you as good as you

so don't let the world
edit out your past
look back with pride 
and don't
catapult so fast

don't always swim against the tide
time won't always be on your side
so don't go wasting all your
wasting all your
wasting all your 
wasting all your 
wasting all your time

Time, For Mary

Springtime Osaka

A collaboration with one of #Ha Kékong's field recordings...1 track of mandolin doubled, with one track of Ha's doubled and the second turned into a midi track

AI generated picture

Mando Whispers To A Train

Tommy: bass
Scotty: guitars, adlibs
Looperman: drums

420 '23 Demo 5 (the last demo)

On a park bench sat an old man all alone
Working the daily Sudoku
I didn’t really want to bother him
I asked if I could sit and rest a minute or two

He said life’s not so simple lad
Even with the modern advances we have made
They only seem to make you lazy and dumb
The young they will not work, yet they still want paid

With a nod of my head, I was on my way
Thinking of the things this old man had to say
It’s probably something that the generations voice
Was he speaking truth or only making noise?

Do we make life difficult in the choices that we make?
Or are our journeys left to chance?
Either way it’s not so simple what we choose
We still keep going forward; to the music we dance

Instrumental Bridge

My thinking soon got the best of me
I went back to the bench but the old man was gone
He left his paper and the puzzle on the bench
I could see that every space he filled was completely wrong

It’s not so simple running the rat’s race
It’s not so simple, looking through the wall
Does it really matter if the old man’s right or wrong?
We’ll settle in our old pine box and in the ground we fall

I've Done It Again

Gary A. McMahon

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