Nostalgia - Joe Hisaishi - Piano Cover -

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

The sad sky of Gaza

Midnight Blues

Just a  little song I wrote for these words...for Valentine's Day or for any day! The message is yours!

There is something, I want to say
There is something, I want to say,
There is something, I want to say to you.
I want to say to you...
I want to say to you...

There Is Something, I Want to Say

Naviar Haiku 525

vernal seas…
all day long swelling, falling
swelling, falling
 
One of the four great haiku masters, Yosa Buson studied both Japanese and Chinese poetry. He was also an accomplished painter, and most of his poems were accompanied by paintings, resulting in a more diverse and individual set of works than the one by his main historical influence, Basho.

This haiku was translated by Adam L. Kern.
 
Haiku by Yosa Buson

Picture by Cris S.

Wave Dynamics

Wave Dynamics (NaviarHaiku525)

She’s nervous, she fidgets, she takes a long time in deciding 
But he could tell she wasn’t reading the menu, she was in back of it hiding 
He said, “Let’s order cocktails first
Yeah, they’re good but they don’t quench my thirst.”  

But when the rain comes to the desert 
When the rain comes to the desert 
His burning thirst for sustenance shall yield 
When the ran comes to the desert 
He’ll be healed

Her previous marriage left her mud colored glasses to see with 
And he’s recently widowed and just needs a woman to be with 
He said, “we’re in the same boat you and I
Two vodka martinis, please.  Dry

When the rain comes to the desert 
When the rain comes to the desert 
There’ll be cactus flowers blooming by the score 
When the rain comes to the desert 
It will pour 

His romantic prowess was unsharpened and he was anxious to test it 
While she discussed her ex-husband, he put his hand on her knee and caressed it 
She angrily met with his gaze 
Which set the skin around his collar ablaze 

When the rain comes to the desert 
When the rain comes to the desert 
Those pregnant clouds shall burst and shower down 
When the rain comes to the desert 
They will drown 

She flushed red and ran out, embarrassed and mumbling curses 
How many romances rescued by ladies forgetting their purses? 
He followed her off in a rush 
Through the crowd like he was cutting through brush 

When the rain comes to the desert 
When the rain comes to the desert 
The sand shall be transformed into fertile mud 
When the rain comes to the desert 
It will flood 

He said, “I’m so glad I caught up.  Here’s your purse back.  I guess I’m just out of practice”. 
She said, “I’m sorry I overreacted.  I’ve grown thorns like a cactus” 
She said, “I usually don’t kiss men in crowds” 
And the restaurant filled up with clouds 

And that’s when the rain came to the desert 
The rain came to the desert
And nothing, not one inch of it was missed. 
The rain came to the desert 
When they kissed

TurtleFrogMan

When The Rain Comes To The Desert

In These Times

Words: CW Mullins
Music: Fogey   

Mixed by Jack Holston

Don’t look at the time
It won’t tell you anything you need to know
It’s dark out there and the clock hands move so slow

Keep this thought in mind
Everyone who’s ever lived has to deal
With the world as is and sometimes it can get too real

In these times our patience gets tested
Our will could fail
It never gets rested
In These times we’ve lost sight of what is right

Hold to this belief
We’re the only ones on whom we can depend
We have to be there for each other up until the end

Catch a ray of sun
Wait for the clouds to break and light to fall to earth
In a darkening world there’s nothing else of greater worth

In these times we’ve seen the best bleeding
Look around, the worst are succeeding
Now’s the time to hold tight to what’s right

Every where we go we feel trapped
There’s no place left that’s unmapped
So we crawl back inside and find a place to hide

In these times our patience gets tested
Our will could fail
It never gets rested
In these times We’ve lost sight of what is right

In these times we’ve seen the best bleeding
Look around, the worst are succeeding
Now’s the time to hold tight to what’s right

In These Times v2024

Knock 3 Times On The Back Of My Skull

Citadel (2016) Anthology CD2 Track 13

My new song i produced [Verse]
Keep quiet they said don’t make a sound
The walls have ears they’re always around
I tried to scream but my voice fell down

[Chorus]
Keep quiet keep it low
Let no one hear let no one know
Keep quiet keep it tight
Hide your truth in the dead of night

[Verse 2]
The clocks don’t tick when the silence grows
A river of secrets under the shadows flows
I see the truth but nobody knows

[Prechorus]
My heart beats loud like a rebel drum
But I stay still like I’m made of stone

[Chorus]
Keep quiet keep it low
Let no one hear let no one know
Keep quiet keep it tight
Hide your truth in the dead of night

[Bridge]
A whisper’s a storm if you let it rise
It’ll shake the ground and split the skies
But here I am with a lock on my tongue
Holding back songs that want to be sung

Keep Quiet

If you're into modern rock bands like Black Keys, Royal Blood, Nothing But Thieves, and Biffy Clyro, then the music from this closet rocker could be for you.
For older influences, you might detect some  Finn Brothers in various configurations (Split Enz, Crowded House, Neil and Tim solo and together), Brian Wilson, Grateful Dead, John McLaughlin, Gomez, Radiohead, Steven Wilson, Bowie, and a bunch of others I’m forgetting at the moment.
In general, I play all the instruments, do all the arrangements, and do the heavy lifting on the vocals.
I tend to love music that rewards repeated listening rather than ear candy. That’s the spirit in which I hope you'll listen to this music.
I do both solo projects and collaborations with brother, who is on Soundcloud and Spotify as CW Mullins.  
CW pulled Fogey back into making music with a bunch of songs he had written and wanted to get recorded.  Collaboration started in 1983.  CW has carried the load on lyric writing, writes a lot of songs that Fogey performs and arranges, and Fogey writes music for some of CW’s lyrics.

In These Times v2024

Fog City Fogey

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