https://dominiquelebars1.bandcamp.com/track/pas-glop

Pas glop, 
J' t' aimais bien mon petit humain 
Pas glop,
 On dirait bien que c' est la fin 
Papillons éphémères dans un ciel d'été lointain

Pas Glop - Guit Solo

This is about how life is constantly presenting challenges. We must learn from each incident/experience and use that learning to try and be more resilient and be able to move forward. 
I wrote it on my 3/4 size Hofner classical guitar. It’s first song! I used open G tuning after being encouraged to try it by Mark Spruce (Original Spruce - great songs- give them a listen!). Thanks Mark! 
Hope you enjoy it. Best with headphones! 
Take care 
James 

Lyrics 
My Uncertain Steps 

As a boy, I was scared of the sea
With my family, on a beach in Normandy, 
a French boy told me the ghosts of drowned sailors grab your legs and dragged you down
I wouldn’t go in! 
Too naive and trusting! 

As a teen, I was all over the place! 
Always confused, just didn’t know which way to face
Too many temptations, suggestions and thrills, distracting and wild
Couldn’t think straight 
Couldn’t concentrate! 

It was always their demands and directions 
Had to meet their dreams and expectations 

My uncertain steps
No confidence 
(Trying to find my own way)
My uncertain steps 
At my own pace
(My way) 

My wreckage of a life, with this chaotic love
Constant demands, you can never do enough 
Mix in the bullies, the twisters and those egos too
It pulls you apart
Breaks your heart 

I’m seasoned, I now know this path
One crisis avoided, another starts 

My uncertain steps
More experienced 
(Trying to find my own way)
My uncertain steps
At my own pace 
(My way) 

And now I expect to see the worst
In everyone and everything I know
Just know how it is, but feel I can somehow 
see it through

(outro) 
I’ve got friends (for my uncertain steps)
I’ve lived and learnt (for my uncertain steps)
I’ve got you (for my uncertain steps) 
I’ll get through this (my uncertain steps) 


James Whiteman copyright  18 January 2024

My Uncertain Steps

I never felt more powerless than the day I met her

Swept Away

That day that we first met
From a time I can't forget
Babe you quickly took control
You reached deep into my soul

I was nothing very cool
Just your average silly fool
Wondered what you saw in me
Another hopeless charity?

Swept away

I felt it instantly
Some have called it destiny
I could see no one but you
In an instant I was through

You knocked me off my feet
So much power yet so sweet
Your love scrambled up my brain
I went happily insane

So swept away
Swept away
Nothing else to say
I am swept away

So sweetly swept away

A light with style and grace
And that classic lovely face
With your striking gentle smile
Stalking my heart all the while

You've a way I can't describe
So forgive this diatribe
This moment comes along one time
So historic yet sublime

I never had a chance
My whole world just went askance
You know exactly what you've done
Blotted out the Summer's sun

You have shredded my lost heart
Tore my past life all apart
Oh God please just let her see
That for her it's only me

So swept away
Swept away
Nothing left to say
I am swept away
Swept away
Swept away

Babe I love your way

I am swept away

So sweetly swept away

Swept Away

Krosan by Night

Krosan By Night

Frida's Wings – The Skeletons
April 2024
Duration: 2:50
A shorter version was previously included in the “Art Expressed in Music” series
Painting: Frida Kahlo Painting Self Portrait.
Music for Danse Etoile Ballet (www.danseetoile.org) who will be performing Frida's Wings, a ballet based on the life and works of Frida Kahlo, June 2024 in Colorado.
Thanks to John-Marc Ventimiglia @john-marc-ventimiglia for creating the “rattling bones” sound library
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for her many portraits, self portraits and works inspired by the nature and artifacts of Mexico.  Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. She is also known for painting about her experience of chronic pain. In most of her self-portraits, she depicts her face as mask-like, but surrounded by visual cues which allow the viewer to decipher deeper meanings. Aztec mythology features heavily in Kahlo's paintings in symbols including skeletons and skulls.  In the painting, Dream of The Bed, painted in the year of 1940, Frida expressed her feeling and interception of death, which depicts a skeleton on the canopy of her bed (as she had in her real life). Her husband, Diego Rivera called the Juda, Frida's lover, but Frida said it's just an amusing reminder of people's mortality. Frida Kahlo spent much of her life in pain.  As As a teenager she suffered a horrific bus accident which left her unable to have children and meant she needed more than 30 operations on her spine. Eventually her withered leg had to be amputated and she died at 47. She said in her diary: “Feet, why do I need you, if I have wings to fly”
For guitar, accordion, trumpet, violin, double bass, sound effects and percussion

Frida's Wings - The Skeletons

Nothing escapes the scrutiny of the neighborhood watch dogs!

A sequel to Old Howlers, https://soundcloud.com/sunnybeck/old-howlers

Synth bass and pianos set to hip hop and Latin beats @ 85 bpm. Audio of dogs barking, howling, and ambulance siren recorded live in March, April, and May 2024.

Background photo of ambulance by Kurt Kaiser, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Little Girl, the dog, is from my personal photos.

Neighborhood Watch

Espíritos

Vital 134 BPM

Not Gonna Fall For That

Scourie

01 - SA - HZS - 60 Cellos All Standard - C Sord PP Long Soft CS
02 - SA - OPW - Ice Piano
03 - SA - OS - Woods High - Combo Swarm
04 - SA - Aperture - Refractions - Tremolo_Refractions - Normale
05 - SA - WE - Intense Sirens
06 - SA - BDT - Ensembles - Flute & Pic.soft_Ensembles - Bass & CI Soft

On The Way Back [Hans Zimmer Strings]

idematoa