From the 2021 Walter Ehresman album, Songs From the Crux.

The day after watching the yahoo riot/coup attempt on January 6, 2021, I was still so angry about it that I felt I had to write something, and so this is it.......Wrote it that Thursday, spent Friday and Saturday recording it, then mixed it down Sunday.........I can't say the process made me feel any less angry about the whole ugly situation (and the attitudes that led to it), but I did feel some sense of release in letting those feelings out.

I've done quite a bit of spoken word pieces backed by music over the years, and have been a big Gil-Scott Heron fan since first coming across his work back in the late '80s.  And I dig a lot of electric-Miles Davis, too, and am a huge fan of Norwegian cutting-edge trumpeter and sound designer Nils Petter Molvær.  And there's no doubt that these influences can be heard in "Behold the American Yahoo." 

Purchase streaming/download of the track or the whole album here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-the-crux

Behold the American Yahoo
(pondering Trumpian thugs sacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021)
(© 2021 Walter Ehresman)


Walter Ehresman: narration, keyboards & key percussion, guitar, groove box manipulations.

Produced and engineered by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. 

Snipe Bog Records.
p. 2021 Walter Ehresman

Behold The American Yahoo

There are a couple of stories to tell about this one. I wrote these lyrics last November, right after the election was called for Biden but with Orange Head refusing to acknowledge it. I've felt compelled throughout my life to study politics and human behavior (the former just being one manifestation of the latter), and at this point, as I project what is likely to happen to American society, I fear it will not be pretty. But I still need to allow myself to enjoy moments of good news, like Trump being un-assed out of the White House, and the Dems somehow taking the Senate. And that's what the lyrics of this song try to express.

Around that same time, I watched a documentary on Joni Mitchell. I had only had a passing familiarity with her and her work prior to seeing it, and I was struck by how (among other things) her use of alternate guitar tunings really breaks her material out of standard song forms and makes it sound fresh and harmonically interesting. And so I resolved that I would take my first real stab at writing a song in an open tuning, and "Pinhole of Light" is the result. It's in open 'G' tuning, capoed to the 3rd fret.

I had no idea, when I started putting the music together, that: a) the song would be almost 9 minutes long; and b) that I was going to have to create maps to match all these guitar chords I was making up......a keyboard map for those chords, bass note map for the bass guitar, etc. Since I don't read or write music, this was certainly an adventure and definitely not like anything I've done before. It took a week to get it all mapped and recorded, but I'm glad I went down this particular rabbit-hole......Like Joni says it does for her, it sure knocked me out of my own musical patterns and personal cliches, and I was able to get something that is harmonically dense and a bit abstract (at least, by the standards of what I've done before), while still being fairly sparse overall.

Purchase streaming/download of the track or the whole album here: walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/songs…om-the-crux



Pinhole of Light
(© 2020 Walter Ehresman)

My mind whirls in endless contingencies
--I think I know why it does;
We all deal with our childhood vagaries
--find ways to cope beyond the cause.
But in between charts and the diagrams
--demanding all my precious time;
Sense to notice when a light breaks in
--Sense to let that moment shine.

Not looking for Zen repositioning
--with neurons all wired anew;
And can’t live with blinder conditioning
--my heart only beats for what’s true.
But there has to be time to see forests
--while studying bark of the tree;
And there has to be time to hear promise
--of letting our hope out to feed.

That pinhole of light deserves attention;
Just a pinhole of light deserves my time;
Got to program my sight to scan my horizons
--tune perspective tonight.

It may not change our projection of our arc in the fullness of time;
But our happiness rests in these moments stolen from ominous signs.

Just yesterday, I heard conditional news
--it was good, for as far as it goes;
And I had to look up from contextual views
--to appreciate when bad men go;
So sad at the lack of capacity
--for change in the name of us all;
But at least I could widen acuity
--spot that thin shaft of light when it falls.


Walter Ehresman: vocals, guitars, 4-string fretless acoustic/electric bass, keyboards, Irish bouzouki.

Produced and engineered by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. 

Snipe Bog Records.
p. 2021 Walter Ehresman

Pinhole Of Light

Purchase download/unlimited streaming here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/cassandra-cursed

This album closer is one of the most ambitous pieces Ehresman has ever attempted, and one of the most succesfull. It shines a light of hope and peace, after some of the darker themes in the preceding songs, and features what may be the most emotional guitar playing of his career.

Ehresman tells us: "I've been talking about how this new album is unique in that all the songs on it came to me in dreams.....Whereas, in the past I've just had a few dreamed songs sporadically here and there...... This particular dream was about a scenario where the consciousness of all the people who die on a certain day on the planet come together and host an ecstatic meeting with their loved ones, having one last opportunity for the departed to communicate their deep feelings before their essences dissapites forever. I'm a lifelong atheist, but I thought this was a nice idea."

"I think the seeds were planted for the song when I listened to a Todd Rundgren interview on YouTube before I went to bed that night......He was talking about how, as a kid, he was obsessed with fireworks and got to know the men in his town who did the annual big shows on the 4th of July, etc.......They showed him a piece of equipment called 'the finale rack,' which was the special rack of fireworks used for the big finish of each show."

There is a strong Pink Floyd influence here, but the song is not derivative. Rather, it takes the approach and turns it into something new and uniquely Ehresman's own. If you know his past work, you can't see how anyone else would have written something like this. A very emotional, uplifting and satifying end to the new album. 

The Finale Rack (© 2023 Walter Ehresman)

With a blaze of light, we bring down the curtain;
Leaving all that we have, leaving nothing unsaid;
Sharing all of the love, so you can be certain
of the place that you hold
in the depths of our souls,
and to help ease you into new sightlines that lie ahead.

Please don’t cry, and please raise up your eyes;
Reach up into this light, as it folds back the night;
We could only be here
with the ones we hold dear—
merging hearts one last time in explosion of brilliant insight.

Be joyful for us as we lay all these burdens down.

Walter Ehresman: vocals; electric, acoustic, slide & Ebow guitars; 5-string electric bass; keybaords & key percussion; electronic percussion pads; drum machine programming; sequencing.

Produced & engineered by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

p. 2023 Walter Ehresman. All rights reserved. Snipe Bog Records

The Finale Rack

Purchase download/unlimited streaming here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/cassandra-cursed

This song was influenced by latter-day Utopia, which is unsurprising given Ehresman's lifelong love of Todd Rungren. Aside from the obvious power pop element, and the extensive use of synths, you can hear the Utopia influence in Ehresman stepping out to try new and more complex vocal arrangements.

He tells us: "This song is about something that I think we all face, to some degree--trying to have our reactions to people and situations be in the "now" as opposed to being controlled by traumas from our past."

These Strings (© 2023 Walter Ehresman)

We all want personal autonomy
--control our actions in the “now’;
Holding fast in each calamity
--looking forward still somehow.

No one perched above the stage
--slyly pulling on our strings;
No one writing on our page
--trying to tell us when to sing.

And so we go and flow, although tempo is slow as we bestow these changes--on ourselves;
And try to hide the scars inside, as we deride the glorified outrages
--that we tell.

[chorus]
What to do with these strings?
I’m so vigilant to keep them off of my back;
Now I can’t see a thing,
but I feel them stretching backwards into my past;
What to do with these strings? What to do with these strings? What to do with these strings?
Just play.

I tell you that I will always be
--here with you in the “now”;
And I’ll never stop my work on me
--‘cause you deserve no lesser vow.

Walter Ehresman: vocals; keyboards & key percussion; electric rhythm & slide guitar; 5-string electric bass; talking drum; drum machine manipulations.

Produced & engineered by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

p. 2023 Walter Ehresman. All rights reserved. Snipe Bog Records

These Strings

One of my post-apocalyptic love songs.

--from the Walter Ehresman album "Well.....Let's Look at Your Track Records, Shall We?"  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/well-lets-look-at-your-track-record-shall-we

See the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YYRCW4eOxU

Echo Down the Years
(© 2009 Walter Ehresman)

[intro]
In a time, so far from now, they'll look back on us here
and wonder how a love could grow in such a fallow ground;
But from those dusty pages, there's a light that shines so clear--
that legendary love we found.

Starlight twinkles overhead long after the star is gone;
Ripples cross the ocean to a distant shore at dawn;
Messages in bottles drift off to eyes not yet born--
So our love will echo down the years.

From that time of turmoil, in a land so in decline--
scholars sift through remnants and they try to read the signs;
Looking for some spark to show a moment so sublime--
So our love will echo down the years.

[chorus]
Memories may fade
of ordinary things;
Men and their fortunes fall to ruin.
But your eyes of blue still shine a way to better days,
and prove the best things, in the end, endure.

In that fragile future, for the people that remain,
hope for inspiration is the treasure sought to gain;
Rekindling those hearts to find the strength to start again--
So our love will echo down the years.

[solo over verse]
[chorus]

[outro]
In that time, so far from now, they'll look back on us here
and wonder how a love could grow in such a fallow ground;
But from those dusty pages, there's a light that shines so clear--
that legendary love we found.


Walter Ehresman: vocals, guitar, 4-string fretless bass, keyboards (flute, percussion), drum machine programming.

Special guest: Max Grossenbacher--piano.

For other releases:
https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2010 Walter Ehresman.  Snipe Bog Records.  All rights reserved.

Echo Down The Years--Walter Ehresman

This track features powerful lead vocals from Spain's Esther Asulito, with Ehresman providing the growl vocals in a beauty-and-the-beast metal exchange. The dynamic shifts are really effective in this song, and Ehresman pulls off some cool Jimmy Page-type licks amidst all the guitar overdubs. The two adjacent guitar solos nicely contrast the dark energy of the cruel male in the song versus the now more self-realized woman.

Ehresman remembers "This new piece was my first attempt at writing a song from scratch in Spanish (albeit with a couple of translator programs online)......I dreamed the story of the song, along with the general feel, then spent a couple of hours the next morning getting the lyrics together.......I knew it was going to be in the 'beauty and the beast' style of metal.....with beautiful, strong female vocals in the lead, with some male 'growl' vocals in there as well in a sort of conversation.....The lead female vocals here are from the wonderfully talented Spanish singer Esther Asulito, now living here where I do in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico."

"This song is about a woman who, in her youth, loved the bad boys and spurned the nice ones, only to find herself years later still in a relationship with a man she now knows as simply cruel.........This song has her find her self-respect, the will to speak out, and the strength to get out......Special thanks my friend Edgar for reality-checking my Spanish in the lyrics.....turns out he only had to change two words, which was a nice surprise"  

Tu Amor de Espinas (Your Love of Thorns) (© 2024 Walter Ehresman)

[voz de mujer/woman’s voice]
Lo que parecía fuerte de niña, ahora
(What seemed strong as a girl, now)
se desenmascara como crueldad;
(is unmasked as cruelty)
Envié a los chicos buenos lejos cada vez
(I sent the nice boys away every time)
y sonreí para mis adentros, a sabiendas
(and smiled to myself, knowingly)

Pero nadie diría que merezco esto—
(but no one would say I deserve this)
frutos oscuros de mi locura juvenil;
(dark fruits of my youthful folly)
Como mujer, reclamo mi propio respeto,
(As a woman, I reclaim my own respect)
y camino orgullosa hacia una luz femenil.
(and walk proudly toward a feminine light).

[voz de hombre/man’s voice]
Hiciste un juramento, y eres mía!
(You took an oath; you are mine!)
No hay nada más que discutir.
(There is nothing else to discuss)
[voz de mujer]
Tus propias palabras demuestran la verdad;
(Your own words prove the truth)
y ahora, seguramente debo volar;
(and now, I must surely fly)
[las dos voces juntas/both voices together]
Las cosas no pueden seguir así.
(Things cannot continue this way)

[las dos voces juntas]
Qué son estas cadenas que nos encierran
(What are these chains that lock us)
durante generaciones en estos ciclos?
(for generations in these cycles?)
¿No hay forma de salir de verdad?
(Is there no way to truly step outside?)

[voz de mujer]
Con un velo cubriendo nuestros ojos,
(With a veil covering our eyes)
Caemos en el furioso torrente de la vida,
(we fall into the raging life torrent)
y desperdiciar años finitos, todo se ha ido;
(and waste finite years, all gone)
Debemos reclamar los años que nos quedan.
(We must reclaim the years that remain)

[voz de mujer]
¡Me corta con tu amor de espinas!
(You cut me with your love of thorns!)

Walter Ehresman--vocals; guitars; 5-string electric bass; keyboards & key percussion; drum machine programming; sequencing. Special guest: Esther Asulito--vocals.

Purchase download/unlimited streaming of the track here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/track/tu-amor-de-espinas-your-love-of-thorns

For Ehresman's other group and solo releases, please click here: walterehresman.bandcamp.com

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman. All rights reserved. Snipe Bog Records

Tu Amor de Espinas (Your Love of Thorns)

From Walter's 23rd solo album, "Collapse, Cha Cha Cha," released on August 13, 2025.  

Written, perfomed and produced by Walter Ehresman, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Click here to purchase downloads/unlimited streaming of the song/album:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/collapse-cha-cha-cha

c., p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.  Snipe Bog Records


One Last Slow Dance

NOTE:  THIS TRACK HASN'T BEEN MASTERED YET AND SO YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP A BIT.

Just a little ditty I wrote and recorded in August of 2025, thinking about how people retreat into gaming and virtual reality when we have real world fights they're needed for, beating back fasciam in the US, etc.

Back to the Bytes  (© 2025 Walter Ehresman)





Rushing through the daily meat to put the goggles on;
Antiseptic gatherings where fantasies can spawn;
No need for touching others, and no need to look in eyes;
No need for real relationships—no need to empathize. 


You seek invisibility when forced to go outside;
You hate that you must speak while earning money for the ride;
You wish you could discard this heavy flesh that ties you down,
and rule upon the virtual—forever wear the crown.


[chorus #1]
You must know that this Soma is a way to blind your sight;
A way to dodge your duty now to join us in this fight;
How can the “real” get better when you check out every night,
and flee from messy friendships as you run back to the bytes?


You think you have a loyal team while creeping through the lair,
when all you have is scattered souls sweating in gamer chairs;
No real human relations, and no real skin in the game;
No friends, no love, no unity, no chance of inner flame.


[chorus #2]
What do you think would happen if most all did just like you, 
and hid away in digital distraction out of view?
How can the “real” get better when you check out every night,
and let the real world villains plunder everything in sight,
while you flee from messy friendships as you run back to the bytes?    

Walter Ehresman:  vocals; keyboards; key loop triggering.

For Walter Ehresman releases, please click here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.  

Back To the Bytes (unreleased; unmastered)

NOTE:  THIS TRACK HASN'T BEEN MASTERED YET AND SO YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP A BIT.

Musically, this song is what happens whey you consciously try to write and record something that fights against all your self-perceived tendencies.  Over the years, I've written and recorded around 250 songs, and--given that I'm completely self-taught and don't know any music theory at all--I'm very conscious of trying not to repeat myself while, at the same time, having a limited musical knowledge to draw from.  As I was writing the music for this one, I started to have conversations with myself like "man, this particular chord progression wants to resolve with a 'G', but haven't I done that before?.....", and so I made a very-conscious effort on this one to try to write chord progressions, etc. that DON'T sound like what I've done before (at least, as best as I can remember it....).  The challenge was to try to make sure I was doing something really new, without having some of those musical decisions be gratuitous......in other words, whatever I came up with had to "work" musically.  

The problem with this is I went so against my instincts all through this song that I'm not sure I like it :-)   I fear it comes dangerously close (musically, not lyrically) to two genres of music which I really don't like.......theater music, and religous hymns.  

I went so far as to use effects in the studio that I rarely have ever used.  I chose a "cathedral" reverb for everything, and the lead vocal is running through an effect that duplicates my voice 6x over.  And then there's the electric bass solo, in a song that otherwise doesn't have any bass in it.

And so it may be that I've completely lost perspective on this one......you guys will have to be the judge.

Lyrically, it seems I'm writing more and more apocalyptic love songs.  Gee, I wonder why.......?

This Late Gift
(© 2025 Walter Ehresman)




From left field comes the heart’s grace;
Just past the end of hope;
Her eyes, with sparkle toward me;
Her open book, my rope.
I’d ceased to think it possible
to find each other here;
Cast away on endless seas……
these endless stretching years.


[chorus #1]
(I will accept)           	this late gift;
(So thankful for)      	this late gift;
(My heart soars with)	this late gift.


As the world all chooses darkness,
and the last sands run on down;
All that’s left is holding tighter
to this last love I’ve found.
We’ll give each other comfort,
and create moments of joy;
Then hold hands at the last sunset
as greed and hate destroy………….everything. 


[chorus #2]
(Still waiting for)       	that late gift;
(Still reaching for)      	that late gift;
(Still aching for)	that late gift.

Walter Ehresman:  vocals & vocoder vocals; keyboards; 5-string electric bass; sequencing.

For official releases from Walter Ehresman, please click here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.  Snipe Bog Records.

This Late Gift (unreleased; unmastered)

NOTE:  THIS TRACK HASN'T BEEN MASTERED YET AND SO YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP A BIT.

Last month, I wrote four songs in two days.....two each night came as dreams, and then I had to get up early in the morning to write everything down.  This one is the 3rd of the batch, and is about what it means to be a US expatriate who still cares very much about fighting the right wing fascist take-over of the country.  I spent my whole career in very-stressful (and low paying.....) government service for the State of Texas....trying to do the people's business in a state where those who run things very much don't want the people's business to be done.  So on the one hand, I feel like I have made my good faith contritutions to making things better and so it's ok that I left the country to live in Central Mexico back in 2015.  But on the other hand, watching the good people at the No Kings protests, I sure wish I'd been there for that.

Like the first two songs of this batch of 4 that I'm recording, I was in a mindset where I was feeling particularly strongly about trying to make the music fresh, new and different from what I've done before.  And since I've written and recorded around 250 songs in my lifetime, that's a lot to try to not be repetitive when there's only 12 notes in the western scale :-)  And so for this particular song, I used a crazy guitar tuning that I saw online:  F-A-C-G-C-E (for those of you playing at home).  The YouTube channel video I stumbled on had the clickbait title of "Try this tuning...beautiful chords just fall into your hands!"

Needless to say, "beautiful chords" did not just "fall into my hands," but after fooling around with this tuning for a few minutes, I saw how I could make it work for this song.  I also used a lot of exotic vocal harmonies for this one....all in the name of trying to break new ground.  I'll leave it to the listeners to say whether it works musically.  

Expatriate (But Patriot Still)
(© 2025 Walter Ehresman)

Just because I left doesn’t mean that I don’t care,
but I think I’ve earned my rest, having long-since done my share;
And in truth I couldn’t stay there as I watched the things you do;
To stay just helps to normalize the darkness that ensues.


[chorus]
‘cause I don’t share your values, or your violent blank-eyed stare;
And I don’t respect the careless way you boast that you don’t care;
And we cannot share the same space, so I left there when I could;
But my fight is still for principles for which the country stood
(at least the ones I’d like to think for which the country stood). 


Before I left, I felt detached from what I saw around—
frantic misplaced intensity for things morally unsound;
Or else immerse in games so deep all fun has been leached dry,
while denigrating women while out hangin’ with the guys;
And hatred for “the other” as the blame flies everywhere
(except, of course, the mirror—you won’t ever put it there);
While nobles and their purchased politicians pull the strings
by ginning up your bigotries as you vote for bloody kings.


[bridge]
I’m gone, but I still follow news of all the things you do;
Some people say I shouldn’t, but my heart gapes at the view,
as it breaks to watch the suffering of all but greedy few. 
 

Walter Ehresman:  vocals, acoustic six-string guitar, acoustic/electric fretless bass, key percussion, electric mandola.

Engineered and produced by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

For my official releases, please click here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.  Snipe Bog Records

Expatriate (But Patriot Still)  (unreleased; unmastered)

This last summer, I enjoyed many Saturday nights watching a top-notch flamenco group play at a local cantina here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where I live.  The Spanish singer, Esther Asulito, is simply phenomenal, and I had brought her in last year to sing on a hard rock track with me in my studio (which she knocked out of the park).   As I heard her astonishing voice in a true flamenco setting, I got the idea to see if I could write and record something along those lines.  I knew it wouldn't be authentic flamenco ("nuevo flamenco"?......."gringo flamenco".....?), but I thought I could try something that would really try to catch the flavor, and be composed with respect for the real thing.

And so here is the result.  It's the second song I've written from scratch in Spanish (albeit with the help of translator programs and some subsequent reality-checking from native Spanish speakers).   I've always loved Spanish guitar (and actually got to see Paco de Lucia live a couple of times back in the day), and it's a style that I have fun attempting.  And so, here, I played the nylon-string acoustic guitar,  then added in fretless bass and a cajon part (played on my octa-pads) at the choruses, and Esther came in and ripped the roof off with her vocals (and also added three tracks of palmas).  I'm really happy with the result.  She's a professional flamenco singer (although I think she can basically sing anything), and so I very much appreciate that she took my song seriously and saw that I was approaching the project with humility and respect. 

Thank you, Esther!

Rompí La Cáscara de Mi Corazón (I Broke the Shell of My Heart)
(© 2025 Walter Ehresman)

[voz de mujer; woman’s voice]
Rompí la cáscara de mi corazón por ti;
(I cracked the shell of my heart for you);
Ahora expuesto a la luz y la sal;
(Now exposed to light and salt);
Sostienes desnudo en tu mano
(You hold naked in your hand)
lo que yo pasé años protegiendo.
(what I spent years barricading.)

Así que mi pregunta para ti 
(And so my question for you)
es fundamental e inmediata--
(is fundamental and immediate--)
¿Cuáles son tus intenciones con respecto 
(What are your intentions for)
a esta nueva y frágil ave que sostienes?
(this fragile new bird you hold?)

[chorus]
Porque ardo por amar de verdad—
(Because I burn to love fully--)
tal vez por primera vez en mi vida;
(Maybe for the first time in my life)
pero no hasta quemarme,;
(But not until I burn)
no hasta quedar en cenizas.
(Not until I turn into ashes)

Apostarlo todo—
(To take the biggest chance of all--)
desnudar mi alma ante ti…….
(to lay my soul bare to you……)
ha sido lo más difícil que he hecho;
(is the hardest thing I have ever done);
Por favor... que también valga la pena.
(Please make it also the best).


Walter Ehresman:  nylon-string acoustic guitars, 4-string acoustic/electric fretless bass, electronic percussion pads.  Special guest--Esther Asulito:  vocals, palmas.

For official releases from Walter Ehresman, please click here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.

Rompi La Cascara de Mi Corazon (I Broke the Shell of My Heart) (unreleased; unmastered)

NOTE:  THIS TRACK HASN'T BEEN MASTERED YET,  AND SO YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOU SPEAKERS UP A BIT.  

Well, those of y'all that know me know that this isn't the kind of song that you would expect me to write.  Believe me....I get it.  But for the last few years, all my songs have been coming to me in dreams, and this one came to me with an old school country twang in it.  And so I felt like that's the way I needed to record it.

And so I thought....."hmmm, I'm not a country guitar player and while I could do something that would work, it would be better if I just got Mike in to do the main electric guitar rhythm track."  I think this is the first time in my over 250 songs that I've written and recorded that I've brought someone else in to do the main guitar track.....so I had to do a little ego surrender here.  But that's what the song wanted, and you always have to serve the song.  

And so I talked to my good friend Mike Duncan, who is a retired Nashvile super-picker who lives down the street from me here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and he suggested that he'd be glad to trade some studio time for a bottle of tequila.  Sounded more than fair to me, so we did it last Saturday.  He plays the electric guitar (rhythm and first solo), and I play the acoustic guitars (rhythm and second solo) as well as the bass, key percussion and drum machine programming.  I sing lead vocals and Mike sings the backing vocals.

As for the lyrical content of the song, consider it my manifesto for 2026 :-)

(I Still Want) The Big Love
(© 2025 Walter Ehresman)

Is it more than I should hope for?
Is it much more than my share?
Do we each have just a finite sum 
divided up by love affair?
‘cause I refuse to see things that way—
I’d like to think we all have time;
And so, despite my so-called peculiar ways, 
I’m gonna lay my heart out on the line….


‘cause I still want the big love;
I wanna dive deep into her eyes;
I wanna tune my mind to her desires, 
and feel her do the same right back to mine;
I want to hold hands ‘cause we want to;
Laugh in bed ‘til our guts are sore;
I want to be a team ‘til our final days—
be that safety net that let’s my partner soar.


--I know it’s been a long time lookin’;
They say it happens when you look no more;
I can’t pretend to know the answer, 
but at least I know what I’m waiting for…..


‘cause I still want the big love;
I wanna dive deep into her eyes;
I wanna tune my mind to her desires, 
and feel her do the same right back to mine;
I want to hold hands ‘cause we want to;
Laugh in bed ‘til our guts are sore;
I want to be a team ‘til our final days—
be that safety net that let’s my partner soar.
…and they’ll say “Damn, that man could not have loved her more.”

Walter Ehresman:  lead vocals, acoustic guitar, Godin Acousticaster (solo no. 2), 5-string electric bass, key percussion, drum machine programming.  Special guest--Mike Duncan:  electric guitars, background vocals.

Click here for Walter's catalogue:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.

(I Still Want) the Big Love (unreleased; unmastered)

NOTE:  THIS TRACK HASN'T BEEN MASTERED YET, AND SO YOU'LL NEED TO TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP A BIT.

Well, this one is some pretty "Zappa level" satire, lyrically, while being more Steely Dan-ish, musically.  Like all my songs the last few years, this one came in a dream.  I think it was prompted the night before, when I was scrolling through YouTube (as one will) and saw a video titled "Female Nashville Songwriter Reacts to Iggy & the Stooges."  So I thought, "Yeah, ok, I'll click on that," and it was not anything special except at the end, where she said "I liked that it was provocative for real.....everything now would be provocative by committee."

The song is about how image consultants, PR flacks and management teams script every word and move for maximum profit, all but ensuring a total absence of authenticity in popular culture.  And no worries about who gets exploited along the way.

Many thanks to my own (ex)Nashville friend Mike Duncan for the background vocals!

Provocative By Committee (© 2025 Walter Ehresman)

We counted 27 gasps of outrage;
That’s three more than the previous focus group;
And so Young Missy’s costume will be altered
to keep that nipple even more in view.

Our polling shows misogyny ascendant,
and so we’ve drafted phrases he can use
while opening for the orange head headliner
to keep the yahoos’ minds off of the news.

[chorus]
There’s too much money here to be unscripted;
The shareholders are not served by ad libs;
--contrivance ups the bottom line;
--lip-syncing keeps the sound so fine
with no room for what might flow from your id.

[bridge]
Studies show this is the way to go.

The woman on the dog-leash sold like hot cakes—
the merch was simply flying off the shelves;
So our team suggests the cover for the new one
show a teenage girl’s fellatio in Hell.
For the tour, we’ve hired very special dancers
who all look much (MUCH!) younger than they are;
All trained to stand the bullwhip from the singer,
and to scream in key beneath the lead guitar.
--stick with us, boys, and you’ll go far!   

Walter Ehresman:  lead and vocoder vocals, guitars, 4-string acoustic/electric fretless bass, keyboards & key percussion, electric percussion pad, drum machine programming.  Special guest--Mike Duncan:  background vocals. 

For official solo and band releases from Walter Ehresman, please click here:  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2025 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.

Provocative By Committee (unreleased; unmastered)

Lead track from the Walter Ehresman album "Life Outside the Tent":  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/life-outside-the-tent

See the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ0FjG9n_Uo

Aqua Girl
(© 2010 Walter Ehresman)


Hurricane with no pressure drop, and
	flash flood with no rain that’s falling;
Monsoon in my heart when I thought symmetry was all our mornings.

Champagne is diluted, and my
	left finger is naked, and our
first dance of the evening is an empty spot out on the floor.


[chorus]
Here comes Aqua Girl;
She turns her love off like a faucet;
You think you’re swimming, then you’ve lost your buoyancy;
Only Aqua Girl;
She let’s you drown into her blue eyes;
The water’s fine, and then you’re in the Aral Sea.


Her theme song has no warning, and the
	elements are just fickle, and we
fell apart in a moment when I thought our love would last forever;

Now I sit in the rubble, and I
	am my own super-hero, ‘cause I
control the flood of the waters from my eyes—it drowns the bitter laughter.

[chorus]

--Walter Ehresman:  electric guitars; 12-string acoustic guitar; Ebow guitars; lead vocals; vocoder; Special guests:  James Rader--drums, vocoder vocals, background vocals; Kurtis Machler--bass.  Produced by K.Machler with Walt.


For other releases:
https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2012 Walter Ehresman.  Snipe Bog Records.  All rights reserved.

Aqua Girl (from the Walter Ehresman album "Life Outside the Tent")

From the new (2018) Walter Ehresman album "South of the Wall":  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/south-of-the-wall

See the video here: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZimaWzYfgkY

This one was inspired by early/mid-80s era Lou Reed, whose music has been a big influence on me for decades.  I tried to take a Robert Quine approach to the lead guitar, and to do a Fernando Saunders thing on the fretless bass.  As for my drumming on the electric kit, I can only apologize, Lou.....

It Just Happens That Way
(© 2018 Walter Ehresman)--dedicated to Lou Reed

The existential reality of mortality is too heavy of a fact for most;
They sacrifice all their time chasing phantoms around—
tryin’ to bargain with a holy ghost.
‘Cause, after all, they are far too special to die—
unique and perfect in every way;
No just and righteous universe could ever allow 
such a wonderful being to return to the clay.

[chorus]
It just happens that way.

The financial reality of demagoguery is too heavy of a fact for most.
Just because they cater to your roiling bigotries
 doesn’t mean that your pension ain’t toast.
‘Cause, after all—who are you to them?  
Just a cracker in a trailer somewhere;
Your usefulness ends when the voting is done, 
except they know that you’ll do it again and again and again and again.

 [chorus]

 [break]
Oh, babe, did you imagine it would all come to this?
Fighting for the scraps while the nobles stand above us and piss.
Snarling to avoid it while the truth is so hard to miss.

The toxicity of your masculinity is too heavy of a fact for most.
You sacrifice all your time waving weapons around—
peacocking displays as a violent joke.
‘Cause, after all, we claim to be conscious men—
self-aware beyond our animal past;
But, from where I’m standing, I think it’s a line…..
oh, a line that we never grew past.


Walter Ehresman:  vocals, guitars, acoustic/electric fretless bass, electric drum kit, keyboards and key percussion.  

https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/

p. 2018 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.  Snipe Bog Records.

It Just Happens that Way--dedicated to Lou Reed (from the Walter Ehresman album "South of the Wall")

From the new (2018) Walter Ehresman album "South of the Wall":  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/south-of-the-wall

A song I wrote and recorded that's dedicated to Walter Becker who, as you know, was one half of Steely Dan and who died last year. I think the pretty jazz melodies came from Fagen, and the grit and lyrics about faded hipsters came from Becker. I knew I wanted to do a tribute song for him. On the "Two Against Nature" DVD, he and Fagen are in the back of a limo, driving around the streets of New York City, talking about (among other things) the difference between a schmuck and a schmendrick. So that gave me the hook into this little ditty about.....you guessed it......faded hipsters, who despair at their loss of cool in a scene where they may well never have been cool to begin with. 

See the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsZtxshMHMM

It’s Schmendrick Time (And That’s OK) 
(© 2018 Walter Ehresman) 

Down on the boulevard, it’s seen a better day, 
but the price is copacetic so we moved in Saturday;
A case of Shaefer for the friends who took the call, 
and a measure of mood lighting for the writing on the wall. 

The games we’re playing are all lacking in cache’—
the retro insufficient to appeal to kids today;
We walk the nightlife in a demographic haze,
and we wreck the cool of places while we dream of yesterday.

[chorus]
Well, it doesn’t bear thinking, and it’s best to look away;
And we’ll never make 5th Street if we carry on this way.
Indulge in introspection, and we can’t go out to play—
‘cause it’s schmendrick time (and that’s OK).

[break]
There was a time (at least we’ll say there was)
we set the latest fashion, and left a trail of buzz;
In the chronicle of lifestyle—No. #1;
What fun!
Our sun
Will never 
Set.

Don’t get out much, now the tide is on the turn;
With endless shut-in options, and potato chips to burn;
The signals that we get—impossible to spurn;
Our rejection from the in-crowd is a savage thing to learn.


Walter Ehresman: all vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, keyboards & key percussion, vocoder, electric sitar, chimes, groove box programming, sequencing. 

For past releases, see here: www.walterehresman.bandcamp.com;  www.cdbaby.com/all/snipe 

p. 2018 Walter Ehresman.  All rights reserved.  Snipe Bog Records.

It's Schmendrick Time (And That's OK)--Walter Becker tribute

--from the 2020 Walter Ehresman album "Global Search Party":  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/global-search-party

The title of this song is fairly self-explanatory.  But while the subject matter might be serious, the groove is infectious.......this is party funk, all the way.

Regarding the lyrics, Ehresman tells us:  "I lived in Austin for 34 years, watching the real estate vampires strip it and kill it, and now after living in San Miguel de Allende for over 5 years, I'm really seeing the same mentality here.....Bulldozing every open space to build 'luxury condos' that block out the sun.......And after seeing one too many of those rapacious projects started here, it induced this funk song in me."

"I am particularly dazzled to have been able to cajole San Miguel's hottest underground singing group, The Green Space Boys, to join me for background vocals on this one.......their sublime contribution hearkens back to wonderful, subversive vocal groups that joined me on past albums over the years, like The Hip-Waders, and The Wobbly Choir......such great talent........such a wild, dark energy."

The Money People Ruin Everything
(© 2019 Walter Ehresman)

Searchin’ for that chillin’ place to lay your head in righteous space;
Soak it in—the price is right, the people nice—it’s paradise.
Then one morning—what’s that sound? The spoilers have all come town!

The money people ruin everything
--Gonna rip up all the natural green;
The money people ruin everything
--Luxury condos for a gentry scene.

Seems our life is chasing down these pockets greedheads haven’t found;
But you sleep with one eye open, waiting for that shoe to drop;
You could bust your gut from hopin’; developers—they will not stop!

The money people ruin everything
--Real estate vampires wall-to-wall;
The money people ruin everything
--Time to grease up another city hall.

The money people ruin everything
--Come on, brothers, let me hear you sing;
The money people ruin everything
--Swarm of locusts with their lame-ass bling.


Walter Ehresman: lead, background & Levi Stubbs vocals; guitars, keyboards & key percussion, synth bass, sampling, sequencing, drum machine programming.

Special guests: The Green Space Boys (Mike Duncan/Rob Ramsey/Ron Van Dyke)--background vocals.

p. 2020 Walter Ehresman. Snipe Bog Records. All rights reserved.

The Money People Ruin Everything

--from the 2020 Walter Ehresman album "Global Search Party."  https://walterehresman.bandcamp.com/album/global-search-party

Another song featuring nylon-string Spanish guitar, this melancholy acoustic ballad has a late night Mexican feel to it. Sparse and haunting.

Ehresman recalls: "One night last year, I dreamed the lyrics and music to the chorus of this song, and when I woke up I finished writing it and started recording.......My friend Rolando tells me is has a bolero feel.......It's a song about trying to scrape together a romantic connection amidst the losing global battle against the robber barons."


For the Sense of No Sense at All
(© 2019 Walter Ehresman)

The message said we were overrun;
Falling back on all sides;
The Barons’ men have us out-gunned;
Leaflets fall from the sky.

Communications are compromised—
official lies on TV;
All reserves have been mobilized—
but will they answer our plea?

We know we cannot surrender;
We know some lines should not fall;
But hold me tight, and we’ll dance through the night
for the sense of no sense at all.

A soldier cries that it’s no use,
as they wheel him away;
Another says they’ll be no truce,
‘cause money must get its way.

But still we fight every morning;
And we fight through the day;
But deep in the night lies the warning
of human nature’s true face.

Walter Ehresman: vocals, classical guitar, acoustic/electric fretless bass, chimes.

Produced by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

p. 2020 Walter Ehresman. Snipe Bog Records.
all rights reserved

For the Sense of No Sense at All

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin, Walter Ehresman relocated to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico in Feb. of 2015. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist, he is equally at home presenting a delicate acoustic ballad in an intimate club as he is busting out screaming lead guitar with a full rock band on a roaring stage. However, he’s just as likely to be holed up in his Snipe Bog Studios, surrounded by odd gear and recording strange, unclassifiable experimental music at 4am with a big grin on his face. The consistent factor is a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, coupled with sophisticated and fearlessly honest lyric-writing. August of 2025 saw the release of his 23st solo album of original music, "Collapse, Cha Cha Cha".

Walter Ehresman

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