Ain’t Afraid

Over the years, my good friend Tyler and I have played and written music together and most of it hasn’t been recorded.  Actually, we have never co-written an entire song together.  It always ended up that he had a song fully formed to which I added my two cents or vice versa.  It’s never been a big deal.  Well, here we have a track that is fully co-written.

Tyler completed the first verse with the chord progression and that was it.  He didn’t do much with it and probably didn’t think about adding to it or finishing it.  So, he went out-of-town for a week or two and I stumbled upon the rough track he laid down. It was catchy.  It still is catchy.  After listening to it a couple of times, I decided to add one more verse and anything else that I could squeeze out.  In the end, I completed a verse and another little bit at the very end of the song with a chord progression that’s a tad bit bluesy.

When Tyler arrived back into town I excitedly showed him the parts I had written for the song.  In the same turn, he had written a second part as well.  Once we played it all together it was quite surprising how well it fit together.  So in the end, Tyler wrote the first verse and second section of the song, and I wrote the second verse and the last section.

This, like a lot of the music I write, is simple.  It is just a guitar and two voices.  I sing the melody while Tyler handles the harmony.  It’s a little rough and the vocals are not perfect, but I really enjoy how it comes together as a whole.  There are plenty of things that would be great to add, but I really think the song can stand on its own the way it is here. I hope you enjoy it.

PeaceGraceLove

Cover Up

I enjoy a good song covered well. It can be fun and interesting to hear an artist reinterpret a song that was written and performed by another.  You can end up with something completely different or a version that pays homage to the original in the style of the latter artist.

One that distinctly comes to my mind is Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” covered by The Secret Machines on their “The Road Leads Where It’s Led” EP.  It is very very different from the original but I think is just as good and just solid as the original. You should, most definitely, check it out.

Here we have my reinterpretation of a Radiohead song.

Honestly, there isn’t much of the Radiohead catalogue that I would want to even attempt to cover.  So you won’t find this on one of their regular albums; it is a random b-side. You can actually find it on YouTube. Not hard to find. But I will let you decide if you listen to my version before you listen to the original.

Anyway, I have tried to make it my own outside of what Mr. Thom Yorke plays. When you listen to it you will be able to tell that I changed the piano to an electric piano and added electric guitar as well. Not a lot.  One change you may not hear, right away, is that I have slowed the tempo a bit. It just felt more natural to have it slower when I sang it on my own. In the end I didn’t make really big changes or do anything drastic with the song. It is simple and straight forward and to make it more than that wouldn’t do it justice.

PeaceGraceLove

Work has been done so let’s dance!

I have not forgotten about this space. Stuff gets busy! It’s true…Anyway, here we are since the last time I updated this business with new music it was…um, two years ago!? Okay, there are many projects that have been dreamt up, worked on and thrown out but there are a bunch of random items that have come from all of this.  Not sure where to start but here is one in particular that I enjoy.  Once again, this was a collaborative track with my friend Tyler.

It was put together using an iPod app, SufaceDJ.  It is a straight forward “dj” app that has small loop tiles that you drag out to be used. It has a couple different “songs” available but it’s just a combination of the limited number of loops in the app’s library.  In the end, the app is just for fun because it is too hard to really have it docked or plugged in and actually “dj” even on and iPad. ‘Tis a novelty, but a fun one.  It, like many other apps is just a waster of time. If you have time to waste. Anyway, just for fun here is that track. Dance away!

PeaceGraceLove