Demo for “Ride the Yellow Moon”

Here is the audio file, on PureVolume:

http://www.purevolume.com/paulsm/albums/99584560

Count All the Stars

A lullaby…

(Listen to the track on Pure Volume)

It’s never really dark when there’s stars in the sky
Look out the window at the light
The Great Bear is dancing, don’t ask me why
Just count all the stars tonight.

CHORUS:
Count all the stars in the window tonight
When you’re finished everything will be all right
You know your Daddy loves you, so try with all your might
To count all the stars tonight

Sometimes it’s cloudy, sometimes it rains
Sometimes the curtains are pulled tight
But tonight the stars are shining through the window pane
So count all the stars tonight

CHORUS

And it’s one two three, put your hands on your knees
And it’s four five six, pick up sticks
And it’s seven eight nine, I can see your eyes shine
As you count all the stars tonight

CHORUS

(repeat verse 1 etc. until you or child falls asleep)

Demo for “As the Crow Flies”

Posted on PureVolume.

http://www.purevolume.com/paulsm/

As the Crow Flies

[I hear this with a full-blown bluegrass band...]

Way up yonder on the mountain
There sits a little two-room shack
That’s were my true love is waiting
And she don’t know if I’m ever coming back

If I had the wings of an angel
Or even the wings of a crow
I’d fly straight into my lover’s arms
And lord I would never let go

chorus:-
As the crow flies, as the crow flies
My heart flies to you as the crow flies
As the crow flies, as the crow flies
Oh my heart flies to you as the crow flies

Now they took me away to the trenches
They took me away to the war
They took me away from my lover
And I don’t know if I’ll see her any more

Now I’m pretty good with a rifle
And I’m pretty good with a knife
But I’m even better with a horse and plow
And three little children and a wife

(chorus)

Now they say that the war is over
Yes they say that the war is done
They tell us that we can go home now
But they never told us who won

Oh it’s two hundred miles of walking
Down the river and over the bridge
But it’s only twenty miles as the crow flies
To that dear little house on the ridge

(chorus)

Oh way up yonder on the mountain
There sits a little two-room shack
That’s were my true love is waiting
But now she knows that I’m coming back

And If she had the wings of an angel
And I had the wings of a crow
We’d fly straight into each other’s arms
And lord we would never let go

(chorus and repeat)

Ride the Yellow Moon

I wrote this after pondering a fat yellow moon last night, and thinking about Bride/Bridget.

I think the chorus will probably be good for harmonising, and maybe work well as a round.

Listen to the audio file here http://www.purevolume.com/paulsm/albums/99584560

chorus:
Bride, Bride, Bride, Bride,
Bride, Bride, Bride, Bride,
Bride, Bride, Bride, you
Ride the yellow moon

Bride hear my voice
Teach me to sing
Bride hear my song
And give it wing

(chorus)

Bride stroke the fire
That burns in us all
Bride of the forge
Our hearts hear your call

(chorus)

Bride pluck the herbs
Stir the cauldron black
Bride heal our wounds
Give our bodies back

(chorus)

Bride call the spring
Let green leaf unfurl
Bride spread your legs
Give birth to the world

(chorus)

This Uncertain World

This is a song I’ve written for February Album Writing Month (FAWM). I’ll try to get an audio file up soon.

This is for my wife Eileen.

This Uncertain World

Lately I have nursed a worried mind,
Late at night when the kids have gone to bed.
Sometimes it seems the world is so unkind,
With just a stone to lay my weary head.

Now times are hard, and they won’t get better fast,
Even the rich man’s house is built on sand.
Everybody’s looking for one thing to last,
I know I’ve found it when you take my hand.

Cuz you’re a sure thing in this uncertain world,
I’m just your boy and you are just my girl.
I finally realise I’ve found my pearl,
Cuz you’re a sure thing in this uncertain world.

The seas will rise and storms will sweep the sky,
Disease will try to take us in our prime.
But we’ll face the worst together, you and I,
And our children will flourish in their time.

Cuz you’re a sure thing in this uncertain world,
I’m just your boy and you are just my girl.
I finally realise I’ve found my pearl,
Cuz you’re a sure thing in this uncertain world.

Now the seasons come and go,
If we can just hold on,
Through summer sun and winter snow,
Until our days are done.

And when my final day is here at last,
And I lay down to my eternal rest,
If I can take your hand in one last clasp,
I’ll know that my life’s been truly blessed.

Cuz you’re a sure thing in this uncertain world,
I’m just your boy and you are just my girl.
I finally realise I’ve found my pearl,
Cuz you’re a sure thing in this uncertain world.

Quiet Night In – another older song remixed

I’m enjoying this. Finally getting round to using the borrowed guitar and various bits of kit I got before Christmas to lay down some proper tracks.

“Quiet Night In” is one of the first songs I wrote and scored in 2007, when I first started writing songs.

Listen on Pure Volume

Quite Night In Lyrics

Living on the Coast – new cut of an older song

Just posted a new version of a song I wrote a couple of years ago now: Living on the Coast.

Pure Volume

Check out the lyrics here:

Living on the Coast lyrics

Snowflakes fly – listen to track

I got my “Snowflakes Fly” track recorded and put up on Pure Volume this morning.

Have a listen:

Pure Volume

Snowflakes Fly

A new song (imagine a waltz time signature):

Snowflakes Fly

You told me you loved the snow
Although it would bring in the cold
Now you sit by the fire
While the snowdrifts grow higher
Outside where you no longer go

And the snow comes falling from the sky
Like souls you watch the snowflakes fly …

You once took me out in the night
To look at the stars shining bright
And to my surprise
In the tears from your eyes
Were reflected the pale Northern Lights

Then the snow came falling from the sky,
Like souls we watched the snowflakes fly…

Now eighty winters you have seen
And eighty times you’ve welcomed spring
Eighty snows have shrouded Earth
And eighty times a second birth

I found you out in the snow
That day it was forty below
I took you into the fire
You were light as a sigh
And I wept in the warm fire’s glow

Then the snow came falling from the sky
Like souls I watched the snowflakes fly
And snow comes falling from the sky
Like souls we watch the snowflakes …
… oh how the snowflakes fly …

A Deindustrial Reading List

Check out John Michael Greer’s essential reading for a post-industrial future on his blog, The Archdruid Report

It’s not easy, but it looks intriguing.

A Deindustrial Reading List

I am sorry to inform you

Despite having the loan of an electric guitar for a couple of months now, I have still not managed to do any songs.

But I do have a decent mike, and though I’ll have to give the guitar back, I’m still hoping to re-record some of my music.

In the meantime, enjoy this link to the Bardic Blog, and a video about the awesome rock power of the 4 chord progression.

http://damh.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/the-power-of-four-chords/

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