more recent entries
december 30, 2011
A rather silly song for you today,
with best wishes for a happy new year!
including a keyboard scat solo!!!
find out what the hell that is by clicking here.
december 23, 2011
I have always liked the Christmas song "The Holly And The Ivy", while at the same time wondering about the lyrics.
"The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown/ Of all the trees that are in the wood, the holly bears the crown"...
Does this seem to imply some sort of contest between trees?
And what does ivy have to do with Christmas anyway?
Lo and - you guessed it - behold, the original lyrics to Holly and Ivy were indeed about a contest: the famous battle of the sexes.
I made a rough recording of some lyrics I found on the interwebs that are purported to be one of the versions of the original medieval lyrics (supposedly collected around 1911).
I don't have a fact-checker handy to find out how reliable these are, but I enjoyed them, and you can decide for yourself by clicking here.
This holiday season,
give your loved one a unique, custom-made original song.
for more info,
click here
december 16, 2011
Although it's not one of the most popular christmas songs, I have always liked the lyrics to "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear". But sometimes you hear a song so many times, you stop listening to the words.
I also think it's too bad that people rarely sing the third and fourth stanzas, because they are nice.
So I decided to make a new tune for the poem, which was written in 1850 by a Unitarian minister named Edmund Sears (1810- 1876).
Edmund Sears and his weird beard
Of course, I barely had time this week to start sketching it out, and it's not a great performance. But isn't that what you've come to expect from a person who has been making a song every single dingle week for almost two years straight?
Maybe sometime in the future I'll work on it some more. In the meantime, you can listen here.
december 9, 2011
Another custom-made song, made on commission for a well-loved cat. I hope she likes it.
you can buy this creepy card here
If you hurry, you can still order a custom-made song for Christmas or Hanukkah.
For more info, click here.
To listen to a song custom made for a cat, click here.
december 2, 2011
Here's an example of a custom-made song. I made it this week on commission for a special birthday girl.
Bespoke tailor on Saville Row in London, 2008
It was presented to her Sunday night, and I'm sorry I don't have a live recording of that, because it sounds a thousand times better with a whole piano bar full of drunk people singing along.
Alas, you will have to settle for what can be heard here.
november 25, 2011
If you have any home repair to do, this week's song is for you!
It doesn't have any words, so you can make up your own!
Enjoy it here.
november 18, 2011
Here's a change of pace for ya: a church song.
a small framed print of Botticelli's
Madonna del Magnificat (1491)
that hung in my grandma's house for 40 years and now hangs in mine
This week I decided to set a few lines from the Magnificat, the famous words of Mary as told in the first chapter of Luke.
In addition to singing in bars, I also have a job singing in a church.
So I just might try out in real life the little ditty you can listen to here.
november 11, 2011
What to do when you adore a certain songwriter so fiercely that you can't stop writing songs about how much you love his songs?
What to do if you fear that your adoration may make you appear to be unreasonably fanatical? mildly unbalanced? wearing the red hot crazypants?
Simply omit his name in your most recent tribute song, which happens to be streaming here.
Take that, restraining order!
buy this album! buuuuuuy ittttt
november 4, 2011
SHOW TONIGHT!!!
Art songs with Adam Shulman in Berkeley.
Click for details.
I enjoy making a song every week, although most of the time I am more pleased by the process than the product.
This week's song could use a lot more time and attention than it got. But it might be the start of a better song.
You can listen to it here.
october 28, 2011
This week's song is kind of an homage to "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal, You" - one of the all-time greatest songs about spite.
For more info on that little gem, including the lyrics recorded by Wesley Wilson (1930), Cab Calloway (1931) and Louis Armstrong (1932), check out this website.
To listen to my own ditty, "I'll Dance At Your Funeral When Your'e Dead And Gone," click here.
october 21, 2011
Lately I have been spending all my song-making energy on a project which is yet to be unveiled.
Not actually a veiled statue: "Veiled Statue" in Carlsbad Caverns
I am still not ready to do any major unveiling, other than offering a rough sketch of a song which you can listen to here.
october 14, 2011
Have you come to sing pumpkin carols?
Why yes, Linus! Yes indeed.
This week, while returning home from our pumpkin-gathering voyage to Half Moon Bay, Adam Shulman and I improvised several pumpkin carols.
I recorded them when I got home, and you may listen and sing along here.
october 7, 2011
I'm doing a FREE LIVE SHOW this Sunday at The Rite Spot!
Opening for Karina Denike. Did I mention it's FREEEEEEE?!
I wish I could say some genius idea inspired this week's song...
Really I just felt like singing some harmony.
It's called I Never Said Never Let Me Go, but it has nothing to do with this:
Or this:
You can hear the results here.
september 30, 2011
Enough with the touchy-feely stuff.
This week's song is literally ripped from the headlines. Or, to be exact, ripped from page 8 of the Piedmont Post.
True crime excerpts from the police blotter, in all their sordid detail. The seamiest side of Piedmont, set to music for your listening pleasure, here.
september 23, 2011
This week I was planning to make a song about a ridiculous and stupid subject.
But then I heard this interview with author and illustrator Maurice Sendak.
from Where The Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak 1963
The 83 year-old offered many lovely sentiments and expressed himself so musically, I decided to take it one step further and sing his words.
I didn't change any of his words; just selected some that I thought were singable and then sang them, such as "There's something I am finding out as I am aging: that I am in love with the world."
from In The Night Kitchen, Maurice Sendak 1970
This song is dedicated to all Septemberistas (you know who you are!) and can be heard here.
september 16, 2011
This week I am featuring a song written by the wonderful Adam Shulman. He had a lovely melody and chords; I just added lyrics and sang it. All the performances on the recording are him, except the voice.
It's about possibilities. Have you typed the word possibilities lately? It is seriously weirding me out.
But anyway. The song. here.
september 9, 2011
Is this week's song inspired by a subject already famously addressed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Ravel?
yes.
Does it shamelessly mis-appropriate the music of another culture?
yes.
was it fun to make?
yes!
Scheherazade by Virginia Frances Sterret, 1928
Will you listen to it by clicking here?
september 2, 2011
!!live show tomorrow night!!
at Viracocha in San Francisco
(click for details)
This week's song is about swimming. Kinda.
You can listen to it here.
august 26, 2011
This week I decided to take a song that I started writing long ago and finish it.
Edinburgh (photo: National Library of Scotland)
It had a chorus, but I never did like the verse, which is why it has been sitting in a drawer for years.
So this week I dusted it off, made a new verse and posted the whole thing here.
august 19, 2011
This week's song is inspired by the arcade game known as the claw crane.
Everyone's a winner! here.
august 12, 2011
Like most of what I post here, this week's song is an experiment.
I had written a rather cheesy, pseudo-classical, Andrew Lloyd Webber style ballad, and I felt it was just too DRAMATIC. You know - handkerchief twisting, bodice heaving, etc.
So I wanted to see if there was any possible way to record it that might minimize the cheese.
I did my best....it still sounds like it belongs in a bad musical. but maybe now it sounds more like a space opera than a soap opera.
You can hear the result here.
august 5, 2011
"If you keep it up, the men in white coats will come to take you away!"
Would that be such a bad thing?
find out here.
july 29, 2011
This week as a special treat I am offering three original songs written and performed by the kids in the Teen Training summer program at Spindrift School of Performing Arts. Their ages range from 12 - 17.
All three songs are about the students' real life experiences at an audition.
They wrote these songs collaboratively in just a few class sessions, and recorded them in just one short 45-minute session, with a minimum of retakes. And although we didn't have a ton of time to put it all together, I think you'll agree the songs are wonderful and I am super proud of both the process and the product.
All the lyrics came directly from the kids; I helped a little by making some GarageBand tracks for them to sing to, and guided them along.
For more information on their production of Once On This Island (August 5 - 7), click here.
To hear their original songs, click here.
july 22, 2011
I have been meaning to practice the accordion more.
And so you must suffer.
Also, cooking metaphors!
Get your goulash here.
july 15, 2011
Today I wrote a song with Karina Denike.
As our accompaniment, we used an adorable antique wind-up toy that plays three chords when you crank it.
It looks something like this top:
Except it has a crank handle.
Anyway, we made a little sketch recording and decided to share it here.
You can hear the real thing live on Thursday night at this event.
july 8, 2011
this week's song features some questionable viola playing and an internal pulse that holds together about as tightly as a torn fishnet.
I should have more faith in myself, right?
Caravaggio's
incredulous Thomas & friends c-1601
this week's song is called Infidel and you can listen to it here.
july 1, 2011
Lately I've been listening to Emmylou Harris' 1975 album Pieces of the Sky.
I don't believe I've ever made any commands here, but YOU SHOULD BUY THIS ALBUM.
Anyway, for that and a few other reasons this week's song headed in a country direction.
It also includes a few math metaphors - at no extra charge to you, the customer.
You can listen to it here.