Gumbo

An old traditional sea chanty with a long intro that’s influenced by the playing of Bill Frisell

This is my 2007 Pirate Day song, written and recorded September 19th 2007. I like the innuendo, but maybe it’s too subtle - nobody else seems to notice ;~)

I recorded this ocelot while it was in a trap. There are several traps set up here at the research station to catch mammals so that they can be radio-collared for research. I am currently working on a tune made entirely with this sample- stay tuned!

This was written and recorded on 19th September 05
aka International Talk Like A Pirate Day 2005 ( a wet afternoon as I recall) and is posted here so you start to get the hint.

Shhh….

Another song I worked on for Bethan Mathis. She had come up with this funny song, and asked for some music to go along with it. I got a bit carried away, but I think it all works. Since Bethan has recently removed her account, she gave me permission to upload this song to mine.

Lyrics/main…read more

This here be last years Pirate Day Song and a little darker as befits it’s murky past.

read more

Now ye sons of the kraaken, let’s get to some honest pillaging, shall we? Aaaarh!

The devil is an idle jest compared to what’s within this chest
No hearts more black than ours they say
trust your own hide to be waterproof only
else they’ll hang you from that tree, that crowd that is stoney…read more

A failed attempt to sing a song of the glorious banana breakfasts served by P.P. in “Gravity’s Rainbow”

Rasta Pirate pleas with colonial hottie to guide him to her treasure vault. Rough demo for now.

Here now, there be treasure to hide and we’ll bury it full deep in the earth, and ye with it if you tell the tale. To the shovels lads, and dig down.

International Talk Like A Pirate day is upon us, so swab yer decks and break open the Rum, and the devil take the merchantmen down to Forty…read more

Created and performed at the whim of the tyrant Michael John Keegan

Aarrhhh ye scurvy sons (and daughters) of sea-rats, the pesky pluckers have been at it again.

Pin back yer lug-holes or it’s the plank ye’ll be hoping for!

Lyrics:
Skip ahead to her in pants,
watch her dance in the living room
in front of all the other dinner guests.
She thumbs her nose at simulacra,
but someone must play Cleopatra
in the PTA’s yearly drama fest.

Her husband broke his body skiing.
Still he loves with all his being.
He…read more

Just a little song about another hopeless romantic. Actually, I just really like the name Svetlana.

Reg is still in the empty bar but this time he decides to sing along and let his Blues out……….he wakes…….

(um, what the title says)

First track recorded for RPM 2011, done live.

Harmonica by Dr. K

Paper hearts in your window
paper hearts on your door
Paper hearts ripped in pieces
And Strewn across the floor

but who am I to question
The intentions of old
These hearts made of paper
Are just things to…read more

This song was born on the 18th of Feb. 2011. It was the last piece I wrote/recorded for the challenge. It was a very sad day for me, almost as if all my usual winter sadness was concentrated and crammed into one day. The process of writing and recording this song seemed about the only thing that…read more

So I’m watching Ken Burns’ documentary on the National Parks and realize that I’d never written that John Muir song I had been meaning to get to… So I got to it. Tim Alexander (Letter Seventeen) mentioned that he thought the song needed a mandolin. He sent a mandolin track along. He was…read more

Something I’m working on for RPM 2011. I think this is a really pretty tune, just wish I had the kind of voice for singing it.

the brightest comes inside

Trying to see if I can break alonetone’s formatting with the song title ;)

Zack did me a favor & played an electric guitar part on this one. I had hoped to work with him more on this project, but he wound up leaving town to help take care for a recovering family member.

Seventeen thousand years in the making…read more

Had the blues in Alabama
Had the blues in Texas too
Had the blues all over
Now I ‘m givin’ em to you
And if you don’t want em
You know what you can do
You wont find me I’m goin’ ta run and hide away from you
Because I see trouble
Trouble comin’ down the line
Better get yourself together…read more

A few years back (when I lived it Texas), I drove out to an open field to watch the Geminids meteor shower… I really need to remember to look up at the night sky more often.

The Showers of December

Lying flat on my back
Looking up at the southern sky
No point in keeping track…read more

I have no excuse for this one.

Reg has left re-hab but now he has to fill those sober hours with something, so he has taken to people watching, but like everything in his life he has become addicted to it, listening in on there private conversation as he follows them, watching there every movement. Which obviously leads to…read more

RPM 2011 number 2. Inspired by an ex-friend of mine who had the most dazzling rose tinted glasses. Always used to envy the simplicity of his view and how nothing could ever get to him (everything gets to me).. since i knew him I know a lot of bad stuff has come to him so he may well have abandoned…read more

A crazy little song written while considering Ed Robertson’s plane crash from a few years back, “Any Landing” is given much legitimacy by Ashley’s incredible voice and Kavin Allenson’s (Kavin S. Acoustic Church) guitar.

Any Landing

Learning to swim seems crazy
When the water’s a little…read more

I had myself a séance, with shakespears players, brought some sooth sayers,
Scribbled what they said with crayons
Ohh, got me nowhere

And so I called Steven Fry up, and put him in a line up
Oscar Wilde, Wittengenstein, Einstein I need to aim higher
And God knows where
The words I need may…read more

Final version
Guitar, mandolin and voice.

this doesn’t fit with my rpm project AT ALL so i may not use it but i like the way it came out. I recorded the music for Bethan Mathis’ RPM project but she didn’t have time to use it (her album is excellent btw) and then these lyrics arrived.
It…read more

Written and Recorded: February 22, 2011
DADGAD, DADGBD

A live improvised recording for the RPM Challenge 2011
recorded 2/19/11 at Dunn Bros. Coffee in Keller, Tx.

Kavin.: guitars, loops
Michelangelo: buzz guitar
Ross Reitzammer: flute

Final version
One of my heroes. Willie McTell was blind from birth and travelled all over the south in the thirties at a time when many people would never go more than 20 miles from their home.

Plus nobody sings the blues quite like him!

Good Lord Good Lord
Who’s that coming now
it’s…read more

Jekyll and Hyde
are both well and alive
and they’re living inside of home
Jekyll is kind to me
Smiles all the time to me
Hyde is a wild arrow from a bow

As much as Jekyll makes you smile
If she drinks herself some wine
You’ll be the one that wants to hide.
Wo-ooh-wo-o.

Jekyll and Hyde
Are…read more

Bookending the “Late December” CD, this song about my little girls on Christmas morning holds a special place in my heart. Thanks to Sam and Mick for making it perfect.

One Perfect Day

Go to sleep my blue-eyed girl
The sun is on its way
When I see your morning eyes
Every day is…read more

A tune I recorded before my computer crashed the first week into RPM 2011. I recovered this after getting a new computer after the deadline…

Tweaked, remixed and mastered version of my 2011 RPM effort.

Tweaked, remixed and mastered version of my 2011 RPM effort.