Some people have someone to hold them when they are lonely
Some people have someone to call their one and only
Some folks miss the boat, or get a boat that won’t float
Or get a goat that eats their grass
Some people have someone to call their…
It's about Fog...
The fog that crept into the window at the Fort Ord stockade back in 1965, when I would skip breakfast and sit by the barred window in the barber chair and smell the ocean air.
Some people have someone to hold them when they are lonely
Some people have someone to call their one and only
Some folks miss the boat, or get a boat that won’t float
Or get a goat that eats their grass
Some people have someone to call their…
C w Capo @ 5
C G C G
Thirty one years in this city.
C G C G
Thirty one years on this street
Fighting in the morning. Fighting at night.
This place has the smell of defeat…
THE BURDEN OF SANITY - capo @ 5 in An
Am F
As I turned on to Calhoun I could hear the music from the street
Dm E
A dog pissed on a speaker as I found myself a seat
Now, Buster is a caveman all hunched over his bones
Hair matted like a…
She threw her slip down on the bed spread
She threw her panties on the stack
Now she must take them to the cleaners
He said that he will not be back
She turned and reached into the corner
She took her guitar from the rack...
This song might be better suited for a girl but I don't have a girl anymore.
CAREFREE
Every time I go out looking for someone who's not like me
Someone who's learned to take their time and live their poetry
I dream that Care's a monkey…
THE BURDEN OF SANITY - capo @ 5 in An
Am F
As I turned on to Calhoun I could hear the music from the street
Dm E
A dog pissed on a speaker as I found myself a seat
Now, Buster is a caveman all hunched over his bones
Hair matted like a…
How many miles must Guillermo walk?
Before all my good intentions are more that just talk...
How many shoes must his toe wear thru?
How many miles must Guillermo walk?
Thursday afternoon and the bridge is a mess
No chance to pull over so…
LANCASTER STREET
Midnight in Cowtown. 90 degrees
Too hot for a blanket. Too hot for a sheet
The trash on the sidewalk is trying to sleep
Breathing the bus fumes on Lancaster Street
Sunshine brings tacos. Sunshine brings beans.
Sunshine…
LANCASTER STREET
Midnight in Cowtown. 90 degrees
Too hot for a blanket. Too hot for a sheet
The trash on the sidewalk is trying to sleep
Breathing the bus fumes on Lancaster Street
Sunshine brings tacos. Sunshine brings beans.
Sunshine…
SOMETHING ABOUT THE NIGHT TIME
(Am)Something about the (Bm)night time makes me feel alive
Makes me want to sing a song. Think about my life
(C)Maybe light a (D)candle. I like lemon grass
(Am)Something about the (Bm)night time (B Am E…
LANCASTER STREET
Midnight in Cowtown. 90 degrees
Too hot for a blanket. Too hot for a sheet
The trash on the sidewalk is trying to sleep
Breathing the bus fumes on Lancaster Street
Sunshine brings tacos. Sunshine brings beans.
Sunshine…
LANCASTER STREET
Midnight in Cowtown. 90 degrees
Too hot for a blanket. Too hot for a sheet
The trash on the sidewalk is trying to sleep
Breathing the bus fumes on Lancaster Street
Sunshine brings tacos. Sunshine brings beans.
Sunshine…
SOLITARY WALK
I am a child of Judah
and the mark of Cain is on me
I am a fugitive in every place I go.
and my name is Joseph Friedman
and I tend the olive orchards
on a hillside just a short walk from my home.
There, the silver trunks…
I am a child of Judah
and the mark of Cain is on me
I am a fugitive in every place I go.
and my name is Joseph Friedman
and I tend the olive orchards
on a hillside just a short walk from my home.
There, the silver trunks are ancient
and the olive branches fruitful
but the breeze that shakes the leaves
still low, "Where is God? Where is God?"
I am a child of Esau. I am Ali Abed.
I once lived...olives near my home.
I would prune the trees in winter
when the sap sinks deep in Gaza
and the children won't be throwing their stones
But the soldiers came at midnight
with their power saws remarking
and now the sap has nowhere left to go.
Where is God/ Where is God?
My name is Jimmy Taylor
and I am a Future Farmer
and my project is nine trees out by the road.
and the trees have been neglected
all these many years untended
a home now for a solitary crow.
So, I climb with my saw and clippers
up into the brittle thicket
busy choosing what will stay and what will go.
And I note my meter progress
and I wonder if I'll ever
rid the olive trees of dead wood,
I'm so slow. And I read the Sunday paper
and I daily read my Bible
and I see the scars of pruning down below.
(c) 2002 Royal T Music
Here is the latest song challenge offered by the Minnesota Asscociation of Songwriters:
. . . . . . . .
Your mission this month is twofold:
1. Try creating a boundary between the production of content versus the judging…
Here is the latest song challenge offered by the Minnesota Asscociation of Songwriters:
. . . . . . . .
Your mission this month is twofold:
1. Try creating a boundary between the production of content versus the judging…
Those guitar tracks are crisper than fresh celery. Great vocal. Really brings the lyric to life. This is the best thing I have ever heard of yours. Killer. Great song.
SLAUGHTER MOUNTAIN
My mom’s dad was a coal miner. Her mother died of TB when she was a kid. When she was twelve, her dad, dying of black lung, slit his throat with a butcher knife. That left her with a cripple little brother to take care of…
I never sing this song the same two times in a row.
The lyric below is pretty close to how I sing it now.
Listening again, this is an awful version of this song...
I have my recording machine working again...I must redo this.
I PLAY C…
So sweet.. and I relate sooo well. I only had three, but birthing them in 4 yrs, they seemed double that in number at times. And we were a share the bed family too. I played my guitar and sang for them to put them to sleep. I still have memories of the peace that held for me, and I think for them. Gwyn Henry
I never sing this song the same two times in a row.
The lyric below is pretty close to how I sing it now.
Listening again, this is an awful version of this song...
I have my recording machine working again...I must redo this.
I PLAY C…
WATERMELON WIND Capo @ 3 Key G
On a (G) road outside of Brownsboro there’s a (Bm) watermelon stand
Dm Dm - E
All boarded and bedraggled, fallen signs peak thru the sand
Am…
I would never sing this song in a room that wasn't listening.
Enter
You sent
Peggy taught me an Eagles song toward the end off our life together. I think it was NEW BOY IN TOWN. I had no idea what she was telling me. I took the chord progression from that song and wrote this song with it. Peggy thought that was cheating.
WATERMELON WIND Capo @ 3 Key G
On a (G) road outside of Brownsboro there’s a (Bm) watermelon stand
Dm Dm - E
All boarded and bedraggled, fallen signs peak thru the sand
Am…
The 1st time I sang this song in public was at a Nashville Songwriters Association meeting, Fort Worth chapter, and a woman burst out when it hit her. I can hardly sing this song without crying. I really know how to push my buttons.
"...ha! Push your own buttons… I know hat you mean. I listened to the song again to refresh my memory…omg it is so pretty! And yes! I remember well, I did get it that the watermelon man was his father. In fact it brought to my mind another disappearing father, that of my daughter Lisa. He passed several yrs ago. So too late for him now. But your song has beauty and meaning for a lot of folks, I am sure." Gwyn Henry
I saw him live in Dallas about a year before he died. He was sooo good.
His sweet wife sat stage right and frequently he would go over and kiss her. His playing and showmanship were tops and he was like in my living room sharing the things…
LOVE THIS!! Just listened. I'll bet Dale would love it too, He passed in 2019, I just read in wiki, at the age of 85. Your comparison to his doctore may have been apt: He beat colon cancer twice and lived on another eleven years. And he left us his amazing music! - Gwyn Henry
A song I wrote over the last few days. Did a one-take-wonder on the recording, so it's pretty simple. Hope you like it!
Sometimes You Don't
Verse 1
Sometimes in the early morning hours
As the sun lights up the sky
I look back and think…
A friend got me excited about writing short instrumentals for Video, TV etc and posting them on Pond5 ( A site catering to that type of thing). I recorded this little banjo piece this morning.
This is so crisp and bright. Sunlight and rippling waters. It reminds me of one of my rare instrumentals:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/playlists/slaughter-mountain/sunlight-on-spider-web
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
And here is the first reply to In Your Hands.
I say "first" because I've found another one, When I Try To Be Me, that Mrs R says I have to do too... but that's unlikely to be the next one I post because I'm working…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
OK, let's delve once more into the magical shoebox of unused songs...
I've already recorded several that were written in 1994 (Sleeping with the Ghost, Elizabeth's Room, With Mum Again, If You Knew, A Hundred and…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
And here we go - Edith FINALLY gets it...
Actually, she's been getting it ever since I wrote it on the 29th May. I thought it would take a week or so, but it proved to be more of a fight than I was expecting.
On…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
Here it is in all of its glory...
THIS is the song that Mrs R and I had decided was a suitable response to a request to "Upload something HAPPY, stat!!!!!!!!!"
I tried to record it back in 2013 when I wrote it…
I was once asked to write a happy song. It turned out to be about a woman who killed herself and when I found out THAT SHE ACTUALLY KILLED HERSELF I wasn't sure what to think about my premonition.https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/a-happy-song. THEN, later an old friend asked if I had any happy songs so I wrote this:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/if-it-makes-you-happy-092914-1
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
I was asked (told?) to upload something happy. Hmmm, I thought. This will end well...
So, a few days later, I was rehearsing a pleasant little thing I wrote several years ago that has a working title of "She Was…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
Here's the very latest from the broom-cupboard.
I wrote it one dark night over 23 years ago.
****
**All I Have To Do - A A J Russe**
There isn’t much time to get this out
You won’t hear me if I have to…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
Okies, so I'm working on some other thing and it's taking a while... drums to do and wotnot. But in the middle of it I'm digging how my Martin acoustic is working out. You probs won't even be able to hear it amongst…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
I wrote this one last September.
Allison Jane Sixsmith 1965-2016.
****
**Forever - A A J Russe**
I can see you on your rocking horse now
The one that turned around and kicked you in the teeth
He thought…
I hear you’re drinking at the chocolate fountain
You pulled the handle off the door
But they won’t mind
They’ll be mending it forever..." Great images...
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
I wasn't even sure the recording machine was still going to work after nearly five years... Certainly, bits of me don't work anymore... But, surprisingly, I got this done in 24 hours, start to finish... Strange old world…
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
Cool song I like the old style picking Great lyrics, imho
wow. The guitar is really lovely and so are the vox . Angelic :)
Beautiful composition. I am reminded slightly of Neil Young :)
Lovely picking and the pads are a great support :) Nice!
Nice. I like it.
Great new batch of songs, JMT. Sounds like you’ve turned a corner. All the exquisite choral harmonies are still there.
I just like saying it.
I really like Burden of Sanity James! Sam Gross
real nice, love the lyrics !
Cool melancholy melody!
I think this is good, but it's more folk than country, but the most popular country is rock.
you paint a wonderful picture here A fine song! enjoyed! KC
I dig the desolate mood here cool vocals
not enough tacos
Awesome track. Brilliant
Great track. The high lonesome vox lead the band
Hello
Dour guitar. Lush vox. Great lyrics. Great track :)
Heart breaking. Yet, beautiful artistry. I listened and tears came.
I am a child of Judah and the mark of Cain is on me I am a fugitive in every place I go. and my name is Joseph Friedman and I tend the olive orchards on a hillside just a short walk from my home. There, the silver trunks are ancient and the olive branches fruitful but the breeze that shakes the leaves still low, "Where is God? Where is God?" I am a child of Esau. I am Ali Abed. I once lived...olives near my home. I would prune the trees in winter when the sap sinks deep in Gaza and the children won't be throwing their stones But the soldiers came at midnight with their power saws remarking and now the sap has nowhere left to go. Where is God/ Where is God? My name is Jimmy Taylor and I am a Future Farmer and my project is nine trees out by the road. and the trees have been neglected all these many years untended a home now for a solitary crow. So, I climb with my saw and clippers up into the brittle thicket busy choosing what will stay and what will go. And I note my meter progress and I wonder if I'll ever rid the olive trees of dead wood, I'm so slow. And I read the Sunday paper and I daily read my Bible and I see the scars of pruning down below. (c) 2002 Royal T Music
Comments made by James Michael Taylor
I thot I sent you a response... Can't see it now.
Those guitar tracks are crisper than fresh celery. Great vocal. Really brings the lyric to life. This is the best thing I have ever heard of yours. Killer. Great song.
Gwyn Henry - 😊 be-yoo-ti-full!!
Wow! I sampled all the songs, it’s a great album and I will listen to it more tomorrow. Thank you! Ken Mcintyre
So sweet.. and I relate sooo well. I only had three, but birthing them in 4 yrs, they seemed double that in number at times. And we were a share the bed family too. I played my guitar and sang for them to put them to sleep. I still have memories of the peace that held for me, and I think for them. Gwyn Henry
Seems ea song I hear of yours for the first time is my new favorite song of yours! Gwyn Henry
I would never sing this song in a room that wasn't listening. Enter You sent Peggy taught me an Eagles song toward the end off our life together. I think it was NEW BOY IN TOWN. I had no idea what she was telling me. I took the chord progression from that song and wrote this song with it. Peggy thought that was cheating.
The 1st time I sang this song in public was at a Nashville Songwriters Association meeting, Fort Worth chapter, and a woman burst out when it hit her. I can hardly sing this song without crying. I really know how to push my buttons. "...ha! Push your own buttons… I know hat you mean. I listened to the song again to refresh my memory…omg it is so pretty! And yes! I remember well, I did get it that the watermelon man was his father. In fact it brought to my mind another disappearing father, that of my daughter Lisa. He passed several yrs ago. So too late for him now. But your song has beauty and meaning for a lot of folks, I am sure." Gwyn Henry
LOVE THIS!! Just listened. I'll bet Dale would love it too, He passed in 2019, I just read in wiki, at the age of 85. Your comparison to his doctore may have been apt: He beat colon cancer twice and lived on another eleven years. And he left us his amazing music! - Gwyn Henry
Such pathos. Your voice captures the sadness so well... Sometimes you don’t feel the love until you’ve lost it..."
This is so crisp and bright. Sunlight and rippling waters. It reminds me of one of my rare instrumentals:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/playlists/slaughter-mountain/sunlight-on-spider-web
Simple and clear...
"Teddy bead kisses..." So sad.
Sounds like another suicide song to me... We can feel the pain in your voice.
I was once asked to write a happy song. It turned out to be about a woman who killed herself and when I found out THAT SHE ACTUALLY KILLED HERSELF I wasn't sure what to think about my premonition.https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/a-happy-song. THEN, later an old friend asked if I had any happy songs so I wrote this:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/if-it-makes-you-happy-092914-1
"But still I love the comfort I find in misery…" Great line. Beatle like...and that's always good.
Great guitar sound.
Love this. Beautifully done. Tonight I was trying out a song from that era: Twilight Time...https://www.e-chords.com/chords/the-platters/twilight-time
I hear you’re drinking at the chocolate fountain You pulled the handle off the door But they won’t mind They’ll be mending it forever..." Great images...
Rock on Dude...! Good to listen to some of your tunes. It's been a while. Strange relationship in this song.