The story is at www.iburymydead.com
THE CHILD WITH THE BEAUTIFUL NAME
What remains of an eagle that's fallen
The roots of an oak tree now claim
To draw sap for the shade for the cattle
O're the child with the beautiful name
The law…
The story is at www.iburymydead.com
THE CHILD WITH THE BEAUTIFUL NAME
What remains of an eagle that's fallen
The roots of an oak tree now claim
To draw sap for the shade for the cattle
O're the child with the beautiful name
The law…
I first heard this song yesterday when I was listening to you reading "I bury my dead", and I immediately loved it. I'm sure I would have loved it without hearing the story too, but it sure adds a lot of meaning and depths to it.
Great work, James!
This song tells about a guy I know named Gene.
GENE
Gene had a girlfriend
The band would play and they would dance
She was tall and Gene was tall
A lovely late romance
They'd smile and hold each other
They'd sit and share a drink
Holding…
> First there was Spring Time. Then there was Summer.
> Then there was Autumn.
>
> And then there was Winter. Her daddy mowed lawns
> She was a smart little doll
> River loved Winter. His dad was a singer
> But River…
Dad wanted me to write him some funeral music. This is it. He's still alive at 91 and sings this song to himself and tears come to his eyes. I have a video of Dad and me singing a duet of this song.
EULOGY
He grew up in Clinton, Oklahoma…
Dad wanted me to write him some funeral music. This is it. He's still alive at 91 and sings this song to himself and tears come to his eyes. I have a video of Dad and me singing a duet of this song.
EULOGY
He grew up in Clinton, Oklahoma…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
Yeah, I know.
I can't understand it either.
TESLA
Who invented remote control? TESLA
Who invented the fluorescent light? TESLA
Who invented the radio? TESLA
And who died alone and forgotten in 1943? TESLA
So, you say now, “Don’t be…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
It's great the way you remember so many of the details of your life.
You so beautifully weave bits of memory into a story cloth. Every line holds my attention always waiting for your next thought.
Thanks again for sharing your amazingly human and heartfelt stories.
I REMEMBER THEM
Capo @ 5 in C (F)
C CM7 C CM7
I stare at a picture of you and me thirty years ago
G C CM7
Sitting on the porch at a cheap motel in Midland
C CM7 FM7
Glad I didn't know way back then what I didn't know
G C CM7
Stars in…
Song well done and voice good. Guitar and chords very nice. Not sure about the way words fit, or something, sounds too much like a commercial. Just a collection of facts.
I wrote this song with Lisa Aschmann. CAPO @ 3
Video - https://www.facebook.com/100001011201926/videos/1285714588695761/
HICKORY STIX
Dm Am
Billy Mac and Don McCray drive to work each dawn at six
Down the mountain to the factory, makes…
Tim Tandy
Hickory Stix has always captivated me. Dang, I gotta start getting out to open mics again. Might even get the chance to sing that high harmony on the "oohs!"
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…
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. Peggy said that was cheating.
WATERMELON…
OH JIMMY
capo @ 4 or 5 live
C Am F G
On page thirty of the yearbook he found a picture sweet
A girl named Marie Angel, in school right down the street
Dm walk down G
He didn’t notice…
Yes, it is obvious to anyone who actually listens to follow the story. The killer line ... the picture that finishes breaking what's left of the listener's heart is "but Jimmy bought the yearbook, and he hold it now and then". Lazarus Knight
capo @ 4 Am - 3/4 time (starts on A)
Am G Am G Am
Last night I said Good bye to Rose but long ago I learned.
The things that last we seldom know and think a bridge is burned.
Bb…
brush up on "Lest night I said goodbye to Rose" I know that's not exactly the title, but I think many people would like that song like I do. Lazareth Knight
OH JIMMY
capo @ 4 or 5 live
C Am F G
On page thirty of the yearbook he found a picture sweet
A girl named Marie Angel, in school right down the street
Dm walk down G
He didn’t notice…
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…
COWTOWN
In a court yard down the alley
There's a grave yard, weeds and litter
Memories, undisturbed, await their doom
Beneath the glitter of COWTOWN
You take a building, old and crooked
Long ago the life forsook it
Paint it up and name…
I was talking about the Wight Hotel, directly across the street from The White Elephant. The things you mention were going on when The Beer Garden 1st took over that rat hole between the Elephant and the steak house.
Yeah, there's an "Indian" graveyard somewhere out there at the Stock Yards.
COWTOWN Key Em
Em C D Em
In a courtyard down the alley there’s a graveyard…
Tim Tandy
This one really grabs me, Jim. I enjoy the "play like" aspect of the Stockyards District today, but I KNOW what was real and what wasn't. When I grew up in East Fort Worth in the 50's thru the 70's, the Stockyards were a working affair. Everyone downwind got the dust and rancid odors that were a mixture of cattle manure, blood and guts, and rendered fat. Get up close, and you added in the panicked sounds of cattle going up the ramps to slaughter. The buildings along E and W Exchange were mostly delapidated flop-houses, and I recall there were usually destitute men in soiled undershirts leaning out the upstairs windows smoking cigarettes and taking it all in. When the slaughterhouses shut down and the development folks took over, they neatly "packed up" the ambience of the historical "Hell's Half Acre" - gambling halls, saloons, cheap hotels, bordello's and the site of gunfights such as the famous Luke Short/Jim Courtright affair - which had been razed in the 60's and replaced with the Water Gardens and Convention Center as an act of "urban renewal", and "relocated" them to the Stockyards. I really don't object to all of it, but just wish they were a bit more open about what's shit and what's Shinola, ya know? All the tourists crowd E Exhange at the appointed hour and hoot and holler and excitedly REAL Wild West every day when the "cattle drive" occurs. Oh, well, as Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard" liked to say, "Yippi-ki-yay, MF!"
When this happened I couldn't get home before I had the song half written. What a lonely feeling.
NOBODY KNOW ME IN TOWN ANY MORE Key of G
G Em
There’s a bird in the gutter that…
Sad, and that was 11 years ago. How does it feel now ... like more of the same? It seems to me like your not just accepted but held in high esteem at the places where I've seen you perform. Lazarus Knight
The lyrics of this song,
as they pertain to plot,
are my exact memory of the event.
I had spoken to the kid maybe a minute before the "action" started about how the pressure of the water was very strong. He was nestled down with his back…
Terry Rasor
I remember those daze Michael, y’all were awesome and I’m glad and proud to have known you all and have you at my Raz On The Braz festival so many years ago! Love ya my friend!
Roland Brown
Sorry to hear about Barbara. Texas Water was as good as you say. I’m thinking about adding “I’ll Be Glad to Let You Love Me” to our band’s set list.
THE DUST ON THE PIANO
Capo at 2 in Dm
Dm C (2) or Em D
He used to play piano because it made her smile
Dm C (2)
She could be in any room. He'd sit and play a while
F C Bb (G)Dm or G D C Em
He didn't need to see her. He knew she loved…
THE DUST ON THE PIANO
Capo at 2 in Dm
Dm C (2) or Em D
He used to play piano because it made her smile
Dm C (2)
She could be in any room. He'd sit and play a while
F C Bb (G)Dm or G D C Em
He didn't need to see her. He knew she loved…
THE DUST ON THE PIANO
Capo at 2 in Dm
Dm C (2) or Em D
He used to play piano because it made her smile
Dm C (2)
She could be in any room. He'd sit and play a while
F C Bb (G)Dm or G D C Em
He didn't need to see her. He knew she loved…
THE DUST ON THE PIANO
Capo at 2 in Dm
Dm C (2) or Em D
He used to play piano because it made her smile
Dm C (2)
She could be in any room. He'd sit and play a while
F C Bb (G)Dm or G D C Em
He didn't need to see her. He knew she loved…
THE INAPPROPRIATE QUESTION - Capo @ 2 to sing
G C/G bass
She said, “I can see that you’re hurting,
And I can see that you are wearing a ring.
Perhaps an inappropriate question,
but I’d like to ask you something.
Soon I will be a grand…
THE COUCH - key - C
https://fb.watch/lIEUn31mBZ/
https://www.facebook.com/100054814402634/videos/2856132984527543/
1-C 4-F
Today we put the couch out by the road
5-G…
Gwyn -Verrrrry nice! PS: I listened to the "shorts" you sent me while sitting in the car waiting for Greg to pick up some groceries. I think you have invented a new artform with these shorts: Haiku Songs! I really loved them. I laughed a lot, and that's a compliment!
NOWHERE - Key of G
James Michael Taylor
1. Maybe I misunderstood G
Maybe I was wrong C
But I thot you loved me D
You stayed so long G
2. Maybe I missed something…
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
this is just beautiful...lovely vocals...guitar solo in sundown mode...sweet indeed
I first heard this song yesterday when I was listening to you reading "I bury my dead", and I immediately loved it. I'm sure I would have loved it without hearing the story too, but it sure adds a lot of meaning and depths to it. Great work, James!
Hey, that's an unexpected style from you. Nice old-school (60s) feel.
You are a proof for my conviction that a good lyric is a requirement for a good song. All your lyrics are great IMO, and so are your songs.
interesting song,,,very nice story telling,, i think i'll need to listen a few more times
Great great James. I like the picture you took of him thru the window on FB.
Wonderful that you got to do this while he's still around to appreciate it!
This is really beautifully done.
Well, at least you know who you are, that's a lot more than some.
Great song James!
Love it James!
Dig it! Oh yeah.... LG
Beautiful song, Jim.
honesty and info rolled into a nice melodic thread. enjoyed very much. Telsa. thanks JMT!
Right on, I would say.
Good stuff, James!
It's great the way you remember so many of the details of your life. You so beautifully weave bits of memory into a story cloth. Every line holds my attention always waiting for your next thought. Thanks again for sharing your amazingly human and heartfelt stories.
I can relate to this. Good one Al
Song well done and voice good. Guitar and chords very nice. Not sure about the way words fit, or something, sounds too much like a commercial. Just a collection of facts.
love the stumbling drunk feel to the bass and drums great vocal
Comments made by James Michael Taylor
Bruce Balmer I like the parallel sixths in the backing vocals.
Tim Tandy Hickory Stix has always captivated me. Dang, I gotta start getting out to open mics again. Might even get the chance to sing that high harmony on the "oohs!"
Rose Jeffus - I agree. (with Lane. "I declare this album your #1 compilation."
Watermelon Wind is a good one too. Really inspiring images Lazarus Knight
Yes, it is obvious to anyone who actually listens to follow the story. The killer line ... the picture that finishes breaking what's left of the listener's heart is "but Jimmy bought the yearbook, and he hold it now and then". Lazarus Knight
brush up on "Lest night I said goodbye to Rose" I know that's not exactly the title, but I think many people would like that song like I do. Lazareth Knight
Oh Jimmy rings of a certain kind of pain that you've captured perfectly. Lazarath Knight.
Lane Beauvais By the power invested in me, I declare this album your #1 compilation.
I was talking about the Wight Hotel, directly across the street from The White Elephant. The things you mention were going on when The Beer Garden 1st took over that rat hole between the Elephant and the steak house.
Tim Tandy This one really grabs me, Jim. I enjoy the "play like" aspect of the Stockyards District today, but I KNOW what was real and what wasn't. When I grew up in East Fort Worth in the 50's thru the 70's, the Stockyards were a working affair. Everyone downwind got the dust and rancid odors that were a mixture of cattle manure, blood and guts, and rendered fat. Get up close, and you added in the panicked sounds of cattle going up the ramps to slaughter. The buildings along E and W Exchange were mostly delapidated flop-houses, and I recall there were usually destitute men in soiled undershirts leaning out the upstairs windows smoking cigarettes and taking it all in. When the slaughterhouses shut down and the development folks took over, they neatly "packed up" the ambience of the historical "Hell's Half Acre" - gambling halls, saloons, cheap hotels, bordello's and the site of gunfights such as the famous Luke Short/Jim Courtright affair - which had been razed in the 60's and replaced with the Water Gardens and Convention Center as an act of "urban renewal", and "relocated" them to the Stockyards. I really don't object to all of it, but just wish they were a bit more open about what's shit and what's Shinola, ya know? All the tourists crowd E Exhange at the appointed hour and hoot and holler and excitedly REAL Wild West every day when the "cattle drive" occurs. Oh, well, as Bruce Willis' character in "Die Hard" liked to say, "Yippi-ki-yay, MF!"
Sad, and that was 11 years ago. How does it feel now ... like more of the same? It seems to me like your not just accepted but held in high esteem at the places where I've seen you perform. Lazarus Knight
Terry Rasor I remember those daze Michael, y’all were awesome and I’m glad and proud to have known you all and have you at my Raz On The Braz festival so many years ago! Love ya my friend!
Roland Brown Sorry to hear about Barbara. Texas Water was as good as you say. I’m thinking about adding “I’ll Be Glad to Let You Love Me” to our band’s set list.
Joe Brunelle - I like this, Jim
Lazarus Knight That's a really good song. It resonates with truth.
Tim Tandy Brilliantly haunting! Like a character in a Hank Williams song, you're telling a poignant, sad story, but NOT seeking pity.
"Wow, beautiful." Ken McIntyre
I like that a lot. Its a fresh perspective. Lazareth Knight
Gwyn -Verrrrry nice! PS: I listened to the "shorts" you sent me while sitting in the car waiting for Greg to pick up some groceries. I think you have invented a new artform with these shorts: Haiku Songs! I really loved them. I laughed a lot, and that's a compliment!
Laurie Callinan ...beautiful heartbreaking song.