Lee Snaples
And I've never heard you do this live because...
James Michael Taylor
...because. I've never sung it except when I was recording it as I "wrote" it. Are you suggesting I should?
You might notice that it's been on line since 2007 and not one comment.
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…
Kat Angel
James Michael Taylor awesome 💞 Your song is incredibly beautiful and soulful. My fav part was your narrative at the beginning. Haunting. My sister's name is Loretta 💕 My mom ....chose her namesake to tag her beautiful baby girl. Time. Goes. By.
There is nothing like the presence of a horse. The quiet understanding. The gentle strength.
Woodlake, California...1961. I had a horse. She was my friend.
There were times in my teens when Babe was the only being that did not judge me…
There is nothing like the presence of a horse. The quiet understanding. The gentle strength.
Woodlake, California...1961. I had a horse. She was my friend.
There were times in my teens when Babe was the only being that did not judge me…
BEAVERS AND WILLOWS
Capo @ 5 in C
FCG FC FCFG
F C G F C
Like beavers and willows
Bats and mosquitos
F) Toad C) frogs and F) flies (G
DA DA - E Am G C
Algae and oil spills
Shovels and coal hills
Black holes…
There is nothing like the presence of a horse. The quiet understanding. The gentle strength.
Woodlake, California...1961. I had a horse. She was my friend.
There were times in my teens when Babe was the only being that did not judge me…
This is my mom's story.
Lula Teeters got off to
a pretty rough start.
She finally turned it
all lose last November.
May she rest in peace.
SISTER SAID
Daddy was a miner. He worked himself to death
Company said he killed himself, but…
Gwyn Henry said, "Your song spoke of a much more major event, than my struggling to take that picture... my picture being my art, your song being your art in this train of logic. But even capturing images from what you see in the world around you that calls out to you... it is a life saving and nurturing process for me. Art as salvation." I said, "Where I put things when I find a place for them."
This is my mom's story.
Lula Teeters got off to
a pretty rough start.
She finally turned it
all lose last November.
May she rest in peace.
SISTER SAID
Daddy was a miner. He worked himself to death
Company said he killed himself, but…
Your song spoke of a much more major event, than my struggling to take that picture... my picture being my art, your song being your art in this train of logic. But even capturing images from what you see in the world around you that calls out to you... it is a life saving and nurturing process for me. Art as salvation. Gwyn Henry
This is my mom's story.
Lula Teeters got off to
a pretty rough start.
She finally turned it
all lose last November.
May she rest in peace.
SISTER SAID
Daddy was a miner. He worked himself to death
Company said he killed himself, but…
You were talking about Salvation art earlier-- Although this is great in its own right as to what it gives to others, I can see the processing that was going on in letting this go, in a kind of creation. Just beautiful! Gwyn Henry
There is nothing like the presence of a horse. The quiet understanding. The gentle strength.
Woodlake, California...1961. I had a horse. She was my friend.
There were times in my teens when Babe was the only being that did not judge me…
Gwyn Henry
James Michael Taylor Oh, yes, this is beautiful,Jim.You should do more of this... spoken word,to music. I'm thinking that you have,tho! Or spoken word mixe w/ sung.
SOMERTHING TO BELIEVE capo @ 2 in C
C
They’re rounding up the roosters down in Florida
F
Drowning all the snakes in New Orleans
G
The fires are chasing antelopes in Chyanne…
CEDRICH/DRUNKEN INDIAN
CEDRICK Key G Open G tuning (GGDGBD)
He gave me 2 rings. Silver with turquoise insets. That was 1974. We were moving from Oregon to Texas in an old Dodge school bus. Towing the Chevy Van behind it. Unhitched the van…
I'M AN EAGLE
I'm an eagle
I'm an arrow
I'm a falcon
I'm a sparrow
...and I feel the wind crossing my feathers in the morning
Flying high above the fields. Swoop down without a warning
I'm an eagle
I'm an arrow
I'm a falcon
I'm…
CEDRICK Key G Open G tuning (GGDGBD)
He gave me 2 rings. Silver with turquoise insets. That was 1974. We were moving from Oregon to Texas in an old Dodge school bus. Towing the Chevy Van behind it. Unhitched the van when we stopped in Albuquerque…
Em capo @ 6
Maybe I could be a potter
Throwing all the words away
Maybe I could learn the language of the clay
Maybe I could be a potter
Sweep the words out of the way
Let my fingers find the music in the clay
Gwyn Henry
James Michael Taylor Kat took the words right out of my mouth... you do have a song for almost everything, and that's lucky for the world! But there will always be an "almost', so keep writing!
Like
Reply11m
Active
Gwyn Henry
PS: Just listened to the song, one of your "shorts"... it is beautiful! Love the thoughtful melody in a minor key. Love the bits of harmony, love that distant echo at the end. This song sure has its own vibe, its own world...now you've got me thinking, maybe I could be a potter!
Em capo @ 6
Maybe I could be a potter
Throwing all the words away
Maybe I could learn the language of the clay
Maybe I could be a potter
Sweep the words out of the way
Let my fingers find the music in the clay
Kat Angel
James Michael Taylor You have a song for everything 🤩 Your song makes me think you are sitting Indian style and are contemplating if being a potter is something you might do. You craft stories with your music.
DEEPER
Every day I sink a little deeper
Two steps up. Three steps back.
I'd rather be dead than be a sleeper
I'm not coming back...
(C) 2020 Royal T Music
Wade Jackson
James Michael Taylor my brain just put a 7 turnaround after that ending major chord and wanted to add another verse… 😆 time is too short my friend !
PERFECT
When I said, “She’s perfect,” I meant she’s Perfect for me
You might not see her that Perfectly
When 1 and 1 is 2 and 2 and 1 is three, that’s math and on math we all agree
But Perfect has a sliding scale on which we all find our…
I was speaking to those who kept telling me Peggy wasn't as pretty as I thought, thus, “When I said." She’s perfect,” I meant she’s Perfect for me." "You might not see her so perfectly." And then I was just riffing on what perfect means...
PORTAL and HAPPINESS and TIME are three of the songs on my new CD, EUREKA. Short pieces.
TIME
There was a time when I figured my Chevy van would last forever
I guess that was back when I was about thirty
And there was a time when I thot…
capo @ 3
Am walk down...
When I was a child we'd drive 200 miles
to Grandma's in the Spring
I'd hop out of the car, run to the back yard.
Grandma had a swing
But the times have changed...
When I became a dad I took all the rope I had…
Bali Hi, at 6th and Broadway
Just a little place where people go
To have a quiet drink,
Listen to the band and think.
Maybe meet a friend, you never know
I said, "Hi, I'm kinda lonely.
My wife and I just had a fight.
I've been married…
“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” - Charles Dickens
This song contains the body of the first song I ever wrote. A poem sent to me while I was away to school in Idaho in 1959 by Carolyn Opitz that I sat at an old pump organ and sang a thousand times when I was a junior in high school.
YOU CAN…
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…
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…
Candy Davis
I love that album. You gifted it to me a long time ago, and I still think about those hapless men becoming ill and dying, making hickory handled hardware. And "Help!' raises so many emotions in me--that people would just stand on the shore and do nothing while you risked your life alone to save that boy. All of the songs on Slaughter Mountain are ones that are so well written and so memorable!
Randy Brown and I did a little co-write this evening and this is what we came up with...
I MISTOOK IT FOR THE MOON Capo @ 2 Key D (Play in C positions)
I was coasting across West Texas/Had my top down, it was late at night
I caught a coyote…
I just listened to A YEAR IN JAIL. both versions. Yours is much better than mine.
Jeff
Jeff Prince
Thanks. I remember approaching it as a straight-ahead country-and-western song vocally, and the production is good, especially toward the end. Great song. The music is better from the 1st note.
My mom is 91 and still holding on.
The people that help her make it thru
each day have learned that there is no
sense in arguing with her about who they
are or when it is...thus the song.
MAMA HAS A TIME MACHINE key - Em
Mama has a…
You really broke me down on that one. It's like you have been looking into my living room. It took me a second to remember your names is James also. - James Bucannan
Worshiping at an abandoned alter...
Let my breaths be as long as her legs
Let my breaths be as smooth as her back
Let my breaths be as cool as her hips
Let my heart be as still as her tongue
Let my mind be as bright as her skin
Let my…
FOREVER
She stares out the window. That look in her eye
How deep can her heart know life's passing her by
The radio's playing. She holds back a tear
A song she's forgotten
Holds back the years...Forever
And she says,
"I wish I 'd loved…
FOREVER
She stares out the window. That look in her eye
How deep can her heart know life's passing her by
The radio's playing. She holds back a tear
A song she's forgotten
Holds back the years...Forever
And she says,
"I wish I 'd loved…
Well, it's like I went down town last night to see Guthrie playing with Ray and I came home with a song.
NOBODY KNOW ME IN TOWN ANY MORE Capo @ 1 in G
There’s a bird in the gutter that’s so sound asleep
He can’t hear the music that’s sweeping…
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…
NAAD -Just read your lyrics and liatend.to the son...w
Very beautiful, very moving...beautiful how you he'd on the rhyme scheme an dmade it work...so love the slave t rhymes as well...they're my favorite...super smooth transitions....tell me a bit about the inclusion of you garden reflections in the middle of the song...counter point? Balancing urgency and reality? Love, love, love thisnone...will.ha r to listen again.
"tell me a bit about the inclusion of you garden reflections in the middle of the song...counter point?" it all ties in when I relate it to the weather, "...there's lightning and thunder...but this summer is a wash...what we really need is rain." The reason the river was up that day was because there had been so much rain in the previous days, they were lowering the dam to lower the water lever in the lake that fed this river.
Refuge into the imagination:
Is it crazy?
Is it survival?
Is desire to survive crazy?
THERE SHE WAS Key - G 102811
G
She'd been gone for three years now so he'd been on the road
Playing every truck stop bar and every song he…
Now and perpendicular to now, where shadows are, as we will create the next song of music and make sounds together in the now but also in the perpendicular to now for the theme at sound in. of course any music on theme or not is ok. At right angles…
One night after three month of no rain, as we were driving home from singing at Gringos in Grapevine a splash of water hit the windshield.
I said to myself, "Sweet Rain."
I went home and wrote the song. It's on the soundtrack of a movie called…
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…
Like most or all of your songs, there is always something really stands out and pays off big time. That last verse (or is it the last two) is absolutely, powefully emotion packed. And it is somewhat Vonnegut like in that so much is conveyed so precisely and with elegant simplicity. "... in the dream we left behind" - my God man, it's pure genius. Not the first two times I heard the song, but the first time I "listened" to it, I thought WHAT WAS THAT! And the it sunk in.
I have a new love
Of course she doesn’t know
How can a work of art
Know when lovers come and go
And when the artist is the art!
My eyes are the eyes of the beholder
And my eyes are the eyes of the world…
…when the artist is the art…
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
Lee Snaples And I've never heard you do this live because... James Michael Taylor ...because. I've never sung it except when I was recording it as I "wrote" it. Are you suggesting I should? You might notice that it's been on line since 2007 and not one comment.
Kat Angel James Michael Taylor awesome 💞 Your song is incredibly beautiful and soulful. My fav part was your narrative at the beginning. Haunting. My sister's name is Loretta 💕 My mom ....chose her namesake to tag her beautiful baby girl. Time. Goes. By.
Rosemarie Kempton Love reading what you write!
Judith Ellen Lopez - that's magic
Has anyone ever told you you're like an awesome mix of Crosby Stills Nash and Young mainly Neil Young meets Frank Zappa? LeAnne E Christian
Tony Desmuke That was some mighty fine prose there James.
Gwyn Henry said, "Your song spoke of a much more major event, than my struggling to take that picture... my picture being my art, your song being your art in this train of logic. But even capturing images from what you see in the world around you that calls out to you... it is a life saving and nurturing process for me. Art as salvation." I said, "Where I put things when I find a place for them."
Your song spoke of a much more major event, than my struggling to take that picture... my picture being my art, your song being your art in this train of logic. But even capturing images from what you see in the world around you that calls out to you... it is a life saving and nurturing process for me. Art as salvation. Gwyn Henry
You were talking about Salvation art earlier-- Although this is great in its own right as to what it gives to others, I can see the processing that was going on in letting this go, in a kind of creation. Just beautiful! Gwyn Henry
Gwyn Henry James Michael Taylor Oh, yes, this is beautiful,Jim.You should do more of this... spoken word,to music. I'm thinking that you have,tho! Or spoken word mixe w/ sung.
Lane Beauvais Another round of GMOs please. I'm sprouting wings and barking like a puppy cat.
Wade Jackson Well done brother. I always enjoy your approach to songs.
we really liked "Drunken Indian" `Maybe, it's a metaphor for you.
Jenni Mansfield Peal I really like that song. Raw and heartbreaking.
Gwyn Henry James Michael Taylor Kat took the words right out of my mouth... you do have a song for almost everything, and that's lucky for the world! But there will always be an "almost', so keep writing! Like Reply11m Active Gwyn Henry PS: Just listened to the song, one of your "shorts"... it is beautiful! Love the thoughtful melody in a minor key. Love the bits of harmony, love that distant echo at the end. This song sure has its own vibe, its own world...now you've got me thinking, maybe I could be a potter!
Kat Angel James Michael Taylor You have a song for everything 🤩 Your song makes me think you are sitting Indian style and are contemplating if being a potter is something you might do. You craft stories with your music.
Wade Jackson James Michael Taylor my brain just put a 7 turnaround after that ending major chord and wanted to add another verse… 😆 time is too short my friend !
I was speaking to those who kept telling me Peggy wasn't as pretty as I thought, thus, “When I said." She’s perfect,” I meant she’s Perfect for me." "You might not see her so perfectly." And then I was just riffing on what perfect means...
Kat Angel Very different and interesting. I like the changes in tempo and the story.
Kat Angel Nice imagery. You paint pictures with your songs
Comments made by James Michael Taylor
A true classic. Deceptively simple, yet so many feelings in there: angst, loneliness, and hope, all rolled into one. Candy Davis
“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.” - Charles Dickens
Wow! Starts of so light and carefree. Then pow to rock lead guitar breaks the tranquility. Contrast. Js Bchard.
David Young That’s the album that got me started loving your music! I used to listen to it often on my drive to work and back.
Candy Davis I love that album. You gifted it to me a long time ago, and I still think about those hapless men becoming ill and dying, making hickory handled hardware. And "Help!' raises so many emotions in me--that people would just stand on the shore and do nothing while you risked your life alone to save that boy. All of the songs on Slaughter Mountain are ones that are so well written and so memorable!
Wow. That is a good one. Michelle Soto
I just listened to A YEAR IN JAIL. both versions. Yours is much better than mine. Jeff Jeff Prince Thanks. I remember approaching it as a straight-ahead country-and-western song vocally, and the production is good, especially toward the end. Great song. The music is better from the 1st note.
You really broke me down on that one. It's like you have been looking into my living room. It took me a second to remember your names is James also. - James Bucannan
Haunting voices and guitar work. Nuno
The line: "The window's a mirror when it's dark outside..." Wow! Nuno
Gerald Ray - I love this.
"Nobody Knows Me". Your voice is so different in that song. Deeper.NUNO
NAAD -Just read your lyrics and liatend.to the son...w Very beautiful, very moving...beautiful how you he'd on the rhyme scheme an dmade it work...so love the slave t rhymes as well...they're my favorite...super smooth transitions....tell me a bit about the inclusion of you garden reflections in the middle of the song...counter point? Balancing urgency and reality? Love, love, love thisnone...will.ha r to listen again. "tell me a bit about the inclusion of you garden reflections in the middle of the song...counter point?" it all ties in when I relate it to the weather, "...there's lightning and thunder...but this summer is a wash...what we really need is rain." The reason the river was up that day was because there had been so much rain in the previous days, they were lowering the dam to lower the water lever in the lake that fed this river.
Cory Michael -I listened to the song and think you should definitely sing it next week. You're a hell of a story teller, James!
Evocative stuff.
Cindy Grayson James Michael Taylor beautiful song
Pamela Steuber Anderson James Michael Taylor I love this song. Thank you.
Like most or all of your songs, there is always something really stands out and pays off big time. That last verse (or is it the last two) is absolutely, powefully emotion packed. And it is somewhat Vonnegut like in that so much is conveyed so precisely and with elegant simplicity. "... in the dream we left behind" - my God man, it's pure genius. Not the first two times I heard the song, but the first time I "listened" to it, I thought WHAT WAS THAT! And the it sunk in.
That is beautiful, James. Thank you. Rachel Eastman
It's fun trying to imagine the movie this is the sound to. "Hoooooonk." Thanks for listening to my music.