In the corner stands a guitar that plays only sad songs
Give me when a friend lost his wife
And this fine leather jacket came in a package
The day after he took his own life
In a bar down in Austin, he was drinkin' and boastin'
This ring…
Jimmy, this song reminds me, what great lyrics you can slip into your songs/albums! AND I had forgotten how much I like this song/album. Thanks for reminding me about it. JQ
I was in Spain, in the Pyrenees, working on THE STONE RAFT. I was the only American, read, "English speaker." I was feeling very alone.
SOLITARY WALK Am
INTRO Am F Am F
Am (walking down) G F G
Tho I follow in the footprints of my friends…
Yesterday afternoon, I received my copy of... The Stone Raft, the English translation of a novel by Portuguese writer José Saramago, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature in 1998. A Spanish-language film based on the book, La Balsa de Piedra, was released in 2002 by George Sluizer; see JMT intro above. This is a great JMT song... the lyrics of this song, represent well, the true genius JMT has with words! What absolutely great lyrics!
CALIFORNIA
Capo @ 4 in C/Am
I’m (Am) going back to California
A little place in the San (E) Joaquin
(Am, stepping down A G F# F E)
Where the back pasture builds
To Sierra foothills
And Kaweah tumbles down cool and clean
I’m going back…
CALIFORNIA
Capo @ 4 in C/Am
I’m (Am) going back to California
A little place in the San (E) Joaquin
(Am, stepping down A G F# F E)
Where the back pasture builds
To Sierra foothills
And Kaweah tumbles down cool and clean
I’m going back…
The story our song that night (Songwriter night, Tuesday, at The Post, where we would divide up into groups and have a new song ready to perform in one hour) was about railroads and a girl from San Antone. When I got home I had the Tejas/Chaos…
Damn, Jimmy! I am not sure what to make of this song! I really... REALLY... like this song very much! The story makes me feel "sad" ...and yet I find this song quite... ??? ..."pleasing" ??? WELL, It doesn't matter! EVEN IF I do not understand why... the fact remains... I LIKE THIS SONG! And I agree with what Jeff wrote below in COMMENTS... AND I REALLY agree with Violet!
CALIFORNIA
Capo @ 4 in Am
I (Am) come from California
With a banjo on my (E) knee
(Am, stepping down)
I was off to college in Oklahoma
Where I (E) studied (Am) Christianity
I’m going back to California
A little place in the San Joaquin…
WITHOUT THINKING
capo @ 3 in C
C I do things without E thinking
Am (walk down) I admit it's true
But I do C nothing without G thinking about C you
Am I turn a corner
Em I pump some gas
F I fold a pillow case
C I wash a G glass
I stand…
Jimmy, I like this one. You mentioned the other day, that you might consider adding some cello to one of your new songs... ??? This version is only 2:09... seems to me... there might be plenty of room for a few bars of cello instrumental to float around between the words! But you know me... I have often mentioned to you, how good some of your instrumentals really are... and I have often thought that you, yourself, under appreciate yourself... when it comes to your own instrumentals. Good song... JohnQ
The story our song that night (Songwriter night, Tuesday, at The Post, where we would divide up into groups and have a new song ready to perform in one hour) was about railroads and a girl from San Antone. When I got home I had the Tejas/Chaos…
The story our song that night (Songwriter night, Tuesday, at The Post, where we would divide up into groups and have a new song ready to perform in one hour) was about railroads and a girl from San Antone. When I got home I had the Tejas/Chaos…
TEJAS
Capo @ 2 in C
I met a girl. Her name was Tejas
Shrimping south of Texas City
In her eyes I could see chaos
In her voice I heard confetti
In her purse I found the lip gloss
She bought in New York City
When she jumped I felt such…
I BUY GUITARS
Em
One man might buy cigarettes and waste it all in smoke
Another marijuana and share a friendly toke
Am
Another, with more money, might invest in antique cars
Em
I buy guitars
A man might buy a baseball card
Keep it…
I love that...reading and listening to it..!
Love the sounds...i can feel the amercan poet in the music...and the vocal sound is really full...
That song just makes me want to buy an old guitar....i keep lookin in the second hand stores around here...but theres no guitars...i dream that someday i’ll walk into anthony o hallorans second hand / antique shop, and there’ll be some old gem of a six string , archtop maybe, or a rusty old tele...full of mojo...waiting there for me to find...! I check every time im passing his place....i think i’ll never stop waiting....
But yes...thats a great track....you should send that out to dream guitars shop...in ashville....paul huemiller owns it....or some such shop....i bet one of those places would love that song for a website....im doin my website at the mo....id love to put that track on my instruments page...!
Then people could send pics of the old guitars they bought and i could post those pics too...wouldnt that be a bit of craic....fun...we all buy guitars....a choir of guitar pickers could sing it....we buy guitars..✌️
Also...i never saw the link between telescopes amd guitars before....but i do now...its a cold night here...and a clear sky full of stars....Matt
I BUY GUITARS
Em
One man might buy cigarettes and waste it all in smoke
Another marijuana and share a friendly toke
Am
Another, with more money, might invest in antique cars
Em
I buy guitars
A man might buy a baseball card
Keep it…
I BUY GUITARS
Em
One man might buy cigarettes and waste it all in smoke
Another marijuana and share a friendly toke
Am
Another, with more money, might invest in antique cars
Em
I buy guitars
A man might buy a baseball card
Keep it…
I BUY GUITARS
Em
One man might buy cigarettes and waste it all in smoke
Another marijuana and share a friendly toke
Am
Another, with more money, might invest in antique cars
Em
I buy guitars
A man might buy a baseball card
Keep it…
Barbara Anne Taylor sings.
Que Paso capo @ 5 in G
Am/G x3
G G bass Em Am bass G bass F#
The man on the radio said we are falling apart
Am bass G bass F# G
Falling apart…
After seeing a quick pick up at the Leather Ball Saloon in Dallas one 1974 evening. This is a song from the album, FEATHERS IN THE WING by Snow Geese/Barbara, Michael Jeffrey and me. 1976
(50 years later, I am stunned at the starkness of this…
The story our song that night (Songwriter night, Tuesday, at The Post, where we would divide up into groups and have a new song ready to perform in one hour) was about railroads and a girl from San Antone. When I got home I had the Tejas/Chaos…
The story our song that night (Songwriter night, Tuesday, at The Post)
was about railroads and a girl from San Antone. I had the Tejas/Chaos rhyme and when I rhymed "confetti" with Texas City, I had the local. Once I saw her on that shrimp boat it wrote itself.
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…
Connie Pittman Ramsey
Jesus, James! Brilliant. Powerful. Heart-wrenching. Thank you. I had not heard this album!!! I will have to listen later, but thank you, thank you for sharing this one! We should be ashamed. I know I am.
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…
One day as I was turning into my driveway I saw Rita on her porch. She's a lot like me.
AL & RITA Capo @2 in C
C stepping down to F
Al was a smoker. He's dead now, of course
Al has Alzheimer's. Alcohol made it worse
D stepping down…
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…
As for the song, you did a nice job of imagery and I wasn't sure what was really happening. I'm used to the stories being biographical and the "and then he died" threw me a little. I don't think it flows off the tongue like some of your others, but I like it. - Lee Snaples
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 your ' I mistook it for the moon' I wanted to comment and lost the post so I'm commenting g here. You are such an amazing writer. Karen Lee
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…
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…
Just in time for St Patrick's Day . . . . And with any luck we might have a bonus "LIVE" Leprechaun track coming soon. The Minnesota Coffee table met and recorded a fun version last night.
________________________________________
I was…
We have a great bunch of singer/songwriters and their beloved here in Cowtown. You would love being here and you would be loved. Your little creative contingency feels like a more intimate group and more involved in projects together. It gives me the sense of warmth on a winter day in an old log cabin, too cold to go out so you all just make the best of it. I wonder what kind of treats you all bring. What kind of liquids you share... How far you travel to get together. We had what we call a house concert night before last at one of "our" houses. Levi Ray and his dad and husband/wife duo. We all put some money in the kitty and each played for about an hour. After, we always do a little song circle for the rest of us. Tamales, chips and salsa, ice water and wine, cheese cubes and cookies. I would guess many of us drive 15/20 miles. Starts about 7 and we get home about midnight. We also have a weekly, Wednesday evening song circle around a fire pit in the patio at a biker bar called Dirty Water. Everyone plays along. Girls and guys. Some of us go back many years.
If Texas Water had heard this when we were in our hayday (sic) we would have done this one up in three-part harmony. I'm sitting here singing along. Great song for a Fort Worth Saloon.
In 1984 George Sluizer, a Dutch director filmed RED DESERT PENITENTIARY in and around Sweetwater, Texas. This is the theme song of the lead character, Danny McMann. I played that role in the movie and wrote the music to the film.
Video at:https…
IF I WAS A LUTHERAN - capo @ 2 in C
If I was a Lutheran I might have married Dodie Harris
Learned hill-side irrigation and I'd have learned to weld
And all the city fathers would have slapped me on the shoulder
And all the city mothers wished…
I wrote this song after planting and fertalizing a crop of sudan grass just to have the sun shine down with no relief on it for 100 days and no rain. We, Texas Water, were heading home one night AFTER A GIG at Gringo's in Grapevine when the…
I wrote this song after planting and fertalizing a crop of sudan grass just to have the sun shine down with no relief on it for 100 days and no rain. We, Texas Water, were heading home one night AFTER A GIG at Gringo's in Grapevine when the…
Barabara's voice was perfect for your song, " Sweet Rain". Her voice reminds me of a cross between Linda Rondstat and an old friendgiel of mine.... Lazarus
I wrote this song after planting and fertalizing a crop of sudan grass just to have the sun shine down with no relief on it for 100 days and no rain. We, Texas Water, were heading home one night AFTER A GIG at Gringo's in Grapevine when the…
I wrote this song after planting and fertalizing a crop of sudan grass just to have the sun shine down with no relief on it for 100 days and no rain. We, Texas Water, were heading home one night AFTER A GIG at Gringo's in Grapevine when the…
Capo @ 2 in D (E) Dropped D tuning
Actually, it was almost two years. 1965-67.
Leavenworth, Kansas U S Army prison. I played the organ at the daily Protestant chapel. Took dictation and typed letters for the Protestant chaplain. Wrote 2-page…
That's the date I recorded it. My prison number was 41515. My army number was RA 19845014.
Enter
You sent
RA stood for Regular Army.
Enter
You sent
It interested me from the 1st that it started with 1984.
Capo @ 2 in D (E) Dropped D tuning
Actually, it was almost two years. 1965-67.
Leavenworth, Kansas U S Army prison. I played the organ at the daily Protestant chapel. Took dictation and typed letters for the Protestant chaplain. Wrote 2-page…
Hauntingly True
Prison is exactly like that.
Fantastic Song
Another #1 Hit
Enter
Kat
Love love love It!
Enter
Kat
Kat Angel
112814 .. was that ur of number?
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
Jimmy, this song reminds me, what great lyrics you can slip into your songs/albums! AND I had forgotten how much I like this song/album. Thanks for reminding me about it. JQ
Yesterday afternoon, I received my copy of... The Stone Raft, the English translation of a novel by Portuguese writer José Saramago, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature in 1998. A Spanish-language film based on the book, La Balsa de Piedra, was released in 2002 by George Sluizer; see JMT intro above. This is a great JMT song... the lyrics of this song, represent well, the true genius JMT has with words! What absolutely great lyrics!
"Where the moon on the beach pushes time out of reach" That's Poetry!
Very catchy
I love it! 26 seconds long to convey a complete thought.
Damn, Jimmy! I am not sure what to make of this song! I really... REALLY... like this song very much! The story makes me feel "sad" ...and yet I find this song quite... ??? ..."pleasing" ??? WELL, It doesn't matter! EVEN IF I do not understand why... the fact remains... I LIKE THIS SONG! And I agree with what Jeff wrote below in COMMENTS... AND I REALLY agree with Violet!
Jimmy... I like this one, too! I like it a lot!
Jimmy, I like this one. You mentioned the other day, that you might consider adding some cello to one of your new songs... ??? This version is only 2:09... seems to me... there might be plenty of room for a few bars of cello instrumental to float around between the words! But you know me... I have often mentioned to you, how good some of your instrumentals really are... and I have often thought that you, yourself, under appreciate yourself... when it comes to your own instrumentals. Good song... JohnQ
The lyrics are so descriptive and visual, such as the lipstick from NYC. Did you read about a suicide or make up the song from scratch? Jeff P
"Your songs are so heartbreaking sometimes. I love it. Don't change a thing." Violet
Thank you for sharing
I love that...reading and listening to it..! Love the sounds...i can feel the amercan poet in the music...and the vocal sound is really full... That song just makes me want to buy an old guitar....i keep lookin in the second hand stores around here...but theres no guitars...i dream that someday i’ll walk into anthony o hallorans second hand / antique shop, and there’ll be some old gem of a six string , archtop maybe, or a rusty old tele...full of mojo...waiting there for me to find...! I check every time im passing his place....i think i’ll never stop waiting.... But yes...thats a great track....you should send that out to dream guitars shop...in ashville....paul huemiller owns it....or some such shop....i bet one of those places would love that song for a website....im doin my website at the mo....id love to put that track on my instruments page...! Then people could send pics of the old guitars they bought and i could post those pics too...wouldnt that be a bit of craic....fun...we all buy guitars....a choir of guitar pickers could sing it....we buy guitars..✌️ Also...i never saw the link between telescopes amd guitars before....but i do now...its a cold night here...and a clear sky full of stars....Matt
Cool song, well written, vivid, and fun with a wicked twist at the end.
i buy guitars....i can't play them properly .... but i buy guitars too
Excellente
Really great track!!!!
What a gorgeous voice Barbara had and what a touching song. John O'Malley
soundtrack to riding in the West Texas desert with the top down?
A bit of a departure from your usual reflective messaging. This one is a real toe tapper.
Comments made by James Michael Taylor
Deanie Hamilton Berry James Michael Taylor, that was great and you may be right.
Fabulous James - Keith Hass
The story our song that night (Songwriter night, Tuesday, at The Post) was about railroads and a girl from San Antone. I had the Tejas/Chaos rhyme and when I rhymed "confetti" with Texas City, I had the local. Once I saw her on that shrimp boat it wrote itself.
Connie Pittman Ramsey Jesus, James! Brilliant. Powerful. Heart-wrenching. Thank you. I had not heard this album!!! I will have to listen later, but thank you, thank you for sharing this one! We should be ashamed. I know I am.
Stefan Prigmore James Michael Taylor thank YOU for writing such a powerful song and for letting me sing it
https://www.facebook.com/richard.vannoy.77/videos/1278352819609892/ Violet's Al & Rita live...
As for the song, you did a nice job of imagery and I wasn't sure what was really happening. I'm used to the stories being biographical and the "and then he died" threw me a little. I don't think it flows off the tongue like some of your others, but I like it. - Lee Snaples
I just listened to your ' I mistook it for the moon' I wanted to comment and lost the post so I'm commenting g here. You are such an amazing writer. Karen Lee
Steve Satterwhite this. is. great.
Lazarus Knight I don't quite understand what happened, but that doesn't diminish my appreciation of this song.
We have a great bunch of singer/songwriters and their beloved here in Cowtown. You would love being here and you would be loved. Your little creative contingency feels like a more intimate group and more involved in projects together. It gives me the sense of warmth on a winter day in an old log cabin, too cold to go out so you all just make the best of it. I wonder what kind of treats you all bring. What kind of liquids you share... How far you travel to get together. We had what we call a house concert night before last at one of "our" houses. Levi Ray and his dad and husband/wife duo. We all put some money in the kitty and each played for about an hour. After, we always do a little song circle for the rest of us. Tamales, chips and salsa, ice water and wine, cheese cubes and cookies. I would guess many of us drive 15/20 miles. Starts about 7 and we get home about midnight. We also have a weekly, Wednesday evening song circle around a fire pit in the patio at a biker bar called Dirty Water. Everyone plays along. Girls and guys. Some of us go back many years.
If Texas Water had heard this when we were in our hayday (sic) we would have done this one up in three-part harmony. I'm sitting here singing along. Great song for a Fort Worth Saloon.
Em LeFever Comedy so dry, you might forget to laugh.
Markolapogous Saurus I really like this.
Barbara White Lane Oh how I miss her voice.
Barabara's voice was perfect for your song, " Sweet Rain". Her voice reminds me of a cross between Linda Rondstat and an old friendgiel of mine.... Lazarus
Very rich and beautiful - Kat Angel
Tim Tandy Wonderful song on so many levels - the lyrics, melody, harmonies, instrumentals. Mighty fine.............and timely!
That's the date I recorded it. My prison number was 41515. My army number was RA 19845014. Enter You sent RA stood for Regular Army. Enter You sent It interested me from the 1st that it started with 1984.
Hauntingly True Prison is exactly like that. Fantastic Song Another #1 Hit Enter Kat Love love love It! Enter Kat Kat Angel 112814 .. was that ur of number?