Lately people tell me they cry when I sing THE COUCH and YOUR VOICE. Last night, at dinner with True, he said GRAMMA'S SHAMPOO is like a stab in his heart. Maybe my grave stone will say:HIS SONGS MADE PEOPLE CRY.
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…
Roland Brown
Crying is the expression of our deepest emotions, I think. We cry when we are sad, we cry when we are deeply moved, and we cry when we are overcome with happiness. “He Made People Feel”.
Written one morning at OLD Number NINE weekend with Eliza Gilkyson.
SNAPSHOTS
Life's a million snapshots, all lined and flashing
It seem like a movie but it's the persistence of our vision
It all goes in circles, hashing and rehashing…
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…
David Young
I have always felt an emotional connection to your songs. “Help” was your song that first caught my attention then “Hickory Stix” and “Lisa Makes Appointments.” You have such a great talent for introducing characters and describing situations. You do it with simple but perfect lyrics and wonderful tunes. I never get tired of crying along with you!
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…
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…
Bill Jones
Hey James' Little long but guess you had nothing but Time...lol' Not bad~Not bad at all. Songwriter, myself I really Listen for the stories that make up an Artist, and his music...
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…
I was confused, thought I would hear ”I play C” which was the very 1st song I ever heard you sing, with guitar at a Kerrville Folk Festival. This instrumental has a large piece of yout soul in it. Handsomely done sir.
Lazarus Knight
That was great, sir. I wasn't aware that you could tickle the keys that well. The piano suggests the melody so strongly that if you told me the instrumental came before the lyrics I could easily believe it.
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…
WRONG AS I COULD BE - Key of G
Never was a night in Tennessee
Like this Texas night to me
I feel free
Thought I was the writer of a song
But I was wrong
Wrong as I could be
She wouldn't leave with me
Said she believed in me
Even if…
Naad Kaur Khalsa
James Michael Taylor love your recordings...this one has me feeling very much like I'm ok...just keep going...write and post anyway...just keep being somehow..
.still...I would so much love to have some lovin
WRONG AS I COULD BE - Key of G
Never was a night in Tennessee
Like this Texas night to me
I feel free
Thought I was the writer of a song
But I was wrong
Wrong as I could be
She wouldn't leave with me
Said she believed in me
Even if…
POTTER'S FIELD KEY Em Capo @ 3
Em……..(hold) Figure 1 is C G Am Em, Figure 2 is A A Em Em
F 1 - You might as well take me out and stand me up against the wall
F 1 - I don't want no bandanna, no cigarettes to ease the fall
F 2 - No…
unWANTED
There'll be no poster of me looking ragged
There'll be no picture of me strung around
There'll be no subpoena. There'll be no warrant
There'll be no grand jury for me in this town
There'll be no announcement for me at the airport…
unWANTED
There'll be no poster of me looking ragged
There'll be no picture of me strung around
There'll be no subpoena. There'll be no warrant
There'll be no grand jury for me in this town
There'll be no announcement for me at the airport…
unWANTED
There'll be no poster of me looking ragged
There'll be no picture of me strung around
There'll be no subpoena. There'll be no warrant
There'll be no grand jury for me in this town
There'll be no announcement for me at the airport…
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…
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…
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…
A friend asked me,
"Don't you have any happy songs?"
So I wrote one!
IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY capo @ 3
C F C
If it makes you happy I will tie your shoe
C…
Tim Tandy
James Michael Taylor , have loved this song from the first time I heard it. Like so many of your compositions, it's refreshingly straightforward, simple and playful- characteristics all too rare in many relationships.
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
Lately people tell me they cry when I sing THE COUCH and YOUR VOICE. Last night, at dinner with True, he said GRAMMA'S SHAMPOO is like a stab in his heart. Maybe my grave stone will say:HIS SONGS MADE PEOPLE CRY.
Roland Brown Crying is the expression of our deepest emotions, I think. We cry when we are sad, we cry when we are deeply moved, and we cry when we are overcome with happiness. “He Made People Feel”.
Lazarus Knight A powerful line - "It’s the distance from the bulb. It’s not the fading of the light."
David Young I have always felt an emotional connection to your songs. “Help” was your song that first caught my attention then “Hickory Stix” and “Lisa Makes Appointments.” You have such a great talent for introducing characters and describing situations. You do it with simple but perfect lyrics and wonderful tunes. I never get tired of crying along with you!
I like it. It's a bit genius but it does prove that you write songs that don't always make you cry. Tony Desmuke
you are a great Songwriter my friend, lost my wife of 10 years little over a year ago So it touches home, done its job... Mr Jones
Bill Jones Hey James' Little long but guess you had nothing but Time...lol' Not bad~Not bad at all. Songwriter, myself I really Listen for the stories that make up an Artist, and his music...
Good work and good works to you! - Norm Ballinger
I was confused, thought I would hear ”I play C” which was the very 1st song I ever heard you sing, with guitar at a Kerrville Folk Festival. This instrumental has a large piece of yout soul in it. Handsomely done sir.
Love it - Elizabeth Smith
Roberta Hargrove This is beautiful!!! I
Lazarus Knight That was great, sir. I wasn't aware that you could tickle the keys that well. The piano suggests the melody so strongly that if you told me the instrumental came before the lyrics I could easily believe it.
Roberta Hargrove This is beautiful!!! I
Naad Kaur Khalsa James Michael Taylor love your recordings...this one has me feeling very much like I'm ok...just keep going...write and post anyway...just keep being somehow.. .still...I would so much love to have some lovin
Bobby Huskins I like this a lot. Peace!
Lazarus Knight It's working now. YOU AND jEFF SOUNDED GREAT TOGAETHER! That is, is sounds like Jeff Prince with you.
Cheri Chandler Lovely sad song
Robert Hayden Amazing collection of like minded thoughts. Very well structured & synched to a Havana like beat. Well done sir
Cheri Chandler Lovely sad song
Cheri Chandler James Michael Taylor that's so very sadly moving. A beautiful heart like yours to have remained locked away for so many years....
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
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.
Tim Tandy James Michael Taylor , have loved this song from the first time I heard it. Like so many of your compositions, it's refreshingly straightforward, simple and playful- characteristics all too rare in many relationships.