27 posts tagged with singing.
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Both Hands - cover (Ani DiFranco)
Acoustic guitar and voice. Pretty straight as far as my memory of the proper song goes. [more inside]
An Spealadoir
I'm baaaaaack! After quite a hiatus, during which much has happened, but myself and a friend were in the recording studio to make an album. Thought you fine folks would like a sample. This is a traditional song in the Irish language called "An Spealadoir", or the Hay cutter. My friend and I joke that of all the big songs in the Irish tradition about shipwrecks, wars, love lost and emigration, she managed to pick a song about cutting grass. Enjoy!
Good (Cover)
Better Than Ezra's "Good" is one of my all-time favorite songs. [more inside]
Way Back
Some kind of indie rock song. [more inside]
Angeline the Baker
Improvised acoustic guitar / singing. Recorded on phone.
A bluegrass standard, but I'm playing it as a stream of consciousness improvisation. Usually these days my playing is pretty much by the book, but here I was thinking about ecstatic / outside players like John Fahey and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
No patching in. Only one take. No overdubbing. Get it right in the moment. Be real and accept flaws as long as they don't spoil anything important. [more inside]
Like the 90's
A song about the winter weather or lack thereof, the defining El Niño of my childhood, family troubles, a metaphor about my lack of perspective, and an impression of a musical sheep. [more inside]
raining
when it rains, it pours [more inside]
Sleep, Finally
I actually sing in this song, with lyrics and stuff. It's a first.
Ok, it only is like 2 lines. [more inside]
Sap Song
I recorded this on my iPhone while walking home from school, using the awesome 4-track app GigBaby!. [more inside]
How Long Has This Been Going On
Rehearsing some totally new Gershwin torch songs.
Well, not new for the Gershwins. They're pretty dead. New for me, though. :) [more inside]
Say It (Over and Over Again)
I'm a big fan of Frank Loesser's lyrics and Jimmy McHugh's melodies, so I decided to add a few to my repertoire. When I'm learning new songs, I record myself a capella to see how my voicings are sounding and what I need to work on. It's bare, but I thought this turned out kind of sweet.
That's All
I'm jumping back into music with both feet right now, so here's another rehearsal recording for your listening pleasure. This sweet tune was introduced by Nat King Cole back in 1952. You young whippersnappers probably remember it from elsewhere though. Sigh. [more inside]
Mean to Me
Back to practicing new repertoire with my freakishly adorable guitarist Barry. Yay! Sooo, here's a pretty straight and peppy little version of an old standard tune by Fats Waller. [more inside]
The Rescue at Arisaig
Another true story from my family... [more inside]
Metafilter Music Collab | Teaser #1: Backing Vocals
To appease (or perhaps aggravate) your curiosity, here's a tiny little teaser compiled from the Mefi Music Collaboration tracks. [more inside]
The No. 26 Mine Disaster
Written by the incomparable Alistair MacGillivray (who rocks my socks), this song was written after an accident at the No. 26 Colliery in Glace Bay, NS in 1979. [more inside]
Gaoth Barra na dTonn
My take on this wonderful Irish Gaelic song, which I learned from Clannad, and which was written by Diarmuid MacDiarmada. Donegaler Mefites, please don't kill me if I've mangled the pronunciation! [more inside]
The Private's Lament
The companion piece to the Turret Gunner's Farewell. This one's about my other great uncle, who fought in WWI and lived to tell the tale. (A bit more downbeat than TGF, and a bit of creative licence taken regarding his hometown.)
The Turret Gunner's Farewell
A song I wrote a couple of years ago as a tribute to my great uncle Bernard, who went down in a Halifax III during WWII. Oh hell. Just listen to the song to get the story.
Think About Your Troubles
Ever since this post, I've had this song in my head. Been goofily singing it to myself pretty constantly. So I decided to just record it a capella for no reason whatsoever. It's not jazz (slightly bluesy in spots though) & of course it's not as good as Nillson's but I figure maybe I've gotten it out of my system now. I mean, how often does a girl get to record herself singing about decomposing whales? ;)
No Two People (Rehearsal)
The Smoke Alarm Sessions, cont'd. At a very young age, I developed a ginormous crush on Danny Kaye. Soooo on a whim, Barry and I decided to take an uber-sweet little quick-talk Frank Loesser duet from one of my favorite DK movies and rework it into a ballad. We're both in love with it, but it hasn't ever been performed in public yet. Here it is.
Caravan (rehearsal)
The Smoke Alarm Sessions, cont'd. I've been learning Caravan. I love the way Ellington did it a lot. Nowadays so many people play it very straight ahead, & I think that gets boring. So we experimented. At first Barry tried to put a funk beat behind it, but I'm not sure about it. On the second chorus I was thinking that since I've been to Egypt I should use that as inspiration to experiment with different melodies. I think in the future I'll probably take that a lot further, I kind of liked the feel. So, we'll see.
If I Had You
4/10/07 rehearsal recording in LA. Trying out some new repertoire... well, new for me. This adorably sweet little song was written in 1928. I decided not to put any kind of modern spin on it, but to just sing it slow and straight. (Guitar by the always adorable Barry Zweig.)
Don't Go To Strangers (piano/vocal rehearsal)
Another 2006 rehearsal recording... cleaned up but obviously very rough still. Don't Go To Strangers was written in 1954 by Arthur Kent and David Mann, with gorgeous lyrics by Redd "Frim Fram Sauce" Evans. Many people have covered it, but Etta James' version is the one that infatuated me to give it a go myself.
Gorgeous piano work provided by the perpetually kickass Tamir Hendelman
Trucker's Lullabye
The title pretty much sums this one up. Recorded at 2am or so with my lovely tele.
Love Me or Leave Me (bass/vocal)
Ok, so here's my spin on another old song. This Walter Donaldson/Gus Kahn composition was first featured in Florenz Zeigfield's 1928 Broadway musical Whoopee, starring Eddie Cantor & Ruth Etting, who took the song to #2 on the charts. In 1955, Doris Day starred in a biographical movie about Etting called "Love Me or Leave Me" & her updated rendition became a giant hit. Flash forward to 1967... Nina Simone turned this hokey old Ziegfeld tune into a completely reworked masterpiece of piano & voice (download link is at bottom). My own version (heard best live, I think) is definitely inspired by Nina's, but it could never compare to hers -- I just do my own thing & try to make it my own a bit. It's a fun song to do... audiences seem to love it. Incredible basswork once again provided by bass God Chris Conner.
Cry Me A River
Happy Sunday, hive mind! Well, I haven't been performing jazz much since moving to the Bay area. I'll confess, I've missed my musicians in LA (see song title) & just haven't found my niche/comfort zone up here yet. For a while, I was commuting down South to work on a CD but it got to be too difficult... so my musical life has been in limbo & this year I REALLY hope to change that. If you folks say you'd like to hear more mp3s, I do have some. And hey... if there's someone out there who would seriously like to collaborate with (or hire) this chick singer... I'm all ears and open to advice. I also take requests! :)
I miss singing for people...
(Incredible basswork courtesy of the fab-u-lous Chris Conner, my dear friend)
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