451 posts tagged with Folk.
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Whatever (Folk Song in C)
A lovely, understated tune recently released on Elliott Smith's posthumous collection of outtakes, "New Moon" on Kill Rock Stars. Being an obsessive fan of Smith's, I figured I'd upload my cover in tribute. It doesn't come close to matching his briliance but then, who does? Also I flubbed the solo a bit, just so you know.
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out (Guthrie cover)
Old Woody Guthrie tune that's probably been covered a couple hundred times. This is me breaking in our new upright bass.
Níl na Lá
A wonderfully sloppy version of an old Irish folk tune, recorded for the laugh, wherin an old man goes into a pub and is told to hit the road until he produces a shilling and is told to stay til morning!
Light a Candle
Dan and Leland are an acoustic duo blending great guitar playing and vocals with melodic songwriting and thoughtful lyrics.
Quonsar Done Been Here And Gone
As per this.
Chicago or Bust (demo)
This quick demo was made on my pocket tape recorder right after I had finished writing the song, and I was really pleased with the way it sounds... like it's a recording from a long time back.
Going To Abilene
I am re-uploading this song. I wrote it a while back and recorded last weekend. I'm just learning to record, so the guitars are a little quiet. Tips would be very welcome! I'm stoked I get to re-post, since I spelled "Abilene" wrong last time.
Lexington Avenue Line
In a departure for me, this tune features no percussion, synths, jaw harps, scrap metal or hand held mini-vibrators, but is simply accompanied by... an acoustic guitar. Radical, huh? Anyway, as you might guess from the title, the tune is a kind of meditation on New York City. Hope you enjoy.
Sailor's Psalm - 5-piece acoustic
I wrote this awhile back. This is the band performing it at our buddy Todd's house (I'm the fiddler player). I was trying to go for something like a ballad, early 19th century U.S. south, maybe. I think it's pretty. He's singin about drownin hi'self, if you were wonderin.
Ain't So Lonely
Okay, so that's not me singing or playing the guitar. But it's the first song I ever wrote. My good friend Sarah Kenvyn then did a bit of a rewrite, wrote some music, and recorded it. Thanks, Sarah!
Bring Me The Head Of Elmo
Lyrics [with handy reference links!] and more information inside.
Just Blew Into Town
Here's a song from the RPM '07 CD that I just popped into the mail today. In the end I was able to get 8 presentable tunes together within the space of the month. Whew!
Blues Wrapped Round My Head
In a slow count of 5, here's some kind of convergence of Burma and the blues, or thereabouts. "scissors cut paper / paper blows away / stone smashes scissors / and so it goes / another day / but it's all downhill from here / at least that's what sisyphus said /ah you're fucked six ways from sunday / with the blues wrapped round your head"
Undefined
Out of several tunes in various states of completion for the RPM project, this is the most presentable. In use for this track are: voice, talking drum, bells (metal and wooden), guiro, synth bass and organ. Every so often I write a song which is overtly political (a protest song, for want of a better term), and this is one of them.
Trucker's Lullabye
The title pretty much sums this one up. Recorded at 2am or so with my lovely tele.
Power of Love
Thanks to two class cancellations due to ice storms in the Capital, I was able to arrange and record this Valentine's day treat. Imagine Huey Lewis, baritone, with a banjo.
Floodplain
I have rerecorded this one two or three times since I wrote it in fall of '05. I've never really been able to sing it the way I really want to, which would sound a little like a mix of Brandi Carlile, KT Tunstall, and Janis Joplin (my voice just wasn't made that way). This is the closest I've ever gotten. Hohner-Gruhn guitar, Audio-Technica mic, and GarageBand.
Stop Payment
This was the perfect one-take song; it came together like magic and I didn't even have clipping problems when I mixed it. If only they could all be so cooperative. Hohner-Gruhn guitar, Audio-Technica microphone, and GarageBand.
Go
This month, I'm recording the "first draft" of an album that will later be redone in a studio, all professional-like. Tonight I was in an intensely, painfully lonely state, so I decided to record the most intensely, painfully lonely song I've ever written. Hohner-Gruhn guitar, Audio-Technica microphone, and GarageBand.
Oh Death
Here's my version of this most haunting of American folk songs. It's very stripped-down: just voice, drone, a bass drum and a shekere. In the time-honored folk tradition, I've made a few minor lyrics changes here and there, and the melody I'm using is different from the Dock Boggs or Stanley Brothers versions of the tune. Anyway, it's one of my very favorite traditional songs. Hope you enjoy.
Big Rock Candy Mountain
This is the kid friendly version (no booze or smokes). I really avoid singing, but I'm trying to learn.
Rocks And Gravel
This track is built around a beautiful song from Bob Dylan's Freewheelin' Outtakes bootleg. Enjoy!
But I'm Crying
Wrote this one after buying myself a shiny new midi controller. Tapped out a beat and played some chords over it and realised it sounded a bit like Duke Special, which is no bad thing so I ran with it. This is a rough mix/version so any comments or suggestions greatly appreciated!
Until You Kiss Me
"i blew across the great plains like a plastic bag / from the broken heart of town to the dock of the bay / there ain't that much to say about the wide wide world / people everywhere just sleepwalk in their own little way / and ain't no hope of waking up / until you kiss me babe"
On My Way (Acoustic)
A song from a recording session I did with my brother's band (He's the singer). The band is called Beautiful Blonde Pineapple!
The True Lover's Farewell
My own version of this folk song, partially inspired by Nickel Creek's rendition of House Carpenter from their album This Side. Recorded in one take, not that that's any excuse.
Heat Me Up!
Ljova would love to see your interpretive dance of this. (Please post YouTube links!)
CHRIS GARVER - Wasp in the House
A selection from the recently released album "e4/e5" ...songs about elected servants and employed servants. Songs about shock and awe, the beatniks, & holy Moses. Songs about Paul Bunyan, Tammy Faye, & Zelda Fitzgerald. Posthumous songs, sacreligious songs, contradictory slanderings... Jewelry store robberies, the language virus, & the reawakening of the languished American dream?
Longing for Summer
Mainly an experiment with a new microphone. The vocal needs to be re-done, and made louder. Otherwise, it's okay. Oddly enough, it's about this girl... I hope it's not gauche to post lyrics :-)
Longing for summer
In the
Snow that fell around us
All around the town
Following children
Running
In and out of my life
Getting drunk and dancing
All we had we lost
Turned into
Ice
Waiting for aeroplanes
How could
You expect much more from me?
Did we stand a chance?
I tried to keep you
Dipping
Into London guidebooks
Thermals and two bedspreads
Even though we knew you'd
Never
Delay
?
The Cheese Song (in Dmaj)
This might be the first song that directly references a question in the green. I recorded this a few years back as a present to my mum. (The talented Mr Matt Evans added the scritchy-scratchiness.) This is the song as I remember my mum singing it to me. The only difference is that my Mum sang it in a lilting Scouse, whereas I tend to intone it pretentiously.
BTW: My question in Ask still stands. I'd love it if anyone knew this song - or anything like it. I fully intend, one day, to illustrate the song as a children's book, sell millions and retire to a caribbean island to kill myself slowly with daiquiris. You have been warned.
When
A quiet acoustic diddy. Written for my old band, The Big Lie, by my former bandmate, Chris Knott.
She Flies Away
me, my guitar, and a computer microphone. Simple but sweet.
Center of Gravity
More music from Chris Knott. He plays everything on this. I helped clean up the mix.
Vincent's Secret Hobby
Folkish rock that may just rip your face off. This is another song from my friend that I helped produce. Good stuff, I swear! *not responsible for said defacing...
The Masons Own 'U'
"The Masons bought 'U' the other day. Now there's a lotta words that we can't say." Let Steve and Chris from the Nude Dancer Explosion tell you about them. Plus a totally rockin' acoustic guitar solo. (Slightly NSFW... in a bad word kinda way)
flags by vampire deer
i live in a country where the flags fly at half-mast ... 10 of 12
Farewell To Tarwathie
As sung by The Stevedores, a 5-piece band (concertina, banjo/bouzouki, guitar, bass & drums, 3 part vocals) singing tunes of Land & Sea. Active in Seattle from 1997-2000, we were most liked by Irish dancers, union folks and maritime ethusiasts. This lovely piece is about the brave fishing lads who set off each season for months of labor far from the land.
Love Behind
Melancholy acoustic folk-pop!
Amateur
This is the first song I ever wrote. I was fifteen. I've come a long way, baby.
A Face Among the Rest
Another song from my 4-track college days. Beware! Moody folk music ahead. Yes, it's about a girl. Isn't every song? (More Info.)
Bagel on the Malecon
A very New York-bred outlook at old-time Cuban music, recorded entirely with .. violas! This was my attempt to create asymmetrical but memorable melodies, clear textures crammed with material, and experiment with multitrack viola as a concept, an ensemble. The sound of the classic Cuban bands had all that - except the violas, that is. This track appears on my newly released CD, the VJOLA: WORLD ON FOUR STRINGS
Sara K, Birthday Song
Birthday song written for my good friend Sara on her 19th birthday. Banjo and Vocals.
The Wedding Song
A song I wrote for the wedding of a couple friends; performed by my brother and me five or six years back.
Somewhere In Between
Before the web, before I left college, I wrote songs. Lots of songs. This is from a tape I recorded in my apartment somewhere around 1993 on a shitty Tascam 4-track.
the Clockmaker's Daughter -- by the Notes and Scratches
Another song from our record, it's a quiet sad folky love song. I'm singing and playing the acoustic guitar.
Macintosh Girl
Just your average romeo and juliet sort of love song, with the protagonist finally realizing that because he uses Windows NT things will never work with the Macintosh user he just brought home from the bar. The WinNT dates it to the late 90's, when i recorded it one night while drinking at work. Now, before you Mac fans get all riled up, I use both, then and now, and much prefer my G5 and my wife's Macbook to the PC i'm using to type right now. So there.
Glass Eye
Off the album released in January, here's a blues written almost two years ago featuring Colin Keller on the Drums.
Naked Jane - Accident
Late night drive, out of state...
Deceiver of Nations
The first protest song I've ever felt compelled to write for my band Pocket Novel Mystery. This is a rough draft, but we'll probably use this one on our next full-length, in one form or another.
Diamond Joe
Low quality stomping country music recorded drunk and presented here in it's straight-from-the-desk unmixed format. Came out pretty good. Nice rattly drums.