646 posts tagged with acoustic.
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Mirrorball
pop song with a train beat feel [more inside]
You Can Make Me Feel Bad (Arthur Russell cover)
I've been listening to this song a lot recently, and admire Russell's sort of ambiguity. Featuring authentic San Francisco rain and street noise.
The Great Staycation
It's about as much fun as you'd imagine it would be. March 2020. [more inside]
Marathon Days
Just wrote this today, very much informed by our current situation. Lyrics in the bridge borrowed/stolen wholesale from Joy Division's "Transmission." Recorded on my bathroom floor into my Tascam DR100's built-in mics. Who will he answer to?
Bottle of Sunshine (Corwin Bolt & the Wingnuts)
A brand new song from our forthcoming album "Riches to Rags", which we're released today as part of our special Social Distance release on Bandcamp. [more inside]
Unknowable Knowns
Restless and pissed off over the covid-19 situation, and powerless to do much about it, I set up a mic (and a camera) on my porch after I put my kid to bed and recorded this song I wrote about civil disobedience.
You got the stones for crime. It's about time.
Mean ol' Coronavirus
I wrote a little tune about that darn microscopic critter the whole world is talking about. I made a little video for it, too. If you wanna see it, it's here. Put it on Bandcamp as well, just for good measure, as an AIF file, which of course I'd be delighted if you bought for a buck. Or more. Cause all my damn gigs are cancelled lately. [more inside]
Head Like A Hole
You know how you were thinking the other day "I really love Nine Inch Nails, but I'd really love Nine Inch Nails if they were Sufjan Stevens"
Yeah, me too. Also for the first time shot video as I was recording.
Five Miles From Town
In honor of Clyde Davenport, who passed away this week at the age of 98, one of the fiddle tunes he played, although not particularly in his style. [more inside]
Letterbox (TMBG cover)
A hushed but nonetheless exuberant take on a very good song from They Might Be Giants' album "Flood," recorded at my kitchen table [more inside]
Best Booty on the Farm
Recently met a dog with a mighty fine behind. [more inside]
Stamps
Short, sweet, sappy love song. [more inside]
The Best Part of Christmas is You
This year I wrote a Christmas song that I'm rather fond of for my wife, who I'm also rather fond of. [more inside]
chords 'n gourds
An autumnal fingerpickin' instrumental.
Manhattan Skyline
Some recent discussion on MeFi about the band a-ha reminded me that I'd recorded this acoustic cover of one of their songs a long time ago. This is actually based on an arrangement by Kings of Convenience, who made some interesting changes to the original song structure. Me on vocals and guitars (nylon-string and steel-string). [more inside]
Both Hands - cover (Ani DiFranco)
Acoustic guitar and voice. Pretty straight as far as my memory of the proper song goes. [more inside]
F9mily (You & Me)
A multi-tracked violin sketch/tiny cover of an excellent song by Lil Nas X that I can't get out of my head.
Whistlin' Tune
Havin' a play with the gang! [more inside]
Little black bird
Just a little song from my weird little indie folk heart. Actually reworking something old and the first thing I've recorded in a while, since I was pretty tired from the whole process of putting out my first EP in January. Also...stuff?...has been happening to my voice because I am trans and recently started testosterone therapy, I really notice the change in how my voice feels and I certainly hope others can hear it too!
Georgia
Another weird, haunting indie folk song from yours truly! There is also a weird, haunting music video located here.
This is all part of my first official release, which I am super excited about, under my stage name MK Ellison.
Meek
Walking with pushchairs to make the little one sleep forces you outside. [more inside]
I Will Work For Honey (Tim Long's Unidentified String Band)
"'I will work for honey!' This girl looks at me and goes, 'what?' I go 'yeah, it goes like this.'" [more inside]
Smoke
Pretty proud of the vocals. This is a weird one, but my most haunting song yet. I had an image of a supernatural, quiet kind of nightmare where the narrator has a horrible premonition that something is coming for her, tries to run away, but cannot get far enough.
Big red sky
It's been a while since I posted any of my new songs here. What do you think of my kind of new direction (and quality of the recording)?
Alternative folk-ish, acoustic song with clean vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonies. Sounds happy but the lyrics are not. [more inside]
Magali
This song started as a joke and turned into something quite different. My friend and her husband have a lovely cat with an inspiring life story. During a recent visit, she said I should write a song about Magali, and after laughing about possible lyrics, it turned into a heartfelt song about the sweet, loving bond between a man and his cat. [more inside]
To be alone with you (Sufjan Stevens cover)
Not sure if I can do it justice, but I have loved this song every since I first heard Seven Swans in my college days. Light, soulful cover of a modern classic.
I've messed with the harmonies a little, so some of the chords are more dissonant (but in a watery, calm way, not a harsh way, if that makes any sense).
Deeper Well (Emmylou Harris cover)
I love this song. Cover with guitar, piano. From her 1995 album Wrecking Ball, which Wikipedia calls "career redefining."
I belong to you
Wrote a new song that I still like, unlike the last one I posted!
Textured, mellow, summery indie/country with guitar, percussion, strings, vocals.
Many Chords
My wife had a pessimistic guitar instructor when she was younger, one of those "there's nothing new in music, there's only 12 notes" kind of musicians. So, as a rebuttal to that mindset, here's an in-progress 50+ chord progression that I think is turning out swimmingly so far.
Let's try that again
This is a complete reworking of a song I posted before (17) which is now...prettier? Mellower? Flows more? What do you think of my new direction?
[more inside]
Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
An original arrangement of an old cowboy song, from the new album High on the Hog by Corwin Bolt & the Wingnuts. [more inside]
How Long, America?
Wish I didn't have to keep writing songs like this. [more inside]
Black and White Rag
I've always known "Black and White" as a fiddle rag, but it turns out it was composed for piano in 1908. When I was a kid, it was one of about a dozen tunes my dad and I played together (over, and over, and over) with him on guitar and me on fiddle. In a total coincidence (no, really) my band decided to record it for our upcoming album “High on the Hog”. I never played it quite like that with my dad, but looking back it's fun to imagine I was practicing for this. [more inside]
The Home Ruler Set
Another set from some recent recording - two Irish hornpipes on guitar and octave mandolin. [more inside]
All the Days
A quick, old tune
The Marc and Caitlin Wedding Set
Another rough mix from a recent bout of recording. These are two tunes I played during the summertime wedding of two good friends. [more inside]
Chicken Reel / Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird
A classic Louis Jordan song all about chickens, interpolated with a fiddle reel that's all about chickens. Recorded and broadcast live 11/4/2017 for "The Back Porch" on KLCC 89.7 Eugene, OR. [more inside]
Take A Knee
Topical song. Recorded live in one take, fast and dirty, at home. Vocal, three-string guitar and stompbox, all coming out of a 15 watt VOX guitar amp. I videoed the performance too, which you can see at Facebook or YouTube. If you'd like to download an AIFF audiofile, you can do so at SoundCloud. [more inside]
Henry King's Reel
Henry King's Reel, a fiddle tune written by Trevor Stuart of Haywood County, North Carolina. [more inside]
Every second of the time
As long as I am posting moody, folksy songs with voice and guitar...here's another one!
I've been drinking all day
(That's the title, I have not in fact been drinking all day...)
Country-ish, imagine you and your man are on the outs and you're feeling a little bitter about it.
17
This piano part and vocal melody have been rattling around in my brain for a while--finally wrote some lyrics and fleshed it out a bit.
Camp Meeting on the Fourth of July
A seasonally-appropriate fiddle tune, with solo fiddle triple-tracked but otherwise unprocessed. The fiddle is in DDAD tuning, which I like a lot. [more inside]
Esme
A song written for my 4 month old daughter. [more inside]
True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston Cover)
If you know of him, you may have an opinion that Daniel Johnston is a outsider genius, a troubled victim of hipster exploitation, or simply a not-so-typical independent musician who found his audience. If nothing else, his work is irrefutably full of sincerity and emotion.
This little piece of his is one of the great American songs. [more inside]
Birds
Long time no tunes! A simple tune on the classical guitar, sketched out after my daily struggle to learn Chopin & Satie songs. Birds, for interest.
Starving (Cover)
"Something inside me's changed—I was so much younger yesterday." I learned and recorded this cover of Hailee Steinfeld's "Starving" in a half hour one afternoon last month. [more inside]
Death Would Be Unkind
Instrumental country death song
Spotted Pony
The old-time tune "Spotted Pony", played at a jam session at the 2016 Portland Old-Time Music Gathering. [more inside]
2016 Buh Bye!
I, for one, welcome our new 2017 overlords. Written and recorded on a Zoom H4, New Year's Day 2017.