monday song #12: swept away

lyrics with number twelve, we complete the first album. and free at that. i couldn’t make up my mind between two song ideas this week. then i realized that one fragment opened with the line “in the summer sun, praying for the rain.” since last week’s song ended with emily jane praying for rain, i […]

monday song #4: walking away

 lyrics after starting with three heavy songs in a row, number four is something of a palette cleanser. it’s an homage to homages: a kind of 20s music hall number that was a favorite of the psychedelic popsters of the later 60s. mccartney was a master of the style (“when i’m 64,” “honey pie”), […]

monday song #3: birthday (part one)

lyrics number three. the guts of this song – chords, melody, the phrase “it’s your birthday” – came to me a couple years ago on a family camping trip, playing it over and over by the campfire. i imagined paul mccartney singing it, solo, with an acoustic guitar, but as i fleshed out the lyrics […]