I'm a songwriter, short story writer, essayist, musician, husband, both a cat and a dog person, and these writings will be a fun mixed up jumble of all of me. Thanks for popping by.
Eastwood Road is an instrumental piece I wrote a billion years ago when the dinosaurs were still roaming the land.
I had an opportunity to buy a house and had just applied for a loan. While waiting and being nervous I wrote this tune as a sort of positive energy work toward getting the loan.
It worked I got the loan and have been in the house for almost ten years now.
The guitar I'm using is a mid to late 1940's Regal wooden bodied resonator guitar with a spider bridge. If that means exactly nothing to you here's a link where you can see and read all about this very guitar having a neck reset. LINK
This song can be purchased on iTunes, and heard on Spotify and so can all of my published work.
Thanks so much for your time.
Wishing you and your family all the best.
Trevor Marty
Here is a song I wrote in a rush so that I could keep up with the prompts. I was in a rush because here is the list of things happening in February.
I've also been commissioned to help with a theme for an animated short for a friend of mine,
had to prepare for two gigs one big and one not so big but cool none the less,
rehearse for Irish stuff happening in March,
oh and lets not forget shoveling out of the 'Snow Apocalypse' which has happened in Minnesota this year,
and last but not least taxes
I'm only trying to be clear about it because I believe we need to show all of the stuff. In this situation the song isn't the best, and it needs work. I will do that work as I progress with it and the year, but for the moment this is what I did and what I get.
Here are the lyrics.
Song Prompt: Blossom Tentative name: A Book By It’s Cover
Verse 1
Blossom she was a think tank she was a working type of gal she got/kept her hands dirty but her mind clean she was a country kind of gal. grew up on rainy days, clean air, and country roads grew up on hot summers and cold winter winds she grew up long and slow.
Chorus (she learned ya) don’t judge a book by it’s cover don’t call a flower a weed cause you never know what you got in hand that weed might be a friend in deed/ you never know what you need
Verse 2
one day she went to the city to see what it said hit the road for thirteen hours got out and looked ahead she met all kinds of people blue, black, and red she met hims, and hers, and thems in-between and they all got together and shared bread.
Chorus
Bridge
So take your skin off put your guns down and come on lets join the show let the band play on lets sing the song let the rainbow go out of control cause ain’t no one going to save us but us its our one day out in the sun come on right now sing our song …..(lets join the show)
As you read in last weeks post I won something pretty neat.
Monitors. I won monitors from IK Multimedia and Garageband & Beyond. Well, they came in the mail and I did an unboxing video. Which is right here. (LINK)
The monitors were heavier than I expected. I guess I was prejudging them by their size. They are small so I figured they would be about the weight of a standard computer speaker you would get at a big box store or these at Amazon. (LINK)
However, the iLouds are nothing like those.(Link to iLouds)
Ok are these the best in the world?
No, but for the price point they are at I would most definitely say they are as good or slightly better than some of their competitors of the same price. At least the competitors I’ve been exposed to. I have not tuned them to the room they will be in or the system which they will be apart of yet, but for sitting in front of my Mac editing video and the soundtrack of the video with I think they’re great. I can’t wait to get them tuned to the room and see what they’re like then.
Thanks for popping by and please check out the video. Like, Comment, and Subscribe.
Today’s blog post is about one of my songs.
I thought why not explain the lyrics and what they mean. I’m going to tell you about ‘99%’. I wrote this song just after protesting with the 99% and the Unions. There were a few thousand people and we shut down K street. Which is the place where all kinds of lobbyist and money grubbers do their thing.
It was a powerful moment where we as a people stood up and exclaimed what we thought. Did it help?
Who’s to say.
Lot’s of things happened after word as a result both positive and negative.
Here's a player for you to listen to it while you read.
V1 Winds blowing fiercely
Potatoes in the bin
I’ve got 9 to 5 to sit and
think of the cold creeping in.
Winds blowing fiercely
and the snows upon the grass
fire in the fireplace warming up my ass/cash.
The winds of change are blowing and they aren’t coming nicely. Change can be either gentle or fierce. The nine to five bit is a day job, and sitting and thinking about change, about cold human attitudes towards humans and the warmth attitudes we have toward cash and people that have it.
V2 Beer in the fridge
Wines on the counter
99% of folks say that
color doesn’t matter.
Beer in the fridge
my beards getting long
99% of folks say that
gender doesn’t either.
Beer goes in the fridge Wine (red wine) goes on the counter.
The majority of people believe that color and gender doesn’t matter. Whether we’re talking about women getting paid 70 cents to every dollar that a man makes or LGBT issues. Most people look at these things and know that it isn’t fair for a woman to make less for the same work, or for people of color or LGBT folks to be treated as second class humans. It’s only a very ugly and vocal minority of folks that think differently. A further examination of these first two lyrics will show something more about my personality. While the first verse shows myself not having much faith in my fellow humans the second verse shows just the opposite. Having faith in humanity to make the right choices given the proper information. What can I say? I go both ways on most issues.
V3 I bought myself a flower
bought myself rose
Plant a seed of healing
Let it grow and grow
bought myself a flower
ah huh instead of pills
go round and round
the world curing my ills
The first two lines are talking about giving yourself joy. Buying myself flowers always gives me joy and healing. Then letting that joy grow. Flowers instead of pills is just my way of finding balance in western Pharma-culture. On the one hand the Pharma-culture has helped. I am grateful for some of western medicines pills and cures. However, I also think that there are other ways to heal. Plant a seed of healing let it grow and grow. Where would we be without insulin or penicillin, on the other hand where would we be without yoga, eating right, exercise, Reiki, meditation, laughter. I think you get my point. Balance.
(This by no means makes me a Monsanto lover)
V4 Got a funny feeling
deep inside it says
1+1+1 is 3
and got enough to ride
Got a funny feeling
coming round the bend
say’s 99% of folks
ain’t got enough to win
This last verse speaks to the growing divide of the ‘haves and the have nots’. Ninety-nine percent of people on this planet barely have enough to live while the other one percent live in King Midas like luxury. Here’s a for instance. Minimalism is fine when you choose it; however, when you just don’t have enough to eat then it sucks.
Well, thank you for hanging out with me here and enjoying these moments.
Your homework:
Walk around the block (or two) and count how many yellow things you see.
The CD’s came. I have been wanting to get another disc out for a few years only life kept getting in the way. It very nearly happened again. “Iron & Rust Dreams & Dust” has been born and I am marketing it around and looking for bookings for the summer season.
Here’s the song list which you will notice contains two covers. I chose these two covers, because I love the songs. One is a newer (for me) tune that I learned called, ‘Trouble In Mind’. Now, by new I don’t mean that it was recently written. It pretty old in that way. I just mean that it’s new for me. The other song is from an old friend of mine who’s no longer with us. I love his music and think it should keep going, so I covered one of his songs. That one is ‘I’m Not Laughing Now’ by Cam Waters. It’s a wonderfully written song. Here’s the song list.
Horses Ass - Trevor Marty
Grow Slow - Trevor Marty
Back At It Again - Trevor Marty
99% - Trevor Marty
Bird Feeder Rag - Trevor Marty
Better To Bend - Trevor Marty
Jealousy Lake - Trevor Marty
Grandma’s Kitchen - Trevor Marty
Teller Of Tales - Trevor Marty
Trouble In Mind- Richard M. Jones
I’m Not Laughing Now - Cam Waters
This disc was mostly recorded in one week at McLooney Tunes in Winona, Mn. by Annie McLoone and Tom Moncrieff who also produced it. They are great friends, wonderful people, and you will love what they do for your music. Here’s their website http://www.mclooneytunes.com/
Karie O’berg played an Irish Whistle and sang on Back At It Again, Tom Moncrieff played on a number of tracks, and Simone Perrin played accordion on Jealousy Lake.
All in all it’s probably the best project I’ve done so far. I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished.
Here’s a little link to the soundcloud of the tunes. If you have a liking for them you can always buy them. I will be playing shows this summer, and you can get them at the shows or you can also get them online.
I thought I'd reinvigorate this blog of mine, and update y'all on what's been happening.
First off the biggest thing is that I had an accident on the 23rd of December of 2015. I was coming home from my day job on my bicycle and ended up falling on some ice. I fractured my scapula, elbow, and hip all on my right side. This of course happened just as I was about to release my third disc called, "Iron & Rust Dreams & Dust".
I had to cancel any shows for a few months while I recover, but I will still be releasing the new finished project. I think it's the best we've done. 'We' being defined as the whole team of people who were in on the making of this McLooney Tunes -Tom Moncrieff, and Annie Mcloone, Karie Oberg, and Simon Perrin. It was recorded at McLooney Tunes studio in a week, with over dubs and layering going a bit longer.
Included is a photo of the front cover.
I also would like to give you the opportunity to watch some of the video's I'm doing of my recovery. I have been making my observations, frustrations, successes of my journey in this world. From learning how to use a wheelchair, to relearning how to play music, preparing food, doing daily chores around the house. Here is a link to those video's.
Finally, I'd just like to say thank you for taking time from your day to watch, and read these. These blog entry's won't always be this long.
All my best
Trevor Marty
