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.
This weeks prompt was Stir and I must admit this one was harder. Partly because it just didn't flow and partly because life was in the way.
We’re Cooking Key: A Writing Prompt: Stir Standard Timing
Open the Wine Stir up the sauce grandma’s got a spoon in her hand The kids get lost
We’re cooking. Yes, we’re cooking. Baked apple pie Blues on the hi fi We’re cooking
Winters here it’s cold in the snow going to make some love (tonight) cause it’s 20 below
Chorus Bridge You’ll need ten cups of apples pealed and cored one cup of sugar don’t spill it on the floor You’ll need a teaspoon of cinnamon four tablespoons of flour half cup of water shouldn’t take half an hour.
You get a cup of quick oats another cup of flour cup of brown sugar quarter teaspoon baking powder. We’re going to melt all that butter a whole half a cup cause our hearts are only happy when we’re filling something up
Hello Gang-
Here is another in this series; as I've said before, these are just a weeks worth of work and then I record on video the tunes. I know they need work and they are works in progress.
This one I wrote over the period of like two days. Once I got the first one out and recorded I didn't feel so backed up. You see I felt behind because I joined the group while I was on vacation. If you don't know what I'm talking about well here is a link to last weeks edition in which I explain. LINK Alternately, I can and will just mention a smallish bit here. I joined a songwriting group which gives a prompt every week for us to write about. It doesn't have to be an epic song or anything just something you were inspired to write from the prompt. This weeks prompt was, 'Cab'.
Song Prompt 2: Cab T.A.Marty Am, C, G, F Title: Old Cab
This is a tale of an old wagoneer he was a cowboy, a traveler, a lover (of beer) he’d hitch up his two horses and climb to the chair ride off to nowhere cause it’s better than here.
They called him ‘Old Cab’ and they said it quite clear they were proud of this old man and it was said like a prayer. In the year of 18 hundred and 65 he saved the whole damn town ya he kept them alive.
It rained in the day and it rained in the night it rained that whole (damn) month till the river went wild. It burst through the damns, and it tore up the rocks sent them all tumbling to the town down below
Now Old Cab saw it happen cause he was out on a drunk been chased out of town cause he was dirty and stunk? he jumped up on his pony yes he mounted the nag and he raced that old water through the forests and crags.
He warned the whole town yes he said it quite clear the water was coming the water was near no one believed him no one cared he was just a drunk and a lier get out of here.
Old Cab didn’t give up he continued to fight went down to the mining office to steal the dynamite back up the mountain he went fast and lite to blow off the top and block the waters spite
now back in the town there was drinking and dance nobody knew of the water they didn’t have a chance they’d kicked out old cab they’d sent him away now he’s up on the mountain trying to save the day
then came the rumble of the thunder and rain then came the explosion and the rocks down again/tumbling down the town had been saved the water passed them by saved by a drunk a man/person they passed by. Old Cab
Thanks for popping by and I wish you a dear and beautiful day.
Trevor
Hello everyone-
It's been to long. What have you been up to?
I've begun a challenge which I found on a FB group which I was invited to join. It's a songwriting group. Every week someone gives a new songwriting prompt and everyone in the group writes something which has been inspired from the prompt. Then they do a little video. It doesn't have to be anything super produced. It's just an exercise to keep our creativity flowing well.
This weeks song writing prompt was Sour; as a matter of fact, it was the first one.
Every week that I am doing it I will try and post that song here, but y'all have to realize that it's not going to be the best song ever. These are just a weeks worth of working on it.
Here is the first week's.
Two Tone Toxic Terry
T.A.Marty
Key: A blues
Songwriting Prompt: Sour
Verse I
Two tone toxic Terry
was a whole lot of something
and little bit scary.
He’d gamble and rob
steal your breath
Mess with him and
you’ll be close to death.
Mean as a hornet & ugly too
but I know his secret and
I’ll tell it to you.
Chorus
Now I’ve soured milk and honey
got a little bit of coffee and even less money
I’ve seen eagles fly and the country get crummy
Seen people die and some think it’s funny.
Verse II
He wasn’t always mean and sour
He was born in the middle of a flower
Him mama smelled of Jasmine
His Pa smelled of Rose
played outside all day
till the bank came to foreclose
Threw them all out
out in the cold
then and their he vowed not to be controlled.
Chorus
Bridge
He took to fighting and calling names
Got so good should have been an Olympic game
Take from the rich give to the poor
wanted from coast to coast for his delusions of grandeur.
The other day I had this great gig of which I can’t even begin to say how excited I was about. I got to open up a show for an Emmy award winning vaudeville duo who also happen to be great old friends of mine.
They asked me to open for their show at a new local hot spot called, ‘The Jive Mill’.
The Jive Mill is owned and operated by Noelle and Christopher Roberts. What began for them in 2012 as a hope for building community and broadening the arts has culminated in a wonderful, large, and vibrant performance space.
Not only was I fortunate enough to play here I also got to open for the Nortons; although, we didn’t get any footage of my portion of the show I sure got some great stuff of their show.
What is vaudeville?
A short answer is it’s entertainment. Music, acting, clowning around. Before television and radio any sort of entertainment was great. Small bands of traveling musicians went around and entertained the masses. You can trace the evolution of where we are at today to those same wandering folks. Lucille Ball, Red Buttons, all three styles of clowns come from those times. If you want to go down a little Youtube hole check out any of those, or just watch the video of the show. Here.
The video which accompanies this blog post was performed at the same place as the last blog post. Which is Kinney Creek Brewery in Rochester, Mn. My friend Dedrick Benz was playing with me, and unfortunately I had a bad camera angle, so you don’t really get to see him.
This is a song I wrote thirty or forty thousand years ago...eh give or take. If I remember right the humans were just starting the agrarian journey. The song is all about escapism. I think we are all escapist of one variety and density or other. By that I mean to say we each have our own thing that we do to get through the day, week, month, bad times. For some it’s drugs, booze, sex, eating, buying stuff and I’m not making a judgement call on any of them or the people who do them. I’m just saying we each have our own thing that we do and to deny it is to not really know yourself. For me it’s the road. The road for me represent hope, new beginnings, transformations, regeneration. It’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. What new journey lies ahead?
So for myself my escapist tendency is to regenerate and start again.
The other day I got a GoPro Hero 4+ for my anniversary gift. We usually don’t go for the gift thing, but seeing as how it was our first year wedding anniversary we went for it. She got a Fitbit Blaze which is actually pretty neat. It’s not really my style, but I am so glad that she likes it. It makes me happy that she’s happy. I have been searching the inter webs for an attachment for my motorcycle so I can have some fun recording where I drive. While I look around for this I decided to bring it with while we took our little pooch for a walk. Her name is Marley and she just loves a walk. It was around 20 - 30 minutes long, so I sped it up. I figured it’d be fun to watch us walk around our little neighborhood in the sunshine.
The song you’re listening to as we walk is just a blues jam in A, but if we need to name it I think we should call it ‘Walkin the Dog’. I did all the tracks with my old Gibson L-1. There was no mic but the one on my iPad and my DAW was Garageband. I needed it to be simple so… here it is. Walking the Dog. I’m wishing you a happy happy day.
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.
