Songs from the Void

Period of Change - Lyrics by Mike Stevens, originally performed with Mountain of Joy. Always wanted to make a good recording of this one.
Honeysuckle House: Recorded for my wonderful wife Liz's doll making website at http://honeysucklehousecreations.com using my laptop and a Martin classical guitar that's been in the family since my Dad, Lee, and I rescued it from a Denton, TX pawnshop in 1981. I'm just amazed at and love the work that Liz has done, and this song was directly inspired by her dolls and Liz herself.
It's Love, It's Living: The lyrics had been sitting in a folder for years, and when I was trying to decide what to work on next, this was one of the first ones my wife, Liz, picked out, mostly because it said "reggae" at the top. I knew that this one needed to be a reggae song, I just needed to come up with the music for it, and that got put off for many years. Read the lyrics and you'll understand better where it's coming from.
Reflection: This was the other song that Liz had picked out of my old lyrics file for me to work on, and I just came up with some new music for it. Click here to check out the lyrics, which are in places in this recording hard to understand.
Blues in E Minor: This four-track recording was originally listed under Solo Recordings '87-'93, but the file I had put there somehow got truncated to about 1 minute in length. This is the full version restored to its former glory. This one has received the highest ratings on American Idol Underground of any song I've submitted there so far. Check out my ratings.
Paths: I've been playing this one on acoustic guitar for a long time. I wanted to expand the original idea into a full rock song, so I started it with the acoustic parts, then blended in more electric stuff as the song moves along. I've been trying to improve my singing and highlight it more in the final mixes, so the lyrics on this one are a little easier to understand.
The Kitchen Marauder: This one is another that I've been playing on acoustic for quite some time now. I left this one closer to its original form, with just an acoustic guitar track with vocal, and another acoustic guitar track playing along with it. This is a lighthearted song written about my own raids on the refrigerator in the middle of the night when I was younger and coming in from partying half the night. Check out the lyrics here.
Chris's Song: This one is based on a riff taught to me by Chris Parker when I was in high school, just learning how to play. I've been playing it all these years and amped up the original riff with some variations of my own. Until now it had no bass or lead part, so I wrote those on the fly as I recorded.
Reverie: Another song based on a chord progression taught to me by Chris Parker in high school, with the addition of a new bass and lead part for atmosphere.
The American Way: I started this one with a bass line inspired by "Mustang Sally" and built a blues song around that, then discovered that one of my dad Lee Parent's old lyrics that I've had in my files since the seventies would really work. The first vocal I did was pretty rough because it was out of my range, but I changed the key and was able to clean it up quite a bit. This is the cleaned up version. I like the way this turned out and hope you like it too, it reminds me of good times down on the Tickfaw River in Killian, LA when all there was to do was chill and swim.
Hypnodelic: This is built using MTV Music Generator to create a rhythm track, then adding two amped-up guitar tracks on top of that. Listen to it loud.
Drowning In It: I just added a bass track to round out an old four-track recording from way back. This one is pretty unique-sounding and has a lot of key changes.
Wild-Ass Blues: Same rhythm track as "The American Way" with the addition of some piano. I took out the vocals and just jammed on lead guitar.

Hey, if you like this music well enough to want to take it with you or play it all the way through without interruption, you can buy the whole homemade CD from me and support a starving artist in the process.

Songs on the CD:

Hypnodelic
Wild-Ass Blues
Reflection
Reverie
Honeysuckle House
Chris's Song
It's Love, It's Living
Groove for Carlos
Paths
Free Spiritz
Period of Change
Drowning In It
Katrina Boogie
The Kitchen Marauder
Period of Change Reprise

Downloads:

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