Archive for the 'Music' Category

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Shortnin’ Bread - Traditional

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

New recording

Put on the skillet, put on the lid
Mama gonna bake a little shortnin’ bread

DOWNLOAD (1.4MB; 1:31)

The chords and lyrics were from here, but transposed to C and I used a 7th for the V chord (so C and G7 instead of G and D, respectively). Instruments used were ukulele, mandolin, and shaker.

Background info on the song.

Peter, Paul, and Mary - River of Jordan Chords and Lyrics

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
  E            E/F#         E           E/F#
I traveled the banks of the River of Jordan
   E             E/F#         F#
To find where it flows to the sea.
  F#m           F#m/G#      F#m             F#m/G#
I looked in the eyes of the cold and the hungry
      F#m       F#m/G#     F#m
And I saw I was looking at me.
A                   F#m
I wanted to know if life had a purpose
    A                        B7
And what it all means in the end.
       E         E/F#        E        E/F#
In the silence I listened to voices inside me
         E        E/F#      E
And they told me again and again.

       E/F#     B7                       E    E/F#  E
The is only one river. There is only one sea.
       E/F#          B7                        E   E/F#  E
And it flows through you, and it flows through me.
                  C#m
There is only one people. We are one and the same.
               F#7                    B7
We are all one spirit. We are all one name.
           E      E/F# E         E/F#         E    E/F#  E
We are the father,       mother, daughter and son.
         E/F#        F#7          B7
From the dawn of creation, we are one.
       E    E/F#  E
We are one.

Every blade of grass on the mountain
Every drop in the sea
Every cry of a newborn baby
Every prayer to be free
Every hope at the end of a rainbow
Every song ever sung
Is a part of the family of woman and man
And that means everyone.

We are only one river. We are only one sea.
And it flows through you, and it flows through me.
We are only one people. We are one and the same.
We are all one spirit. We are all one name.
We are the father, mother, daughter and son
From the dawn of creation, we are one.
We are one.

Chord fingering suggestions

       (Standard tuning)
          E A D G B E
          -----------
E        [0 2 2 1 0 0]
E/F#     [2 2 2 1 0 0]
F#       [2 4 4 3 2 2]
F#m      [2 4 4 2 2 2]
F#m/G#   [4 4 4 2 2 2]
A        [0 0 2 2 2 0]
B7       [x 2 1 2 0 2]
C#m      [x 4 6 6 5 4]

I believe this is the only place on the web you’ll find chords for this song. If you find another, I’d be curious to see it (I looked quite a bit). I think this is a reasonably accurate transcription, it’ll surely get you through. For the last two stanzas, just play the chords from the first two and it should fit well enough.

The inspiration for transcribing it came on a pep band CAA bus trip, watching a scene in the movie Airplane!, where Randy the flight attendant plays it to Lisa, the girl on the plane who had fallen ill.

We Are Siamese (If You Please) - Lady and the Tramp, Chords and Lyrics

Saturday, February 16th, 2008

According to the IMDB soundtrack listing for Lady and Tramp, the actual name of the song is just “Siamese Cat Song” and it’s by Sonny Burke & Peggy Lee.

The chord transcription may not be perfect, but I believe that it is at least close, and it certainly seems to work with the vocals. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here.

A
We are Siamese if you please
                      Cm
We are Siamese if you don't please
Cm
Now we lookin' over our new domicile
E                            A
If we like we stay for maybe quite a while

A
Do you seeing that thing swimming round and round? (Yesss)
                               Cm
Maybe we could reachin' in and make it drown (Meow)
Cm
If we sneaking up upon it carefully
E                               A
There will be a head for you, a tail for me

A
Do you hear what I hear? A baby cry
                                Cm
Where we finding baby there are milk near by
Cm
If we look in baby buggy there could be
E                            A
Plenty milk for you and also some for me

The original recording is in the key of Bb, so if you want to play in the original key using these same chord shapes, just capo the 1st fret. You can listen to my recording of this song from the archives, but note that I added extra chord changes that aren’t in this transcription.

Kookaburra (Sits in the Old Gum Tree)

Thursday, November 8th, 2007
DOWNLOAD (1.6MB; 128Kbps; 1:38)

This is actually a combination of a couple of the original verses, and it turned out to be more than a bit muddy/overdone. The chords and lyrics used, for the curious:

C          F           C
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.
C            F           C
merry, merry king of the bush is he.
C      F           C
Laugh, kookaburra, laugh kookaburra,
C         F         C
Save some there for me.

Background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra_(song)

Weezer - My Evaline (Sweet Adeline) CHORDS + Lyrics

Saturday, September 15th, 2007

As far as I know this is the only place on the net you’ll find this. It was transcribed by me, so it’s far from perfect. However, I think it’s reasonably accurate. You should experiment with different chord inversions to find out which sounds best where. Later on I might add to this the inversions I use, and I also plan on redoing my recording of this song since I wasn’t particularly pleased with it.

C / /

      C
My Avaline
              C
Say you'll be mine
          C               G7              C
Won't you come and let me whisper in your ear
F                      C
Way down yonder in the old corn field
    Dm7
For you
     G7
I've pined
G7
Sweeter than the honey
C      F7    C
To the honey bee
G7
I love you
    C   F7   C
Say you love me
F
Meet me in the shade
       C       Cadd9 C     Dm7/C F7/C
Of the old apple     tree- ee-   eee
C       G7     C   (Cadd9 C)
Eva-Iva-Ova-Avaline

UPDATE: Changed Am7 to F7 in “To the honey bee” and “Say you love me.” I think it sounds closer. Also I forgot to mention that this is not the same key as the original recording; it’s transposed. I can’t remember the key they used, in fact I think it’s recorded a few cents off from standard tuning.

I think the least accurate part is “Of the old apple tree- ee- eee,” so I would really like to know if anyone figures out a better way to play it.

I'll Fly Away!

Monday, September 3rd, 2007

New recording:

DOWNLOAD (3.1MB; 128Kbps)

Lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/obrotherwhereartthou/illflyaway.htm

This is another multi-track recording, mixed down with Audacity.

Tell It To Me

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

New recording… cover of Tell It To Me by Old Crow Medicine Show.

Tell It To Me
DOWNLOAD (1:36; 1.2MB; 96kbps)

IMPORTANT NOTE: I do not in any way condone the use of cocaine. I happen to like bluegrass, I happen to be a fan of Old Crow Medicine Show, and I happen to like the song “Tell It To Me.” I happened to record it and it was fun.

My Evaline (Sweet Adeline) - Acapella recording

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

I’ve always wanted to be in a barbershop quartet. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone else who does, plus I don’t always hit the right notes. So I tried recording a song with a few of myself, mixed down with Audacity.

DOWNLOAD

It’s an old-timey song, but Weezer does a cool cover.

My Evaline (my Evaline)
Say you’ll be mine (say you’ll be mine)
Won’t you come and let me whisper in your ear
Way down yonder in the old corn field
For you (for you)
I’ve pined
Sweeter than the honey
To the honey bee
I love you
Say you love me
Meet me in the shade
Of the old apple tree
Eva-Iva-Ova-Evaline

You Are My Sunshine

Friday, November 17th, 2006

My dad used to sing the chorus to me when I was little, replacing “dear” with “son.” This recording is dedicated to him. According to the Wikipedia article, the song is credited to Davis and Charles Mitchell and was first recorded in 1940.

I didn’t even realize that the song has verses (just knew the chorus), but I just found out that it actually has a lot more than the three sections in the chart I originally found and used:

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head and cried

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You’ll never know dear, how much I love you
Please don’t take my sunshine away

I’ll always love you and make you happy
If you will only say you’ll stay;
but if you leave me to find another
You will regret it all someday

I think it’s a beautiful song, and there are a bunch of great versions out there. Mine is rough in many spots, but I gave it a shot:

You Are My Sunshine (4:09; 3.9MB; 128kbps)
DOWNLOAD or STREAM @ 64kbps

Tommy was humming it in the kitchen and made the suggestion for the recording… it was fun to make, but will probably be the last multi-instrument recording for a while. These are quite consuming, and my room becomes a mess :-)
UPDATE: I found out today that this is the song that my grandfather sang to my grandmother, two hours before he died… whoa.

The Bare Necessities of Life

Monday, November 13th, 2006

I don’t normally sing (because I’m not very good at it), and this is a rare case where my voice is in a public recording. It’s “The Bare Necessities,” by Terry Gilkyson, from the Jungle Book soundtrack. The chords are posted in a previous entry. I think it’s a great song!

The Bare Necessities (2:54; 3.98MB; 192kbps)
DOWNLOAD or STREAM @ 64kbps

Downloading is recommended; the quality is higher and streaming can sometimes be a pain.