Song A Week 2016 - The Drunken Fool - February 22, 2016

Here's a little hillbilly number I wrote some time back that doesn't see the light of day too much.

The Drunken Fool

words and music by David P. Smith

Outside my bedroom window

there's an old old weeping willow

while I sleep he steals my dreams

and spills them on my pillow

When I wake in the morning

with my emptied out old head

it takes me an hour or two

to figure out I ain't dead

Now my heart likes to bellow

from inside his bloody cave

I pay no attention

I know not what he craves

I just get up in the morning

watch clocks go round and round

while I walk around in circles

in this two bit tinkle town

I got no stories to tell

just episodes and incidents

an odd twist of fate an outburst

an empty coincidence

And I got no songs to sing

was never good with dirty jokes

when it comes to witty repartee

I don't have a hope

I'm irritated and quickly bored

by the monkeys and the mules

but if you ply me with your whiskey

I'll play the drunken fool

Song A Week 2016 - My Heart and My Head (Reboot) - February 14, 2016

The song a week blog I did in 2012 provided a catalyst at the time to write some new songs.  I was playing a lot of music with Rachelle Reath, but I didn't have a regular band so to speak and wasn't gigging much.  Maybe that's the reason a bunch of those songs just fell off the radar.  Or maybe they just sucked. Time will tell.  Whatever, this is one of those songs.  

Written in 2012, Rachelle and I recorded it for the blog in 2012 and we performed it maybe two or three times.  I've changed the feel, put it in a different key, and tweaked one of those lyrics.  The particular line I changed had been a thorn in the side.....one of those lines that comes quickly, is an easy rhyme, and is sort of like a punch line.....but ultimately is weak.  Now it's better.

So here it is....Happy Valentine's Day.

My Heart and My Head 

words and music by David P. Smith

My heart pumps blood

through my scrambled veins

My heart is like a machine

machines don't feel pain

My heart

my heart 

my heart

and my head

My head is a vessel of bone

it contains my brain

My brain is like a machine

machines don't feel pain

Machines don't dream

they don't hope or aspire

They just do their jobs

that's how they're wired

My head

my head

my head

and my heart

My heart is not a metaphor

for courage, strength, or love

so please do not speak of these things

you know not what you speak of

My heart is a muscle

a muscle that is strong

It is the pulse it is the engine

to my life and to my song

My heart

my heart 

my heart

oh my heart

My heart

my heart 

my heart

oh my heart

Song A Week 2016 - Picture of Me with Aaron Ellingsen and Jeanne Tolmie

One of the best things about doing this blog is using it as a catalyst to get together with friends and see what happens. Aaron Ellingsen, Jeanne Tolmie and I are frequent collaborators and it was fun and interesting to get together and have a run at this song.

Picture of Me is a song I wrote a few years back that will be released on my upcoming album New Blues.  The studio version is a pretty cool stripped down arrangement - just accordion, Marek Tyler on drums, and my daughter Chloe Lampman singing backups.  This version - which we jammed out and recorded in about an hour or so - has a Cajun folkey feel thanks to Aaron Ellingsen's fiddle arrangement. 

 Picture of Me 

Do you remember that picture of me in a wheat field with that lean brown dog

his hound dog dink was lipstick pink and a red-tail hawk flew over and gave us a wink

And the Alberta sky was as blue as the Aegean Sea

do you remember 

remember that picture of me

And the Alberta sky was as blue as the Aegean Sea

will you remember

will you remember me

And a great long soft white cloud like a feather

stretched across the sky

And it was two hours and twenty-five minutes

before I said good-bye

Do you remember 

do you remember that picture of me

will you remember 

will you remember me

Do you remember 

do you remember that picture of me

will you remember 

will you remember me

Do you remember that picture of me in the bright white light with a galloping horse

my eyes were two black holes

portals to an underworld hotel

where the menacing ceilings hover over cold cold beds

like conquering aliens from the darkness over head

and dirty curtains guard the windows where we sleep

will you remember

will you remember me

And a thick soft swollen grey cloud like the belly of a whale 

filled the sky

And it was twenty-two years twenty two days

two hours and twenty-five minutes

after I said good-bye

Do you remember 

do you remember that picture of me

will you remember 

will you remember me

Do you remember 

do you remember that picture of me

will you remember 

will you remember me