Dear family, friends, and fellow travelers,
The song this cycle is Straight From the Heart, co-written with May-Lily Lee on the last morning of Catie Curtis' songwriting retreat back in 2019. I had made a quick recording of the music earlier in the morning and passed it to May-Lily with the line Anyway you take, it comes straight from the heart. A half hour later, just as we were packing up to go, she brought in a copy of the lyrics she had come up with. Fellow songwriter Merceds Escobar, May-Lily and I did a quick phone recording as the last folks were leaving. Mercedes takes part one, May-Lily the B part. I'm on guitar and join in on the tag line. It has cycled through my phone playlist over the past years and, in spite of the recording quality, I always find myself lingering on it and replaying it when it comes around and wanted to share it with you.
The world scene and the state of things at home continues to be hard, with such terrible suffering and troubles. If it's helpful to you, listen to the playlist, Times of Sorrow, some piano improvs that help me focus and might give comfort. And do what you can - speak, act, love, sing together.
My best to each,
Brian
I'm sending you a monthly offering from original music I've been writing over many years. I've been so bold as to add your email to my newsletter list. You can unsubscribe at any time (link at the bottom of the email).
Many songs are recorded solo, some are from different musical twinings from over the years - all are original tunes, with some occasional collaborations.
Play your favorites!
I've also added a Favorites feature so that, as the playlists grow, you can mark those songs you particularly like and just listen to those, again from using the drop down filter at the top of the playlist. Right now it's a two-step process. You have to click on the song you want to mark on the playlist and then go to the side bar (bottom on phone) and click the gray heart so select; click again to deselect.
On the technical side, the favorites function relies on you not clearing your cookies, often the default setting. Favorites will be lost if cookies are cleared. I hope to add a login feature that would allow you to keep your selections without cookies.
Finally, realizing that many people no longer have a CD player, Leonore and I made our three albums available for free here on the site in playlists. There's a tab, Albums, on the top menu. Select the album you want to hear from the dropdown and enjoy. Songs are free to download as well. We will make some CDs for those who may want that medium - if that is your desire, feel free to contact me.
