Ornaments is a Christmas album project dreamed up by my friend Jeremy Cordy. He approached me in early November 2009 with the idea of gathering the various musically talented friends we had to try to put together something beautiful. I couldnʼt be more pleased with the results.
Comprised of almost entirely original songs, the project was an attempt to fill a few gaps in the Christmas music we were used to hearing all the time and explore some different scenarios and ideas.
A musical colleague of mine who performs beneath the veil of a shifting team of collaborators known as Night Shall Eat These Girls And Boys has a song that immediately caught my ears. The song isn’t flashy, doesn’t sabotage nor reinvent any genres, nor does it have a mind-blowing production value in the humble recording I will provide here.
However, the song is just plain good. In the end, that is more important to me. The technology and production value can always come later. This guy knows how to write songs, and you can’t buy that.
Lily and I are learning, becoming friends
we do this by keeping very far away
we’ve already yelled and kicked and cursed
our drinking throats devoid of thirst
and now that it’s done, i’ve found the silence left to be much worse
lily will not accept our love is dead
she is crouched to the floor, arms wrapped about her head
she doesn’t cry or guilt or dread
jog memories and unmade beds
her head held high
she leaves the house with tail between her legs
lily says she does not know who i am
so cold and so sarcastic to my friends
in my defense i’ve been this way
for weeks and months before today
she looks at my friends
but doesn’t count herself as one of them
i have begun to see somebody else
and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t help
she’s smart and sweet and kind and all
and generally keeps me enthralled
but when I’m down, I’m still not sure exactly who to call
Working on some songs with Lee Bozeman still. (I really owe this more focus ASAP).
Stop Don’t Stop EP still in the works. Drums, Bass, Guitars are finished. Vocals and Aux Percussion still needed, plus any extra “spices” we will add.
I have also been tracking the new Michael Edwards LP for a couple of weeks.
New Michael Edwards LP you say?
Yes. Not news if you read this site. I am harvesting a couple of years of songs and also much new material into a good, juicy package. Hopefully it can be heard to be adding a few instruments to my repertoire as well as perhaps new kinds of songs. You’ll never find me recording 10 same-sounding-songs and boringly releasing it.
There are many projects on the horizon this year that I’m working on. All Things Bright & Beautiful has some upcoming songs, Dunvint’s debut LP is on the way, Stop Don’t Stop EP (“Some Kind Of Change”), and my forthcoming LP which has lots of post-apocalyptic scenarios and involves lakes and orchards and militias and orphans and more (but no, this won’t be like the Decemberists. I refuse to have barrow boys and chimbley sweeps and scurvy in my music). It might get tough to finish all of these projects in a timely fashion, because there are a ton of weddings this year, not to mention my own!
This is also the year where I shall cross the quarter-century mark. Perhaps I can raise a guinness glass in the air with some of my friends who I don’t get to see very often anymore. I would like that.
Godspeed to my brother who will be interviewed for a chance to be admitted to Columbia University in New York for a masters program in (correct me if I’m wrong) Fine Arts!
Well, I wanted to sit here and write something more but it’s almost 1AM and the words aren’t coming. I shall invite the muse to come along next time.
This past weekend the venerable Benji Robinson came to Bowling Green and we tracked some drums and spent almost an hour sampling various sounds in the house, including rubber bands, silverware, dish washer doors, faucets, cardboard boxes, coins, and scissors. These will be used to build beats and atmosphere as we aspire to complete a 4-5 song EP to be released within 2 months.
I would be very pleased if we had this out by Christmas time. I think it’s the only other musical release I’ll manage to get out this year, but it’s exciting.
I took some video while we recorded and hopefully I can get it posted here within a day or two.
Monday night Shelby and I got to go see Radiohead at Blossom in Cleveland. It was fantastic. They played 26 songs over the course of about 2 hours. Wow! Here a couple of indecipherable pics followed by the set list.
15 steps
there there
morning bell
all I need
pyramid song
nude
weird fishes / arpeggi (one of my favorites of the night)
the gloaming
the national anthem
a wolf at the door
faust arp
exit music (for a film)
jigsaw falling into place
idioteque
climbing up the walls (NICE!!)
bodysnatcher
how to disappear completely
(left the stage)
videotape
paranoid android
dollars and cents
reckoner
street spirit (just for you, K Cray!)
(left the stage)
house of cards
lucky (also for you, K Cray!)
REM “this one goes out to the one i love” into Everything In Its Right Place
![Michael Edwards [Music]](http://www.michaeledwardsmusic.com/wp-content/themes/daringmichaelball/images/header3.png)
