Two Very Different Songs

I’ve been having a lot of fun with this project. I’m not trying too hard, and that feels good.

I’m experimenting with all kinds of kooky styles and instruments.

The most recent examples are two very different songs.

The first one is my homage to Philip Glass – the Mozart of the postmodern age. Glass’s repetitive, almost hypnotic rhythms and counter-rhythms… his penchant for musical simplicity in terms of instrumentation… his complete disregard for convention in the single-minded pursuit of his musical vision… I have mucho respect for Mr. Glass.

So with massive, massive apologies to him, I present this song I call Stained Glass:

And on the opposite side of the spectrum you have Maggie May. This short song took me about 25 minutes to write and record. It’s rough. But I went back and tried re-recording with smoother guitar and stronger vocals. And it just didn’t work. The arrangement became too polished, too smooth… and almost textureless.

I think this rough version is better. I hope you like it. I am a large fan of John Prine and Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. This song is kind of an homage to the troubadours.

While it’s more of a folk ballad, it does share one thing with Stained Glass. Both are somewhat simple in their general approach.