Lyrics with few words but lots of passion. Prophetic, in some cases but sad throughout. This kind of pain is even more difficult to watch. I put it to a slow bluesy ballad with sparse chords and vocals. It is still a haunting tune to me. I only have old reel-to-reel recordings copied and recopied over the years but it still paints the mood very well.
Archive for May, 2023
Cry, Cry MSK 1981
Posted: May 30, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #midimike, #music, #musician, #ovationguitars, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #relationships, #songwriter, #sound, #vocalist
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Criminal MSK
Posted: May 23, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #songwriter
The Merchants
Posted: May 19, 2023 in MUSIC, My TunesTags: #hearnow, #localbands, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #reeltoreel, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #tascam, #teac, #themerchants, #themerchantsofdeath, #video, #vintage recordings
I have referenced members of my originals band many times in this blog. I was fortunate to meet Tom Robinson in my senior year of high school. It was a rough time in my life. Just finding people even similar to you was difficult let alone finding friends. TR and I became friends immediately. He let me borrow a guitar so I could learn how to play and we could play guitar together. That became the core of a song-writing community that would span decades. A number of local musicians, songwriters and interested observors orbited that core. Separate core members were discovered and their songs were also shared.
I moved up to Dayton, Ohio and became part of the Merchants of Death. (….story to that name and it is really cool but no time for that now) With percussionist/vocalist Tom Gorman and bass guitar genius Mike Wheeler, TR and I blended the Cincinnati sound with the Dayton sound. This was my first real band in that we only played out a few times for friends and family, but we listened to each other. We wrote great songs together. Members filled in for core members as needed. I recorded almost everything with two Radio Shack condensor microphones (that I still have) sitting somewhere on a coffee table on my 4-Track Tascam/Teac reel-to-reel tape deck. Yes, this was 50 years ago.
We got back together on-line during the Covid 19 lock down. The latency was difficult but the connection was priceless, and we started jamming regularly. Eventually we were brave enough to meet in person and had a blast dusting off the old tunes. From that we decided to begin where we left off and started to record our first album project entitled Reinstated. Thinking the ‘Death’ reference in our name was a bit too close to home, we refer to this project as The Merchants.
We have a collection of original songs and a few tasty cover tunes that we perform in our own style. I think you will like a number of these. The project includes 18 songs (18!!) and that might give you the impression that we are done. As logical as that might seem for a bunch of old guys, we are already recording our second album project!
TR was goofing around with some old pictures and I decided to make a short video to introduce the Reinstated project release. Unfortunately I do not have a whole lot of flashy media from those days but there are some pictures that are worth a thousand words. To visit Youtube click here.
I have an easy web page that links to most media streaming services so you can get an idea what we were playing last millenia. To hear more of The Merchants – Reinstated, click here.
Thank you all for the years of listening and sharing. MIDIMike.
Country Rag MSK 1981
Posted: May 16, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #personaltouch, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #recordingstudio, #songwriter, #sound, #vocals
Here are lyrics I wrote to be as much a country song as a parody of country songs. Even back in 1981 I was reflecting on spending most of my time growing old. Another song of mine performed with my first real band, The Personal Touch.
Color Coded Space MSK 2011
Posted: May 9, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #songwriter
Starting with my usual contradictory statement of the obvious, the chorus covers a curiosity I noticed as a teenager. If I was looking for a pen, for example, if I thought the pen was blue but it was actually a different color, I would never find it. Even if it was out in the open on a table in plain sight. I will blind myself to the object I am looking for by an incorrect memory of the wrong color.
Spring blooms.
Posted: May 5, 2023 in PhotographyTags: #Cincinnati, #CincinnatiParks, #cincyparks, #lindnerpark, #michaelskennedy, #midimike.com, #nikon, #personal, #photographer, #photography
I posted a few pictures as Spring started to burst out from Winter’s hold a few weeks ago. I am glad that even though we did have three or four nights where it went below freezing during the nights, that most of the flowering trees and blooms survived. Usually we get a late freeze and it wipes out most of the early bloomers.
Here are a few pictures from my local city park I have featured before many times. These pictures are untreated or processed. This is how you would see the park if you took a walk there today or tomorrow. Enjoy>
Cocoon MSK 2016
Posted: May 2, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #songwriter
I literally wrote the majority of this song soaking in a hot bath tub. I have always been an over-achiever. Play harder than the others, stay longer, think smarter, do it over again. Stuck in someone else’s loop. A feeling of putting all the work down. Stay warm. Quiet. Light as a feather. No deadlines.
MidiMike 