My Tunes | MidiMike

Archive for the ‘My Tunes’ Category

When I Dance

Posted: June 2, 2023 in My Tunes, Poetry
Tags: #dancing, #eternaloptimist, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #songwriter

Destined to walk in a city
That does not care or love.
My hope drains as I go
But, eventually……

With an uncontrollable urge to laugh
I can’t help but dance.
Look around: they’re just friendly faces
The feeling of romance.

Working endless hours is no way
No pay, no praise, no life.
Needing what I can’t afford
Goals are for another day.

You don’t have to know why
Simply let it move you.
The energy is powerful
Rising up from the groove.

With an uncontrollable urge to laugh
I just can’t help but dance.
Look around they’re just friendly faces
The feeling of romance.

You don’t have to know why
Simply feel how it moves you.
The energy becomes powerful
Rising up within the groove.

Destined to walk in a city
That does not care or love.
My hope drains as I go
But, eventually……

With an uncontrollable urge to laugh
I can’t help but dance.
Look around: they’re just friendly faces
The feeling of romance.

The Merchants

Posted: May 19, 2023 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #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.

Dead

Posted: April 16, 2023 in My Tunes
Tags: dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1907

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Music for “The Dream”

Posted: April 14, 2023 in MUSIC, My Tunes
Tags: #audio, #dreams, #korgnautilus, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #Presonus, #recording, #songwriter

I seem to be continuing wiht my sparse instrumentation arrangements. I do like the sound open sometimes without a lot of backing instruments or vocals.

The Dream © MSK 3/21/2023

Posted: April 7, 2023 in #poetry, My Tunes
Tags: #dreams, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #musician, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #singersongwriter, #songwriter

Is this
The Dream
I can’t remember
How it feels.
One thought
Opens
Yet another path
Forgotten.

Whispers
Dead ends
Familiar faces
Wrong season.
Tried to
Go back
Once I found the way
It was gone.

It seems
Simple
It even makes sense
Natural.
Rewind
Redo
Soon I will forget
What it means.

No, this is The Dream
I could stay here all night.
Once you took my hand
I found it hard to let go.

Wake up
Too fast
I keep struggling
To hold on.
Madness
Meaning
Gentle distractions
Tempt my dreams.

No, this is The Dream
I could stay here all night.
Once you took my hand
I never wanted to let go.
No, this is The Dream
I could stay here all night.
Once you take my hand
Don’t ever let me go.

Some Sounds
Echoes
It doesn’t matter
What you choose.
First thoughts
Grow old
Were you even real
Or just The Dream?

Is this
The Dream
Were you even real or just The Dream?
I can’t remember
How it feels.
Were you even real or just The Dream?
Rewind
Redo
Were you even real or just The Dream?
Soon I will forget
What it means.
Were you even real or just The Dream?

Music for “Reflections”

Posted: March 25, 2023 in My Tunes
Tags: #cdbaby, #enemiesinyourhead, #guitar, #keyboard, #keyboardplayers, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #perigee, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #singer, #singersongwriter, #songwriter

A little while ago I posted a poem called “Reflections”. I recently turned the poem into lyrics.

This might be a good time to detail my recording process a bit. As I write and record my own songs, I am trying (in my mind) to create a working demo of the song. Something you can listen to and get a good idea of the song and it’s potential if performed and/or recorded by an established band or artist. Because I play most of the instruments on my recordings and I do most of the singing, I know there is a lot of room for improvement. I am not the best guitarist, pianist, or vocalist around, but I write really good songs. I get them ‘good enough’ and then I move on to the next song I am writing or to the next project I am working on.

When I post my songs they are fresh from the mixing board and have not been edited and cleaned up like a formal studio version. As with my new release on CDBaby called, “The Enemies in Your Head”, the versions available on-line through Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube Music, Pandora and the rest have been mixed but also mastered to make them sound a bit more professional.

“Reflections” will be on my next release, but if you use any of the services above and dozens more, you can listen to my music by searching for my name or CD names.

Hint: If you search for Michael Kennedy you will probably not find me. There are a lot of us!

If you do an artist search for Michael S ——- or —– Michael S. Kennedy you will see my releases. They are available for download and the entire CD sounds better streaming after the mastering process.

Any way, here is “Reflections”, hot off the press.

MIDIMike

Music for Pet the Cat

Posted: January 20, 2023 in My Tunes
Tags: #cats, #guitar, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #pets, #poem, #poetry, #poetrypod, #poetrytolyrics, #recording, #songwriter

I mentioned in my first Poetry Pod that I turned the lyrics of my Pet the Cat poem into a song. I had a good time recording this one and tried to make it fun for kids to listen to. Maybe on a rainy day you will sing this song as you pet your cat, or dog, or frog.

Here is Pet the Cat for your family entertainment.

Baby, You’re so Beautiful

Posted: December 17, 2022 in My Tunes
Tags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #ovationguitars, #poetry, #recording, #recordingstudio, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #vocalist

Going over old recordings I finally found one of my gems from 1977. Back then I was learning to play guitar and my friend TR would jam with me. I knew a few musicians even back then and on the weekends we would gather at my place for dinner and a fun evening.

We would have about a dozen friends come over and after meals and a few drinks we would inevitably pull out the guitars and other toys. I didn’t spend much time learning or playing cover songs. That happened, but most of the time we wrote our own material. Our songs ran the gambit between topics of the day and the humorous things in life. I recorded on state of the art technology in those days: reel-to-reel tape recorders. I had a Tascam (Teac) 4-track machine back then so we could record an AMAZING 4 tracks at one time!

This song is one of our funnier songs. It wasn’t like we were trying to be like the Smothers Brother’s Comedy Hour from 1967, but we enjoyed humor in our music. This take starts with TR vocals and Ovation guitar introducing the theme of the song as I join in with my Ovation 12 string guitar.

Here is the only recording of that song. It is just the two of us jamming late after most others had crashed or gone home or to work. I learned a lot about harmonies during these sessions and still get a kick listening to us making up the arrangement as we go along.

Enjoy a funny blast from the past and wait for the end of the song for the lyrical punch line.

There is no Cost

Posted: November 18, 2022 in MUSIC, My Tunes, Poetry
Tags: #audio, #lyrics, #midimike, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #songwriter

The ‘haves’ have more. News at 11.

I know you are still playing games
And cannot see what I’ve lost.

For too many, the tab gets paid by others.
For you, There is no Cost.

Pull up to another table
Grab a fancy pair of dice.
You don’t need anyone
Let alone their advice.

Black is black and everything in between
What’s left is a white that blinds like the sun.
Defended by lies no choice but to go on
There’ll be many more before this song is done.

I know you are still playing games
And cannot see what I’ve lost.

For too many, the tab gets paid by others.
For you, There is no Cost.
For you, There is no cost
There is no Cost.

Deception is the Tool

Posted: November 8, 2022 in MUSIC, My Tunes, Poetry
Tags: #audio, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #personal, #poetry, #Presonus, #recording, #songwriter, #sound

I have been busy and quite productive in spite of the world moving as fast as ever as I slow down. next year I will be 70, so everything I do takes a bit longer these days.

I have a few songs, a lot of poetry , some photos and a couple outside projects to show for it.

Here is a new song I can blame on too much time to think in between projects. Some darker themes throughout. More to come if I can find the time, even if the descriptions and personal stories are shorter than I usually aim for. Thanks for your understanding.

11 2 2022

Pot makes me paranoid
Alcohol makes me cry.
If you ask me a question
I’ll want to know the reason why.

If we could do this all over again
It Wouldn’t Be the Same.
I’ve loved you forever

But it’s driving me insane.

Friends we know are complicated
And rarely ever try.
I told you I will love you,
Until the day I die.  Until the day that I die.

Life becomes precious to those
Who see what lies ahead.
Each day becomes very special
For those who know they’ll soon be dead.

Take the time, the time is now
To look what’s inside your head.
I tell you over and over again
But you ignore what I’ve said.

MidiMike

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Archive for the ‘My Tunes’ Category

When I Dance

The Merchants

Dead

Music for “The Dream”

The Dream © MSK 3/21/2023

Music for “Reflections”

Music for Pet the Cat

Baby, You’re so Beautiful

There is no Cost

Deception is the Tool

Archives

Available on iTunes and CD Baby

Social Media

MSK original Songs

Archive for the ‘My Tunes’ Category

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