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.
Posts Tagged ‘#music’
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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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.
Me Neither
Posted: April 21, 2023 in MUSIC, Photography, VideoTags: #audio, #meneither, #metoo, #michaelskennedy, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #video, #videographer
A friend of mine has a humprous response to a serious subject. Dave Young wanted to start a Me Neither Movement in support of the Me Too Movement from the time he read about it.
With my help he created a song parody to help introduce viewers to the Me Neither Movement.
Time for a llittle fun and music! Here is Dave Young’s:
MIDIMike.
Music for “The Dream”
Posted: April 14, 2023 in MUSIC, My TunesTags: #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.
Brighter and Brighter MSK 1980
Posted: April 11, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #ovationguitars, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #sound, #vocalist, #vocals
This is nothing more than my usual ramblings at people that keep turning on lights every time they come into the room and I am sitting in the dark. Then to add insult to injury, they leave the bright lights on when they go out of the room! AARRRGGGhh. Keep your big bright ideas to yourself.
Bookin’ MSK 1984
Posted: March 28, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #arpodyssey, #atari, #audio, #bass, #guitar, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #Midi, #midicontroller, #mididrums, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poetry, #recording, #songwriter, #sound, #synthesizer, #vocalist
This song was originally a vocal jam to a new synth bass line I came up with using a sound I created on my Arp Odyssey. It just had a good tempo and a nice feel, so I called it the big ‘D’ jam. (yep, it is in the key of D). The vocal scat became repeated lyrics and the song became one of my first original contributions to the duo and later a trio I formed with my brother in law Ric Ahlers called ‘The Personal Touch’. Later I would use that section of the lyrics for an updated piece I called “Bookin’”, cause the is the main feeling when I drive and listen to the song. Not sure anymore what the lyrics are about. I know something about observations of beautiful women pretending to be unapproachable. What do you expect from 1984, George?
Music for “Reflections”
Posted: March 25, 2023 in My TunesTags: #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
Reflections
Posted: March 10, 2023 in PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #songwriter
I’m not as strong or as sober as I think.
Each idea becomes better with every drink.
Once enchanted as I looked around the bar
Memories are distant Reflections of who we are.
Security, peace and the comforts of home
Seems not to matter when you are all alone.
Borders raised to protect everything we see
In the end our dreams were never meant to be.
Interstellar travel is nothing but a thought.
What you have is worthless if it can’t be bought.
Fantasies are realities living on sacred ground
Where the blinking of a million eyes never made a sound.
Reflections of who we are
I’m not as strong or as sober as I think.
Each idea becomes better with every drink.
Once enchanted as I looked around the bar
Memories are distant Reflections of who we are.
Once enchanted as I looked around the bar
Memories are distant Reflections of who we are.
I’m not as strong or as sober as I think.
Each idea becomes better with every drink.
Before We Fell In Love MSK 1994
Posted: March 7, 2023 in #poetry, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #recording, #recordingstudio, #songwriter, #sound
I have witnessed a lot of beautiful relationships that seemed as solid as anything I will ever know crumble into bitterness and hate. A couple that I knew for example, infatuated with each other. Over the years each flaw and glance became unbearable and cruel. What was once cute is disgusting. From my point of view nothing had changed. They were both the same people as always. How they are seeing has changed, not what.
MidiMike 