This was just a fun song in so many ways. National news has always been a good source for ideas and material and Cut the Fat takes it all and smashes it into a kaleidoscope of political slogans to irrational fears. In the recording I got everyone including neighbors, my kids and other relatives to sing and read news sections. My wife Ellen did a quick run on the vocals to get a feel of the timing. We never recorded another take.
Posts Tagged ‘#singersongwriter’
Cut the Fat MSK 1995
Posted: June 6, 2023 in PoetryTags: #alesisadat, #artists, #audio, #guitar, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midicontroller, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #poetrypod, #politicaldivision, #politics, #recording, #singersongwriter, #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.
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.
The Dream © MSK 3/21/2023
Posted: April 7, 2023 in #poetry, My TunesTags: #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 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
Dangerous Love
Posted: January 13, 2023 in PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #personal, #poem, #poet, #poetry, #singersongwriter, #songwriter
You don’t like that she started lookin’ around,
Checking out other men.
Maybe if you treated her right in the first place
This would never happen.
The first to whine about hunger, they’re starving to death
Haven’t swallowed their last bite.
They proclaim to be tired and exhausted
Never really worked or had a sleepless night.
Right on cue they start to blame a certain few
Things are bad because of them.
So what’s another knee on their neck?
We destroy cultures and display the gems.
I have it made because my family earned it
Taking from others like all men of power.
For my children, I will do anything
I will crush yours under the tower.
Beasts cannot choose their path.
Gamblers never do the math.
Someone is always watching
But no one ever sees.
You don’t like that she started lookin’ around,
Checking out other men.
Maybe if you treated her right in the first place
This would never happen.
Beasts cannot choose their path.
Gamblers never do the math.
Someone is always watching
But no one ever sees.
I Landed Here
Posted: January 6, 2023 in PoetryTags: #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #personal, #poem, #poetry, #singersongwriter, #songwriter
I don’t see a happy ending
Out of this yet.
There are too many things
I can’t forget.
It’s not like all that it takes
Is just one more year.
Just give it one more day
Then I landed here.
I landed here.
It was a crash landing but I don’t care.
I landed here.
And I’d rather be here than anywhere.
I landed here.
It would be so much easier
The rent has been paid.
It would be so much easier
To leave it unsaid.
I don’t see a happy ending
Out of this yet.
Too many things
I can’t forget.
Baby, You’re so Beautiful
Posted: December 17, 2022 in My TunesTags: #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.
Trance
Posted: November 3, 2022 in My Tunes, PoetryTags: #guitar, #lyrics, #Martinguitars, #meditation, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #poetry, #recording, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #StudioOne5, #vocalist, MIDI
I want to share with you my latest 24 hour song. Written, recorded and mixed in one day. This is “Trance”.
It seems to me
This is the place to be.
Outside everything
Inside nothing
In a
Trance
In a
Trance
It seems to me
This is the place to be.
Outside everything
Inside nothing
Internal Glance
Brain Dance
Another Chance
In a Trance
Outside everything
Inside nothing
“Trap”
Posted: June 27, 2022 in MUSIC, My Tunes, PoetryTags: #audio, #lyrics, #michaelskennedy, #midimike, #midimike.com, #music, #musician, #original songs, #poetry, #recording, #singersongwriter, #songwriter, #studio
I know it has been a while since I have posted much, but in reality I have been pretty busy. I have a lot to catch up on, but for now I want to share a new song with you. I wrote the lyrics to “Trap” a while ago and now have music for it. The lyrics have changed a bit so I will include an updated lyric sheet as well.
I have a vocalist coming in to redo the melody track to replace mine, and I will keep my harmony track. Soon another friend will send me bass guitar tracks, but for now, here is “Trap”.
When you think you are making the right decision
Everybody you connect with is on your side.
Well, buckle up your seat belts and hold on to your cap
You don’t know it, but you just walked into a trap.
A trap you can’t get out of. X2
A trap you couldn’t see.
A trap of your own making.
Trapped for all eternity.
Still struggling and squirming trying to believe
Yellin’ ‘I don’t understand’, makes you look like a fool.
All bundled up nice with a box, bow and pretty wrap
However you say it, you’re stuck in a trap.
Lashing out at anyone that comes even close.
You keep pushing yourself further and further away.
Suddenly you hear a loud and powerful snap
Now you know it, you just walked into a trap.
When you think you are making the right decision
Everybody you connect with is on your side.
Well, buckle up your seat belts and hold on to your cap
You don’t know it, you just walked into a trap.
It seems like you are making your own choices
Everything’s going down just like you planned.
The box is smashed and you’re hanging from a strap
However you play it, you’re stuck in a trap.
Suddenly you hear a loud and powerful snap
Now you know it, you just walked into a trap.
MidiMike 