MP3 Saturday: Nice Work If You Can Get It

One of my favorite songwriting teams is George and Ira Gershwin. I don't really care for George's symphonic pieces. They're a little too square for my tastes, but when he teamed up with his brother to write pop tunes, he really hit his stride.

I was first introduced to Nice Work If You Can Get It during my time in the pit orchestra for Crazy For You. The version we played in the musical was pretty bum-chucka in keeping with the 1930s feel of the show, but my favorite version is by Thelonious Monk.

Monk plays with the rhythm to a point where it is virtually impossible to tap your foot to the tune, but its still so enjoyable, you don't care.

My version of the song is not as adventurous as Monk's, but I tried to retain the chord voicings from that version.

P.S. Thelonious Monk not only has the coolest name of all Jazz musicians, but he also has the coolest goatee I've ever seen.

You can download Return of the June Bug for free here!

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes

Support the arts and leave a tip!

Nice Work If You Can Get It (download)


mp3 free+download Gershwin Thelonious+Monk jazz

MP3 Saturday: We're Not to Talk About It

This song exhibits my rather meager banjo playing skills. It also features my wife, Traci, on clarinet to complete the Brechtian goodness.

The lyrics may get a major overhaul, because my wife is encouraging my to not use the same words in every song and I might just take her up on that challenge!

You can download Return of the June Bug for free here!

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes

Support the arts and leave a tip!

We're Not to Talk About It (download)


mp3 free+download brecht

MP3 Saturday: Carnival of New Alexandria

I realized way too late, that my post last week got half eaten by blogger. I had a whole part about how I made the drum loop and got that Dick Dale guitar sound. Someday I'll try it again.

Not much to say about this week's song other than its taken me longer than I'd like to tweak the lyrics and guitar arrangement considering the rather simple structure.

Anyway, this is me trying to be Tom Waits or Kurt Weill

You can download Return of the June Bug for free here!

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes

Support the arts and leave a tip!

Carnival of New Alexandria (download)


mp3 free+download

MP3 Saturday:The Star and Key of the Indian Ocean

As I've mentioned before, I'm reworking and remixing the old Walter Boyd Band material for a 5th Anniversary Edition. Since Mauritius was the first record project I ever did, there are a lot of things I did wrong and a few things I wanted to add in to the project in hindsight.

As I was redoing the cover artwork, I was inspired by the Latin phrase on the Mauritian coat of arms, "Stella Clavisque Maris Indici" which means the "The Star and Key of the Indian Ocean."

You can download Return of the June Bug for free here!

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes

Or download it from Amie Street (currently for free)

Support the arts and leave a tip!

The Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (download)


mp3 free+download walter+boyd+band Mauritius surf+rock Del-Tones

No MP3 this Saturday

Sorry. . . no MP3 this week.

MP3 Saturday: Awaking Dawn

Last year when I first got Garageband, I rigged up the input/output loops all crazy and got some very cool feedback sounds. Eventually, I cut these up and put them into an ambient song. I made a little comic/diagram of how I hooked everything up so I could repeat the process later.

I was going to do a whole album or ambient and instrumental songs and call it "Incidental Music for Unrealized Animation Projects". I've always loved the music in the old cartoons and I played around with some themes, but things never really got off the ground with most of them.

Here's one that made it. Its on the latest June Bug Mix, which you can download for free here. You can purchase my other album at CDBaby or iTunes.

Awaking Dawn (download)


mp3 free+download return+of+the+june+bug ambient+music

MP3 Saturday: Casey (song sketch) and Cotton Eye Joe

Just a reminder that you can download Return of the June Bug for free which has this rollicking good tune on it that I did with Red Eyed Johnny.

Cotton Eye Joe (download)


Also, here's a piece of a slower version of the Casey song we've been working on. I have a feeling this version will never get finished, because it would make the song go way too long at this tempo.

Casey (slow version) (download)


mp3 free+download red+eyed+johnny

MP3 Saturday: Casey (song sketch)

Better late than never, eh?

Neal penned this rather poetic song the other day and Steve and I have been bouncing around arrangements of it.

Here's a junk band version I did of the first two stanzas. (For those of you following the Red Eyed Johnny blog, its a faster version than my original effort.)

Casey (download)


mp3 free+download red+eyed+johnny

MP3 Saturdays: A New Version of Ode to the Concept Album

When I recorded the material for The Walter Boyd Band, I was learning as I went. As a result some of the songs I recorded in the earliest part of the project had some definite flaws and poor sound quality.

So now that I know (a little bit) more about recording and have a bit more equipment, I've gone back and started re-recording some of those tracks.

This week's song was one of those such re-recorded songs and I've changed a few things up a bit. So if you know the old one, you'll enjoy hearing the new version of it.

Ode to the Concept Album (download)


Don't forget, you can download Return of the June Bug for free here!

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes.

MP3 free+download walter+boyd+band

MP3 Saturdays: Lottery Tickets

Most of you have probably heard this already if you follow Steve's blog, but I thought I'd re-post it here.

This is the first song I wrote with other people and Neal and Steve were great to work with on my first time out. Steve wrote the bulk of the song and I added a line or two and Neal polished it up tremendously after Steve and I had kicked it around a bit.

Lottery Tickets (download)


Don't forget, you can download Return of the June Bug for free here!

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes.

MP3 free+download Red+Eyed+Johnny June+Bug+Mix

MP3 Saturdays: Hey Hey My My

I've noticed recently that Borders has done away with their local music section. I didn't think much of it, until I was buying something the other day and the clerk recognized me. He called the music manager up to help desk with my old "Walter Boyd" merchandise, which I had completely forgotten about.

I giggled a little on the inside when the manager said, "Here you go, Walter."

Apparently, I had sold one CD in the last five years, so they pulled out $7 and I went home with my CDs and felt just a little richer.

Ah what a stroll down memory lane.

------------

As I mentioned yesterday, Red Eyed Johnny now has a website and I'm working on getting some of the covers we've done up on there.

Here's one we did of Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My"

Hey Hey My My (download)


Don't forget, Return of the June Bug will be available to download for free on June 30.

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes.
MP3 free+download Red+Eyed+Johnny Grant+Thomas June+Bug+Mix

MP3 Saturdays: Cotton Candy

I found a lyric sheet and chords for a song I wrote back in 2006. In songwriting time, that seemed like ages ago,especially since it didn't ever make it in my repertoire. (Whatever that means- I quit playing live shows in 2005.)

I revamped a few lines and re-wrote an entire verse set the whole thing down in Garageband in the course of an evening. Sometimes I find old material and I want to re-work it, but I'm paralyzed with the idea of where to start pruning things out. But this time was different and the revisions just sorta flowed out.

Enjoy!

Cotton Candy (download)


You can still download Son of the June Bug from the $tore for a few more days.

Return of the June Bug will be available to download for free on June 31.

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes.


MP3 free+download Grant+Thomas

MP3 Saturdays: Facebook Nightmares

First of all, I'd like to point you over to Steve's version of my song, Great Rainbow in the Sky. Steve and I have collaborated for Red Eyed Johnny and was so inspired when I posted the lyrics a while back, that he made his own demo of it.

What I find most interesting, is in the early stages of this song, the guitar arrangement was very similar to the one Steve choose to use, though I think he picks better than I do. I love the banjo solo at the end. With a little polish, this could hold its own next to "official canonical version".

Facebook Nightmares grew out of a dream I had during the RPM challenge. I jotted down a few feeble lines and mumbled it over top of a mandolin.

Last month I was playing with some of the strings samples in Garageband and pulled it back out and put some strings over the chord structure. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and flexibility of the samples.

I didn't have a chorus and I was a little stumped, so I picked a random sample and stuck it after the chorus and tried to write words over top of the sample. It was enough to break me out of writer's block and the rest of the verse stumbled out after that.

I've polished up the lyrics a bit and have put it up here for you to enjoy.

Facebook Nightmares (download)


This song will be on Return of the June Bug and you can still download Son of the June Bug from the $tore.

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes.

MP3 free+download Red+Eyed+Johnny Grant+Thomas June+Bug+Mix four+track+wonderland

MP3 Saturdays: Last Night I Dreamed You Died

Here's a NEW SONG I've been working on for a few months. Its one of those songs that I can't decide what tempo and what arrangement will be appropriate and the only way to find out is to make demos of all the different versions of them and pick from those.

This version is just vocals and plectrum four-string banjo. Its just me practicing the song with one mic, so the vocals are a little low and you can hear birds singing outside the window, but just imagine yourself sitting next to me in my spare bedroom as I play.

This song will most likely be on the forthcoming Return of the June Bug but I'm not sure if I'll put a banjo version on it or a guitar version and who knows it might be faster or slower.

You can still download Son of the June Bug from the $tore.

You can buy four track wonderland on CDBaby or iTunes.

Last Night I Dreamed You Died (download)


MP3 free+download Grant+Thomas June+Bug+Mix

MP3 Saturdays: Great Rainbow in the Sky (original demo version)

I found the old demo version of Great Rainbow in the Sky that I made in December 2006. I can't believe I didn't put it on last year's Son of the June Bug, but I'll be sure to put it on this year's Return of the June Bug (available as a FREE download on June 31).

You can still download Son of the June Bug from the $tore.

You can buy four track wonderland or Great Rainbow in the Sky on CDBaby or iTunes.

Great Rainbow in the Sky (download)


MP3 free+download June+Bug+Mix four+track+wonderland

MP3 Saturdays: Red River Valley (final mix)

I realized I never posted the final mix for Red River Valley.

credits:
Grant Thomas- vocals, guitar
Steve Harrison- Banjo, Accordion

Red River Valley (download)


Tags: MP3, free+download, folk, red+river+valley

MP3 Saturdays: Positively 4th Street

A couple of weeks back, I got sick of all the over dubs and polishing and what not, so I busted out this Dylan cover with one take and one well placed AKG mic to capture a more live feel.

Positively 4th Street (download)

MP3 free+download bob+dylan covers

MP3 Saturdays: When We Come Home

Since tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday, I thought I'd post a song from "four track wonderland" about the Tower of Babel which is the reason for Pentecost. (More on that tomorrow.)

I've also been fiddling with this song since the RPM challenge. I can't seem to hammer out the lyrics quite right. Its supposed to be about the restoration that Pentecost brings and I've written 5-6 stanzas that I desperately need to work on before I put them with this music. The song form probably needs a chorus or bridge, too.

I'm posting what I have, because I still think the instrumental part that I have is pretty interesting and I'll keep you posted when the song is finished.

When We Come Home (download)


Pentecost Song Snippet (download)


When we come home is for sale on iTunes. Or buy the physical CD in the $tore.

MP3 Grant+Thomas 4+track+wonderland pentecost

MP3 Saturdays: Sweet Summer Wine

I started writing this song four years ago, but it still seems especially important today. Maybe because the cause of the poor has been weighing especially heavy on my heart these past few weeks. Or maybe its because I heard another lame excuse today from someone about why they can't join with me to help the poor. Maybe its just a gloomy day in May and I didn't sleep well.

Anyway, the song talks about a vineyard. Now you expect when you plant a vineyard that you will get sweet succulent grapes. But what do you do if all you get is shriveled up sour grapes? You pull that plant out and put something more productive in the ground instead.

This song is a "love song oh so sad" about bad grapes. Grapes that are more satisfied with maintaining the status quo in the world than alleviating suffering.

Sweet Summer Wine (download)

This song is for sale on iTunes. Or buy the physical CD in the $tore.

MP3 Grant+Thomas 4+track+wonderland

MP3 Saturdays: Great Rainbow in the Sky

I think that Great Rainbow in the Sky has some of my better lyric writing. The song as well as a lot of the songs on the album came out of some tough times I had after college. Since this was the last song written on the album, I think it actually brings all my thoughts about those times to the best closure.

I'm also pretty proud of the back-masked guitar solo. Ah the joys of using tape!

Great Rainbow in the Sky (download)


As I said yesterday, this song is for sale on iTunes. Or buy the physical CD in the $tore.

MP3 Grant+Thomas 4+track+wonderland