Thank you for your nice comment on Gabrielle, plan to finish and post the "posh" version next week

i think john had more trouble fitting his talents into her art than she had fitting into his. im really glad you like the ep. i have received so much pleasure listening to your music. englsh rock music has inspired me from the british invasion of the 60s to the punk rock of the seventies and then the britpop of the 90s. i dont hear much anymore tht inspires me from england, but yours does. im serious when i say you stack right up there with the english rockers who came before you.

ive been listening to the plastic ono bands live in new york album today and think yoko is singing pretty good on it.i think people were hostile to her becuse her participation in johns music was not what his fans wanted to hear.

man, I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to the party this summer. the winter FAWM always seems to work better for me timewise. it does do my heart good to check in to see my Buds doing well and keeping this amazing community thriving. keep the flames alive and catch you in february. goes without saying call on me anytime of the year for vocals, gtr pickin' and anything else you might be cookin' up that I can help you with! ,xoxosunnymae

Oh, David, I'm so glad you took time off from your Magic Studio to comment on Fly Away, All, my collab with @sheslin. I knew this topic would be a challenge to pull off, but IMO, she nailed it! I'm so glad you liked how the Chorus burst in and kept the song from being too maudlin. Thanks, too, for your specific comments on the part you liked best.

Ha ha, thanks! I think I would like to be a high wizard of time signatures. To be fair, this isn't 5/4 (or is it 5/8 or 5/16 or 5/32? - that's the bit I struggle to understand) all the time - just for the first half of the verse bit, and for the instrumental bit. I found that I had to revert to 4/4 for the second half of the verse for some reason because it sounded weird if I didn't. I have no idea why.

A big thank you from me also, David.

well thnaks for thinking that. i was trying to descend from an A7 via variations on a G# that finally resolved on a whisper against an A#,, and it was a difficult melody to navigate,

thanks for your comments on Berlin if it is the A# at the end of the verse that you refer to, I think the chord was solid enough,it was the melody that i kept flubbing. it had to resolve perfectly or wouldnt harmonize properly witht he chord. And if I gegan the line on the wrong note, i couldnt end it on the right one. i worked several days trying to get it right, but i get so worked up by the end of the verse that i had a tendency to flub the final lines. i think i hit it right once.

Hi David - thanks for your kind words on my collab with @andrea - much appreciated! :-)

its good to see you back in top form from your holidays. thank you for your recent comments i always appreciate your acumen in understanding what im trying to express in them. looking forward to some more songs from you in these last days before they close down the shop.

David…the gm7 mctown you song?

Greetings, David, and thanks so much for commenting on 2:00 AM Blues. Don't know how you manage to crank out such great material yourself and still find time to drop in on so many other folks' offerings. Your generous spirit is much appreciated, as is your musical artistry.

Thanks so much for your listens/comments on my music. Always appreciated! It was fun experimenting on “Joyride.”

Hi, thank you for listening and the nice comment on "Words & Butterflies"!

David, you're not just a good songwriter and musician. You're a good listener, too. Probably using both ears! Thanks for devoting some time to "I May be a Dreamer". I always love having you stop by.

O…and i have so much crap jammed in my head because I have room…I have zero practical skills. It’s all guitar strings, tape machines, hydroponics, and TV/literature/philosophy references up in brain pan. I’m an embarrassing kinda fella.would highly recommend the show Arrested Development if you never watched it. It’s on the ole Netflix

A beta males Xmas lol
That would be pretty epic…wait…would an Easter album be softer? Idk

Dude I’m not trippin in the slightest. Even if this summer doesn’t pan out…we can do a holiday record or something lol

An extra large thank you, David, for your thoughts on Missing Everything. I sincerely hope it someday stirs some beautiful memories for Bill and his daughter.

David, With all you've got going, I really appreciate your taking the time to comment on Gwyn's and my song, Bless Me, Father. I thought he did a marvelous job on it, especially those "Oh Man, Oh Man's." It's so much fun to listen to because he really got into it and pulled it off in spectacular style! What fun!

thank you david. we should be at the airport now, but our flight was delayed , so we couldnt make the bus connection...now we arent leaving until saturday night. Have a terrific weekend.

Hi David, Thanks for your comments on Missing Everyone. I want to play it for my daughter but am afraid it would make her too sad. We are leaving tonight for Florida....Right now involved in the chaos of packing, deciding what to keep and what to leave behind. Im wonering what kind of changes a change in country will have on my music. Always looking froward to your new songs when you post them, You are an inspiration. Take care, my friend,

Many thanks for that input on mixing, David. I’m mostly using GarageBand because it’s familiar, but trying to get more comfortable with Logic Pro X where there are options to buss effects and lots more. But none of those mixing options help much if my ears don’t tell me what I should be targeting. Your advice about reference tracks is solid and I need to start doing more of that.

Hey David - thank you for your comments on "Stuck". It sounds like I took a couple of lines for the verses, and I took the first chorus line from the AI's pre-chorus. I get such a kick hearing the AI sing loud and proud "L", which is how Liz labels the pre-chorus in her lyrics. Here is the link https://www.dl.dropboxusercontent.com/scl/fi/uen0twojm2b8fmkhfcyiv/movie.m4v?rlkey=1whvf3wbtj0yyih0zg0wr50zb&dl=0

Thanks for finding the Haystack Needle and kindly commenting on it!

Damn, David, you've got me blushing. So very kind of you to share those thoughts about Hard Whiskey's Too Easy For Me. You write your comments so beautifully that it makes us think we actually know what we're doing.

Being a talented mixologist yourself, I'd love to hear your thoughts about how the vocal is sitting on that one. Sometimes I feel like I have my vocals too much on top of the music, but maybe it's the opposite here. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Sturgill Simpson, who has this vocal and microphone technique where it sounds like he almost "swallows" certain words & phrases. It's kinda unusual, but it appeals to my ears when he does it and I may be letting that bleed into my own mixing approach too much.

Thanks very much for your generous comments on "Slow Love Song", David. You made me feel good - again!

David, I have to thak you again for all the close listening and perceptive commenting you have given my songs. I wanted to mention that I had no plans to write a song on the morning I wrote no money blues, but the opening line popped into my head while making breakfast, and when i sat down to the computer to write it down for future reference, i wrote out the rest of the song in a quick ten minutes and recorded it without any musical idea rather than opening with a G going to B7, after I started singing, i just went to the logical chords that followed and when it came to the chorus, i hesitated a bit before deciding to begin on the B7. so the whole bit took half an hour, making it a candidate for the bad song club,,,but after listening to it a few times, decided it wasnt so bad and I needed a lighter song for my new album, so I posted it. nd since you, and a few others. have liked it. Im glad I did.

Thanks David, for your enthusiastic response to Hands of Hope. *humble bow*

Thanks, too, for checking out "Baby, I'm Your Man" -- a song I had very little to do with but am still glad I had a finger in, lyrically. ;)

Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed comment on "Take On the Night" -- you picked up on my favorite line. And, yes, it was more about how it felt when I sang it -- like it was in a sticking place in my throat, not able to flow freely. Glad it wasn't too audible to a listener.

Waits had collected quite a gang that got together for breakfast most mornings at Dukes, the resturant at the Tropicana motel, where he lived. I was friends with his best friend, Chuck E Weiss, who lived in a broom closet rbelow Waits' apartment, so at night we sould hang out down there and listen to Waits upstairs composing on the piano, amd sometimes run errands for him. Waits drove around a lot in his lincoln continental and would always pull over when he saw someone he knew and offer them a lift, and I walked around a lot, and had a few rides with him. It ws a cool scene there for awhile, but then Waits got married and moved to downtown LA and his wife wouldnt allow him to see his old friends anymore. But I stayed friends with Chuck for many years, He passed away in 2021 and I wrote a song about him called King of Hollywood.

A related anecdote to your McCartney story>>.after tom waits' album Foreign Affairs flopped, he told me was wasnt going to do any more jazz albums and then excitedly said he has just written a springsteen-type song, and shoved a casette into his car deck and played jersey Girl, from the album he was then working on, Ten years later, when i was a radio jock at a college station, i was previewing a three album collection of springsteen covers, and there was Jersey Girl. I laughed my head off when i saw that, and gave it a spin. Waits succeeded in writing a very good Springsteen song.

actually i am not trying to sound like ray charles, but you can hear me sing georgia on my mind with my cover band back in the day right here for free https://billwhite.bandcamp.com/track/georgia-on-my-mind

thanks for your comment on you were never my wife, you are right, sinatra would have never sung about blood on the sheets, but eric burdon would have used it if it had occurred to him when writing when i was young. the challenge in writing this song was in selecting which girls to include and then to come up with one line that was significant to the relationship. by the way, the more i listen to our song, the more i hear the infidels influence. it is an example of influence as motivation rather than influence as template. it is completely a david taro song, but has roots in jokerman. and it gets better each time i listen to it.

Wow, thanks so much, David, for your kind and thoughtful comments about The Estate Sale. It was an honor for me to have the opportunity to work on Joe's well crafted lyric.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful and precise comments on "Peter, Sew Your Shadow On" -- I do think it's one of my, if not the, strongest songs so far this summer. I appreciate reading what worked for you.

I've just sent a lyric to you via email David...it's a bit 'phoned-in' but heh...😀

Hi David,
Hmmm...a lyric about iPhones...that's a challenge but I'll have a think and get back to you (if I can tear myself away long enough from my...oh yeah...exactly!) 😀

Did you seriously compare my song to Led Zeppelin??? 🤩🤩🤩 I can die happy now, thank you sir.

Thanks for your comment on Cockroaches Of The Sea. I had a lot of fun researching and writing that one

Thanks so much for your comment on "The Storm of You" -- if I'm going to overuse a metaphor, I think rain is a good one to use. ;) And, yes, so many motorcycles run down our block while I record!

Thanks for the kind words on Working From Home. Looking forward to listening to more of your songs this 50/90.

Oh, and thank you so much for your great comments and support 🌷

You are very welcome, David. Good luck 👍 🎶✨️☀️🎵🙏👌

Shooting stems momentarily. Next time we do a chat I’ll tell you about the tape machine song. It was crazy fun.

Darn, I was hoping you would know :-)

Thanks for saying nice things about "Love is a Simple Song", David. Knowing what great material you create, I always feel special when you like something of mine.

A big thank you, David for the careful listen and your always thoughtful comments like the ones you made about She Took Me For Granite. Some of us who speak English with the southern states' tongue probably miss the pun and think that's the actual expression 😂!

Thank you for your words on my "fire in the rain" version. I tried to channel my inner Karl Wallinger when starting the melody. But your George Harrison is really something!

Hi, David. I’m very flattered by your comments on the lyrics to Cat In The Attic, and I share your admiration for Gwyn Jones’ treatment of the lyrics. So much fun when everything works together. Thank you for letting us know you enjoyed it.

Thanks for trying to find the good in "Waves of Lost Passion", David. Your comments are very generous, but I wish I had done better for Cindy.

thanks

Thank you for your listening and comments, David. Infidels was, for me, the last brilliant dylan album. After that, I feel he lapsed into the mediocrity of struggling to maintain his position in the pantheon of rock stardom. With sly and Robbie, and titles like I and I, I felt Infidels was in part a tribute to bob Marley, if not an attempt to make a Bob Marley album. My vocal sound on Modern Art was the result of gargling whiskey before singing it immediately upon awakening at 5AM. Incidentally, shortly before the album came out, I had a dream of bob dylan singing a song that harkened back to the lyrical frenzy of his best mid-60s work. And when I heard Jokerman, I felt like that was the song I dreamed he would write. Dylan had had an undeniable influence on me from 1964-81, but after that I didnt understand what he was singing about and didnt like his singing, which sounded to me like a parody of himself. Even after he revitalized himself in 1997 and I once again enjoyed listening to him, his influence over me waned. Too many other brilliant songwriters and singers had risen up in the meantime. but had it not been for Dylan, I would have continued by dream of becoming a poet rather than downshifitng into songwriting. After hearing Like a Rolling Stone, I realized that every kid on that block knew and understood that song better than any professor knew TS Elliot's The Waste Land, simply by hearing it on the radio several times a day.

I tried to find the name of the song with the flutes I sampled but the artist and song title are in mandarin…sorry.

That one was a cracker and no mistake. The power pop one is suffering from serious bloat. It should be three minutes, maybe three and a half but is now checking in at four mins thirty. I think I will just go with that and see what people suggest to lose. It still isn’t done because it needs words and I’m not finding the enthusiasm at the moment. Also the three part harmonies are more intricate than I’m really qualified for.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I did tinker with delay and reverb automation quite a bit to get the spaciness sounding right in the choruses while being completely dry in the verses. Very much a deliberate effort and I'm glad someone noticed.

Ayyye David, so good to see you my friend! Thanks for your kind comments and thoughts on my tunes, been a few years! Can't wait to check out your latest here. 🫡😍

Catching up after vacation -- thanks, too for checking out my crack at "It's Hard to Start a Fire in the Rain!" I'll take a little bit of Carole King any day, and actually I just covered two of her classics recently, so maybe it seeped into me!

Thanks for your comment on “Say You’ll Come Home” -- because it starts with "Maybe I," I accidentally sang the interval from "You Were Always On My Mind" when I first sat down with it. ;) Dropped down the octave to change it.

Thanks, David, for your wonderful comments on my collab with @cheslain. You pick up on everything!

Thank you for your kind comments on my take on "It's Hard to Start a Fire in the Rain"! Much appreciated :) I have ambient noise that I can't really control completely in my current recording space; glad to hear it added to the piece instead of detracting from it for you.

Thanks for commenting on "I Pray", David. Simon certainly gave me words to have fun with. I thought the churchy intro and extro would give an interesting contrast to the lyric's content.

Thanks for the comments! Truth is, I couldn't think of a word that rhymed with "rock" that meant "hit" so I decided it'd be okay to make up a silly one :).

Thanks for your comment on "Satan, No" — I’m always walking that razor’s edge between too wordy and just wordy enough. 😅

Hey, David--great seeing you again. Thank you so very much for the kind and thoughtful comments about Names On a Wall. Hearing such praise from a talented artist like yourself is just so encouraging and uplifting for Patty and me that it's almost beyond words.

Totes agree brother. My body of work (if I can be so pretentious) is a scrapbook of my life. I hate being in pictures but I can load up a tune and tell who I was with what we were doin etc. and yes writing music helps put all the loud brain noise through a prism and interpret it in the abstract…which makes sense to me, fighting fire with fire as it were, abstract with abstract. Idk. Love ya buddy. Really do cherish our friendship, I know it’s hella-casual, but I also know that playing music is about the most intimate mindy body and soul activity I do so to me our friendship is concentrated by the thing we do. Plus you’re a cutie…maybe I could try wearing your skin for a little while…sorry just felt I was being creepy and possibly too emotion-forward for your foggy London-ness. Embrace my love David, geez!!!

Thank you David!! You made the little budding producer in me very happy 😀 ! I appreciate you mentioning the things that resonated with you - it is wonderful motivation for me to keep trying. I am really looking forward to your next song 🎹 🎼 🎸

Meh they’re all just kinda experiments at this point. I do like sunken place and the upcycled one for what they are

Love your comment on “ New Twist/Old Line” - LOL! Thank you!

David, Your comments on Names On A Wall made my whole day! Thank you. I'm so glad you took the time to listen and comment and let (Jeff and) me know the particular parts that most resonated with you. I think he did a fabulous job bringing the lyric to life and I'm feeling very lucky to have been able to work with him on this. It gives me an extra lift when you comment on songs I've been involved with. 😀

Thanks David, hope you’re well

Thank you, David, for the validating comment on "Scared American". I loved the "when Dylan went electric" comment!! Also, that you felt the dread - and now I know you were feeling it too - but fortunately don't have to anymore. I am crossing everything until it is over. I am off to listen to your song - both to enjoy what you did but also to hear what you did - you inspire me!

Hi, David! So glad you're back here and ready to roll. I love all the songs we've done and I hope to be able to do some more with you. Here's to 5090!

Hi David,
I very much appreciated your response to my song and hope to hear what epic creations you come up with this time...Cheers!

High praise, David! Thank you! My ear was quite pleased with this chord progression and now that you mentioned the Beatles, I listened again and I heard it! About time I lived up to my “Screamie Birds” name.

i didnt feel at all that you thought i was ripping dylan off. what i felt was your deep understanding of what im trying to do in music, and picking up on the desolation row vibe was but one example of your acuity. are there any particular structural ideas, themes or story lines that you would like to collaborate on? im up for just about anything.

Have a great 5090!

thanks for you kind and perceptive comments on trying to find her way home. i was aware too that i was playing some variation of desolation row (along with billy from pat garrett and billy the kid) when i started strumming the familiar chords, but decided to go with it, as it seemed the most effective way of putting the emphasis on the lyric. im loooking forward to your new songs and hope we can collaborate on something again.

You're back! That means I will have some good songs to listen to. Can't wait!

Have a great 50/90 David - looking forward to hearing what you come up with 😀

Hi David, I'm looking forward to hearing your creations this summer. Have a great 50/90!

Have a great 50/90!

Hey there handsome!!!! Can’t wait to jam! Ready to do a beta males follow up?

Hooray – happy 50/90, David! Good to see you here!

Looking forward to your work this summer, David!

looking forward to interacting and seeing what you do this year mate!

Have another great 5090...oh that should be easy for you!😁
Have fun!!!

Looking forward to you rockin' it out this summer!

So glad to see you back here!

Yowzer

You’re welcome! Happy FAWMing, David.