Butt kickin', finger lickin' good

So, Dream Theater is still difficult to play, but it's getting there. On a quick side note, just want to post a video of my guitar teacher, AJ Niilo, playing in Brazil with Joss Stone because it's one of the best performances I've seen. All the musicians on that stage are ridiculously great! And Joss just has a huge presence and really gets the crowd going. It's a long video, and I'd really recomend watching and listening to the whole song, so set aside 11 minutes if you can. If not, at least watch my teacher's solo at about 5:05, I really like his playing :)

Other good news, I discovered this band that I have deemed amazing. And I do not use that term lightly. They're called The Civil Wars. A duet made up of John Paul White, from Alabama, and Joy Williams from California. If I had to classify the duet to a genre, I'd say folky but with their own twist. The vocal harmonies soar, John's acoustic guitar playing is tight and ever melodic, as is with Joy's piano playing. I discovered the band because they were iTune's last week free single with 'Barton Hollow'. This song has more of a country feel to it than most of their other music. Normally, I don't pay much mind to the free singles, but this is truly a gem. Right after listening to the song, I bought the album and downloaded their live album free off of their myspace. Then, I heard them cover Leonard Cohen's song 'Dance Me to the End of Love', which was beautiful in every way, then I heard them do a folk cover 'Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson. I learned this version, love it so much. John and Joy's chemistry on stage is very intense. After watching their music video for their song 'Poison & Wine', I actually thought they were married, but as it turns out, they're both married to other people. But they are very, very good story tellers. By the way, all of that discovery happened on monday alone. Needless to say, my world religions homework did not get done that day at all. 

After hearing, and learning, the acoustic version of 'Billie Jean', I decided to pick a known song that's far from being acoustic, and make an acoustic arrangement of it. I chose 'Stockholm Syndrome' by Muse. I ended up playing it in almost a flamenco fashion. And this band makes a ton of noise, especially for being only three people, so an acoustic arrangement is pretty interesting. I'll practice it a bit more and then hopefully post a video of me playing that, and acoustic Billie Jean by the end of the week. 

Also on monday (a busy day for just staying in pajamas the entire time), I wrote two songs. I'm so happy that this spout of writing song after song is happening during my Wise project, because I never write this much. Makes me happy :D The songs are two parts of a whole. The story behind them is a couple in love, but the man has become an alcoholic, getting completely lost inside of the disease. Part one is the woman's perspective, which is very somber and soulful, and is played on piano. The second part, the man's perspective, I wrote for guitar. Since they were written on the day I found The Civil Wars, they have some folk feeling to them in the songwriting and in the guitar playing. I'm going to work on part 1 with my voice teacher, Beth, tomorrow. It's funny how I started writing these too; was tired of staring at my homework trying to make it write itself, so I went for a walk, came back and sat down at the piano. I started playing random chords then started playing a progression I wrote a long time ago. I was in the mood to sing, so I sang the first thing that came to my head which was "You're swimming through my veins like any drunk sailor would", and the song wrote itself. Lyrics....

Part 1:

You're swimming through my veins like any drunk sailor would
The only things left to lead you are the memories in your head
Well you're right in the place where you need to be
But you're riding the spaces of the in between

Come on my sailor, come on home X2
Just a little more time and you'll be completely gone
So come sweet sailor, come on home

Well you've had enough to drink
And I've surely had all I need to think
You always gotta jump, but sometimes I think I've just plain fallen down
Fallen just as far down as anyone could ever go

Oh im beggin you darling, time to leave the seas alone

Come on my sailor, come on home X2
Just a little more time and you'll be completely gone
So come sweet sailor, come on home
Oh im beggin you darling, time to leave the seas alone

The only things left leading you are the memories in your head
But the only thing you'll be comin back to is an empty bed, that's right
The only thing thats left now is an empty bed

So sail on my love, your horizon is far down the bend

Part 2:

Trouble

oh, that's what I am

I'd love to shake your hand for awhile

but it'd cause you more grief than it's worth

It's a problem I'd love to face,

oh but it wants me dead

and when your eyes meet the beast up above

a true coward before it kneels

there's three places I could go

but not one of them keeps you

two institutions or a sea of blackness through and through

oh believe me darlin'

I know I never gave you what I could

but the trouble's troubling me and I gotta do everything I should 

to keep it down now

that look in your eyes is telling me I'd never been so far away

might as well keep going, my horizon is long, long gone

Yay, sad stories! I should have recordings of those soon since they're fairly simple musically.