Artist Bio
Influences: Any good songwriter from Joni, through Dylan to Ana Van Riel
Been writing songs since I was fifteen.... Some 50 years ago.
Songs (46)
The Salmon of KnowledgeSoundboard
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@billwhite51 6 days
i wasnt thinking of yeats when i wrote the lost child, and ive neer tried to emulate hm, but he was my favorite poet before discovering robert graves in 1972. the inspiration for the song was the death f a venezualian child who had choked on something and was DOA when she reached the cinic where my wife was shattered by the tragedy of this tiny 8 year old who looked like she was only 5, all do due the ignorance of people uneducated in basic first aid. the song is also aout my failure to bring my wife out of the depresiion triggered by the incident..and finally, imagining something like this happeneing to my daughter after i am dead and the fantasy of being able to reach across the boundries of life and death to save her.
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@billwhite51 1 week
i had a crush on an iranian girl who had received political asylum in the US afterer severall members of her family were murdered by the shah. i dont think she returned after the shah was overthrown
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@billwhite51 1 week
there is some intertextualization between to the end of te street and fatima fatima. both songs are motivated by the promise of new beginnings cut short on the eve of a departure./ and both songs include a warpage in which a third character is referenced. the main difference is the brevity of the biographical flirtation in fatima versus the longevity of the unconsommated love affair in end of the street....and these differences do not matter. i never thought of tangled up on blue, but both songs develop thematially from scenes taken from different stories. .
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@billwhite51 1 week
Yes, we should co-llaborate on something. Let me know if you have an idea for that something. The Co Pilot is one of thise songs that ordinarilly i would have let the idea pass and not written the song..but there is something i like about the result, insubstantial as it is. laundry list songs are rarely any good, but they can be fun.
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@billwhite51 1 week
When Will Your Country Free My Country? Now that I have had the time to give the question some thought, my answer is you should not look to a capitalist country to free you from the dictatorial grip of one who has destroyed the socialist idealism of your previos leader. Your freedom can be restored only through the intervention of fellow Bolivarians.
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@billwhite51 1 week
Trump indeed! With your comments on The Enemy Within, yu once again hit the nail on the head. He is the ultimate fall guy for the internal evils of the average american. Much as I dislike Trump, I dont believe there are many ameriican males who are not guilty of the offenses that have defined their president. If only they were fearless enough to turn that same spotlight upon themselves......
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@billwhite51 1 week
I didnt want to write a song of suicidal depression and there was not enough story to contain the feelings I had for her, so I invented the tale of an american soldier in love with a suspected terrorist, and the impossibility of their love. he was courtmartialed and she was arrested. Both were later executed. I was not really thinking of present day Iran though, as much as I was the situation in post WW2 japan, when america soldiers married and had children with japanese women, but were not allowed to being them back to the United States with them. I also had been fighting a long losing battle with attemptung to get a fiance visa for my peruvian girlfriend. Also here was a third love story , one of a girl who fell in love and did not like being in love, so destroyed the affair and later died of a breast cancer that she superstitiously believed was a result of her rejection of love.
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@billwhite51 1 week
Fatima was inspired by an Iranian-French singer with whom I shared a bill two nights before leaving the US for Peru in 2012. After the concert, we played several songs together in an after hours jam session. We talked for several hours and both expressed the regret that we had not met earlier. I invited her to attend a meeting of a songwriters group the next evening, and she shared her music with the group. and that was the last I saw of her. A year later, I heard she was killed when walking in front of a moving vehicle. A friend told me she had been depressd because she felt she was living in a world without love.
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@ustaknow 1 week
Hey Berni 😀 only half kidding...:
I see a few of your comments about the lock down.
And "here", so long as you're "alone" more or less, that's all they care about (and not coughing all over). I have seasonal hayfever, so, it's weird. I kid about a blaze orange t-shirt, not cv-19 hayfever! 😉
Would this work there? - cop stops you and you say, "I'm suffering from seasonal disorder, and if don't get out, I'm gonna off myself" 😀 😉
- I know "here", it would get a reaction; and, they'd hate to be the one to fine you, send you home and then?
When I thought of it, - it's as sad as it is funny, (not funny), so to speak. -
@jonmeta 1 week
Yes, we're sitting about at home. Went to Al Campo today and it was very orderly, a controlled flow of customers, and well-stocked, so that was one positive moment. But, yeah, I don't understand the government not including walks in the countryside on the list of permitted activities. We live on the edge of the city (literally last house on the left) with nothing but fields beyond until the airport. I think we'll walk out anyway.
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@billwhite51 1 week
, harvard square , the free press including daily mainstream newspapers, bookstores, poetry readings....could i love an america without those things? no
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@billwhite51 1 week
a sell out. my fina three years in the US were spent cataloging and editing film by local historian and former editor of seattle indergroound newspaper, Helix. we also started a page for geezer hippies that now has over 1000 members, most still idealistic and non materialist https://web.facebook.com/groups/21763... most of these boomers were never part of the counter culture in the first place....they started getting high in the 70s and didnt get uch political education until watergate. now they are just like the creeps who voted for nixon , and used to beat up us long hairs for protesting the war in the 60s. but the people who were actve in the movement left a grand legacy of free clinics, food co ops, public gardening lots.etc etc. but the government was always corrupt...i never liked any of the presidents. my america was elvis, dylan, phil ochs, malcolm x, chaplin, sam peckinpah, john, cassavettes, alices resturant and easy rider, norman mailer,, haight ashbury
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@billwhite51 1 week
a sell out. my fina three years in the US were spent cataloging and editing film by local historian and former editor of seattle indergroound newspaper, Helix. we also started a page for geezer hippies that now has over 1000 members, most still idealistic and non materialist https://web.facebook.com/groups/21763... most of these boomers were never part of the counter culture in the first place....they started getting high in the 70s and didnt get uch political education until watergate. now they are just like the creeps who voted for nixon , and used to beat up us long hairs for protesting the war in the 60s. but the people who were actve in the movement left a grand legacy of free clinics, food co ops, public gardening lots.etc etc. but the government was always corrupt...i never liked any of the presidents. my america was elvis, dylan, phil ochs, malcolm x, chaplin, sam peckinpah, john, cassavettes, alices resturant and easy rider, norman mailer,, haight ashbury, h
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@billwhite51 1 week
Hi Berni. So good to hear from you. I have a lot of catching up to do. W moved on Sunday, then monday the lockdown started s we couldnt get an internet hookup. Alsp,. the schol closed so i have baby duty with no breaks. Fortunately my wife can get wi fi on her phone, so i get a little bit f online time here ad there. Your comments have meanst so much to me, and ill respond a little bit at a time, as i get access to that phone for its intermittant connectivity. So, to start with your comments on I Wonder if could love you again....the titlem which i thought was rather stupid, came to me while watching tv, ad it kept popping back into my ead, and i wound up jotting down some substitute lyrics. i didtn think id really write the song but after the ovie was over, pcjed uo the guitar and started snging, and was surprised at what i found in those off the cuff lyrics. by the end i knew i had written my love song to the united states. its not really true that our generation was a
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@sunnymae 2 weeks
Berni! Well you've really got your listening cap on my friend. Thank you so much for taking in Funky Firefly Waiting Game and To Love.
Yeah that Firefly prompt really got me going. They are the coolest creatures aren't they? Nature's Art Gallery is a Perpetual Wonder.
Waiting game was a great collab with JW Hanbury. He really laid those beats down!
I'm overwhelmed by how much listening still there is to do. One song at a time. It's very cool getting to know you Berni! 😀 -
@billwhite51 3 weeks
i feel the same about the comments you have made on ,my songs. amazing how you how get them. i think we must be drinking out of the same pond. im looking forward to getting to know more of your music over the coming months.
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@billwhite51 3 weeks
here is a link to my music archives on bandcamp. pretty much everythinng is on here. https://billwhite.bandcamp.com/
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@billwhite51 3 weeks
but you were correct on tylenol. in the 80s in the united states there was a big scare because somebody at the lab was lacing the tylenol with cyanide and there were several deaths. it is not the main drift, but just an allusion to the possibility of a suicide pact..and you got it without knowing it. you are a genius
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@sunnymae 3 weeks
Thanks Berni... so glad you like my groove on "she's back"
Yeah let's get this piece into a film and you can have all the residuals you want!! See you at the Oscars.😁😁 -
@billwhite51 3 weeks
Thanks for your commets. Suave and Elegant was a chorus that didnt need a song, as everything was implied in the chorus and a song to elaborate would have gone on too long. so i made it into what turned out to be a seven minute instrumental with chorus at beginning and end that i cut down and used as an outro for the first album, a calm reflective bringdown after the violence and anger of For Peace. The song is both a prayer of recnciliation with my best friend from high school days with whom i recenty ended a ten year feud, as well as a song of hope for the future for my daughter.
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@audrey 3 weeks
Thanks so much for your kind comments on my songs Caring Neighbours and Tailing the Suspect. I appreciate them.
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@sunnymae 3 weeks
Hey Berni
Thanks for taking a listen to "behind the nice". Send any comparison to Keith Jarrett is a huge compliment. I'm a big fan of his work.
My thanks especially for your heartwarming comment and encouragement. Yeah the c word doesn't have the same punch it used to in the past. I lost my mother decades ago and I had to update myself that it's not the same time. Anyway onward we go and music certainly is my savior. It always has been and always will be. Peace and Love. -
@billwhite51 4 weeks
perhaps a problem with writing a eulogy is the timing. too soo after the death, there is such a flood of feeling from so many places and times than one hardly knows where to start, what are the important things to say? perhaps after 40 years, it is easier. a few key moments that still haunt you
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@sunnymae 4 weeks
Hey Berni
Thanks for stopping by! I'm really glad you liked the collab I did with Kahlo. Her lyrics can't be beat.
I need a few days of rehearsal before a gig on Wednesday and then I can go deep into listening mode. I'm just blown away by the talent in our beautiful little family.
Now 34 years in Iberia!
That's something I want to know more about. I'm intrigued by your life there.
Looking forward to pressing play on a bunch of your songs and having a good long listen. Really nice to meet you friend. -
@sunnymae 4 weeks
Hi Berni.Now that the madness is over I started cruising around my familiars and found you thru Cynthia's page! You're amazingly prolific and just plain amazing. I'm enjoying your music and will watchlist you for next year.
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@billwhite51 4 weeks
and here is tims eulogy to lenny bruce, which provided the musical idea for my song....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHp2G...
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@billwhite51 4 weeks
here is a link to the concert referred to in the eulogy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQSt4...
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@timfatchen 4 weeks
Thanks Berni for the brwoser bit. My challenge is this netbook is 😝 and not set up right. Firefox worked fine until last month and doesn't run properly now. Chrome keeps getting invaded. I've been using a chines e stripped down pirate Chrome (this) but it won't often let me near streaming. So I wait my return home and out of the miseries of renovations in the outback.!
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@wr3n 4 weeks
Thank you for the kind words on Dumb Bitches- to answer your question, I can not take credit for "himbo". I've seen it here and there on the internet and liked the sound of it
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@ajna1960 4 weeks
You were interested to know once Smudgie had completed the demo for 'Who Gets The Bill', so here it is 😀 https://fawm.org/songs/108080/ Many thanks for your interest
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@roblincoln 4 weeks
Enjoyed your songs this year as always. Thank you for your comments on my songs.
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@sbs2018 4 weeks
So then I was wondering how Naples traffic compares to Bangkok (the worst I’d ever seen), and I read that “Naples is the Bangkok of Europe” - lol!
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@pabrizzer 4 weeks
My sopranino is a Tom Pocket. Bought on a whim but pretty happy with it.
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@mariekevinkmusic 4 weeks
Nah, I don't think you think anything other than nice things about The Ladies 😀
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@pabrizzer 4 weeks
eating grandmas can be fun
have you come across peter careys true history of the kelly gang basically no punctuation throughout but still a terrific read imho -
@monty 4 weeks
Thanks for listening and giving such detailed comments of Gasoline and Nicotine. Really appreciate it.
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@mikeb 4 weeks
Thanks for the listen and comment on my 'talking with death' challenge song!
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@metalfoot 4 weeks
The "download mp3" button often works to play a song even when the built-in player doesn't. Thanks for your persistence to listen to This Old House. Theresa wrote a great lyric.
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@scubed 4 weeks
Thanks very much for your kind comment on “Please.” I’ve actually been concerned about my husband lately, although recent tests have been encouraging.
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@arthurrossi 4 weeks
Thanks so much for your kind comment!
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@phoenixash 4 weeks
Thanks for your comment on my song, no I do not know this one, but any comparison to shakespeare is awesome thanks
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@billwhite51 4 weeks
thanks for listening and all your perceptive comments. With me it was my father who never heard my songs. He was a ballad singer like Gordon MacRea and thought we were living in the lost age of music and I was just a screaming idiot. Toward the end of his life he began to gain some respect for me, as I was singing and acting in an off Broadway musical, and had written the music for two shows that were were performed in a cultural exchange program with russia,,and right before he died we sang some of the classic american songbook together......but he never really heard what i was trying to accomplish in song. my mother on the other hand adored me and loved my music, she introduced me to toni marcus, a violin player who had worked with everyone from jack benny to van morrison and we formed a band together, but by the time we started doing some serious shows, my mother was dying. when i brought a tape to the hospice of a recent performance, she said that stuff didnt move her any
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@dutch1967 4 weeks
I’m glad you got to Spagnioli and they treated you right.
I wrote a song on Napoli for FAWM last year. It has a line; “all have honkers on their cars”. That’s because I couldn’t rhyme with Vespa or moped. I know what you mean. My girl and I walked around Centro Storico (in hindsight not to be advised for various reasons) and quickly got to know the Rules Of The Road. -
@mariekevinkmusic 5 weeks
Thank for taking the effort to listen to, and comment on, so many of my songs! Yes, the music scene in Northampton is still pretty lively considering its small size. A different open mic available every night of the week. Excellent sandbox for trying out which FAWM songs work and which ones don't.
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@dutch1967 5 weeks
Whatever else you do, try to get lost in all the crazy streets in Spagnoli. After midnight the best food and wine is served on rickety tables and accompanied by loud music. And really, that's the Napoli I love.
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@dutch1967 5 weeks
You spent your first day well, Berni! By Underground I take it you mean Napoli Sotterraneo? (Not the Subway?) Mighty impressive, isn't it?
That said, you haven't lived until you had at least one sfogliatella. I can't remember ever having stopped at one, but hey...
Have you visited Castell Dell'ovo? If you have the time you might want to take a boattrip to Sorrento. If you take the right ferry (the line escapes me) you'll get to see the silliest safety video known to man while boating towards the peninsula. The island Prosida is amazingly beautiful, also just a boatride away. All those different colored houses. Il Postino was filmed on this location.
For some good advice on local wines visit Gianfranco Chrisfé on Piazza Municipio. His little café is squeezed in between a tostibar and a secondhand shop if I remember correctly. This guy has the best wines in Campania. Fair pricing too. -
@waltermosch 5 weeks
Hey, thanks for stepping by and commenting.
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@redlady8029 5 weeks
Thank you for commenting on Who I Am. I agree we need more positive love songs. That is what I tried to do with this lyric. Thank the encouragement.
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@redlady8029 5 weeks
Thank you for commenting on the song. I agree with you have to love yourself first. Your ending of the comment made me laugh. If you would like to collaborate, rewrite a few lines or rhymes go ahead and just let me know. Thanks again.
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@rshakesp 5 weeks
Thanks for your comment and your extra verse!
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@keithcuts 5 weeks
affirmative
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@valeriecox 5 weeks
Hi there. Thanks for the comment on Nobody Wants Yo Hear Ya. It was mainly about Trump, but I don’t write political songs. 😝
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@kovbleu 5 weeks
Thank you very much for your kind comments! I appreciate them soooo much! ❤
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@oaksnprairie 5 weeks
My music teacher says the same thing—best way to learn a new technique is to write a song using it.
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@jonmeta 5 weeks
Berni, what a fine compliment, one of the best I’ve had this year — half belonging to Beat, of course. A piece of art, being both “unsettling and uplifting”. Thanks, I feel all tingly.
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@oaksnprairie 5 weeks
Thank you for your comments on Appointed Rounds. I'm shocked by the slush in the grill story, and sorry for your little Mini. Not much you can do when someone cuts in front, but a reminder to stay back in foul weather.
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@kovbleu 5 weeks
Holy cats 30 songs!!! I'm so far behind in listening. You're killing it this year!! 😀
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@berni1954 5 weeks
Just a note to say to those who enjoyed my story of Finn McCool that I have just added the second story in the cycle. It's a prequel. This is how Finn came to be so wise (though you might remember it was his wife that came up with the baby trick). 😁
Here's "the Salmon of Knowledge"
https://fawm.org/songs/106864/
@jackketch
@declan
@kevinemmrich
@rubberbandage
@ohleeoh
@thomdunn
@cynthiawolff
@philnorman
@billwhite51
@kenmattsso
@cindyrella -
@jcameron 5 weeks
Thanks for your comment on my skirmish song. I was kind of figuring out what it was about as I went along, but I think he's about to meet his old friends and is rehearsing in his head. They didn't seem that enthusiastic on the phone, are they really going to be pleased to see me? No, it'll be fine. We'll have a beer and I'll apologise for not getting together sooner, and we'll stay in touch from now on. But still with that dark Phrygian melody because he's really not too confident. But with the lift in the refrain because he's back on his feet now and everything will be better.
Won't it? -
@billwhite51 5 weeks
hermans hermits make a killing covering some of the originals and the beatles did even better with ther brand of music hall ditties,,,
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@musicsongwriter 5 weeks
Thank you for listening and sharing your thoughts about my skirmish piece. You've guessed most of it apart from not being welcome. Just wish dreams were a reality...
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@treble 5 weeks
Thanks so much for your insightful comments on my skirmish song I'm Back. I'll let you know if/when I get a demo up. I write lyrics a lot faster than music.
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@theresaj 6 weeks
I really appreciate all of your very kind comments! You are very supportive and help make me feel more confident in my music. Thank you.
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
those emails seldom get delivered. my address is bwhi51@yahoo.com
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
i didnt read that pritchet book, but got the idea for quarries while reading neli gaimans american gods.
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
we didnt kave any lyrics on wee willie winkie aside from the chorus wee willie winkie runs through the town upstairs and downstairs without a nightgown.....we just made up the rest of them and cant decipher them either
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
try bandcamp. ive raked in a few thousand through them...payment is prompt and their cut is small.
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
did not receive an email from you. what address did you send it to?
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@kembole 6 weeks
Thanks for the comment. You're right on that one, I'm planning on doing a version in Finnish. But since In Bruges is my favourite movie I couldn't resist.
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@ceilidh 6 weeks
Thank you for your feedback on Go Betweens! The music is now posted.
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@hoppiern 6 weeks
Thanks for your comment on my Furever Friend song. Both the animals in the song are/were rescue dogs! Thank you for listening!! 😊
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@cynthiawolff 6 weeks
Hi Bernie..yes! Dan is the Man..such an amazing, free! Teacher...I would not have gotten as far as I have without him...and so cool and incredible musician... thanks for letting me know..I watched them all but I return again and again back to “the main man Dan”
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@rainchaser 6 weeks
Thank you for the kind comment to our song, "A Cog On A Rusted Wheel"! We really appreciate it!!
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@kadmad202 6 weeks
Thanks for the nice comments on Northern Lights Noel. Can't hardly miss with Liz's great lyrics!
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@kahlo2013 6 weeks
I originally had words instead of conversation in the last line of chorus to make it more singable
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@kahlo2013 6 weeks
Of course, Berni! Liz
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@pokerowan 6 weeks
Thank you for the extremely kind compliments on 'Headspace'! I hope I make more tracks that you enjoy! ☺☺
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@declan 6 weeks
Cheers for the comment on my song Berni.
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@mikegtz 6 weeks
Berni, I would say yes to both questions in your comment on my Part 4. A little bit of both.
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@ayehahmur 6 weeks
Cheers for your comments, Berni. They're much appreciated at this point in the month when songs start coming out too fast for you to really get to grips with how you feel about them. It's good to know they're working. Late period Kate Bush is a particular accolade, thanks for that. I really like the songs on Ariel and 50 Words for Snow.
The piano's a funny instrument. It's freer in some ways I think, especially for playing in different keys, but I still find myself going to the same chord shapes by instinct and have to force myself to think about opening things up again.
And, yes, accents. Well, I think they're supposed to be partially learned aren't they? So if we get our speaking accents from listening to folks around us, maybe we get our singing accents from the artists we grow up listening to and emulating? It's a theory.
Cheers again. -
@mikegtz 6 weeks
Berni, I belong to a songwriting group called the Quiet Corner Songwriting Group that meets once a month on the first Saturday of the month in Putnam, Conn. That is my Putnam group.
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@kahlo2013 6 weeks
If you hear it and have the desire feel free to sing it!
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@blackrose1313 6 weeks
Thank you for commenting on "Solstice" and it's lyrics only since I don't know how to play any instruments or make a demo.
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@lute4life 6 weeks
I accepted your challenge -- I'm happy with the results -- I just uploaded the new song. I'm not skilled enough to retool the melody so soon, so the reply is different. Thanks for the feedback and the challenge!
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@namjunerobot 6 weeks
Thanks for the feedback!
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@yewnorker 6 weeks
Thanks for commenting. You picked up on the one crucial line in Someone Who Loves You. I didn't know if it was that obvious. I appreciate your thoughts.
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@arthurrossi 6 weeks
Thanks so much for the kind and profound comments as well as for the beautiful song that you made of "Universal thoughts"! I LOVE the melody and the ukulele was a great choice here! The song feels warm and so enjoyable to listen, awesome vocal delivery as well. Thank you very, very much for having given me this honour!
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@helenseviltwin 6 weeks
It's not that I object to people thanking on soundboards; it's just that I don't understand the emphasis some people put on it, and don't want to upset people by not doing it, which I don't unless I have something else to say... That said, thanks for listening 😝
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
you are right that was a intentional reference to the stranger song. i spent three years in hollywood and five years writing a novel based on my experiences ithere.
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@billwhite51 6 weeks
what was the tweated leonard cohen quote?. all these people were friends of mine in the late 70s the obscure ones would be the cowboy actors jeff morris and virgil frye, stuntman william "duffy" dufrene and his girlfriend misty, my girlfriend ginger, and maybe songwrtier ron davies. who had a ot of hits by majr artists, but his own albums didnt sell, most of these people have since passed away, and chuck was the only one i ran into when i went back to hollywood in 1989
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@treble 6 weeks
Thanks so much for your comments on my skirmish song Cruise Control. I admire you for being able to use cruise control. I'm trying to lighten up about it and be a little more trusting. I enjoyed the stories you had about cruise control in the early days. I hadn't heard those! LOL
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@kahlo2013 6 weeks
Not like, Bernie. Love!
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@kahlo2013 6 weeks
Bernie!!! Wow! Just wow!! So grateful! Your tweaks and add to the bridge are perfect! I had meant to write where my heart dwells not swells but i am glad for my typo as I love the depth that landfills brings! This is spectacular and I am deeply appreciative!!!
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@sjbatavia 7 weeks
Thanks for the comments on In The Fog. I used a concert for that recording.
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@sjbatavia 7 weeks
Thanks for the comments on In The Fog. I used a concert for that recording.
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@kahlo2013 7 weeks
Bernie - would love to have you do Bourbon Street but someone else just told me they were doing that... Sorry I did not yet mark that on the song. I can look for others or write something you are interested in!
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@franniezest 7 weeks
Thanks for the thoughts on my songs!! I plan to not look back at any of the ones I started until I hit 14. If I keep writing 2 every weekend morning I’ll be done by ...feb22. And will have two weekend day’s left to go back and flesh some of these out! 😀 (last year-my first time- I only got to 8)
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@timmyriordan 7 weeks
Thanks man! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to hearing from you. If one of the lyrics strikes you fancy feel free to grab it and throw your own interpretation on it, new melody, new arrangement, whatever you feel. It'd be fun to hear what you come up with.