Thank you everyone who has supported Brian on here.     

1,102

(5 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Ctech you have a real good singing voice and passion in it come through real good. Great song with the singing and musical arrangement bang on. It is a song that I think works well in this modern era and I could imagine my nieces would love it. It has the potential to win song competitions and awards.     

Dirty Ed wrote:

"Stripped back honest simple song" is what I like best. You get my vote. I haven't listened to any of the other entries. I noticed there are 356 semi-finalists in the amateur division. As folks around here say: "That's a tough row to hoe". Good luck and best wishes!!

  I am sure that if more people on here give Brian's song a listen and hopefully a vote it will increase his chances against the big number of semifinalist. If anyone can win this I'm sure Brian could but if to win is purely based on just vote numbers then that will make it  very hard as the professionals will have a lot more exposure. Me  I am an optimist and  believe a simple act of voting can make a big difference here if the number of people who read this post take a bit more time to check Brian's entry out and maybe give him their vote.

1,104

(7 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Neo Happy New Year great to see you back on here and thank you for your encouraging comment.  Phill wrote a good song which inspired me to make the video.     

1,105

(6 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Phill your USA and Wales song lyrics read good to me.     

Jim and Phill I thought that collaboration worked well. I couldn't fault video or song.     

Our man from chordie Brian Meynell AKA Easy  Beat  has now won a semi-finalist  spot in the world wide Roots Tech Contest which is a world wide song contest. Now for him to get to the finals  there is going to be  another evaluation by their panel of judges and a public vote. After that finalists will be notified by email on January 22nd. So please check out the link below and if you can and if you do like his entry more than the others it would be good if you  could give him a vote.

https://rootstechsongcontest.org/so-many-angels/

1,108

(5 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I like that song and so  true the lyrics in your song  life is long and time is short.

1,109

(9 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Phill sounding good.     

1,110

(5 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Eb my friend Adam from the USA has lived here for just over ten years is still getting use to our accents. he tells me when I say road it sounds like rowed. Good fun song you did there.

1,111

(9 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Phill Williams wrote:

thanks Pete,  but did you like the song?  smile

I liked the song. Phill I thought  it could have had a little bit  more subtle tempo changes but apart from that real good.  It is far better than anything I could do or write.     

1,112

(9 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Phill Williams wrote:

The thought had occurred to me but then it reflects that even a traumatic experience can be pushed to one side and result in a happy ending? Not to minimise the seriousness of sexual abuse of a young person but everyone deserves a little happiness with the help and love of a good partner.
With lock down we hear a lot of abuse both physical and sexual of those less able to protect themselves. My hope is that my song will offer even a little hope to those less fortunate.

Good subject Phill to write about and I like the way you wrote it. Sexual, verbal and physical abuse and the damage it has done to people is a world wide problem that for many years has been hidden but has started to be exposed more and talked about more.     

1,113

(4 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Thank you Jim,  I got the ukulele given to me  a few years back so recently I have been mucking around with it.  Last time I played ukulele before that was as a young kid my mother for many years had a ukulele that she use to play and sing  Fijian and also popular English lyric party songs.
 

Cheers Ken, thank you for your input. So far I have sort of ended up with a bit of a folk music sea shanty feel going on.  I have been listening to Chris Thile  playing Mandolin recently that style of music he played with The Punch Brothers appealed to me. That is when I thought I will try and see if I could get some sort of element of that sound going on my ukulele, So far I haven’t had much success but I thought I will keep working at it and see if I can improve with practice. A friend of mine has started playing guitar with a  group of Bluegrass guys and his guitar playing that style just blows me away. I don’t think I would be able to get to that level on guitar as some of the finger stretches he has to do on the neck of the guitar would be impossible for me to achieve and also at speed. I like the history of bluegrass music and the way it begun  with the people who migrated to America in the 1600s from Ireland, Scotland, and England and brought with them the basic styles of music that is now generally considered to be the roots of modern bluegrass music. Also the Black people who introduced the Banjo to the Appalachia area. Of course now that roots. Bluegrass. folk style of music is popular all around the world. My love of Bluegrass goes back to the late 60s when a New Zealand group called Hamilton County Bluegrass band introduced that music to this part of the world. Colleen Trenwith, who played fiddle with Hamilton County Bluegrass Band later left New Zealand and went  on to be a sort after session recording studio  musician in Nashville for a while through the 70's and 80's. Like many musicians, teaching is now her bread and butter. Since 2007 she has taught at East Tennessee State University, instructing about 300 students in bluegrass, blues and other "old-time country" genres. When The Beverly Hillbillies came to New Zealand television in the late 60's with Earl Scruggs’ banjo driving its ‘Ballad Of Jed Clampett’ theme song that hooked me onto bluegrass also.

1,114

(5 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Ctech real good  lyrics and backing track  has an interesting updated  ye  olde english  sound to me, but  I am not sure how it would fit into your lyrics but it is still good.
Happy New  Year  to you and your family and good to see you back here on Chordie.     

1,115

(4 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Ctech you got the medieval sound on that real good.     

1,116

(4 replies, posted in My local band and me)

This a video of me trying to develop a bluegrass sort of sound just using  the ukulele. I am fishing for comments on here please.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzrMBQ9d1Q 

1,117

(3 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Wow Ken that is song writing at its best. Your guitar picking and vocals excellent. That is a perfect tribute to an exceptional lady. I love the way you brought two of your loves together in a song nature and your wife. Congratulations on your 47th anniversary.     

1,118

(7 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Cheers Phill and Jim thank you for your kind comments  a great way to start the year. After reading Phills  lyrics to Searchin' on chordie  the video idea popped into my head. I sent Phill  some of  my video ideas when  he reluctantly agreed to forward to me his demo . When he emailed  me him doing a demo of it which he wasn’t  completely happy with I eagerly started  the process of putting a video together. The synergy  with the interaction of his song and my video felt good.  Our two inputs combined produced a total effect that was greater than the sum of the individual elements. The song needed the video and the video needed the song. When I emailed him with the finished result I felt a bit apprehensive thinking maybe he wouldn’t like it. Thankfully he did like the outcome. I was very pleased and thankful to Phill for allowing me to make this video. Special thanks to Cuba Mall Dancers  Wellington for being in this video.

1,119

(1 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Jim this song can be done real good in  many ways because your lyrics are so strong word arrows going straight into the bullseye.     

1,120

(4 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Ken and Jim that is an excellent collaboration   Poems can become songs and songs can become poems.     

1,121

(7 replies, posted in My local band and me)

Happy New Year everyone I hope 2021 is a whole lot  kinder to the world. Here is a song of Phills which I like. I hope this video does it justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qzGbx9 … rt_radio=1 

1,122

(9 replies, posted in Poems)

Phill, Jack and Vera were great characters. Back in the late 60's -70s  when there was only one TV channel here people use to talk about Coro as though it was real life.   I knew two old ladies who fell out because one loved Ena Sharples and the other hated her. Peter Adamson who played Leonard Fairclough  was brought out here by a company I worked for to do a months residency at a flash restaurant cabaret  called the Beefeater Arms. He was trying to be a singer entertainer but even though he could act his singing wasn't  up to much. The first week his show was full house but word got around how bad it was hardly anyone one went. They got him a spot on a daytime TV show here he insisted on not being interviewed unless they let him sing a song which he did real bad not a smart move on his part. He had some other gigs on the books but they were canned. Another one who was out here was the lady who played Else Tanner her stage shows went down good and were all sold out with good reviews. The woman that played Stan and  Hilda Ogden's daughter Irma  ( Sandra Gough )   lived in Wellington for a while and was married to a local man very briefly. They split and she left town.

1,123

(9 replies, posted in Poems)

mojo01 wrote:

cant be late for Christmas diner ive got the roast

lol love andy

Good one Mojo.     

1,124

(6 replies, posted in Poems)

Jim you are a craftsman with words I love those lyrics.  The chorus also is perfect. That is worth an A+

such is the fate of those with wretched lives
hopelessly waiting for their ships to arrive
too scared to be bold, and face the cruel facts
and haunted by visions of what their lives lack     

1,125

(9 replies, posted in Poems)

Cheers Brian I wish I could make it rhyme.

Phill here in New Zealand they would have a compiled a selection of Andy Capp cartoons put into comic books which they would sell at newsagents, It ended up been syndicated into our Newspapers also. I just showed the poem to a friend who use to watch Coronation street in the 60's and 70's and he reckons the poem reminds him of two characters in it Stan and Hilda Ogden.

Thank you  ken it seems like Andy Capp humor was universal.