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https://on.soundcloud.com/Tk7z8zGWg68GMUc8vK

It's always dangerous to be thinking of love from the past.

somehow it feels good and sad at the same time.

Hope you like it.

Cheers Jim 

This is based on the book Charlie Smith's Girl.  Bear with me...... it's a wild story ! 

About 1991 (many years ago) I was in the dentist office waiting  for the call from the dental hygienist  While waiting - I picked up a Time Magazine and began skimming and reading - when all of a sudden I saw the words " Worcester NY"  and it said " book banned" .  So i started reading about this Author Helen Bevington (Smith)  who had just released another book called The World and the Bo Tree - but the most interesting part was the description of a previous book called Charlie Smith's Girl.   A large part of it was about her life in Worcester (my hometown )  and her Minister father who had an affair with a women that forced him out of the church in Pennsylvania and forced him to come to Worcester. He then had a second affair with a Worcester woman ( and that's why the book was banned in our local library! )  Her mom divorced him - and led a single mom life.  There was a door on their apartment(after moving out of the Methodist parsonage) that had a big clear window surrounding by squares of stained glass.  In the book, Helen said whenever things were bad, she would go to the door and look through the golden piece of stained glass because it helped her get through the things that were bothering her.       So fast forward -   I was teaching a local history class at my school in Worcester and one of my students asked me why I never got a hold of her.   So I called her - she was teaching at Duke University - professor emeritus!

We had many conversations. she sent me an autographed copy of the book and several follow up letters. She was so nice !!    Sadly, after a couple years of correspondence - her daughter sent me a letter saying Helen had passed.  So last week  I was going through a closet and found the book. It got me thinking about her.  So I started writing this song - and finished it today.  this is a link to what someone else wrote about the book  https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=1803      an amazing story     

This is the link to the song. https://on.soundcloud.com/GZZSOyz6MHxYm7F8e3    hope you like it.

https://on.soundcloud.com/7crhGGIM3p4t10f1ow

I took a few of Brian's poems and collated them into verses.  I wrote a chorus and came up with this song.

Brian I hope you don't mind that I did this without asking !
Your poems are brilliant and I was hoping to add a little magic to them by putting them together.
adding Engelbert just topped it off !

Cheers every one - please enjoy Brian's fantastic work again !

Jim

https://on.soundcloud.com/JIkD0t7MtEIk6YpNOZ

I wrote this song about the main outlaws of Country music.
They changed the music industry ( not just country).
The idea for the song came from when I was thinking of a friend of mine
who used to sing a little jingle when he rode with me if we were going out to the bars.
(" can't get to heaven in Kenyon's car, because the damn thing stops at every bar"    )
Hope you like it.

https://on.soundcloud.com/VqeTcuTryR9yHLjPnh

This week I was sitting on the Topsail Island beach and I wrote this song after hearing the two deejays on Outlaw Country (Sirius XM) a couple weeks ago .... one of them said he bought his wife a nice present... The other guy goes well that ain't happening here, because my my wife has has "Champagne taste and I’m on a tap-water budget " every one laughed . I said that's gotta be a song.
So here is what I came up with

Cheers
Jim 

Took forever - but I think it came out pretty well
let me know your thoughts.
https://youtu.be/47t_be8NJBE 
Cheers,
Jim