Never been one to let the carrier drop

Anvilicious

Lyrics:

Little bits of paper
Ones and zeros online
Matter more to you
Than live hearts and minds

You tell yourselves lies
About where the poor have been
You say they’re all just lazy
You don’t understand

The system we built
Doesn’t put you back up when you fall
Instead it locks you behind another prison wall

And while you stand there
In your ivory tower on the green
Another kid gets crushed between the wheels of the machine

Money is not value
It’s just the corpse and the cost
Value is the things you really need
But that idea gets lost
When your mind is obsessed
With how rich you could be
You don’t see how if we left it behind we’d all be set free

And if you’re telling me
You want things to stay the same
Which is just another way of saying conservative
With just another name

I’m telling you, man, you don’t see the fall
Staying the same is another way of dying
That’s the writing on the wall

And if you don’t want to join me in this dream
At least admit you’re making hell
With the tools and the means

You’re making weapons.. Shoot the guns and drop the bombs
To kill another innocent

It’s obvious to me
From where I stand
We can all be unimaginably wealthy
If you just lend a hand

Stop thinking of this as a zero sum game
With what we know now, the rules are not the same

Think about virtual reality
Think about gifts – a race set free
Not even Jesus could see the whole picture yet
When he said the poor are with you always – he missed a bet.

Biological systems, the most powerful computers yet known
If we could load the right software, paradise could be homegrown
Whlie our bodies kept the wheels moving
Our minds could be alive and free
Inside our own envelope
Freedom, inevitably

But I’m guessing that aint what you’re about
You’re about ownership, and power, and making sure you leave the rest of us out
So you’ll forgive me if I sometimes don’t see your side
If I think you’re either evil or stupid, or have something big to hide

The story:

So, I was testing out Waves’ new grand piano (this), and I decided to track vox and the piano and just kind of spin some lyrics as I went. I liked what I got enough to add some layers and post it here, and hopefully some of you will enjoy it as well. I think my favorite bit is where the acoustic guitar comes in..

The title is definitely a nod to the trope, although, then again, maybe some anvils need to be dropped.

Mellow Fools

New from Sheer, angsty prog rock. Almost Floydian:

http://www.sheer.us/stuff/2017/Holes.mp3

Credits:

Drums: Bruce DeGrado & Sheer
Everything Else: Sheer

Lyrics:

Day after day
Things fade away
How am I supposed to be okay
With the things you say?

And night after night
Things aren’t quite right
The fading of the light
Dark is bright

So many holes
Will we ever be made whole
Over and over we’re forced to let go
Of the things we love and know

Note this later appeared on Believing Is Seeing.

So, here as a work by Fraud In France Lite, we have a old John Prine cover, Angel From Montgomery:

http://www.sheer.us/stuff/2017/AngelFromMontgomery.mp3

Keys, synths, vocals, percussion, and guitar: Sheer
Drums: Bruce DeGrado
Bass: Art Day
Additional Lyrics: Sheer, Mike Mesford

So, my first post of 2017 will be a bit of neoclassical – this actually started as a completely improvisational attempt to express my sadness, pain, fear, and other negative emotions surrounding a situation in my life. Whatever else you can or can’t say about it, I think some of my emotions when I played it come out nicely in the recording. Happier stuff in the pipeline, folks, including a cover of Angel From Montgomery that cooks pretty well, but for today, this is what we’ve got.

Vicky2.

Again, Jefferson Jay has very kindly allowed me to play protools tennis with one of his tracks.. this one is a favorite of mine, and one I’ve covered on my own a number of times. I think you all will enjoy how mellow this came out..

City Of New Orleans

Little bit of trance for my fans out there. This will probably get another makeover with some more layers of lead instruments and a few samples or some spoken word.

This was actually just a ‘getting my mojo back’ track – I spent three weeks in CA, not playing at all, and was a little rusty.

Hope And Despair

So, just for fun, here’s a collaboration with my friend Jefferson Jay, a cover of a Steve Goodman song:

http://www.sheer.us/stuff/2016/GoCubsGo_Song.mp3

All the wrong notes are mine, all the right ones are his. 😉

http://www.sheer.us/stuff/2016/PrideAndConviction.mp3

You stand here before me
Saying “Truth Is Absolute”, and yours is the one that’s true
I tell you that this can’t be
Because I don’t see things the way you do

Chorus
You may think, my brother
That you’re the good side and they’re the evil ones
While your opposite number
Stands with pride and conviction in all that they’ve done

Any attempt to sway you
Will meet with nothing but a brick wall
Change is no longer an option
You will hold this belief, stand or fall

*chorus*

So what is about some knowledge
That makes us think it’s irreproachable, beyond disproof
What is it about our memories
That makes us think that we remember absolute truth

*chorus*

Dedicated to everyone in this election who thinks the other side might also be made up of thinking, feeling, capable beings.

Note this later appeared on Believing Is Seeing.

Tory9. This is gonna be a great album.