After a hiatus of about 15 months, Terramara returned to the stage last Thursday, May 9th, playing a low-key, semi-acoustic set at the intimate 318 Cafe in Excelsior, Minnesota.  More photos on the Images Page.

Today I bring you the third song demo in my ongoing series "Songs In Progress". This new one is called "A Quiet Desire" and is a simple guitar/vocal arrangement at this point. To hear this new song demo, sign up for my mailing list. I will send you a free download code.

For those of you who have been following me for awhile, it may come as a surprise that I even play guitar. "What's this?", you say, "Why, he has always played piano or keyboards in all the years I have known him". Well the truth is, dear reader, I learned to play acoustic guitar back in high school, but never played it much throughout my years as an active musician. Keys are my main instrument and it just made more sense for me to write and perform on them when playing with a rock band. And I have been playing in bands for most of my career. The beloved old acoustic guitar has gathered dust in my closet ever since.

Now that I have been writing some solo material, I thought it might be interesting to go back to the guitar. I have often heard that writing on a different instrument can take you in a new direction musically and wanted to see what that would sound like. Since I don't play guitar as well as piano, let's be honest, my choices for chords and harmonies are somewhat more limited, or maybe just different. Either way, I think the songs do come out sounding different - hopefully in a good, fresh sort of way. I will leave it to you to make that determination....

The next song demo will go out on around May 19th.  Stay tuned!

Last Sunday, I sent out the second song demo in my on-going series, Songs In Progress.   The song is called, "Never Say Goodbye", and it's a musical response to an earlier song I wrote called "Goodbye".   When I looked back on "Goodbye", which was released on Terramara's second album, Four Blocks To Hennepin, I felt it was a little pessimistic and one-sided.   There was a certain finality to the "goodbye" in that song.  

The other side of the story can be found in this new song, "Never Say Goodbye".   Here I tried to paint a picture of a relationship where you never have to say goodbye - a life-long commitment to another person.  It seems we are always saying goodbye to someone.  It's a rare thing to have a person who will be in your life forever.   Maybe this song is a bit over-the-top optimistic in the same way the other was pessimistic.   But you can never have too many "silly love songs", right?  By the same token, I think the song captures a sense that relationships have a lot of ups and downs, and require a lot of effort to maintain. Maybe the narrator in this song has not been the perfect partner, but realizes this and is trying hard to work things out.

This first version of Never Say Goodbye was recorded right here in my home studio as just a piano/vocal demo.  I'm excited to see how it can flower with some other added instruments in a future production, but I still think I will try to to keep it simple.  I don't think it needs a lot of production to make it shine.

Sign up for my mailing list to receive this song.   The next demo will be e-mailed to my fan list on May 5th.  Stay tuned!

 

Thanks to everyone for their overwhelming response to my little songwriting adventure.  Next track coming atcha on April 21st.  This series is meant exclusively for my e-mail fan list, but I am sharing the first installment here on the Music Download page so everyone can see what this is about.   It's a free mini-album called Afterlife: The Evolution of a Song.  

Making records can take a long time.  Way too long.
That's why instead of making you wait until the album release to hear a single note, I would like to start sharing the songwriting and recording process with you.  

Starting Sunday, April 7th, I'll begin "Songs In Progress", a series of free songs sent exclusively to my fan e-mail list. Every two weeks you will receive a download link for a brand new, unreleased song.

I have been writing a lot new songs in hopes of releasing a new album in 2013. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty-five finished songs. Each of them is in various stages of development. Some I have already recorded in a proper studio with some fantastic musicians, while others are simple vocal/piano or guitar demos recorded in my home studio. Some are polished, some are raw, some might be rewritten or scrapped altogether. You will get to hear them all.

If you haven't already, please join me on this songwriting adventure by signing up for my e-mail list.  And thanks for listening!

It seems that a lot of folks have been hearing our song, "Goodbye" while on hold with Chase Bank over the last year or so. Many have found us only by creative searches on Google with snippets of lyrics. In an effort make it easier to locate us on the vast interwebs, I am posting all the lyrics here. Hope this helps, and thanks for all the e-mails and new fans coming our way.

You can download the song for free if you sign up for our mailing list. Go to the Download Music page and look for the song under our album Four Blocks To Hennepin.

Goodbye

Goodbye I'll have your picture framed
Goodbye and things will be the same as they were yesterday
Goodbye I'll call you every day
Goodbye we'll have so much to say when we are far apart

And I won't break down
No I won't break down
When I play that song that I wrote for you
And I won't let go
No I won't let go
But I want to know, was it real for you?

Goodbye I'll try to board a plane
Goodbye and things will be the same as they were yesterday
Goodbye your voice is sounding strange
Goodbye, but all the same your face is so indelible

Was it all in vain?
Was it worth the pain?
Was I so naive to think that we could beat the odds?

Goodbye I know you had to go
Goodbye we both agreed there's so much more ahead of us
Goodbye I guess you're out again
Goodbye, it's good you found a friend who understands your pain

And I won't break down
No I won't break down
When I play that song that I wrote for you
And I won't look back
No I won't look back
When I finally take your picture down