As I recall, this was the first (or at least almost first…) song I featured on Michael Acoustic, and after all these years I’m not about to go searching through the (literally) hundreds of previous posts. It’s still one of my favorites to play just for fun…

Love this video - all the people dancing! I saw him in solo concert years ago (great show!) - with featured guest - Ruston Kelly? dunno…(Mr. Fallon’s usual group is The Gaslight Anthem).

Key of GMajor, 120 BPM, 4/4 common time - just 4 chords, all cowboy (first three frets) chords - it’s easy for most all levels (if you’re just starting out - start slow and challenge yourself a bit - it’s a fun song…)

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Some Links…

From American Songwriter:

Bonnie Tyler Funeral

From CD Baby:

Avoid Fake Spotify Playlists

Choose A Release Date For Your Music

6 Common Release Mistakes

Types Of Music Royalties

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Self Care

From Carvin Audio

New Pedals Before A New Amp?

Turn Your Amp Down On Stage?

From Speed Songwriting

10 Song Plots

Organizing Song Ideas

Faster Songwriting

The “ME!” Section…..

Shameless Self Promotion Section:

My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back”click on link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even (boo, hiss) Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Share Michael Acoustic

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might though. -Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To All of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

Mika and (the new cat) Kage

They’re actually getting along fairly well, but the shenanigans never end…entertaining though…

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

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Thank you for reading Michael Acoustic. This post is public so feel free to share it.

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Credit: Ed. Click the various (underlined) links above for credits…

Ed: The Mountain Goats are on tour and performing in Seattle this weekend…

Welcome To A Special Saturday Post!

For Today

So here in The Upper Left Corner (OK, Spokane, Washington - where I live…), it’s been a very difficult week - the wildfires have left thousands homeless, others unable to return to their intact homes. The smoke is still thick in the air (even here, and I am 30ish miles from the fire sites - this time…). Many are wondering when, even if, they’ll be able to return to homes that weren’t lost or damaged in the fires. The one bright spot is, so far, no fatalities…at least that have been announced so far….

Link: Latest News Stories

A huge thank you to our local fire crews and powerline workers from Spokane County and several surrounding cities and counties, and..

…A very special thank you to firefighters and powerline workers from many surrounding states - Idaho, California, Oregon, Colorado…(those are just the states I’ve heard of on the news - there may be more… possibly from our northern neighbors, Canada - not sure, and they’re fighting their own fires!)

Also, and especially, at least one fire crew that came here all the way from…Australia!! Thank you!!

If you can help at all, here is a link:

Red Cross Donations Link

It may be weeks, even months, before many are able to return due to downed power lines and debris…

YouTube Link: Sometimes I Still feel The Bruise

A Song To Play…

From Chordify: Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise (Mountain Goats cover)

Ed: This is a really fun song to play - this capoed version is easy for experienced and intermediate players, a good challenge for beginners - I’m putting the capoed version here, if you want to use these chords without the capo, just play the listed chords, keeping in mind the capoed version can be played with the YouTube version, but without the capo it will sound strange when playing with YouTube or other sources…

Or you can find the original chords (different key) on Chordify…

Lyrics

Credit: Genius Link: Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise

[Verse 1]
This is just to say hello
And to let you know I think of you from time to time
I know I never really knew you, but somehow I miss you
And wish that you’d stayed in my life

[Chorus]
Making contact gets harder
As the silence grows longer
And isn’t it only me
Who’d like us to see each other?
How I would hate to be a bother
The way we left it was you’d ring
I’m under no illusion
As to what I meant to you
But you made an impression
And sometimes I still feel the bruise
Sometimes I still feel the bruise

[Verse 2]
Now and then I stumble on
What I’ve misplaced but never lost
An ache I first felt long ago
Though you’ve appeared and disappeared
Throughout these past few years
I’d be surprised if you now showed

[Chorus]
Making contact gets harder
As the silence grows longer
And why would you think of me
When you were not the one in love
When you were not the dreamer
When you were just the dream?
I’m under no illusion
As to what I meant to you
But you made an impression
And sometimes I still feel the bruise
Sometimes I still feel the bruise

The “ME!” Section…..

Shameless Self Promotion Section:

My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back”click on link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even (boo, hiss) Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Share Michael Acoustic

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might though. -Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To All of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

Mika and (the new cat) Kage

(they’re kinda pissy cuz I won’t let them go outdooors)

Lazy Cats

(Note the blanket Kage is lazing about on isn’t stained brown, that’s light from the nearby window filtered through the smoky air outside….)

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Credit: Genius Link: >A Little Too Late<

From Genius contributor/editor @AlexanderJamesM:

“White Tra$h With Money is the tenth studio album by American country singer-songwriter Toby Keith, released on April 11, 2006, via independent record label Show Dog Nashville. The album marks Keith’s first on a new label after leaving his previous label, DreamWorks Records, and his first with new co-producer Lari White.

A total of three singles were released from the album: “Get Drunk And Be Somebody,” “A Little Too Late” and “Crash Here Tonight.””

Ed. - not gonna lie - I’m missin’ Mr. Keith, a lot. Just as in the video for this song, which is a somewhat downbeat story about an apparently unsalvageable relationship, Mr. Keith’s self-deprecating humor comes through, as he builds a wall that he soon discovers he’s on the wrong side of. A wonderful, talented musician who just didn’t feel a need to publicly take himself too seriously.

(Ed: Not sure who the actress is, I think she appears in some of his other videos - Gotta watch till the end…..perfect illustration of a woman who’s listened to a bit too much….)

(Ed. - Mr. Keith was a prolific songwriter, and one of his co-writers, Mr.Dean Dillon, perhaps lesser known, is just as prolific, writing songs for, and with, many other artists as well as for his own career. You can find his story and how it intertwined with the careers of many other artists in the documentary, “Tennessee Whisky”. I found it on the Plex streaming service, free sign-up, lots of commercials. May be available on other streaming services as well. Thanks, Bob!!)

Welcome to The Regular Friday post!

For Today (from the original post, but timeless)…

…stuff I found on social media:

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the standard tuning frequency of A4 (the “A” note in the 4th octave of an 88 key piano) as 440Hz. Mr Beethoven apparently thought differently…..

Ronnie Wood drew this setlist for the Stones’ Seattle show:

Credit: Twitter (X) repost by @MusicJim2 of Mr. Wood’s original post

And I found this on Twitter (X):

>George and Ringo< - Even if you don’t click any other link on here today (but you should and we both know it) this is just so cool….

A Song To Play…

Original Key of BMaj, 4/4 common time, a little quick at 100 BPM. The capo is on 4 so the song retains the Key of B, but uses the chord shapes of the Key of GMaj - that’s so it’s more available to beginning and early intermediate players - advanced players and pros probably already have Chordify, or can play it by ear. I think using a capo when you’re first starting out (especially) is important because you can hear the end result of your playing without constantly checking your hand position and correct chord shape with barred index finger and such. And after awhile you can get tired of songs only in CMaj or GMaj, maybe an occasional DMaj. Your mileage may vary, but hearing what you can play smoothly is a tremendous incentive to try hearing it smoothly up and down the fretboard. It just takes some time…and nothing breeds success like early success. Also, the number of well known songs on YouTube where an artist is singing while playing a guitar with a capo is pretty large. Doesn’t mean they’re just starting out. On the contrary, playing and singing, especially when being recorded, involves a lot of moving parts - if playing with a capo using cowboy chord shapes lessens the stress a bit, definitely do it.

The thing with using a capo is that it really does retain the intervals of the key the song was originally recorded in. This may have been recorded in BMaj because that fit Mr. Keith’s voice more comfortably than others, maybe by letting him sing in BMaj an octave lower than he otherwise might. The concept of “intervals” is the important part. If you left the capo off and used the above Chordify chord chart, the intervals remain the same, the only thing that changes is the starting point of the calculation of the intervals. The above chart has the same intervals, just starting from the GMaj chord shape. Mr. Keith’s version starts from the BMaj chord, and with the capo on, so does the song above. With the capo off it just starts from GMaj. The experienced session players and Mr Keith could probably just play it starting from BMaj:

which, admittedly, isn’t that difficult. The rest of the song might be though, it’s not like I’m gonna play it in BMaj….

I know that can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around. I think for guitarists it helps to separate the concepts of “chords” from that of “chord shapes”. One way to think of it is how we learn chord “shapes”. The GMaj chord shape is probably one of the first shapes most of us learned - it’s easy. In the common open position (ring, middle, and little finger) shape, the bass note G of the chord is on the third fret of the low E string. So starting from the open E, we count up 1 fret to F, the second fret to F# and put our ring finger on the 3rd fret - the G, which is the bass note of the chord. When the capo is on 4 (G#) it “pushes” our ring finger from G past the G#, then 3 more frets down past the A and A# to the B, and that’s the bass note now, with the capo acting in the same manner as our index finger barred across the 4th fret would. And that results in a BMaj chord, using a GMaj “shape”, with a little help from our friend, the capo...

Lyrics

Credit: Genius Link: Toby Keith, A Little Too Late - A bit unusual leading off with the chorus. My guess, and it’s only that, is that with only one short verse and one slightly longer second verse the song would have been a bit too short for radio play, so the lead off chorus gave a bit more time, and created room for an instrumental break or two. The YouTube video is 4:51, but the song itself is a bit less than 3:30, the rest is pure Toby Keith humor….

[Chorus]
It's a little too late
I'm a little too gone
A little too tired of this hanging on
So I'm letting go while I'm still strong enough to
It's got a little too sad
I'm a little too blue
It's a little too bad
You were too good to be true
I'm big time over you, baby
It's a little too late

[Verse 1]
No, I don't wanna talk about what we can do about us anymore
Only time you and me wasting is the time it takes to walk right out that door
Yeah, talk about water under the bridge
You should know by now, girl, that's all this is

[Chorus]
It's a little too late
I'm a little too gone
A little too tired of just hanging on
I'm letting go while I'm still strong enough to
It's got a little too sad
I'm a little too blue
It's a little too bad
You were too good to be true
I'm big time over you, baby
It's a little too late

[Verse 2]
There was a time this heart of mine
Would take you back every time
Don't you know?
It's been two packs of cigarettes
A sleepless night, a nervous wreck, a day ago
Now you ain't got no business coming around
I'm closing up shop
Shutting us down

[Chorus]
It's a little too late
I'm a little too gone
I'm a little too tired of just hanging on
So I'm letting go while I'm still strong enough to
It's got a little too sad
I'm a little too blue
It's a little too bad
You were too good to be true
I'm big time over you, baby
It's a little too late
I'm big time over you, baby
It's a little too late

The “ME!” Section…..

Shameless Self Promotion Section:

My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back”click on link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even (boo, hiss) Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Share Michael Acoustic

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention. Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI, things I link to might though. -Michael Acoustic

*Exception: For the next few weeks at least I’ll be testing out a beta feature offered on Substack that produces an AI image based on a text input - the image of the week can be seen in the upper left corner of this post…

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Some Links For “Today” - (note: these are links from the original post - still useful!)

ED. None of these result in compensation to me in any way, and I’m not endorsing any of them, but some of my readers may find them as interesting as I did…

From Blues Guitar Unleashed:

It's A Major Solo - this means a solo in AMaj, not a huge production number. Though soloing, especially with an audience, kinda qualifies no matter what scale/key you’re in.

Many Ways To Solo - here are some of the different ways…..

How to find the "perfects" - the I, IV, and V - This is cool! “Perfects”, by the way are names for some of the “intervals” in a key. The I chord is also known a Perfect Prime of a key, it doesn’t actually have an interval, but it is the starting point for the others. The Perfect Fourth is the interval between the root (Perfect Prime) and the IV chord in a Major Key (Minor Keys also have perfect intervals, just from a different starting point). The Perfect Fifth is the interval between the root and the V chord, and the Perfect Octave is the interval between the root and the next highest incidence of the root note of the scale that the key is based on. The ii-, iii-, vi- and vii(dim) aren’t perfect intervals because each of the minors contain a minor interval and the vii(dim) contains a minor and diminished interval. Confused yet? This link may help. Or not. Difference Between Minor And Diminished Intervals)

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine:

"Hello In There" by John Prine - John Prine is a treasure taken from us too soon. Here’s how to play one of his great songs.

From American Songwriter Magazine:

Vince Gill Reveals "Best Guitar Player Ever" You’ll never guess…..

From Songtown:

Lyric Pitfalls - A “pitfall” is a well disguised trap. Lyric pitfalls are traps you create for yourself in songwriting and then, of course, fall into them. Here’s a way to avoid such silliness. Mere repetition may or may not be a lyric pitfall. Note how many times Mr. Keith repeats the phrase “a little too” in the song above and avoids the trap by following the phrase with a word that gives a different meaning each time.

What's Stopping You? Poignant story with a point - I couldn’t find where the song was ever recorded, but this is worth the read.

A Day Of Practice - Never let the bastards wear you down….

From the Disc Makers Blog:

What Is "Remastering"? - Bet you’d like to know, wouldn’t you? I know, cuz I read the article. You should too.

Sequencing An Album - Should there be a pattern or meaning to the order of songs on an album? Find out here….

How To Get On Billboard Charts - Indie artists can go downtown, too. Or uptown. Wherever Billboard charts take you…

Thank You To All of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

Although this is a repost from a couple of years ago, this week’s post is of the cats now, Mika and (the new cat) Kage :

Surprise!

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Thanks to all of our subscribers, both our new subscribers/followers and those who’ve been with us for awhile. The “joys of home ownership” have been taking up an inordinate amount of my time, folks coming to clean out duct work (hopefully this week - they’ve been busy!), and the never ending lawn and garden sorts of tasks. The looming threat of fires in my area is also a constant annoyance, we usually see fire season in late August, sometimes into October. This year’s early fire near my house has both me and my neighbors spooked, so we’re all kinda busily clearing out years of accumulated dry pine needles under the trees in the neighborhood Yay…

So, I’ll be posting every other week, and probably keeping it to mostly links posts. Thanks for your patience and continued support!

Thanks as always to our long time subscribers and followers!

And, as always - thanks so much to Dave The Scholarship Coach:

Your Daily Scholarship

Learn about a new scholarship every day, including eligibility requirements, entry deadlines, and other pertinent information.

By Dave The Scholarship Coach

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Share Michael Acoustic

From Carvin Audio:

Solo Guitar and Vocalist

Small Venue Success

Subwoofer In Your Stage Setup?

Flying To A Gig? What to do...

Amping Your Acoustic Guitar

Stage Setup Tricks

Try Pedals Before A New Amp

From Zager Guitars:

Ease Finger Pain

How Long Do Guitar Strings Last?

From Randy Bachman on X:

A Hard Days Night Opening Chord

From Music Business Worldwide:

A Billion Subscribers!

From American Songwriter:

Hits From Female Solo Acts

Toby Keith And Merle Haggard Collaboration

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Create A Better Practice Space

Ringo's Album

Bring Your Best To Perfromances

From CD Baby

Releasing Music

Copyright For Musicians

From Mastering The Mix

Add Width To Bass

Mastering Where Plugins Sit In The Chain

De-ess Vocals

From Speed Songwriting

Songwriting Emotion

Writing Memorable Melodies

Songwriting Chord Progressions

Toplining Foundations

Why Songs Die In The Chorus

Song Plots

Memorable Song Hooks

Why You Can't Finish Songs

Top, Middle, And Bottom Drawer Songs

Routine Vs. Inspiration

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This week’s cats:

Ed: Mika and Kage: both still silly and sleepy kittens at best…

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

The cats and I were in the dark (literally) as a wildfire drew nearer to my house (some pictures below). Power was off for a day and internet was down for a couple of days. The fire drew to within a mile of my house, but high winds pushed the fire north and east. Pretty scary. The fire investigators said the fire was “human caused” but nothing further so far. My house was just outside the evacuation zone, but many people in the (pricey!) housing area just north of me were required to leave, and much of the area (and a few unfortunate folks who happened to be outside…) were covered in bright pink fire retardant from a couple of jets that were also brought in. At last count, 1 fatality, 5 houses lost and fifteen “structures” were damaged or lost, 220 acres burned.

From The Editor:

Thanks, Dave!

As always, I’m very grateful to Dave The Scholarship Coach for sending so many new readers my way - if you aren’t already reading his Substack and have friends and relatives who are heading for college, make sure to give his Substack a follow, you won’t be sorry!

Sorry for the brevity this week - back next week with links and stuff…

Thank You To All Of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

Daily Life With Mikeneko (Mika), and (the new cat) Kageneko

The Cats:

Mika- Always grooming…

Kage - Always In my lap…

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

From The Editor:

Thanks, Dave!

As always, I’m very grateful to Dave The Scholarship Coach for sending so many new readers my way - if you aren’t already reading his substack and have friends and relatives who are heading for college, make sure to give his Substack a follow, you won’t be sorry!

Some Links To Click On:

From Carvin Audio:

Stage Setup Tips

Amp Modelers On Stage

Amping Your Acoustic Guitar

Flying To A Performance?

Sub In Your Stage Rig?

Succeed in A Small Venue

Tips For Solo Gigs

From CD Baby

CD Baby At Great Escape

CopyrightFor Musicians

From American Songwriter

Writing Through Burnout

Toby Keith And Merle Haggard

From Mastering The Mix

Mastering Plugins Chain

Add Width To Bass

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Bring Your Best!

From Speed Songwriting:

Which Drawer?

Perfectionism In Songwriting

Why You Can't Finish Songs

Memorable Hooks

Song Plots

Chorus Death

Toplining Foundations

Chord Progressions

Memorable Melodies

10 Song Titles Fast

Lazy vs. Drained

Thank You To All Of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

A Slice of Daily Life With Mikeneko (Mika), and (the new cat) Kageneko (Kage - prounced Caw-Gay - it means “midnight” or “starless” sky)

The Cats:

Nothing but stare downs, except when there are treats to be had….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Summer is upon us and I know many, maybe most, have plans and stuff to do with family, friends and maybe not-so-much with others…

… including me…

So, over the summer I’m going to post mostly links that I pick up from various sources with the occasional “Song To Play” as well., and keep it to one post a week. I may even repost some of our past posts, especially the music theory ones. I know I’ve done a bit of that before, but I’m so happy we have many new followers and subscribers, and those basics may be hard to find elsewhere, or if you do find them, they’re often not really for those that are new to the concept of music theory. I was fortunate to learn most of this in some college courses taught by no-kidding professional musicians. It really made a difference for me, but I also realize some theoretical stuff just doesn’t click with folks. Give it a shot anyway - the why of music can broaden your horizons as much as the how…

Thanks as always to our long time subscribers and followers!

And, seemingly as always - thanks so much to Dave, The Scholarship Coach:

Your Daily Scholarship

Learn about a new scholarship every day, including eligibility requirements, entry deadlines, and other pertinent information.

By Dave The Scholarship Coach

Last week’s rando lyric: “Oh, Yeah The Boy Can Play” is from the song “Walk Of Life”, written by Mark Knopfler and performed by Dire Straits originally on the Brothers In Arms album and also released as a single. It was recorded at the studios of AIR (Salem, Montserrat). It was released in October 1985 (US)^[1] and January 1986 (UK)^[2]as Track 3 on the CD/cassette and Track 3 Side 1 on the LP.

Produced by Produced by Neil Dorfsman and Mark Knopfler

From: Wikipedia Link: Walk Of Life

From YouTube: Walk Of Life

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A Song To Play:

4/4 common time, Key of EMajor, a very brisk 176 BPM. A true 3 chord wonder using only the “Tonic” E Major root chord and the Subdominant A major IV chord, and the Dominant V chord (played as the extension B7 chord). Note the “Circle of Fifths” below, find the EMajor “slice” and then note the “A” to the left denoting the Major 4th and the B to the right, and denoting the Major 5th. That indicates those two chords are diatonic - meaning they belong in the key.

From Genius: Link: Walk Of Life

Ed. Note there are really only two verses in the song, Verses 1 and 2, with verse one repeated, and the Pre-Choruses also repeat, with the Intro and Outro mostly the same. If you’re Mark Knopfler, you can get away with that every time, mostly because the guitar riffs are so stunning the lyrics just sort of add flavor… (IMHO only, your mileage may vary…)

[Intro]
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo

[Verse 1]
Here come Johnny singing oldies, goldies
"Be-Bop-A-Lula," baby, "What'd I Say"
Here come Johnny singing "I Got a Woman"
Down in the tunnels, tryna make it pay

[Pre-Chorus]
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh, yeah, the boy can play
Dedication, devotion
He turnin' all the night-time into the day

[Chorus]
He do the song about the sweet loving woman
He do the song about the knife
Then he do the walk, do the walk of life
Yeah, he do the walk of life
Woo-hoo

[Verse 2]
Here come Johnny gonna tell you the story
Hand me down, my walking shoes
Here come Johnny with the power and the glory
Backbeat, the talking blues

[Pre-Chorus]
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh, yeah, the boy can play
Dedication, devotion
He turning all the night-time into the day

[Chorus]
He do the song about the sweet loving woman
He do the song about the knife
And he do the walk, he do the walk of life
Yeah, he do the walk of life
Woo-hoo-hoo

[Verse 1]
Here come Johnny singing oldies, goldies
"Be-Bop-A-Lula," baby, "What'd I Say"
Here come Johnny singing "I Got a Woman"
Down in the tunnels, tryna make it pay

[Pre-Chorus]
He got the action, he got the motion
Oh, yeah, the boy can play
The dedication, devotion
He turning all the night-time into the day

[Chorus]
And after all the violence and double-talk
There's just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, yeah, you do the walk of life
Mmm, they do the walk of life

[Outro]
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo-hoo
Woo-hoo-hoo
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo-hoo
Yeah, he do the walk of life

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This week’s (lazy) cats:

… guess I woke her up

(note the handily placed guitar - never far from my reach, even if it’s just to play chords - gotta keep those callouses ready for sudden inspiration…)

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

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“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

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Last week’s rando lyric: “Listen To The Wind Blow” is from the song “The Chain”, written (credited to all of them…) and performed by Fleetwood Mac on the Rumours album. It was recorded at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and Record Plant Recording Studios in either New York or Los Angeles (Ed. most likely in LA - it went out of business in 2024 and had studios in both cities for portions of its existence). It was released in February of 1977 as Track 1 on Side 2 of Rumours. It also appears on the compendium album “25 Years: The Chain”.

Produced by Produced by Ken Caillat, Richard Dashut & Fleetwood Mac

From: Wikipedia Link: Rumours - interesting stuff in here…

From YouTube: Rumours

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Some Stuff:

Ed. That first picture (the guy in the helmet) was always captioned as “Sleep well tonight, your Air Force is on alert!”… always made me laugh! Yes, I served, but not as aircrew…)

A Song To Play:

From Genius: Link:

[Intro: Lindsey Buckingham]
(Fuck)

[Verse 1: Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks]
Listen to the wind blow
Watch the sun rise
Run in the shadows
Damn your love, damn your lies

[Chorus: Lindsey Buckingham, Both, Stevie Nicks]
And if you don’t love me now
You will never love me again
I can still hear you sayin’
You would never break the chain
(Never break the chain)
And if you don’t love me now
(You don’t love me now)
You will never love me again
I can still hear you sayin’ (Still hear you saying)
You would never break the chain
(Never break the chain)

[Verse 2: Lindsey Buckingham & Stevie Nicks]
Listen to the wind blow
Down comes the night
Run in the shadows
Damn your love, damn your lies
Break the silence
Damn the dark, damn the light

[Chorus: Lindsey Buckingham, Both, Stevie Nicks]
And if you don't love me now
You will never love me again
I can still hear you sayin'
You would never break the chain
(Never break the chain)
And if you don't love me now
(You don't love me now)
You will never love me again
I can still hear you sayin' (Still hear you saying)
You would never break the chain
(Never break the chain)
And if you don't love me now
(You don't love me now)
You will never love me again
I can still hear you sayin' (Still hear you saying)
You would never break the chain
(Never break the chain)

[Instrumental Bridge]

[Outro: Both, Lindsey Buckingham]
Chain keep us together
Run in the shadow
Chain keep us together
Runnin' in the shadow
Chain keep us together
Runnin' in the shadow
Chain keep us together
Run in the shadow
Chain keep us together
Run in the shadow
Chain

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

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Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

Despite thinking Kageneko had been found at a local shelter from the picture the shelter put on their website, I now believe she’s a lookalike. It may be her, but original Kage was definitely a semi-feral street cat. I’m keeping the name Kageneko (Japanese for “midnight cat”) because she’s a close match in so many ways. This little kitty is close in age and weight, but she’s very sweet and obviously grateful for a loving home. She, unlike Kage #1, is very loving, loves to be petted and curl up in my lap and purrs like a freight train. She was neutered and chipped at the shelter, which original Kage wasn’t. So I still don’t know for absolutely certain, but the complete change in personality is probably more than could be expected. If Kage is still out there somewhere, I hope she’s safe and with someone who loves her…

This week’s cats:

Kageneko

Mika, however, remains somewhat unconvinced..

…

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

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“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

This week I’m featuring “A Song To Play” that may be a repeat from some previous post, but I don’t remember and in any event seemed appropriate…

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So, the hits just keep coming…

Our little black cat, Kageneko, has disappeared. I believe she escaped when Mika came in from the back deck and Kage took the opportunity to run free. She was about 2 years old, and the vet said she was not neutered/spayed and had had a previous litter, so she may be doing what fertile cats do. I am hoping for her return but it’s been a over a week and I’m reluctantly facing reality. Mika and I miss her…

Thanks to for the bat repellent suggestion - I actually found a bottle of the peppermint spray I had from years past bat issues and the little monster seems to have relocated!

Thanks, as always to Dave The Scholarship Coach, and to our new followers who were recommended by Dave!

Some Stuff:

A Song To Play:

4/4 common time, at 130 BPM it’s a bit quick, originally in the Key of Cminor, I’ve transposed it here with the capo on the 3rd fret to the Key of Am to make it a bit more playable for new/intermediate guitarists. You can leave the capo off if you would like, it just won’t be in the original key, so if you play along with the video it will sound odd. On the other hand if the Am Key is a good fit for your voice, it’ll all work out. Mostly though just…

…Have Fun!

From Genius:

“The group that specialized in ‘50s throwback type music, but with '80s lyrics, reached #3 on the Billboard charts in 1982, singing a “cool” song with deeper meaning, should one search for them.”

Lyrics:

[Intro]
Ooh
Ooh
Ooh
Ooh

Black and orange stray cat sittin' on a fence
Ain't got enough dough to pay the rent
I'm flat broke but I don't care
I strut right by with my tail in the air

Stray cat strut, I'm a ladies' cat
I'm a feline Casanova (Hey, man, that's that)
Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man
Get my dinner from a garbage can

(Meow) Yeah, don't cross my path!

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge]
I don't bother chasing mice around (Oh no!)
I slink down the alley lookin' for a fight
Howlin' to the moonlight on a hot summer night

Singin' the blues while the lady cats cry
"Wild stray cat, you're a real gone guy"
I wish I could be as carefree and wild
But I got cat class and I got cat style

[Instrumental Break]

[Bridge]
I don't bother chasing mice around
I slink down the alley lookin' for a fight
Howlin' to the moonlight on a hot summer night

Singin' the blues while the lady cats cry
"Wild stray cat, you're a real gone guy"
I wish I could be as carefree and wild
But I got cat class and I got cat style

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

Come home, Kage….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

So, I’m fine, was caught in the crossfire a bit between a couple of providers regarding a prescription, nothing more serious than that. The issue was a prescription med, one of which was probably effective for other folks, but not for me! The brouhaha (one of my favorite words!) resulted a painful side effect causing my knees and shoulders to ache excruciatingly. Got that eventually resolved, with pretty much only minor warfare….

Much better news, a cracked molar, resulting in a crown. My dentist and staff are so good - no pain, just slightly uncomfortable anesthetic injections, but that was minor. Probably saved the tooth and I immediately got used to it.

The final excuse is an odd one. A bat likes to roost in an upper corner of the roof over a back deck on my house. Persistent little bugger that I wouldn’t mind at all because they keep the mosquito/bug population down, but the downside is he or she likes to poop all night while it’s roosting up there and so my deck became its personal latrine. I bought a “bat house” off Amazon and I’m putting that up today, along with using some peppermint spray (apparently it’s like bat kryptonite or something) that they hate. Hoping for an equitable outcome for both me and the bat. We’ll see.

The scene of the crime….that’s about 15 feet up there….the little black spots are bat poop - can’t pressure wash cuz it’s stucco

As always - I’m thankful to Dave, The Scholarship Coast for sending so many new followers and subscribers to our page! Take a look at his page (at the link) for tips on maximizing your financial education resources.

Some Links To Click On:

Ed. I don’t think I’ve posted any of these before, but maybe…

From Carvin Audio:

Fills To Cover Audience Areas _ This might be one I’ve posted before, but good information if you play live and you need to improve sound…

Point Source Or Line Array - Yeah, I didn’t know either - might come in handy if you’re planning (or playing) a gig…

Guitar Tone 101 - Some stuff in here that maybe helpful for all levels of playing, but beginners especially…

From Acoustic Guitar Magazine

Inexpensive Guitar Improvements - I have a couple of beginner level Yamahas and a Martin that I just practice on - good info in here

From CD Baby

More Money! - How to get the most for your bank account…

A Release Day Checklist - Always something to do on these days…

From American Songwriter Magazine

Why The Zombies Are Called That... - Yeah, I didn’t know either…

George Jones and The Rolling Stones - Interesting slice of music history

Steve Earle Interview - With my favorite writer from American Songwriter, Dean Fields - he does a lot of these - worth a subscription IMHO

From Speed Songwriting:

How To Write A Song Bridge - Yeah, a pitch to buy a course, but some good information

Basic Chord Progressions - Good stuff here

Memorable Melodes - You want them, here’s how to write them

Song Title Games - These are really clever - try them!

Thank You To All Of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

A Brief Interlude With Mika and Kage, The Cats:

Ed. Some sort of high level secret executive cat meeting to discuss the human’s failings, I suppose….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Ed. A shorter than usual post this week - we’ve had a brief taste of spring weather here in The Upper Left Corner and I’m taking somewhat exhaustive advantage of it….

Last week’s rando lyric: “The hard way every time” is from the song “The Hard Way Every Time”, written and performed by Jim Croce. It was recorded at The Hit Factory in New York and released in December of 1973 as Track 11 on the album “I Got A Name”.

Produced by Produced by Terry Cashman, Tommy West

From: Wikipedia Link: I Got A Name (Album)

From YouTube:

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A Song To Play:

One of Mr. Croce’s lesser known songs - great, somewhat mournful lyrics and a challenging guitar part. Probably intermediate level with a lot of barre chords - but give it a try!

4/4 common time, a very quick 125 Beats Per Minute, Key of EMajor. Lots of barre chords, can be a bit of a challenge at the very quick pace of 125 BPM. Mr. Croce is credited as rhythm guitarist on this song, with the lead guitar credited to Maury Muehlheisen, lead guitarist for Mr. Croce. Sadly, Mr. Muehlheisen perished in the 1973 plane crash which also took the life of Mr. Croce.

The fingerpicked lead guitar part by Mr. Muelheisen is masterful, if you can fingerpick at a fairly quick pace, this is a great one to practice with. Start slow and build to the quick tempo.

Also, while Mr. Muelheisen didn’t have the vocal presence and range of Mr. Croce, he was an exceptional guitarist. Check out this album: Gingerbread (Album)

From Chordify Link: The Hard Way Every Time

From Genius: Link: The Hard Way Every Time

Yeah, I've had my share of broken dreams
And more than a couple of falls
And in chasin' what I thought were moonbeams
I have run into a couple of walls
But in looking back at the places I've been
The changes that I've left behind
I just look at myself to find
I've learned the hard way every time

'Cause I've had my share of good intentions
And I've made my share of mistakes
And I've learned at times it's best to bend
'Cause if you don't well those are the breaks
Should have listened to all the things I was told
But I was young and too proud at the time
Now I look at myself to find
I learn the hard way ev'ry time

But in looking back at the lessons I've learned
And the mountains I wanted to climb
I just look at myself to find
I've learned the hard way ev'ry time

'Cause I've had my share of broken dreams
And more than a couple of falls
And in chasin' what I thought were moonbeams
I have run into a couple of walls
But in looking back at the faces I've been
I would sure be the first one to say
When I look at myself today
Wouldn'ta done it any other way

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This week’s cats:

I think Mika does stuff like this just to start shit with Kage….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

I think it’s important to revisit the basics of what we do as guitar playing musicians to understand the concepts that underlie the “why” of music theory. It’s not just a conceptual abstraction. Music theory is the “language” of music. Understanding that language is critical to understanding other musicians - instrumentalists and vocalists - when we play music with them.

Although, it’s not just that. I really do enjoy thinking through the theoretical aspects of music as it applies to the guitar especially and often (OK, sometimes…) even find it helpful. Your mileage may vary…

I’ll try to keep the explanations easier to understand with some charts - everyone learns differently and I need a combination of written explanations accompanied by pictures or charts that are illustrative of the writing.

The section just below is truly the most basic of almost everything we do with “Western” music:

Everything starts with a note. In Western music, there are 12 notes. 7 are “natural notes”: C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The other five notes that are found in western (meaning Europe and the Americas) music are notes that have two names. C# is also Db, D# is also Eb, F# is also Gb, G# is also Ab and A# is also Bb. These notes are different than Natural notes because they have two names, where the Naturals only have one each.

One way to conceptualize this is to refer to the keys on a piano keyboard. “Natural” notes are the white keys. The black keys are called “Accidentals”. The reasoning goes like this: The white keys are the “naturals”: A,B,C, D, E, F, and G. The black keys are named for their relationship to the two white keys they fall between. By convention, we start with the note C in octaves, which includes one set of all the notes in a given scale, with the first note repeated at the end.

This is the “C” octave:

It starts with the note that is the name of the octave, in this case, “C” and proceeds alphabetically to the next instance of “C”. C as a note is just another note, the C scale is unique among the other scales in that is has no “accidentals” - that is, no sharps and no flats - and that’s why it’s at the tippy-top of the beast below: the dreaded “Circle of Fifths”.

The white keys in the diagram are the natural notes. The black keys are the accidentals. If you start with the “C” on the left end of the diagram and you go to the right, the black key is “C#”, read “C sharp”. If you start with the “D” and go to the left, the black key is “Db”, read “D flat”. There are some customary names - the C#/Db is almost always referred to as C# instead of Db. The black key between D and E is almost always referred to as Eb. Between F and G is referred to as F#, between G and A is Ab, between A and B is Bb. Why? Dunno, just is. Maybe there is a reason steeped in history, or not…

Now, we need to talk about “the beat” - which is the “pulse” of music and how we discovered having drummers and bassists around wasn’t the curse we thought it might be. And how they were actually pretty handy to have around, despite the ever escalating bar tab…

So, yeah, I have fun poking the drummer and bassist bears. Who do they make fun of? Well, me, more or less. Nobody wants to piss off the lead guitarist or the talented vocalist. That leaves me, a slightly talented rhythm guitarist and even less talented vocalist. But, in somebody’s words (I think Chevy Chase or John Belushi in some National Lampoon based movie, but I can’t remember which one now), “we never let it hold us back”… If you remember, let me know in the comments…

So today we’re moving on to confront a musical “beast”. I talked about this previously and it was (I think) one of the least “liked” posts of my Substack journey. Gotta be done though…

Yes, friends, it’s “The Circle Of Fifths”…..

This thing can be confusing, even intimidating. You can tame it though, by learning how to use it.

Note the top of the circle has the Treble clef symbol with no “#” or “b” symbols associated with it. Below that the pie sliced shape has the word “Major” and the capital letter “C” in the triangle below that. Then continuing down, the phrases “0 sharps” and “0 flats”, the word “Minor” and the abbreviation “Am” are contained within the pie slice for “C”. We can read that using the word “Major”. It refers to all of the clef symbols and letters in the outer circle. They’re all Major Keys. The “C” at the very top of that triangle means the Key of C. Remember, Keys contain and are distinguished by chords, rather than the single notes that distinguish scales. So the outer ring of letters are Major Keys, and the Key of C Major is unique in that it’s the only Key that consists of chords that have no sharps or flats in their root. The inner ring of chords are the Relative Minor Keys. All of the other Keys are representative of the other 11 notes of the Western music scale, (12 notes total, 7 naturals and 5 accidentals) and are denoted by the root note of the Key and the Key signature as shown by the number of sharps or flats in the signature. The sorta exception is F#/Gb, which are the same notes, therefore the same Key, just one notated in flats, one in sharps. You could do that with the other ones, such as Bb is also A#, but it’s one of those “convention” things - we just call that Key Bb. Just cuz.

Remember, Notes can be sharp or flat or neither and form Scales, but only Chords can be Major, minor or Diminished and form Keys. The root note of a chord can be sharp or flat, but the third of a chord determines whether the chord is Major or minor by being natural or flat.

Let’s break that down. The C scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B - the seven “natural” notes. The formula for a Major Key is Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor and (technically) Diminished. Then you start over. So the chords in the Key of CMajor are C Major, Dminor, Eminor, FMajor, GMajor, Aminor, and Bdiminished (technically).

I say “technically” Bdiminished, because no one (except piano players) wants to play Diminished chords, so just play the minor, in this key a Bminor. Technically, purist correct? Nope, but no one except probably your guitar instructor will notice you’re sorta cheating, and they probably won’t even care. Diminished chords are also known as the Leading Tone in some instances because the resolution from the 7 to the root note in earlier centuries was thought to best resolve musical tension. Today we use the IV and the V, the Perfect Fourth and Perfect Fifth to resolve the tension to the root, and the 7th, diminished or the more accessible minor, is only rarely used (But: there are a number of popular songs by great songwriters who do use the 7 chord, but almost always as a minor chord rather than a diminished chord).

Is the Circle of Fifths useful? I think so. you may see an odd Key signature, like 4 sharps and think, “Oh, yeah, EMajor”. Aaaaand the first chord is C#m. WTF? Yeah, not in Kansas anymore, Toto (see what I did there?) and now a whole bunch of weird is coming at you, cuz that’s likely the Key of C#minor. More melancholy, downbeat? Yeah, to Western music attuned ears. In other parts of the world, not so much, maybe. We are “trained” to hear Major keys as happ(ier), minor keys as sad(der) in what we call “the West” - Europe and North America in particular, but our popular music trains us, just like Japanese anime trains us (well, me anyway - kind of an anime addict - don’t judge…) to view things through a cultural lens.

You can track the chords in Major and minor keys in the first chart below. The chords in the left hand chart are major, right side is minor. The diminished chords are denoted by the “ ° ” symbol - not sure what that’s called other than the “degrees symbol”. Again, most everyone just plays the minor chord instead of the diminished version, but if you’re the adventurous sort, check out the Diminished chord chart below, and the chord fingering chart below that even. Be sure to have fun with that…

Extra Credit: Discmakers Guide to the Circle of Fifths - Helpful alternate take on how to use the Circle of Fifths. Probably more professional, too.

Sometimes visual representations help:

Hope you had a bit of fun and maybe learned something a bit useful today. I’d like to keep doing this occasionally if it works out, but I’ll leave that to you, Gentle Reader…

Thank You To All Of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

A Brief Interlude With Mika and Kage, The Cats:

She wants Mika to play with her sooooo bad she does these goofy tactics to get Mika’s attention….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Back on track with a song to play and sing along with from one of my most admired, but tragic, figures in music history!!

Last week’s rando lyric: “And we got the sky to talk about” is from the song “To Live Is To Fly”, written and performed by Townes Van Zandt. It was recorded over five nights in July of 1973 at “The Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe”, described as an “intimate venue” in Houston, Texas (Note: the original venue closed in 1979; a venue under the same name later opened in Galveston, Texas). It was released in May of 1977 as Track 10 on Disc 1 of the double disc album “Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas” which consisted of the songs performed there in 1973. The album was released by several labels, including Tomato (original release), Rhino, Charly, CoraZong, Fat Possum

Produced by Produced by Earl Willis

From: Wikipedia Link: To Live Is To Fly (Song)

From Wikipedia Link: Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas (Album)

From: Genius Link: Live At The Old Quarter, Houston, Texas (Album)

ibid:

From YouTube:

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Share Michael Acoustic

Some Stuff

A Song To Play:

4/4 common time, a slow 79 Beats Per Minute, Key of DMajor. Fun song to play, slow enough to practice finger picking if you can. Interesting note: the title only appears as a lyric twice, both times proceeded by the word “Well,”. With only 3 chords, it’s kind of a typical TVZ song - uncomplicated, sort of starts out as maybe a love song, but turns out to be more of Mr. Van Zandt’s outlook. Very cool, very much a reflection of Mr. Van Zandt’s philosophy of life in general I think. Certainly easy enough for all levels of a guitarist’s abilities, this is a good one to sing while you play.

From Chordify Link:To Live Is To Fly

From Genius: Link: To Live Is To Fly

[Verse 1]
Won't say I love you, babe
Won't say I need you, babe
But I'm gonna get you babe
And I will not do you wrong

Living's mostly wasting time
And I'll waste my share of mine
But it never feels too good
So let's don't take too long

[Chorus]
Well you're soft as glass
And I'm a gentle man
We got the sky to talk about
And the world to lie upon

[Verse 2]
Days, up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
But don't turn none away

Everything is not enough
And nothin' is too much to bear
Where you been is good and gone
All you keep's the getting there

[Chorus]
Well to live is to fly
All low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes

[Verse 3]
It's goodbye to all my friends
It's time to go again
Think of all the poetry
And the pickin' down the line

I'll miss the system here
The bottom's low and the treble's clear
But it don't pay to think too much
On things you leave behind

[Chorus]
Well I may be gone
But it won’t be long
I’ll be a-bringin’ back the melody
And the rhythm that I find

[Verse 4]
We all got holes to fill
And them holes are all that’s real
And some fall on you like a storm
Sometimes you dig your own

The choice is yours to make
And time is yours to take
Some dive into the sea
Some toil upon the stone

[Chorus]
Well to live’s to fly
All low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes
Well shake the dust off of your wings
And the tears out of your eyes

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This week’s cats:

Nothing demonstrates peaceful coexistence more than sharing a cat treat….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Also, some of these links may be repeats…..sorry, but not really that sorry….

*“Nonpareil” means a “model of excellence or perfection of a kind” - I’m thinkin’ that’s about right…

Hat tip to “GoryJory’s $10 Words” at Vocabulary.com

**A group of toads is a “knot”

A compendium of names for groups of animals (or links…):

Link: Animal Group Names

From The Editor:

Not as many links as I usually come across - only a few today…

A bit of a somber week - so I’ll just thank all of my subscribers and followers - once again this week, the most have come from, Dave The Scholarship Coach - give his Substack a follow, you won’t be sorry! - Thanks, Dave!

Some Links To Click On:

From Carvin Audio:

Amping Acoustic Guitars - Kind of a “Hmm, let’s see what happens if…” sort of a deal…

Keep Your Stage Organized - Guess mom was right about some stuff, huh?

Bass Tone 101 - Bet you thought this was a community college course offering….

Choosing A Vocal Mic - A bit more important than that Cuisinart on Amazon….

From CD Baby

Tax Tips For Musicians - Good timing, I was beginning to hear footsteps…

From Speed Songwriting:

Catchy Chorus Hacks - Hacked and catchy! Best of both worlds

Thank You To All Of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

Okonomiyaki

A Slice of Daily Life With Mikeneko, and Kageneko, The Cats:

Ed. Always making sure the treats division is equitable….freakin’ cats….smh…

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

ED: I needed to get out of my own head with some of my recent posts of songs I liked a lot or played a lot or whatever. Something different today, a purely instrumental song, featuring an acoustic guitar part that isn’t really the focus.

Last week’s rando lyric isn’t there because today we’re doing something different!

We’ll be featuring the purely instrumental song “Bryter Layter” written and performed by Nick Drake . It was recorded in 1970 at the Sound Techniques studio in London and released in March of 1971 as Track 1 on Side 2 of the album “Bryter Layter” by Nick Drake on the Island Records label.

Note the Wikipedia article discusses Bryter Layter as written and recorded by Mr. Drake for a BBC broadcast, later it was recorded for the album.

Produced by Joe Boyd

From: Wikipedia Link: Bryter Layter

From: Genius Link: (Album) Bryter Layter

Ed. Both sources provide interesting discussions about the musicians who backed on the Bryter Layter instrumental only track as well as others who contributed to the entire album…

Ed. I believe (without searching through several years of Michael Acoustic archives) that I’ve featured Mr. Drake before, but I don’t recall the song or when.

From Wikipedia: (Ed. a sad but too often repeated story…):

“Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridge. His debut album, Five Leaves Left, was released in 1969, and was followed by two more albums, Bryter Layter (1971) and Pink Moon (1972). While Drake did not reach a wide audience during his brief lifetime, his music found acclaim and he gradually received wider recognition following his death.

Drake suffered from depression and was reluctant to perform in front of live audiences. Upon completion of Pink Moon, he withdrew from both performance and recording, retreating to his parents’ home in rural Warwickshire. On 25 November 1974, Drake was found dead at the age of 26 due to an overdose of antidepressants.

Drake’s music remained available through the mid-1970s, but the 1979 release of the retrospective collection Fruit Tree allowed his back catalogue to be reassessed. Drake has come to be credited as an influence on numerous artists. The first Drake biography in English appeared in 1997; it was followed by the documentary films A Stranger Among Us in 1999 and A Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake in 2000.”

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Some Stuff

A Song To Play:

I chose this song for this week because it does something we do perhaps maybe more often than we do ordinarily. At home or wherever you practice, you may be playing songs and simultaneously singing lyrics to some song you want to learn or master. When we play with a group at a jam session for instance, it’s more often us playing while someone else sings. One way to prepare for that is to practice instrumental only songs. If everyone pretty much is on the beat, you’ll sound great. If you’re supporting a vocalist you kinda have to adjust to their tempo and phrasing - which may be very different from what you had learned on your own or with only other instrumentalists. So it’s good to devote a little practice time to an instrumental only song, where you’re concentrating on the timing and beat of the music, but without a vocalist to adjust to. Your mileage may vary.

4/4 common time, a pretty quick 120 BPM, original appears to be Key of Fminor (with a non-diatonic Gminor, would just be a G chord diatonically in the Fminor key), chord diagrams below this chart:

From Chordify Link: Bryter Layter

Original chords (no capo):

Capo on 3:

Through the magical capo device, if you capo on 3 it’s still in the more or less key of Fminor and you’re playing what will sound like the same original chordal tones, but using more familiar chord shapes (D, C, Em and F). I know this capo business can be difficult to grasp at times. It effectively “shortens” the strings (here at the 3rd fret) which causes the tones to require different chord shapes than the originals, but still the same tones. Players of other instruments will look at you oddly because unless they’re piano players they mostly don’t play chordal music on one instrument. Other instruments (woodwinds, brass winds, strings) play single notes at a time and achieve chordal music when playing with others who can play the other notes of a chord. Guitars and pianos are capable of playing multiple notes at once (or so closely together they sound like multiple notes).

What if you left the capo off and just played the notes in the score just above (the “capo on 3” version)? Well, the notes would not be the same and it would sound different than the intervals in the original, but it would still be recognizable as this song, because it is the same song, only in a different key - here, the Key of DMajor. Which might fit your voice better than Fminor anyway. Or not.

I know we have a lot of new followers/subscribers (thanks again to Dave The Scholarship Coach) and some of this may sound like gibberish, but in the coming weeks I’ll reprise some of my music theory posts that may help make sense of this!

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

In memoriam of the crew members of this aircraft lost over Iraq this past week

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings”

High Flight by John Gillespie Magee Jr. Link: High Flight

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

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ED: I needed to get out of my own head with some of my recent posts of songs I liked a lot or played a lot or whatever. As far as I recall, I’ve never featured Zach Bryan or this song before, so….

Last week’s rando lyric: “I will give some worn down excuse” is from the song “Let You Down” written and performed by Zach Bryan. It was released in November of 2020 as Track 1 on the EP “Quiet, Heavy Dreams” by Zach Bryan. The usual suspects disagree on the label with one stating “self released” and another citing his later labels, Warner Records and his own label Belting Bronco Records…whatever….

Produced by Eddie Spear (who was also the recording engineer).

From: Wikipedia Link: (Song) Ed. redirects to this discography link: Zach Bryan Discography

From: Genius Link: (Album) Quiet, Heavy Dreams

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A Song To Play:

4/4 common time, a very fast 167 BPM (yeah, you don’t have to play it that fast just because he does……), Key of GMajor - really a beginner level song, 3 chords in GMajor - it’s mostly for the lyrics - but that’s understandable - he was self-producing an EP, early in his career - probably just wanted to get some songs out there. Great - and it’s a great song and fun to play, even if a little on the beginner side.

From Chordify Link: Let You Down

…have fun!

From Genius Link: Let You Down

[Verse 1]
I will give some worn down excuse
'Bout my misguided judgements of substance abuse
I know that you'll stay out of pure sympathy
There ain't no use in lovin' a let-down like me

[Chorus]
I'll let you down, darlin', down, babe, just like I did before
You'll just keep on slammin' closed hollow unlocked doors
I'll let you down, darlin', down, babe, just like times before
You'll just keep on crawlin' back and beggin' me for more

[Verse 2]
I will leave you broken and in ruins
Call you when the work's through just to find out what you're doin'
So I can let you down for the hundredth last time
'Cause lettin' down's a pick-me-up for me and my boys' kind

[Chorus]
I'll let you down, darlin', down, babe, just like I did before
You'll just keep on slammin' closed hollow unlocked doors
I'll let you down, darlin', down, babe, just like times before
You'll just keep on crawlin' back and beggin' me for more

[Verse 3]
And I know that you know that you make my spine shiver
But my past lives inside me and it’s branched out from my liver
When I am not the evil that you make me out to be
I will let you down and that’s a damn guarantee

[Chorus]
I’ll let you down, darlin’, down, babe, just like I did before
You’ll just keep on slammin’ closed hollow unlocked doors
I’ll let you down, darlin’, down, babe, just like times before
You’ll just keep on crawlin’ back and beggin’ me for more

[Outro]
I will give some worn down excuse
‘Bout my misguided judgements of substance abuse

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

Ed.: I know this week’s post is a bit on the light side - struggling, like many in the Upper Left Corner I suppose, with a sort of sneezing, chills kind of a cold that just hangs on. Seems to ease up a bit in the afternoon, but that’s just teasing apparently. Meh.

This Week’s Conversation With Mikeneko and Kageneko:

Ed. Mika likes to pin her ears back and growl, but Kage seems to regard her as an older sister to bother as much as possible…

It is fun to watch them play fight, less enjoyable to listen to after awhile….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Whole lotta George This week…

Although George Harrison's birth certificate lists his birthday as 25th February, some sources claim he was actually born on 24th February shortly before midnight…

“If you said happy birthday to George, on the 24th, he would say, "It’s not my birthday", but if you said it on the 25th, he would say, "you missed it" - Various sources….

Last week’s rando lyric: “What I know I can do” is from the song “What Is Life” written and performed by George Harrison. It was released in 1970 as Track 1 on Side 2 of the triple disc album “All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison on the Apple Records label. Released as a single in February 1971.

Produced by David Zonshine, Phil Spector & George Harrison

From :Wikipedia Link: What Is Life (Song)

From: Wikipedia Link: All Things Must Pass (Album)

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Some Stuff:

You can’t help but like all of The Beatles, but if I had to pick one (and fortunately I don’t) George Harrison would stand out for me…

A Song To Play:

4/4 common time, a brisk 130 BPM, Key of E - lots of repetition - I think (without knowing of course) Mr. Harrison wanted a bit more focus on the lyrics with a big, but repetitious, instrumental track behind those lyrics. Still, very cool and so many great artists contributed to the songs on the album. Most of all…

From Chordify Link: What Is Life

…have fun!

From Genius Link: What Is Life

[Verse 1]
What I feel, I can't say
But my love is there for you anytime of day
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

[Chorus]
Tell me, what is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?

[Verse 2]
What I know, I can do
If I give my love now to everyone like you
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

[Chorus]
Tell me, what is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?
Tell me, what is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?

[Verse 1]
What I feel, I can’t say
But my love is there for you anytime of day
But if it’s not love that you need
Then I’ll try my best to make everything succeed

[Chorus]
Tell me, what is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?
Oh, tell me, what is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?

[Outro]
What is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?
Oh tell me, what is my life without your love?
Tell me, who am I without you by my side?

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This Week’s Conversation With Mikeneko and Kageneko:

Ed. The evening stare down. Sometimes it ends well. Other times, not so much…..

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Also, some of these links may be repeats…..sorry, but not really that sorry….

*“Concupiscent” means “vigorously passionate” - Yeah, I didn’t know either, but I use it here in the most platonic way, ya filthy animals… Hat tip to “GoryJory’s $10 Words” at Vocabulary.com

**A group of moles is a “labor” - “Moles are small, subterranean mammals. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging”. - Thanks, Wikipedia…

A compendium of names for groups of animals (or links…):

Link: Animal Group Names

From The Editor:

A busy week - mostly more or less good… so I’ll just thank all of my subscribers and followers; in particular the impressive number of new folks who arrive here often referred by Dave The Scholarship Coach - give his Substack a follow, you won’t be sorry! - Thanks, Dave!

Speaking of other Substack Writers - don’t miss these great “friends of Michael Acoustic”:

Paul Macko at:

Deplatformable Newsletter

Join our newsletter for Marketing Tips, Stackhacks, and Fun Curious Factoids! Not the worst way to spend a couple of minutes today. Seen more than half a million times.

By 🅟🅐🅤🅛 🅜🅐🅒🅚🅞

Ellen From Endwell at

Rock 'n' Roll with Me

Enjoying and exploring our amazing musical legacy from the sixties onwards, with an emphasis on rock 'n' roll

By Ellen from Endwell

David Perlmutter at:

Made From What's Not Real

The writings and musings of Canadian historian and speculative fiction writer David Perlmutter

By David Perlmutter

Brad Kyle at

Front Row & Backstage

"The best music history writing online!" It's rock, records, and radio, as we go behind the scenes of my years in FM rock radio and the record biz in the '70s & '80s!

By Brad Kyle

Andres at:

The Vinyl Room

Because life has surface noise

By Andres

Some Links To Click On:

From Carvin Audio:

How To Use A Preamp Pedal In Your Rig - Ya gotta have the “rig” first for this one…

The Right PA - You won’t be surprised to learn that Carvin sells “the right” PA systems. I like their stuff, so….

Running Sound And Playing A Gig At The Same Time - I saw a guy doing this at a lounge one night. It was impressive….

From Mastering The Mix

How To Punch Your Mix - You don’t have to wrap your wrists first for this….just sayin…

From Berklee: Space And Dimension - Kinda sounds like a 70s TV space opera but it’s not…

From American Songwriter Magazine

Keith Richards - Superhero - Not your ordinary story about Mr. Richards, but…

From CD Baby

How To Write A Press Release - Putting out a new track? Let folks know where to find it!

From Speed Songwriting

Songwriting Deadlines - Set a deadline. Meet the deadline. PROFIT!

Thank You To All Of Our Subscribers and Followers!!

Recipe for Hot Honey Sauce... For some reason recommendations for this stuff were popping up all over my X feed all week. Have fun!

A Small Drowsy Album With Mikeneko, and Kageneko, The Cats:

Ed. Mika appropriated a spare laundry basket I left laying around, Kage appropriated my chair…..

They’re quiet when napping. When not napping, less so….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Ed. - Hat tip to our good friend Brad Kyle, Substack writer at the Front Row and Backstage page. Brad featured the Austin, Texas based group, The Reivers, a couple of weeks ago, and I thought this song would be a fabulous song to learn. Find Brad’s post at his Audio Autopsy (link) feature, and while you’re there, check out the other cool stuff on his ‘stack….

Last week’s rando lyric: “There’s something in my hat” is from the song “In Your Eyes” written by Reivers members John Croslin (listed on Spotify as the “Composer”) and Kim Longacre (listed on Spotify as the “Lyricist”) and performed by The Reivers. It was released in 1987 as Track 5 on the album “Saturday” by Capitol Records (re-released 2002 by Dualtone).

Produced by Don Dixon

From Wikipedia: Link: Saturday The Reivers album

From AllMusic Link: Saturday The Reivers

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Some Stuff:

A Song To Play:

Key of GMajor, 4/4 common time, a very, very quick 150 Beats Per Minute - it’s a challenging banger!!! One spot where Chordify hears a Bm, just play the Bm7, another spot where it hears Cm, again just play the open C - at this pace no one’s gonna hear the difference…

From Chordify Link: In Your Eyes

From SONGLYRICS Link: In Your Eyes

The Reivers - In Your Eyes Lyrics

There’s something in my hat
There’s something in my stereo
But I can’t stop it
Stop it from happening
There’s something in my hat
There’s something in my stereo
But I can’t stop it
Stop it from happening
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh
It’s just a little fear
And I see myself in your eyes.
And it looks so nice.
And it looks so nice.
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh
It’s just a little fear
And I see myself in your eyes.
And it looks so nice.
And it looks so nice.
It could be the lights
You could call it poetry
But I can’t hear you
Spin above my record player.
Whoa oh oh oh oh oh
It’s just a little fear
And I see myself in your eyes.
And it looks so nice.
And it looks so nice.
And I see myself in your eyes.
And it looks so nice.
And it looks so nice.

The “ME!” Section…..

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This Week’s Conversation With Mikeneko and Kageneko:

Ed. The relationship has evolved from growling and whatnot to laying down and merely staring at each other until they just sort of wander off.

Non-violent though, so that’s an improvement…

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment

Last week’s rando lyric: “No, you don’t fool me” is from the song “In The Air Tonight” written and performed by Phil Collins. It was recorded in 1980 and released as a single in January 1981 and in February 1981 on the album “Face Value”. The song is Track 1 on Side 1 on the album. It was released by Virgin Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in North America.

Produced by Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham

From Wikipedia: Link: Face Value (album)

Note: This is probably the single version at 4 minutes 54 seconds. The album version is listed as 5 minutes, 34 seconds. The single version, according to some, featured “real” drums up to the point of the “magic break”, where the album utilized a drum machine until the magic break.

Real or Machine?

What is the “magic break”? For us non-drummers (they’re “special”), it’s when the quiet drums in the background stop and the solo drumming across the different drums in the drum set happens. Here’s how that came to be:

The Magic Break

Also, my very favorite version….Miami Vice

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Some Stuff:

That recipe is a life saver if, like me, you’ve been battling sniffles, chills, sneezing and whatnot…just sayin’…

A Song To Play: Key of Dminor

(relative minor of the Key of FMajor - See Circle Of Fifths above)

4/4 common time, a moderate 94 BPM. I haven’t played along with this chord chart in awhile - I thinks the magic break happens around measure 18., don’t remember for sure.

From Chordify Link: In The Air Tonight

From Genius Link: In The Air Tonight Lyrics

[Chorus]
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
And I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
Can you feel it coming in the air tonight? Oh Lord, oh Lord

[Verse 1]
Well, if you told me you were drowning
I would not lend a hand
I’ve seen your face before, my friend
But I don’t know if you know who I am
Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been
It’s all been a pack of lies

[Chorus]
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
And I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord, oh Lord

[Verse 2]
Well, I remember, I remember, don’t worry
How could I ever forget?
It’s the first time, the last time
We ever met
But I know the reason why you keep your silence up
No, you don’t fool me
Well, the hurt doesn’t show, but the pain still grows
It’s no stranger to you and me

[Drum Solo] (Ed. “The Magic Break”!)

[Chorus]
And I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
I can feel it in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord
Well, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
I can feel it coming in the air tonight, oh Lord
Well, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord
I can feel it in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord
Well, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord, oh Lord
I can feel it in the air tonight, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord, oh Lord
Well, I’ve been waiting for this moment for all my life, oh Lord, oh Lord
I can feel it in the air tonight‎

The “ME!” Section…..

This week’s Spotify playlist - don’t have one - sorry, cold taking its toll this week…

My song is out- Link: “>Long Road Back<”click on this link for streaming options, then scroll down for links (or just click on these links) to Amazon, Apple, Pandora, iTunes and even Spotify

If you’re enjoying our content, please let your friends and musician acquaintances know about us!!! Thanks for supporting this free newsletter!

Disclaimer Section

This Substack is free, I receive no compensation of any kind from companies or products I mention (except when you click on one of the links above for my song - then I might make 0.003 cents - yes 3/1000ths of a cent… just sayin…). Some linked or quoted material may be copyrighted by others, and I credit them. I rely on the “Fair Use” doctrine for educational purposes (Link: Fair Use). *I do not use AI for any of the text that’s found here, things I embed or link to (such as some images) might…

-Michael Acoustic

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support this newsletter.

Thank You To Our New Subscribers and Followers!!

This Week’s Conversation With Mikeneko and Kageneko:

Pretty tame really. Lots of lengthy stare-downs and a few growling matches.

Meh, cats….

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”

Leave a comment