Category: Rock and/or Roll

Back in 1990 there was a singer in Pittsburgh whose name I can’t remember who sang a lot of public school assemblies raising awareness about teen suicide. Because she couldn’t present an explicitly Christian message, she was looking for songs that offered a message of hope without being preachy. So I wrote the song My Arms Are Open Wide. 18 years later, I’m still wondering why she didn’t end up using it. This thing is a hit! All it needs now is a hit maker–a singer who can bring it to life. Carrie Underwood, where are you when I need you?

Update 10/1/20: Sheet music for this song can be downloaded here.

Here is another rough cut from my proposed CD of rock and/or roll. It’s called “Our Father.” If you guessed that it’s based on the Lord’s Prayer, you’re correct. This won’t generally be a religious CD, but I couldn’t resist including this one.

Once I finish the global songbook I’ve been working on for the CICW, I want to start recording a CD. Yeah, that’s right, a real CD, with songs, shrink wrap, and everything. A CD chock full of all my rock and roll hits. (As rock and roll as a 41 year old man can muster.) My plan is to post rough drafts of some of the songs here at my music blog so I can get feedback early on from all of you. The first of the batch is “Walking the Wire.” Like I said, this is just a rough mix of part of the song, but I’d love to hear what you think.

Here are the rest of the songs I recorded last weekend while at Notre Dame. Please listen with gracious ears–there are lots of musical warts.

“Everything to Me” is a song I’ve sung a million times at coffee houses and such. I often start a set with it because I could sing it in my sleep. Also, I like the way the first line gives voice to what most people are probably thinking: “That’s just what we need–another song.” “Hope and Humor” is another song that’s seen well over a decade of action. I wrote it at the end of my year in Austria as a travelogue of an itinerant musician. Strangely, I told the staff of COS one of the stories from this song (“Standing in the rain for hours”) yesterday at our staff retreat. “Have I Gone Too Far?” is another one of my many songs about songs. In this particular case, I was obsessing about the fact that my music is usually to complex for the pop world and too simple for the art music world. My rendition here doesn’t really capture the jazz ballad style I’d like it to have. (As a matter of fact, there are certain chords I didn’t capture at all.) Finally, “Five Days without You” is a goofy song I wrote the first time my wife and I were apart for more than a day.

I attended a conference at Notre Dame this weekend. In my spare time I annoyed people at the Morris Inn by recording some songs in my room. I’ve only had time to gussy up two of them so far: “Silent Star” and “Let It Go.” They’re just rough, one-take demos, but they get the idea across. I’d love to hear some feedback on these, because I’m thinking about making some “real” recordings of a few of them in the future.

Two technical sidenotes: 1. A few people have said that they can’t get the mp3 links to work. Are other people having that problem? I tried a different linking system for the above songs, so let me know if it solves the problem. 2. When I mixed these songs in Audacity I got a muddy, slightly overblown sound. It sounds fine in Audacity, but when I play the mix in iTunes it’s much louder. Anyone have any ideas?

Addendum: Here’s another one along the same lines–“Happy Birthday, Goodbye.”