Back Home Again: Trio

Home on the Range: Trio

The Cowboy National Anthem
Rise Up Singing chapter: Farm and Prairie

Michael Turner's Waltz (Bonus)

This is so far the only song I've had the gall to put up here as a bonus to the Rise Up Singing project that has NO LYRICS. None that I know, anyway. So, while my Billy Bragg and Violent Femmes covers definitely didn't have quite the right tone for Rise Up Singing, this one is pretty categorically inappropriate for a much simpler reason. And yet: here you go!

It's a waltz either for, by, about, or somehow otherwise related to a guy named Michael Turner. Matthew Vaughan (that's me) on guitar and Hector Awol (channel: hectorawol) on the button accordion. Filmed in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.

The Road to the Isles: Trio

In a trio with the dudes from Bertosvids: Bob Hornett on piano accordion and Hctor Awol on button accordion.

Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes Cover)

A cover of this Violent Femmes song on little guitar and full-sized melodeon/button accordion.

Shortning Bread: trio

The Ash Grove

In the Garden

Rise Up Singing chapter: Gospel
Recorded in Bendigo, Australia, with Hector Awol and Bob Hornett.

Royal Telephone

Rise Up Singing chapter: Gospel

Life is Like a Mountain Railroad

Railroad.

I've Got that Joy, Joy, Joy

Rise Up Singing chapter: Gospel (probably)
Ukulele party recorded in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, with Hector of Bertosvids and Hectorawol. Check him out.

Long Way to Tipperary/Wrong Way to Tickle Mary

Long Way to Tipperary/Wrong Way to Tickle Mary

Amelia Earhart's Last Flight (Trio)

From the Rise Up Singing chapter Women. I'm still in Australia with Bob and Hector, learning all sorts of crazy slang like boofhead and sticky beak. Also, I saw two kangaroos. Don't be jealous.

Keep the Home Fires Burning

A New one from Rise Up Singing taught to me by Bob and Hector, who were also nice enough to play it along with me.

I'm My Own Grandpa

With Hector and Bob down in Bendigo, Victoria

It's a Long Way to Tipperary from Melbourne

Sightseeing in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. And also singing an unrelated old marching song about Ireland and how great it is.

Mister Sun in Melbourne

Playing "Mr. Sun" by the Yarra River in Melbourne, near Prince's Bridge.

Goodbye Melbourne Town 2nd version

Another take of "Goodbye Melbourne Town". I don't think it's really accurate to call it a whole different version. Same version, another take.

Bonus: Goodbye Melbourne Town

All right Melbourne!

Best Rise Up Singing Collaboration Ever

Australia's Bob Hornett and Hector Awol discussing our virtual musical collaboration. And then something awesome happens.

Bonus: New York City

Not written by They Might Be Giants, although that's where I learned it (off of their album Factory Showroom). Who wrote it again, people? A female punk group, was it?

You called me last night, on the telephone
And I was glad to hear from you because I was all alone
You said it's snowing, it's snowing, God I hate this weather
Now I walk through blizzards just to get us back together

Cause everyone's your friend in New York City
And everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty
The streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see
But the best thing about New York City is you and me

Bonus: They'll Need a Crane

By They Might Be Giants (TMBG for those with short attention spans)

Bonus: Chelsea Hotel

By Leonard Cohen
A bonus to my Rise Up Singing (songbook) project
I learned this song years ago in E, but here, I do it in G

G D C G / - D Em - / G D C G / C - D - / Em - C - / G D Em - / C - G - / C - D - etc. etc. Gimme a minute I'm in an airport here...

Bonus: Lovers in a Dangerous Time

(Song begins at 2:30)
By Bruce Cockburn, although the favourite version in my heart is the Barenaked Ladies'.

The chords are just: G Am F - :////

Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by
You never get to stop and open your eyes
One day you're waiting for the sky to fall
And next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all

Lovers in a dangerous time / Lovers in a dangerous time

These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin, this hair like lace (This skin like silk, this hair like lace?)
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste

Lovers in a dangerous time / Lovers in a dangerous time

When you're lovers in a dangerous time
Sometimes you're made to feel as if your love's a crime
But nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
You gotta kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight

Lovers in a dangerous time / Lovers in a dangerous time

Bonus: I Couldn't Believe it was True

By Willy Nelson
from his album "Red-Headed Stranger"

Chords
A - D A / - - - E ://

Well, last night I came home and I *knocked on my door*
And I called to my love as I oft had before
**I knocked and I knocked but no answer there came**
No kisses to greet me, no voice called my name

Chorus:
And I couldn't believe it was true, oh Lord
I couldn't believe it was true
***I cried a million tears***, I must've aged ten years
And I couldn't believe it was true

Well, the shock was so great I am quivering yet
And I'll try to forgive but I cannot forget
****My heartache and loss**** is another man's gain
Her happiness always I hope will remain

*unlocked the door
**I called and I called but no answer there came
***My eyes filled with tears
****My heartbreak and loss / My heartbeaking loss

Farther Along

Rise Up Singing chapter: Gospel
I know I recommended Johnny Cash's version, but I ALWAYS recommend Johnny Cash's versions of stuff. So here's another awesome one. Maybe a better one. See for yourself. It's Glen Campbell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCj3y0...

Millworker

By James Taylor

Now my grandfather was a sailor
He blew in off the water
My father was a farmer
And I, his only daughter
Took up with a no good millworking man
From Massachusetts
Who dies from too much whiskey
And leaves me these three faces to feed

Millwork ain't easy
Millwork ain't hard
Millwork it ain't nothing
But an awful boring job
I'm waiting on a daydream
To take me through the morning
And put me in my coffee break
Where I can have a sandwich
And remember

Then it's me and my machine
For the rest of the morning
and the rest of the afternoon
And the rest of my life

Now my mind begins to wander
To the days back on the farm
I can see my father smiling at me
Swinging on his arm
I can hear my granddad's stories
Of the storms out on Lake Erie
Where vessels and cargos and fortunes
And sailors' lives were lost

But it's my life has been wasted
And I have been the fool
To let this manufacturer
Use my body for a tool
(I'll) ride home every evening
Staring at my hands
Swearing to my sorrow that a young girl
Ought to stand a better chance

So may I work your mill just as long as I am able
And never meet the man whose name is on the label

Bonus: The Glove and the Lions

The words are a poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt
The music is by me, wouldn't you know.
Here's the great "Courtly Love", by Kate Beaton. Her strip is titled "Hark, a Vagrant".

King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport,
And one day as his lions fought, sat looking on the court;
The nobles filled the benches, and the ladies in their pride,
And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for whom he sighed:
And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show,
Valour and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.

Ramped and roared the lions, with horrid laughing jaws;
They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws;
With wallowing might and stifled roar they rolled on one another;
Till all the pit with sand and mane was in a thunderous smother;
The bloody foam above the bars came whisking through the air;
Said Francis then, "Faith, gentlemen, we're better here than there."

De Lorge's love o'erheard the King, a beauteous lively dame
With smiling lips and sharp bright eyes, which always seemed the same;
She thought, the Count my lover is brave as brave can be;
He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of me;
King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine;
I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be mine.

She dropped her glove, to prove his love, then looked at him and smiled;
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
The leap was quick, return was quick, he has regained his place,
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
"By God!" said Francis, "rightly done!" and he rose from where he sat:
"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that."

Road to the Isles

Yeah! Songs!

Government by Horseback

By Si Kahn

One Grain of Sand

By the inimitable and irreplaceable Pete Seeger. Long may he live.