Season 289 - ALWAYS and NEVER

You just can't....

This is a Split Enz song called "History Never Repeats".

Prince.

Bit of a cheeky one this. I am asking for consideration of the Thornton Rule application on the "Uke". As it is a (newly) Aquila Nylgut Strung Tenor Banjo ,tuned Baritone DGBE . Played in a sort of Uke-ish and Clawhammer method. It is however a song with Always in the title , it is a Blues /lament in Bb and it is original...so original that the ink isn't dry on the printed sheet I sang off..... I am hoping that these things will outweigh one another . Cheeky Grin (That's what You Toob needs....)

Lyrics below :

Why Do New Strings Always Give You The Blues

Why do new strings always give you the blues,

When a string breaks you know it's bad news

Get the new string on tuned a little sharp

Play a few bars it goes flat as a fart....

Thus begins : the new nylon string de tuning blues ....


Why do new strings always give you the blues,

A single string breaks its not good news,

But if you gotta change all four,five or six....

Oh bugger, that ....then yo in a real fix.

Now you've really got the new nylon string de tuning blues ....


New strings always have a mind of their own

when you tune them up they tune themselves down

They drive you to distraction

Then leave you by the road

with the new nylon string detuning blues ....


Well the new strings blues is a mystery to me.

Whether the string's A B C D E or G...

You tune it high .Ya think think "that's it"

It goes two tones down that's when I lose my s**

And give in to the new nylon string detuning blues ....

An original tune inspired by the host's instructions.

Bb tuning.

Again, with "always" ...

"There'll Always Be a Honky Tonk Somewhere" --Randy Travis -- SOTU 289 uke cover.
A Honky Tonk is where you play your "tactical uke".

Thought up this one while out driving in torrential rain remnants of Hurricane Harvey today for 12 hours. My third original of the week, and yes Pa is in honor of this week's host. I was obviously in Waylon Jennings mode on this one.

When I was in college, one of the Boston radio stations would play this jazz instrumental from a few years previous by Ronnie Laws called "Always There". I was going to try doing a short version of it, but it would have required me to learn multi-tracking in a hurry. Then I had a fantastically awful idea. I thought, "My Mel9 Mellotron pedal works pretty well with the ukulele. I wonder what would happen if I tried running my electric kazoo through it?" My daughter compares the resulting sound to a goose singing death metal. My sincerest apologies to Ronnie Laws.

This song throws my always/never sequence off, but I hope you will excuse it because 1) I hadn't written an "always" original yet, and 2) I play in Bb without a capo, or at least I try to.



The time I always knew would come
The time I always dreaded
When old Martha held up her hand to request
And I knew right where she was headed
She said, "Sing us that sweet old song
about 'Jesus, Hold My Hand'
I'll sing the alto in the chorus
And we'll sound just like an angel band"
Well I didn't know how to break it to her
So I kept it to myself
Bless her heart, her singing voice
Was detrimental to my welf...are

She always be flat, never on key
I prayed to the Lord to give me strength
But she was getting the best of me
Nothing worse than an alto who thinks she can sing
But is always a quarter-step low
She thought she sounded like an angel band
But she sounded more like...something...more...below

Well Martha is no longer among us
She went on to her great reward
She loved to sing and make melody
Though she never quite sang the part
Now I know that the singing in heaven
Is gonna be something great to hear
But sometimes I wonder if Jesus
Puts his hands over his ears

She always be flat, never on key
I prayed to the Lord to give me strength
But she always got best of me
I know all those legions of angels
Must be really something to see
But I wonder if all those angels
Can teach her to sing on key

Always never give up!
Thats my motto and it nearly killed me today. Once again I have another cold (this year has been the worst). I woke up at 7am and thought I'll hurry and get this recorded....ya right! My head is so foggy I seriously couldn't get through it. Ill bet you I played this 2000 times today. After the computer died in the middle of me recording.........(I started on 100% battery).....I decided to go in and forget about it for a few minutes. After about 5 minutes I decided to practice it but record JIC. Good thing too. This is the only time I got through the song!
I don't give up easily!

Ah Linda, I got your tale of woe beat. I wasn't planning on doing Seasons this week, as I was headed for Hawaii. I got here and read Brian's category and thought there was nothing I could do for it.

Then I remembered. One of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums (Dreamtime) by one of my favorite guitar players (Tom Verlaine) was called - that's right - Always. Although the word does not appear in the original song. And I thought I could get it all rocked up with some post production.

But it was too rhythmically challenging for me to pull of playing and singing at the same time, and there were multiple uke parts I wanted to do. I did not have a microphone with me, but my pal Shawn Yacavone lent me a USB mike he had. OK, that problem solved. But I was in my pad right over some busy streets in Waikiki, so there was a ton of street noise. Record I did, and used some post production to reduce the street noise a fair amount, although the recording is still pretty noisy.

The last hurdle was to try and do a decent lip synch, which I essentially failed at. But it is kind of close. And the song is a great song, and one which, dare I say it, has probably not been done on uke before.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you Always. Hope you like it a bit.

So...i tried my hand, again, at an original...just for you pa!

cheers all!

He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Well heres my Never to my Always.......

Alan beat me to this one earlier in the week but I had to give it a go.

But some difficulty along the way so it's an abridged version.

I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to do the finger picking and singing at the same time, so I guess I should go ahead and use this one. I had never heard of this group before yesterday. They're a modern bluegrass band.

May The Force Be With You Always (1977) by Tom T. Hall. This song is not about Star Wars. Or is it?

Season 289. Submission 2. "Anyway" (An Original) (Copyright Linda Opyr 2017)


Brian, you've asked for originals and I've one written today. In keeping with this Season's theme, the working title of this song was "Never Mind." Upon completion of the song, I reexamined that choice. I hope you like it, though perhaps I need more than a bit of the Thornton Rule to keep it part of the Season.

This is an original song in Dutch about my fathers life motto, which roughly translates to: If it can not be done as it should, then do it the way it can be done.
I tend to try to stick to this motto myself I guess it makes life easier.
The song is called: "Mijn vader zei altijd", which translates to: "My father always said".