Three from "Texas Dance Songs" lyrics, chords, mp3s

This link should take you to my public Dropbox where you should be able to download the mp3s and html docs. of the songs. (I won't leave the mp3s forever.) I say should.
If it doesn't work for you here's an alternative:
I'm putting the songs here on this page. You can go to your favorite internet radio station or download or streaming site and search for "Burl Dunn" and find these songs. The are all published by CD Baby, so you pros out there know who to call. Adele, are you out there? T. Bone Burnett?

Dream On You Dream Come True

copyright by Burl Dunn

C Dm G

C     Dm       G G7

When you close your eyes to those starry skies

C         Dm       G G7

When you let go your thoughts and dreams press through

F C

I’d give a fortune to be near

        G CF

To have you here..

C     Bflat       F

And if my mind were a net I’d catch your dreams like butterflies

G   Bflat

I’d study them well, but I wouldn’t tell

F

I’d just look and let ‘em fly away

                       G                                           C      CF

So you could dream them again some other day.

C

And if I find you’re dreamin’ of me

Dm                                GG7

Should I pretend not to see?

      C

Or could I take your dream like a mold

             Dm                                 G

And be reshaped, one you could hold?

       F                                 C                    F                              C F

For years I’ve dreamed of you, so dream on you dream come true

F                   C          F                 C F

Yeah, dream on you dream come true

F         C          F                 C       FCFC

Dream on you dream come true…

I Never Waltzed With You           c by Burl Dunn

G          D                  G  G7          C                                    G  G7                      

I never waltzed with you               Never did the two-step, too

C                                                    G                   Em

I was too shy                                 You were too proud

        G       D                  G        CGEmGDG

So I never waltzed with you.

G          D                  G  G7          C                                    G  G7

I never waltzed with you               Never did the two-step, too

               C                                 G             Em

We went straight from high           To goodbye

   G       D                  G  G7

I never waltzed with you

Ch:

   C                                          G

I wish we had waltzed across Texas

C                             D

Instead of Careless Love

   C                         G          Em

I wish I were deep in your heart

D                         G            transition notes G F# G# Achord

Instead of Faded Love.

Instrumental in key of A just as below

A                            E          A A7

Why did we never dance a jig?    

               D                         A A7

Why did we never shake a leg?

D                       A           F#m

We tap danced around romance   

               A             E          A

Why did we never dance a jig?

A         E                    A A7          D                                    A A7

I never waltzed with you               Never did the two-step, too

D                                                    A                   F#m

I was too shy                                 You were too proud

        A       E                  A

So I never waltzed with you.

  D                                           A

I wish we had waltzed across Texas

D                             E

Instead of Careless Love

   D                         A          F#m

I wish I were deep in your heart

E                         A A7           

Instead of Faded Love.

           D                         A         F#m

Yes, I wish I were deep in your heart

E                         A

Instead of Faded Love

In Our Dance c Burl Dunn

D  A  G   D  A

D               A   G                   D A

Who is this man waltzing with you?

D                     A            G                    D  A

Whose are these hands, so lucky, touching you

          Bm     A       Bm      A       Bm     A      G GaddF# A

In our dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance

Who is this woman, yesterday’s girl?

Whose is this magic around me twirls

                                                  Bm     A      G GaddF# A

In our dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance

A       G                           D

It’s so easy out here on the dance floor

     G                       A

As easy as one, two, three

G      D      A

One, Two, Three

A         D                  A

There’s no doubt who this night is for

           G        D              A

It’s for us- it’s leading  us toward

D        A

Music, laughter, and love

       G                     D            A

Our moon, our stars, swirling above

          Bm     A        Bm     A       Bm     A       G GaddF# A

Our dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance

There you go dance bands! Some new cover songs. My permission to play them in clubs. Copyright laws to apply for recording, use in films and videos, etc. You know what I mean. My publisher is CD Baby.

about identity

One of the fascinating college professors I had told us that in medieval times if one ask a stranger in Europe, "Who are you?" they would be likely to answer, "I am a Christian,  I am from (name of city or village), I am (name) the son of ___,." Since medieval times Europeans and Americans, I think, have passed through a sea change in identity. Now we would tend to first say our names and we would not likely mention our religion ... that is most of us. At least until some topic comes up such as politics. Politically, we have regressed back to identity, at least among Republicans. "I am a Christian, I am a Republican, I hate abortion and the doctors who perform them ..."
Salman Rushdie is quoted in Salon (link here) as saying we more and more identify ourselves by what we hate or oppose. I think the Christian Right in America and the other fundamentalist groups worldwide - jihadists, Hindu nationalists, etc.) are hurtful.
The absolutist Christian Right, having aligned itself with the Republican Party, gives a patina of righteousness to all things right wing, and consequently paints all things not right wing as satanic. It is just one of the factors killing American politics. And it is as phony as an alcoholic tent revivalist.
Just to take one issue - children. The Christian Right focuses on one thing - abortion. I don't need to tell you about the death threats, the harrassing ... But after a child is born the Republican Christian Right is perfectly willing to leave that child's health and safety to fate. They don't want that child to get free health care, enough good food, a safe home or any other factor that is important to life. So the Christian Right does not believe in the sanctity of life. Now when the child reaches the "age of accountability" the Christians feel obligated to make sure they have heard the gospel. Then, if the child rejects Christianity they can just go to hell -  and in the meantime they will be happy to make life a living hell on earth. And Christians are just so happy about prison rape.
Christians aren't. Not the ones we hear yelling on the news. George Carlin had it in a nutshell - "If you are pre-born you are precious. If you are pre-school, you're fucked."
Let's work at taking the Christian patina away from these hate-filled people. Let's get religion AND the corporations out of our politics. Then we might be mature enough to have a useful discussion about a culture of life.

my song, Dream On You Dream Come True

I updated my public file at Dropbox. The new free mp3 is "Dream On You Dream Come True." I also have the lyrics there for you. I will add the chords tomorrow because I do hope you will play and sing this song. It's copyrighted and you can sing and play it in all situations where bands and people commonly cover other people's songs - you know bars, coffee houses, and stuff.
This song has multiple layers of meaning that I like. It's a belly-rubbing slow-dance love song for sure! Go here for my public folder.
"Dream On You Dream Come True" is on the album "Texas Dance Songs."

My albums are on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, and other download sites.

free lyrics with chords and free mp3 for "I Never Waltzed With You"

I wrote "I Never Waltzed With You" in 2011 before my first musical trip to Texas. My wife loved it from the start and when I came back with the master she and I spontaneously danced to it. It was her first hearing of Big John Mills on that big-sounding acoustic guitar. It's a simple waltz with an old-timey sound (I've been told by a young Texan in Amarillo).
I enjoyed the transition from the key of G to A right before Big John's solo.
I have the mp3 and lyrics with chords up for a short time for free here on Dropbox.
I would love it if bands all over the world played this song! Don't worry about copyrights and legal stuff. If you want to record it for sale or use it in a soundtrack just contact me or CD Baby. The song is published by CD Baby, and I am associated with BMI, but there are no worries about live performance by local dance bands. Play it, play it! I hope people dance to it everywhere!
Soon I will take down the free mp3, but leave the lyrics and chords up.
I'd love for you to buy "Texas Dance Songs" from your favorite download spot and request my songs on your favorite internet radio station.

Marwan Bishara rocks on al jazeera's show "Empire

I just watched an episode of Empire on al jazeera. Wow. Where was the snark we see constantly in the U.S. media? Where was the obvious political bias of the host? Where were the stupid politicians spewing think tank truisms. Where was the obvious attempt to hide, evade, shape public opinion, and lie?
The episode was about Latin America. Anytime they turned to the war on drugs I waited to hear some expression referring to how the military training and weaponry provided to Latin American regimes over the years has provided governments with the implements of a war it could use on its own people. And Marwan Bishara did! He asked if the war on drugs was a "Trojan Horse."
I, for one, wonder at the genius of Nixon and his henchmen in declaring a "war on drugs." Here was a way to get around the horrid legacy of CIA sponsored coups AND to disenfranchise Americans, especially the dreaded youth and minority vote.
I have just been made more intelligent by not only the material discussed, but by seeing an example of how reasonable people interact. You don't get this on American news shows. Everything American news networks do is based upon making money and propagandizing for the Military/Industria/Secrecy/Prison Complex. American children don't have on television a role model to teach debate and questioning skills. I believe the loss of reasoned debate in America, both in Congress and on television will ALONE undermine all educational reforms.

we need to go back to pre-Reagan Broadcast news and newspaper laws

So did you hear about the American band Bloodhound Gang who desecrated a Russian flag in the Ukraine? You can read about it here. God, I'm sick of stupid, ugly Americans acting up overseas.
I think stupidity in the United States has been on the rise because of the laws that changed how we get our news. Before Ronald Reagan there were laws in my country about radio and television news. If a station expressed an opinion instead of delivering facts they had to offer "equal time" to someone who ask to express an opposing point of view. To prevent having all those people taking up air time, broadcast stations were careful to give news and go easy on the editorial comments.
Before Reagan media outlets were limited as to how many and what kind of businesses they could run, especially in one town. No way could you own a TV station, a radio station or two, AND a newspaper in the same town!
Now when I want news I have to go to al jazeera online. Really, al jazeera news reporting reminds me a lot of what television news used to look like in the U.S.
In the U.S. there is precious little unbiased reporting. There are multiple outlets spewing hateful lies 24 hours a day. And not even precious little NPR (National Public Radio) can be trusted. They turned distinctly rightward after the 2000 election and now you can listen to one of their shows for 10 or more minutes before hearing any news. Infotainment. That's what Americans get and too many of us think its real news. It makes us more stupid and hateful every day.
I will go so far as to say this, too: Better public education in America is doomed unless we revert back to pre-Reagan broadcast news laws (and apply those standards to online outlets of those broadcast news organizations). It's doomed because children are not able to watch and think about reasoned debate. What passes for debate is really BAITING. In fact, it's bullying. The same behavior I have seen during an interview from, say Anderson Cooper even, I would have called bullying in my classroom. Instead of clarification-type questions Anderson and almost ALL the others on TV "news" will try to make the interviewee escalate his/her original statement. It's like kids. "I hate this class." "Oh, yeah. Are you saying you hate our teacher. I like her." "No. I just hate this class." "Oh, maybe you hate me, too, huh? Is that what you're saying?" Etc.

you should record at the Woodshed Studios in San Marcos, Texas

I think a lot of people might enjoy learning something about recording in a real studio. Too bad they'll never see this blog. -) I think I'll focus on someone like me: an amateur who does not have a band and will want to hire good musicians. But, I'll also assume you have almost no experience in serious performing with others.
Not counting a 4 channel cassette and an 8 channel digital work station (which actually added a lot to my recording education), I have recorded in six "real" studios: one each in Amarillo, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Nashville, and San Marcos, Texas. The first five were back in the tape days and I recorded solo all but once (Hi Richard). At the Woodshed Studios of Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos they use ProTools digital recording.
I recently looked into studios in the Denver area and I must say they have a bunch of fancy looking ones. Of course, so does Austin, just 35 miles from San Marcos. First thing I'd say is this. If you need a gorgeous setting to record your song you'll pay a lot more, but your song won't sound any better.
Now, I don't intend this to be an ad for the Woodshed, but most of what I've learned about what to expect I learned there. I'm going to start with the thing that bugged me the most - the damn click track. The pros I worked with just needed a simple click, click ... maybe an emphasis on the first beat sometimes - Click, click, click ... for a waltz. Now, from talking with Kent Finlay (owner of the Woodshed), I get the idea that most beginners go in and record what he called a "scratch track." This is you and your guitar (or whatever) playing and singing your song while hearing the click in your earphones. If you don't do this you probably don't have good enough timing to salvage the operation. You don't notice yourself speeding up and slowing down. You don't know that sometimes you slip from 1,2,1,2 to 1,2,2,1,2,1,2 and stuff like that.
So before spending the bread in the studio practice to a metronome or some computer simulation of one. If, like me, you get thrown by the click, try playing to a cheap drum machine (or computer simulation of one). Woodshed engineer Russell Tanner would play different sounds until he came up with a "cheesy drum machine" that I could play to. You don't want to be thinking too much about the click, but you must stay with it! If you do, when the pros come in they will do you a better job in less time.
Now, let's address the auto-tune misconception. A lot of people think that the computer program can make anyone sound like a decent singer. Not true. The most common auto-tune phenomenon makes people sound ALMOST like themselves. I think Cher had the first auto-tuned hit years ago and you know she can sing on pitch. Most pros using auto-tune today can sing on pitch; they use it as a special effect. You know it's auto-tuned when it's Cher and it ALMOST sounds just like her except she's been transformed into a Stepford wife robot.
If you want to sound like yourself the engineer will probably use auto-tune on a note here and a note there, not entire passages. I needed auto-tune on a low note that I was, like, a semiquaver away from and a high note that I kept missing by an inch. Russell would use as much as was needed unless it started to sound artificial, then back off to keep it sounding real.
Here's a more practical thing to do if you have pitch issues. While making the scratch track make sure your instrument is right on with the click and sing the song in your head. You can do this with practice. THEN lay down the scratch vocal track and use this trick I learned this from Moira Smiley (of VOCO) at a seminar. Moira was allowing those of us gutsy enough to go solo to sing for her critique. One young lady was very off pitch and had no clue. Moira said to the class. "Let's all sing this note to back her up. Hmmmmm" I think the song was in the key of C and she got us all humming a C note. The young lady sang in perfect tune then!
So, the engineer can put a note in your headphones. S/he can change that note if and as needed. It helped me get through an a cappella Scottish-like tune. Russell even made the note sound like a bagpipe!
OK you've got a scratch track. Both guitar and vocal are on beat and in tune. You won't drive the pros crazy! You're job is done for now.
I don't know about the situation of finding pros (or great amateurs) to be your sidemen. You can figure that out on your own or by asking people "in the know." If you are in San Marcos here's what you do. Ask Kent Finlay. He knows Texas music like Billy Graham knew the Bible. Tell him what kind of sound you have in mind -country band, rock band, whatever. Or just say, "Kent, I want a drummer, an electric bass player, lead guitar, a fiddler, and a button accordion player. I can afford to pay about x amount." When I asked him about getting a Mexican-style accordionist, he asked, "Would you prefer Flaco Jimenez or Joel Guzman?" That's like saying, "Who should I get for your religious needs Jesus or Buddha?" You probably know that Texas is kinda nonunion so he'll get you someone you can afford and they'll be good because you are in one of the heartlands of American music. If you can afford the best he'll get you the best. In my three years of recording at the Woodshed all the players worked by the song. I won't tell you how much I paid whom, but I'll tell you there were fantastic people willing to play for $35.00-$50.00 a song at that time. No kidding. The studio and engineer cost me a few hundred a day. Now, the musicians expect to come in and get the song done in just a few takes. Actually, they get most of it the first take and then "fix" (punch in) a note or phrase they weren't happy with. If you insist on playing along at the same time, as I often did, you need to be sensitive to when YOU are the one causing all the retakes and raise their fee accordingly.
There you are. You have a professional version of your song's background. It's just you and the engineer (and Russell is very convivial and helpful). Now you can sing your song over and over, or line by line, until you are happy or broke or too drunk to go on.
Then you sit on the couch, drink a Shiner and listen to Russell mix the song. He'll ask for your opinion, maybe like an eye doctor - "Now which sounds best. This? Or This. This? Or That." When that's done you'll have a decision to make. Are you going to take your master to a professional mastering studio (or pay, like CD Baby to master it)? That's the way it's done by Willie and Waylon and the boys. Mastering is a compression technique that sort of brings out all the sounds so they stand out to the ear. It's what makes a song sound best on the radio. Or you can do what I did which was to let Russell play with all his toys until it sounded damn good and as loud as a mastered CD. I liked that more natural sound. The engineer will need to know because s/he must not use certain tools from the computer kit if it's going to be mastered.
Last, but not least, ask what you need to bring for the engineer to load your digital master onto. I bought a portable hard drive for under $100.00 and it's still not full. I wanted ALL the files so they could be used by any ProTools engineer anywhere. Russell labeled the final mix so I'd know which one was the one to burn or send to CD Baby or whomever. They are WAV or AIFF files (right now).
Ta Da! You have a song for the ages and have had the experience of a lifetime!