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Song 6 began mere minutes after I put song 5 "to bed" - I took the iPhone downstairs to our piano, plugged in the TASCAM iU2 mike, set off a 3/4-time CR78 rhythm in FunkBox and worked through a slow chord sequence to see if there was anything I could work with here...

Now I should point out that my piano-playing is not exactly my strongest musical suit, but it's often said that songwriters should sometimes try an instrument they're not comfortable with, to see if any unaccustomed inspiration strikes. I leave it to your good selves to judge the effectiveness of that advice at this time :-)

A work-in-progress, but I think there's something here... I'd like to re-do the vocal, but had neither the time nor an empty house to put much into it (not that this is a "belter" of a vocal song by any means). I quite like it, in its way... (update (2013/02/25): the song has "grown" on me, to the point where I'm nominating this as one of my "favourites" - I need a couple more of them!)

Technical stuff: recorded in Multitrack DAW on an iPhone 4S, with TASCAM iM2 stereo "dock" microphone for the piano and the vocal, and iU2 interface for the electric and bass guitars (both amp'ed in JamUp Pro XT and routed into MDAW via Audiobus).

(Oh, and why the title "Alaska"? As with Woody Allen being asked why one of his movies was called "Bananas": "Because there are no bananas in it." There you go...)

lyrics

Then here you came, blown by north winds
A winter visitor, welcome still
Settled quickly in a warm nest
Shielded from the Arctic chill

[chorus]
Whither Greenland, or Alaska
Icy wings that bank and soar
Shelter on our balmy marshes
'Til the cold retreats once more

Go no wandering, while the blizzards
Coat your distant breeding ground
Take our rain- and wind-swept island
For this time, to stay around

Whither Greenland...

[bridge]
And then we'll turn one day
And all we'll find
A lighter mist for lighter days
And next year left behind

credits

from Homecooked: Songs From FAWM 2013, released March 4, 2013
TA Walker - piano, vocal, electric guitar, bass guitar, rhythm programming

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TA Walker UK

Guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter, often with "electronica", "lo-fi" and "prog" inclinations.

Um... will that do?

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