As some as you might know I’m taking a grown-up gap year to pursue my own personal interests (travel, photography, music, and creative writing). In the last two months I’ve been ‘gigging’ around my local “acoustic session” scene in area. Just so you know there is a difference between an acoustic session and the popular term “open mic”. An acoustic session is totally unplugged – whereas an open-mic will have mic and perhaps even amplification. Right now I’m playing at least once a week, but I’m thinking of upping that to twice a week. The idea is to get over my ‘performance nerves’, as I often play a song in the kitchen quite well, but even with a small audience my nerves cause me to screw it up or not ‘commit’ to the song enough.
I have a ‘set’ of songs from January and February. Folks have been asking me if I was doing any recording, and I’ve been avoiding that for a while. But this afternoon I recorded Februrary’s set in the kitchen this afternoon. The reason I did that was because they are more familiar, and also they are all related to each other. Looking at my black folder of music in Jan, I realised I had few Elvis Costello songs. So I thought I would practise those and gig those around the circuit. I’ve written a couple of songs in the last couple of months, but I’m not sure if they are really ‘ready’ for a public outing than just the local pubs!
So in Soundcloud there is a recording of the set. They were recorded individually with GarageBand with a Snowball Mic, and then a little effect put on each one to make them stand out a bit.
1) New Lace Sleeves
First appeared on the album “Trust”
Lyrics: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/New_Lace_Sleeves
2) Our Little Angel
First appeared on the country sounding “King Of America” album
Lyrics: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Our_Little_Angel
3) Gods Comic
First appeared on the “Spike” album
Lyrics: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/God%27s_Comic
4) I’ll wear it proudly
First appeared on the country sounding “King Of America” album
Lyrics: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/I%27ll_Wear_It_Proudly
5) American without tears
First appeared on the country sounding “King Of America” album. It tells the story of the young women who fell in love with G.I’s “over-sexed and over here” in the UK during WWII, and then found themselves living in the US after the war was over.
Lyrics: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/American_Without_Tears
6) Good year for the roses
First appeared on the “Almost Blue” album. It’s a ballad written by Jerry Chestnut and originally recorded by American country singer George Jones. It rose to #2 on the country singles chart in 1970, but I first heard it by Elvis Costello…
Lyrics: http://www.elviscostello.info/wiki/index.php/Good_Year_For_The_Roses