If you mostly know me from the Internet over here, you might not be aware that I do a better than halfway decent job at playing lots of songs that I didn’t actually write! I’m trying to expand the sorts of gigs I get (birthdays, weddings, bar mitvahs, etc.) and I really needed to be able to document some of these cool things I do.
So this weekend, my lovely wife Tanya shot a few awesome videos of me doing a few of my favorite tunes in front of our sparkly fireplace. Hope you enjoy them!
We’re bound to do more of this sort of thing, so if you’d like to keep up, please subscribe to my new YouTube account, JohnVoorheesSings.
April Snow originally appeared on Asking For Trouble (2000), and it’s a pretty straightforward description of my mindset as a Vermont winter stretched on and on. But you don’t have to live in a cold climate to appreciate the sentiment at work here. It’s a song about anything you desperately want, and you know it’s coming, probably pretty soon, but it’s still not here and it hasn’t been here for a long time. It’s an unanswered prayer for patience. Continue reading →
This is the first track on the “Walls” segment of Windows and Walls (1994) and boy, is it ever a shutdown. There’s the potential for a real relationship here, but our narrator will not let himself get dragged in. After all, he has to pick up the dry cleaning or something, right? Gee, look at the time. Continue reading →
This Windows and Walls (1994) track sounds eerily like a leftover from Jim Croce. The narrator is hoping against hope that his lover might change her mind. After all, she hasn’t left yet, has she? He might be right, who knows? The song only lasts so long, but the story continues somewhere. Continue reading →
This song originally appeared on Windows and Walls (1994). The idea of being taken aback and powerfully moved by the sight of someone you will never meet or speak to is not an original one. In particular, I tend to think of a moment in Citizen Kane when Everett Sloane talks about a woman carrying a white parasol that he saw on a distant ferry. That’s definitely the sentiment I’m trying to capture here. Continue reading →
We jump ahead to 1996 and this energetic track from The Swing. Mel Torme swears that he wrote his Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire) in the middle of summer, but I couldn’t muster that level of imagination here. Rain Dance was definitely written after a 3-week drought in Vermont (1995, I think). There’s something deeply wrong when the Green Mountains are starting to turn brown, and there really was an excitement in the air as the storm clouds gathered. I didn’t see anyone actually dancing on the lawn, but you know those New Englanders. They’re so stoic.
Oh, and the line about how the sound of thunder is “better than a mandolin” is a reference to Bruce Hornsby’s beautiful song, Mandolin Rain. Hornsby, of course, is also responsible for the song Heartbreak Town, which plays over the opening credits of the awesome animated film, Twice Upon A Time. Viva Ralph the All-Purpose Animal. Continue reading →
This track was originally part of Picture Perfect Fool (1992), and it’s the dark reflection of On The Street Where You Live from My Fair Lady. Instead of being exhilarated by proximity to his true love’s house, our narrator is walking that street long after the fire has died. He is overwhelmed by memories, theories, and old resentment and is finally lucky enough to be able to put it all behind him at the end. How romantic. Continue reading →
I’ve been slowly, slowly adding posts and lyrics for the songs on my most recent collection, 2 O’s, 2 E’s, since I released it at the end of March. I’ve only gotten about halfway through at this point, but I’ll wrap it up today.
So stay tuned, cuz here come the tunes! And please feel free to listen to all the other cool stuff up at my Bandcamp site.
Well, that was a lot of fun. The weather was terrible, it was a worknight, and we STILL managed to get about 20 folks in to listen. My lovely wife Tanya helped me out on a few songs, too. She hadn’t been behind a mic in five years! Special thanks to all of you who braved the conditions … you know it was a very special evening.
If you want to make sure you find out about shows in your area, you can keep up with my Facebook page or Twitter or drop me a line and I’ll put you on the email list. I WILL be doing this again soon!
