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MYSTIC CHORDS Janice and I are both history buffs and I ran across this Lincoln quote a while back. "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." – Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, from his first inaugural address. I couldn’t get the phrase off my mind and eventually it morphed into a song write. I had my ideas developed and the verses/chorus/bridge written but each time I came back to it I was more and more convinced that it was lacking - well, it was there but it felt cumbersome. So, I asked floyd to help me out. He quickly stripped it down, polished many lines, replaced a few and rewrote the bridge. If that wasn’t enough he, again, quickly came up with a great melody. Once more he made me feel like a bit of a writer  To ice this cake that I’d been handed Tom (tommyad) made the whole mystic chord theme shine with a couple of fine acoustic and electric guitar tracks and floyd provided a tight harmony part to accent the lead vocal. BTW, the Martin picture is Janice's old '18. An oft told tale of the washed up musician but hopefully with a new twist or so. Comments are most welcome. Thanks for your time. Lead vocal: Janice Harmony vocal: floyd Electric and acoustic guitar solo/fills: Tom Adams Bud: RT’s and the mixing/mastering stuff Drums: N’ville Even 16 Bass: 1036 NortherRockBallad Ev65 Guitar Rhythm: 1037 NortherRockBallad Acoustic Ev65 Guitar Rhythm: 836 AltCountryRootsy Electric Ev75 Fiddle: 1594 Pop16s Ev65 Outside Ev65 Mystic Chords V1 endless gigs...endless roadhouses... he never quit... he never counted the losses... night after night... of near-empty rooms sometimes just a bartender, him and his tunes Ch now no more crowds... no more cheers he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers in the corner, a battered Martin left for dead while mystic chords of memory play... in his head V2 behind the barn, the bus gathers dust a Silver Eagle gone to rust a million miles...a thousand towns to find a stage, a pickup band, that elusive sound Ch but no more crowds... no more cheers he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers in the corner, a battered Martin lies dead while mystic chords of memory play... in his head Bridge: sometimes he still hears that roar an ovation that makes his old heart soar Ch but no more crowds... no more cheers he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers in the corner, his battered Martin.....dead while mystic chords of memory play... in his head mystic chords of memory play © 2015 B. Merritt (words) & floyd jane (words/melody)
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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This is a true A-+ in every sense of the word. It is a privilege to even be able to comment. WOW...
This is an A-game production if ever there was one.
Lovin' this one.
Charlie
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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The fab three. I'm also a civil war buff and this poetic tune paints many a picture.
I can see that battered Martin, it has a crack near the bridge and the the top E string is missing but still plays magnificently.
Well done you guys
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Well Team, you've nailed another one for sure. What a great arrangement, and what fantastic subject material for the song. I really like the way you took that line and developed it into something else.
Floyd, Bud, Janice and Tommy, congratulations, take a bow.
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
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Fantastic you guys! Should be playing on the top ten radio charts. I love the clean strong sound of your recording process and such a great performance from Janice and Floyd. All of you together have produced a great song! Great writing and story line and I will add that I agree with the other comments. It will be hard for you guys to top this one but with your talent I know that you will.
Sonny MYSTIC CHORDS Janice and I are both history buffs and I ran across this Lincoln quote a while back. "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." – Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861, from his first inaugural address. I couldn’t get the phrase off my mind and eventually it morphed into a song write. I had my ideas developed and the verses/chorus/bridge written but each time I came back to it I was more and more convinced that it was lacking - well, it was there but it felt cumbersome. So, I asked floyd to help me out. He quickly stripped it down, polished many lines, replaced a few and rewrote the bridge. If that wasn’t enough he, again, quickly came up with a great melody. Once more he made me feel like a bit of a writer To ice this cake that I’d been handed Tom (tommyad) made the whole mystic chord theme shine with a couple of fine acoustic and electric guitar tracks and floyd provided a tight harmony part to accent the lead vocal. BTW, the Martin picture is Janice's old '18. An oft told tale of the washed up musician but hopefully with a new twist or so. Comments are most welcome. Thanks for your time. Lead vocal: Janice Harmony vocal: floyd Electric and acoustic guitar solo/fills: Tom Adams Bud: RT’s and the mixing/mastering stuff Drums: N’ville Even 16 Bass: 1036 NortherRockBallad Ev65 Guitar Rhythm: 1037 NortherRockBallad Acoustic Ev65 Guitar Rhythm: 836 AltCountryRootsy Electric Ev75 Fiddle: 1594 Pop16s Ev65 Outside Ev65 Mystic Chords V1 endless gigs...endless roadhouses... he never quit... he never counted the losses... night after night... of near-empty rooms sometimes just a bartender, him and his tunes Ch now no more crowds... no more cheers he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers in the corner, a battered Martin left for dead while mystic chords of memory play... in his head V2 behind the barn, the bus gathers dust a Silver Eagle gone to rust a million miles...a thousand towns to find a stage, a pickup band, that elusive sound Ch but no more crowds... no more cheers he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers in the corner, a battered Martin lies dead while mystic chords of memory play... in his head Bridge: sometimes he still hears that roar an ovation that makes his old heart soar Ch but no more crowds... no more cheers he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers in the corner, his battered Martin.....dead while mystic chords of memory play... in his head mystic chords of memory play © 2015 B. Merritt (words) & floyd jane (words/melody)
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Well what a team! Like it all and particularly the chorus being quite restrained which fits perfectly with the theme of mystic chords. Cheers.
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WOW beautiful but no more crowds... no more cheers
he turns the radio up... downs a few more beers
in the corner, his battered Martin.....dead
while mystic chords of memory play... in his head
memories take over when something has gone and you can't eradicate them, Well done Bud, floyd, Janice and Tom for producing country at its best Alyn
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Thought I'd like it and I did. Well sung, well written and well played!
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This is gorgeous guys!
Bud: I can imagine that these lines spoken by Abram Lincoln serve very well as a source of inspiration for cool lyrics like this one.
A lyric that will resonate with lots of people, playing or having played gigs, either solo or in a band.
I've been a fan of Martin acoustic guitars all my life, but never been able to afford one. The best I have done, many years ago, was an Ovation balladeer, which I bought secondhand.
But that isn't the same as a Martin.
The song has a beautiful country feel.
All the parts are very well done.
Professional work, as always!
Rob
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Nice.... I enjoyed that one.
Loved how you took Abe's quote and wrote a song about a fading star.....
Nice, tasty stuff.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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This is a true A-+ in every sense of the word. It is a privilege to even be able to comment. WOW...
This is an A-game production if ever there was one.
Lovin' this one.
Charlie Charlie, we are humbled by your remarks. Thank you so much. And thanks to floyd and Tom for helping us so much with our work on this tune.
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Well Team, you've nailed another one for sure. What a great arrangement, and what fantastic subject material for the song. I really like the way you took that line and developed it into something else.
Floyd, Bud, Janice and Tommy, congratulations, take a bow. A great collab by four pros. I enjoyed this a lot. Guenter
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An excellent composition and arrangement performed perfectly. i especially loved the acoustic guitar fills. Thanks for sharing.
Chris
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First of all, my thanks to the three of you for the invitation to play on this. I am seriously in love with this song. I think it is at the top of what y'all have done. The line "Mystic Chords of Memory" is a powerful statement filled with many meanings and images far beyond what four words can usually convey. A tremendous write, a tremendous vocal, and a tremendous arrangement and production. I also love the connection here- March 4[the date of Lincoln's speech] is also the date of my birthday and floyd's birthday! Congratulations you three on a brilliant song. Tom
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The fab three. I'm also a civil war buff and this poetic tune paints many a picture.
I can see that battered Martin, it has a crack near the bridge and the the top E string is missing but still plays magnificently.
Well done you guys Appreciate that Rob! I like your description of the old Martin. I've seen a lot of them over them over the years in all kinds of disrepair. I'm glad I bought Janice's waaaay back before the market went nuts. J&B Well Team, you've nailed another one for sure. What a great arrangement, and what fantastic subject material for the song. I really like the way you took that line and developed it into something else.
Floyd, Bud, Janice and Tommy, congratulations, take a bow. Thank you. We ALL fun with this one! J&B
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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What a gorgeous production, great acoustic guitar and vocals. Wow! Sounds really pro!! Love it love it love it.
By the way, I have bookmarked your sound cloud channel and am trying to do the same with all the regular contributors to this forum. Anyone reading please send me your channel or url of you want to so I can bookmark it. I am making a BIAB library so I can study everyone's "body of work" and have instant access. Thanks!!!!
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What a beautiful song!!! The forum A team has captured "that sound" that made it my favorite era (a little Bonnie Raitt, a little Jackson Brown, a little Little Feat). Wonderfully organic and heartfelt. Vocal and mix are awesome and Tommy's guitars bring it right into your own living room. Truly a gem!! Great job guys! Take care. Greg
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Fantastic you guys! Should be playing on the top ten radio charts. I love the clean strong sound of your recording process and such a great performance from Janice and Floyd. All of you together have produced a great song! Great writing and story line and I will add that I agree with the other comments. It will be hard for you guys to top this one but with your talent I know that you will.
Sonny Thanks Sonny. Nice of you to say that and thanks for mentioning the mix, etc. Tom and floyd are so easy to work with and the best half of my marriage, Janice, makes it all so easy that I feel like I'm just along for the ride. Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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you had me at the first 5 notes on the guitar... SO glad you used it as a recurring motif! Lots to say here, but I want to start by saying that it reminded me of James Taylor's SEPTEMBER GRASS in some way.
I really like the chord progression on this song! I know you are a bass player, and the bass (upright especially) is not an instrument that is played with chords... so it is especially impressive to me that this song (and really ALL of your songs) tend to have very interesting chord progressions. Although some of your songs are public domain, and you inherited the basic chords... you wrote this song from scratch. I'm impressed.
All things considered, I like it a lot! As always, Janice's voice is just perfect.. no doubt she did this in one take... no punch-ins or re-takes... (am I right?) ;-)
Floyd's harmony adds a whole new layer of awesome, and the final combination of tracks work so well together, I'm not surprised to see the positive remarks being made by everybody!
Tommy played guitar?? Cool! Which part? Did he play the recurring acoustic motif that started everything off? Or the electric decorations later in the song? Doesn't matter... it's all good!
Y'all sound so good together, if you moved to Florida in between Floyd and Tommy y'all could be a band! I Knowwww... you don't want that... but I had to say it)
It is a touch of irony that the date of the speech from which you took your title was the same date as Tommy and Floyd's birthdays. Interesting.
Great job everybody!
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