Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
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



Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
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 smile 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)