ready or not is a game we play, push and pull and make our way, and now go get it, before it's gone try to live your short life long ready or not. captain and castle and games we'd play, who can wait another day to see who's captain when castle is gone, it's like we tried to make a good thing wrong. captain and castle, and games we'd play. ready or not it's a game we play [we'll be] gone tomorrow but we're here today. ready or not it's a game it's a game, [we'll be] gone tomorrow but we're here today, …

sometimes an orphan,
sometimes is me,
sometimes a problem can set you free.

a thousand voices across a sea.
a thousand choices and one will be.

amaze yourself again
amaze yourself again.

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My computer died this week, and i also have a bad cold.  Both of these things contribute to this recording. Orphan is recorded w/ an Edirol with too much level going in, but I liked the static it created in the end.  Thoughts behind the song?  paradigms, self-imposed limits in order to spur creativity, and the concept of expanded freedom in discipline.

I wonder a lot about repetition. Why so many television shows lazily begin again with repetition of where they left off when the image and sounds are so clearly still in one's mind, what repetition of body means to me, what repetition of my own lyrics and chords can mean, negative and positive, and also repetition in relationships with other people and what that can mean positive and negative.

Gossip

Don't you find yourself gossiping?
Or you find yourself going over and over and over?
Or you find yourself saying that same old story...
just because you are not resolved.

but you
you're not confused,
you hear things once and you comprehend.

I've been thinking recently about the shared feeling and instrumentation of french folk music, american country and folk, and hawaiian music, and also humor in music. In this song I am trying to have conversations with phrases and their failure, making a few jokes using tonality and embellishment here and there, while at the same time singing to you very sincerely about my life.  I am reminded of a theater teacher in college who advised a writer friend of mine that serious drama is not without its …

Long ago,
a fortune teller told me.
'money is not your problem, but you'll make it be.'

won't struggle with friendship
won't lose your way in love,
won't lose your independence,
you won't fight with god above,

but you see money comin'
you get frozen in your tracks,
like  money is a demon,
and you forgot the axe,

money's not your problem,
you know exactly what i mean,
money's not your problem,
you see.

long ago...

Wow. Where did September go? By my count I owe folks a few weeks worth of posts, so I'll be making up for it with double posts in the coming weeks. I've had a few songs rolling around in my head with themes ranging from society's addiction to repetition, to the concept of practice, to this song, Dedication, about the act of commitment to oneself and goals. See what you think. The audio junks out on the attached at points, but I liked the dusk coming through the windows, the treetops in the wind, and the …

My friend Goh Nakamura is in town and helped me record this. Goh is playing guitar on this track and this fact couldn't make me happier!  This song brings me great relief. I hope it brings it to you too. Best, Michelle Brave Grace Guess I'd been unconscious for four or five years until I saw my shadow in the rain. Guess i broke my heart again. Guess it is a fine line between joy and tears, a finer line between my hopes and fears. guess I lost myself again. Brave Grace, won't you carry me to the …

Normally I title songs using some part of the lyrics, but I wrote this song a few weeks ago and it has been brewing in my head, in the halls, on my bike, in the car :) I had a chance to play through it today with Tim (drums) and Ben (bass) who will be joining me for Wednesday's show which felt good. So my birthday show and hang is Wed Sept 1 @ Pete's @ 11pm, but my real birthday isn't until Saturday Sept 4, and I've been looking forward to it all month. (BTW if you are up for a birthday excursion, on the …

Some Folks is a song I wrote a few years ago when I first moved to New York. At the time I was in a space where I was trying to write all of my songs specifically for a group of keyboard, bass, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, and me. Eventhough I like a lot of the songs I wrote during that time, for the most part, I never play them anymore because it almost felt like they were written from the outside in, using the band sound to spur arrangement, instead of my imagination to spur the arrangement and choice …

This is a new song I wrote last week about perspective and how easy it is to lose yourself when you don't have it or aren't grateful for the main thing that keeps you going. I tried to add in some layers in Garage Band but then it got really weirdly distorted when I exported it, so I went back to iMovie and tried to import the files that way. They're there in the end, really soft layers of background vocals in the last part of the song. In a way this song is also influenced by other songs. Smile Though …