Little Late Night Song

The refrigerator kicked on while we were trying to record a script for one of Mark's work projects. We decided to take a music break.

Signing off over here... goodnight!

Musical Saturday!

Today, we were lucky enough to be invited to the house of my dad's childhood friend, Stewart Foster, of the HubCats (here), and his wife Cheryl -- for an afternoon of music-playing and yummy-food eating! He also offered to record some of our songs for us!

My uncle had wanted me to record the opening verse of Golden Slumbers by the Beatles for a separate project, and as soon as Stewart started playing it in C# for me, I was hooked. I asked him if we could record the entire song with our Ellie tracks. Though I love the little lullabies I've written for E and am so thrilled to have them sounding a million times better than my iPhone recordings, Golden Slumbers was my favorite recording of the afternoon. Stewart's guitar playing is just so pretty, and years ago, I imagined singing this to my baby. It made me so happy to have it.

Here are all the songs -- Thanks again, Stewart & Cheryl!

Golden Slumbers, with Stewart on guitar:


Old Dirt Road, with me on ukulele and Mark on bass:


Ellie Singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and The Wheels on the Bus:


Rain Keeps Falling, just me and the ukulele. I need to work on my chord transitions. Darn you, E-minor! But, I wanted to have this:

Running to Stand Still

On New Year's Eve, we were talking about our favorite songs, and my sister-in-law, Kim, reminded me of Running to Stand Still by U2. I had to record a (very slow) ukulele version, but I'm getting faster with my chord changes! This is one of my alltime favorite songs.

That clicking in the background is the dryer, and you hear E cry at one point when she stands up in her crib and realizes she can see me sitting on the couch playing my "guh-tar." Here's to another raw, snazzy iPhone recording... Yay!

Baby's Song

I finally got around to recording one of the songs I wrote for E! It's just an iPhone recording, but at least I have it, and she'll have it!

Mark helped me with the last verse. We wrote this the first day we heard her heartbeat. This was a really special moment for us, as we hadn't heard the heartbeat for the first pregnancy. So, this song was my promise to be patient and wait for her.




And just for fun, some more ukelele practice -- cover of Paul McCartney's "Junk".

Just a Clunky Lullaby to a Sleepy Baby

I grew up with this song, but the first time I heard it when I was pregnant, I knew I had to add it to E's lullaby list!

So, here it is -- this mom's clunky lullaby to a sleepy baby. It's not a perfect recording by any means, but it comes from the heart!

If you want to take this song with you, you can download it for free here.

Thanks for listening!

Mersey Beat

Mark’s supervisor is a fellow Beatles fan and was kind enough to send me the Bob Spitz biography, which I've always wanted to read. I started it last night and will read all 800+ pages. From what I’ve heard, I’ve concluded that it’s basically a Beatles version of East of Eden, Great Expectations, and Fifty Shades of Grey (shivers).

My only complaint is, though the "rhythm" of the book is not unlike a Steinbeck novel, it lacks the Steinbeck imagery and flow. The nouns are swimming, no, drowning in a sea of adjectives. It’s distracting, and I’m finding it hard to pick out the story. I’m clinging to the little noun life rafts! I’ve only made it past the Proglogue, so I’ll give it some more attention. And, I have to say, if you’re going to drown in a sea of adjectives, why not be the ones describing Liverpool Skiffle and the Mersey Beat!?

I’m also noting all the Liverpool bands that the book mentions -- fighting for survival at that time and having fun listening to them today while I yawn lazily at my desk and sort email.

Tomorrow we have a little family reunion, so here’s hoping that E gets some rest today. We’re under a heat advisory this afternoon, so we’ll be hunkering down at home, playing in the pool if possible, and hopefully having some fun family time.

But for now, I’m hanging out with these fine folks...