On the Water - My New Theme Song

 I think this is my new theme song. "On the Water" by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. I believe there's a reason that the first disciples Jesus called were a bunch of sailors. I love bluegrass music. Every musician gets a turn to shine. It's such an unselfish genre of music.

 

Grow Old Along With Me

It's kind of ironic that one of the last of John Lennon's songs was this lovely ballad, "Grow Old Along With Me" in which he prays "God bless our love."  This is the same guy who wrote the anti-religion "Imagine".  One hopes John was able to work it all out with his maker at some point. That said, Grow Old is a very beautiful song. This version is by Mary Chapin Carpenter. The only versions we of of Lennon singing it, are some home recordings which suffer a little from the poorer quality of home recording equipment of the day. 

This is a beautiful song. Perfect for weddings. It's sad that Lennon was looking forward to growing old along with his wife and died very soon after he wrote it.

Tom

The Hand Song

My son, Micah introduced me to this Nickel Creek song. The lyrics are beautiful and this song always makes me mist up a little bit. I'm not sure even now, as many times as I've listened to it, that I could sing it all the way through without getting all choked up.  The Hand Song is one of those poignant folk songs that is beyond the typical murder ballad, folk hero song or the "I love her so much I want to lock her up inside a box and not let her out" sort of twisted love songs you find in mountain music.  This song is lyrical and beautiful.

© 2018 by Tom King

You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd (for various reasons)

Roger Miller wrote a whole bunch of songs I really enjoy. This quirky songwriter did some really happy stuff including stuff for the soundtrack of Disney's animated  "Robin Hood". His hits were a perky lot including, King of the Road, England Swings, Chug-a-Lug, Walkin'' in the Sunshine, Dang Me, Do Whack a Do, and Ooh Da Lally,

Well you get the idea. 

Roger's wry take on country music was unique back in the 60s when everybody seemed desperate to take themselves sooooooo seriously.

So, enjoy this gentle, light and funny musical voice singing in the midst of riots, upheavals, assassinations, and pointless wars the ruling power didn't really want to win.

Tom King

 

 

 

 

 

Out of His Great Love

The first time I heard this song, my daughter and her friend performed this for a Sabbath morning service in Tyler. It's a driving Southern Gospel Number that makes you want to stand up and shout, "Hallelujah!"  I found out the original version of the song is done by The Martins, a family Southern Gospel group.  I looked them up on Youtube and got an Mp3 of them for my phone.  I only got half of the version my daughter sang on video, so I went with the Martins.

I just love this song.

Tom

The Mississippi Squirrel Revival

This one is one of my favorite Ray Stevens songs and that's saying something given that he also wrote the hilarious Shriner's Convention.  We've all known a Sister-Bertha-Better'n-You in our time and the spectacle of her standing up in meetin' and confessing about her "love life" and "namin' names" is just too appealing an image. This thing is funny right here, I don't care who you are. This is also on my phone.



Tom

Space Oddity - Ground Control to Major Me

The first time I heard this David Bowie song, I felt like he was singing it to me. This was my song. I wanted to be an astronaut, but unfortunately being an astronaut is HAAAAAAARD!  That and God had other stuff for me to do so I've put off going into space for when we get carried off to heaven. If there's an orbital lab around the new Earth I plan to be on the construction crew - either that I want to be on the crew of a star ship.  I'm certain there will be stuff like that. After all, we are an exploring species and those of us who survive the old Earth should be trustworthy enough to turn loose to explore the stars and there are an awful lot of those out there, so we likely won't be bored with it all since we're living forever.

This is the coolest version of the song ever done. It's Canadian ISS astronaut Chris Hadfield singing with NASA footage in a monumentally marvelous music video. Hadfield has a really good voice too. So enjoy the first space-based music video with actual astronauts and footage shot in space. I still think they're singing my song, though.

"Major" Tom King