'Simple Things' Liner Notes
As far back as I can remember paintings have always had the ability to inspire my creative juices. Whenever my eyes came upon a painting my imagination would flood with story lines within each brush stroke. It wasn’t a practice as much as a reflex action. Long before I starting writing, these fictional creations ran rampant through my day. I didn’t have to visit a museum or an exhibit, the location was of no importance, it was the flow of creativity that captured my spirit.
So now many years later I’ve taken to corral some of that energy into a conceptual album inspired by the paintings of Thomas Eakins. What started out as a simple trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art quickly turned into a two year project that birthed the ‘Simple Things’ album.
The original compositions were written over a four week holiday in Melbourne Beach, Florida in February of 2015. I kept the titles intact and dove deep into the life of the artist while listening to the music of the period. The writing was quick and loose which left lots of room for developing at a later date. The first drafts were demo’d and left to mature over a two year period before the actual recording sessions started in January of 2017.
My original vision was one of a much more dated sound musically, but that changed slowly as the tracks were being laid down. One by one, song after song, there was a musical personality, a musical footprint that was beginning to take form, and though the finished versions are much different then I had imagined, they still retain a heartbeat that was inspired by someone else more than a century ago.
I invite you to have the paintings before your eyes as you listen to each track. I encourage you to let you mind wander in and around the rhythms, the lyric, the melody and harmony, to imagine you’re own continuing storyline.
It’s my hope that we can teach a new generation to love and appreciate the arts in new and creative ways while preserving and passing down our varying cultures.
E.M.
Dedicated to the creative gift of Thomas Eakins.
"In mathematics the complicated things are reduced to simple things, so it is in painting.” ~ Thomas Eakins
WHEN THE COWBOY SINGS
I've got a six-string strapped to my back
One my daddy passed down to me
Loaded with songs and always in tune
Ready whenever it need be
Oh my fingers are poised at the ready
Never more then a downbeat away
Finding their way on a rosewood neck
Dancing ‘round the harmony
Home on the range
Where I lay my head down
Where my darling
Nestles next to me
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word
Where a cowboy sings of destiny
I've got a foot that knows
Nothing but stompin'
Keeping it steady ‘till coda’s end
Holding the tempo with metronome time
Kissing wood and the backbeat’s friend
When the cowboy sings
When the cowboy sings it's all good
© 2015 Eddy Mann
Hissongs ~ ASCAP
THE RED SHAWL
Long, long ago it graced her soft frame
In a cafe, with no name
Deep in fragrant passion, silently speaking
Hung so lightly, quietly seeking
Love so very, very small
Born on that night
The night of the red shawl
Draped so poignantly, an eloquent whisper
Angel fair; catch the blur
Never in my life did I know such a wonder
Long for sight, short to sunder
Love so very, very small
Born on that night
The night of the red shawl
Deep, inside it lingers, etched on my heart
Soul gallery, breath of art
Memories remain
from that sweet single eve
Mindfully there, on my sleeve
Love so very, very small
Born on that night
The night of the red shawl
© 2015 Eddy Mann
Hissongs ~ ASCAP
A MAY MORNING IN THE PARK
We went riding one smart morning in May
Privilege followed us throughout the day
Past the fountains and the trees
By the flowers through the breeze
We went riding one smart morning in May
We unoticingly passed rabble with less
There were countless
Opportunities to bless
But our sight was colored rose
Which overshadowed these and those
We unoticingly passed rabble with less
It's just a May morning in the park
Another morning in the park
It's just a May morning in the park
...or maybe more
We were blinded
By the blessings we incurred
Redundantly we walked with lines blurred
Unaware of our surroundings
Deaf to the houndings
We were blinded
By the blessings we incurred
We arrived one May morning in the park
Awakened as light overcame the dark
With hearts that were seeing
With words that were freeing
We arrived one May morning in the park
© 2015 Eddy Mann
Hissongs ~ ASCAP
