Amado Ohland

Well it ain't pretty, and I hit a couple of trees on the way down, and I have a bad sprain or two. But I made it, and I didn't leave any stains on the walls. Enjoy.

It's the start of another month, and today the words that came up when I was considering what crabby metaphor to use turned into words I had to sing. Here they are!

Concluding a monthly cycle on the concept "The Twins," here's today's song. For this one I looked back at https://soundcloud.com/amadoohland/separated-at-birth/ and tried to do some of the same kind of things, but transformed and "better." Enjoy!

I've made it part of my business to sing things for family members for their birthdays, but I missed my Dad on his! So Father's Day is the catch-up day for that. Here's your song, Dad. Thanks for putting this harmony into my ears at an early age.

Mmmmm, new car smell. I've never had the pleasure of driving a brand-new car off the lot. But I've had a car that was new enough that it didn't seem to have a single scratch on it. ...until it did. This is a song about what happens after that.

Here's this. It ended all too soon.

Break a leg? Break bad? Break down? Break it off? Break bread? Break the law? Break hearts? Breakdance? Break orbit? Breakfast? Break a sweat? Break the silence? Breakbeat? Break up? Break even? Break and enter? Break through? Nope. Break free.

This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 20: Sing Your Courage.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org It takes some patience, this one does. Hopefully, the rewards are worth it.

what got into me today? what ever it was, thiscameoutofmetoday...

What's a "level?" What's it mean for one or another of them to be "next?"

"This week your prompt is to invent a religion you wouldn't mind joining. Whatever level of dogma, faith, detail, humor, spirit, realism you'd prefer. Now write some liturgy for it." No 'invention' needed to fulfill this A Cappella Jukebox suggestion. http://www.uua.org/ Now, it's not my thing to proselytize a religion, or a spiritual viewpoint. (Which, as it happens, is also true of UU -- and one...

They stand for Justice! They stand with a dramatic back-glow and indiscernible generic superpowers! They are... The Justice System!

I think my inspiration today was simply that I realized that this has become very much a part of me. I do this every day because it's almost a bio-chemical imperative.

If you listen really hard, you can hear about half-a-dozen times when I nearly gave up on this take, pulled the plug, and started a new one that I thought I might like better. This is the sound of that not happening.

This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 18: Sing the Moon.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org . AND this is for "A Cappella Jukebox" -- what's that? This. https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?rid=182069&u=587562&patAmt=1.0 REALLY dissatisfied by the intonation in this one. Can I blame the headphones? I can try.

Tonight's song was more about finding a core of strength than about plumbing new depths or exploring new territory.

Maybe all it takes to do something new is to do some of your old things in news ways, or in different contexts. Maybe!

The story goes, I had to step outside last night around 10pm to get something from my car (parked about 150 feet from my door). And the field and the nearby stands of trees were absolutely full of blinking lightning bugs. I was amazed, I was awe-struck. Try it some time.

Today's song is in response to an "A Cappella Jukebox" request, a perk that I offer to people really helping me out through Patreon. Check it out at www.patreon.com/amado "Sing a song for children!" they said. As complex or simple as I wanted. So! Here you have it.

image credit: http://www.deviantart.com/art/yin-yang-178628588 Support an artist: https://www.patreon.com/creation?hid=2497027 What would it be like, to discover in your forties that there's another you out there, a brother-(or-sister-)from-another-mother(-or-mister)? What are they doing right now? Do they share your interests? What's their favorite color?

Thus closes a monthly song cycle. See https://soundcloud.com/amadoohland/taking-it-by-the-horns for the song that this refers to. No more Bull, folks, after today.

This probably looks like the last song in my monthly song-cycle, but it's not -- it's the one that clears the decks for TOMORROW's closing song. But, oddly enough, this one relates pretty well to the overall theme. "...to have a very difficult problem to solve; to have become associated with something powerful and potentially dangerous." Cut-funk 5/4 with a mixolydian-flat-six scale? Yeah, danger...

This track is a reply to “SSS Prompt 17: Sing in Triple Metre.” More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org. You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing On the one hand, it was simple - "do something in 3, in a waltzy kind of way." On the other, it was time to do something a little different with the chords, so I went with a simple (...

Tip jar: www.patreon.com/amado Yeah there's plenty to be not-so-joyful about, but every once and a while it's important to remember a slightly larger perspective. And if you're doing it right, it's very very likely to cheer you up.

This song is ALL THE THINGS. A Cappella Jukebox for a prior (missed) week. Wordy Wednesday (long overdue). And a reply to “SSS Prompt 16: Sing the five senses.” (More on the Society for Spontaneous Singing at http://singthis.org . You can join the SSS at https://soundcloud.com/groups/society-for-spontaneous-singing ) What's "there" and what is it like to be at it?