david gillespie

I had to take a trip back home to see my dad for his birthday - and it wasn’t nearly the chore that makes it sound like. However any time I’m back home he asks me to play a version of Fleetwood Mac’s Seven Wonders, and Meghan captured it on camera. It’s by no means a faultless performance, but by then it didn’t matter as we were all already well past the point where our hangovers could be mitigated the following day.

There’s some nice guitar playing in there if I do say so myself, and if you’re willing to forgive the occasional bum note, then there are worse ways to soundtrack your Sunday afternoon.

Hope you enjoy. Happy birthday dad.

—

P.S. I’m going to be posting a new music clip each week, so if you have a cover you’d like to hear, just ask.

Peaceful Love (new song)

Riffs are a funny thing. I once head an interview with Rob Thomas where he said while writing a song he would get out of his apartment and just walk around the block until the melody was so entrenched in his head he couldn’t possibly have found a way to forget it. That’s kind of the way this came about, except it remained in my head as I rode the elevators of 10 Bay St in Toronto.

It’s a song that seemed to come along despite my best attempts to ignore it, and that’s always a good sign: the best ones are the ones that have to get written, that have a life of their own. And an impending birthday seemed like the best reason possible to let it out, to serve as motivation to do what was necessary to help it see the light of day.

The notion of a peaceful love I’m sure sounds tedious and dull to some, including, initially, the person it was written for. For me, it’s less about a peaceful environment or surroundings, and more so about a peace between people. For that, you need a lot of things, things like trust. Understanding. Common ground. A sense that you are somehow in this together and the only way out is together. And maybe after all that it still sounds dull to you, but I think it’s exciting.

Big thanks goes out to my right-hand man and eternal collaborator Ben Stewart; his patience and good humour are unmatched. And for those interested enough, this is the first sign of things to come, a long overdue follow-up to Out In The Real World. I hope you like it.

Happy birthday baby x

—-

Yeah, we were kings and queens of the sun
And we’d run, and we’d run, and we’d run
Yeah, we were more than in between what we loved
And we’d run, and we’d run, and we’d run

And I’m comin’ up behind, I’m comin’ down the line
I’m callin’ off the search that’s callin’ out for me tonight
And I have fallen from the stars just to find a way to your heart

And I’m holdin’ on for a peaceful love
And I, it’s what I want, what I need and what I dreamed of
And I, I’m holding on for a peaceful love

Yeah, now I got time for us to breathe, if it’s enough
We can run, and we’ll run, and we’ll run
Yeah, I got eyes enough to see this is love
So we’ll run and we’ll run and we’ll run

And if it’s only here and now, I just hope you’ll hear me out
Hear what I’ve been tryin’ to say, hear what I’ve been all about
I been watching the skies just to find what’s behind your eyes

And I’m holdin’ on for a peaceful love
And I, it’s what I want, what I need and what I dreamed of
And I, I’m holding on for a peaceful love

I got this tickin’ in my head, got this tickin’ in my mind
got a hand up to my face, losin’ vision, losin’ sight
I ain’t staring down the sun, I’m staring up at what we’ve become

And I’m holdin’ on for a peaceful love
And I, it’s what I want, what I need and what I dreamed of
And I’m holding on for a peaceful love
And I, it’s what I want, what I need and what I dreamed of

Quote from David Bowie, made several years ago - “I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take…

A stunning collection of great advice for musicians. Having just had a debate last night with someone who argued one was not capable of passionately pursuing music while dealing with the realities of work in other fields, this rings true; and comes from someone who knows better than either of us. I particularly liked:

Have interests outside of your art. especially if you can do this on a non-performance basis, where you can just enjoy the activity and not analyze it to death and be real critical of your own work and stuff. it’s so easy to burn out if you do one overwhelming thing for about twenty or thirty years. sometimes, i just don’t play at all and don’t think about work and mess around with my sailboat, or work in the yard, or something. ride the motorcycle. giving myself a break from the pass/fail mentality. i like just being a regular person.

So back in 2001 I wrote a song called Love Of My Life for my friends Rick and Ruth who had gotten engaged. I was a poor student at the time, so I couldn’t afford to do anything else. It wound up on my album Out In The Real World (available at an iTunes near you).

Since then, a number of friends and friends of friends have used the song at their own weddings, and the latest, my friend Julie who married a great guy, Bryden, sent me this video of their wedding which I was more than happy to have them use the song in. Julie was kind enough to send me a link to the video, which is now above for all to enjoy.

Congratulations guys!

Roadside Graves - Ruby

I’ve just discovered this band, and being a huge fan of Ryan Adams (pre-Cardinals) and Whiskeytown, there’s something familiar here I really enjoy, a life and jaunty-ness which I haven’t had a lot of over the last few months as I’ve been awash in electro-rock and synth-heavy pop.

A double-bill between these guys and Mumford and Sons would be just about perfect right now…

tomgibsonsimages:

gregrutter:

The Hype Machine released their 2009 music blog zeitgeist. Always worth checking out.

After All by William Fitzsimmons.

I can barely breathe listening to this, it’s extraordinary.

This is a song that just fell out of my guitar in the afternoon. Totally fresh and still working out the placement of everything, but it has a nice vibe and I wanted to share it. Lyrics below, which I may have fumbled in a moment of YouTube-camera-shyness, I hope you enjoy regardless! ;]

Oh, and come say hi on Facebook!

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If I can just get you with your eyes closed
I said I love ‘em baby I know
In your arms I feel like time’s gonna stop for a minute
OK I’ll go
See I’m confusing first impressions
With the return of a best friend
If I’m just countin’ up my blessin’s I guess then
You smile and I’m satisfied

Did I lose my place in the tale now?
Catch sight f you my mind starts to fail now
But I hang on every word you say now
Ooh don’t run away now
See I got these memories of a war in me
Once upon a time your face kinda haunted me
Still got these voices that are warnin’ me
But I’m a moth to the flame girl, your light it calls to me

I got a long list to get through
So let’s start with just letting you down
I been picking up the pieces of a life that got scattered
All over town
Girl you know I got some secrets
Come a little closer and I’ll tell ‘em to you now
Give me a place to keep ‘em and I’m gonna try
Just to follow you down

Well I got a secret place to take you
Where we find out what it is that breaks you
I got special thing to make you whole again…

Then you got a million places you can go
Where you’ll find out what you want to know
But girl your light is like a silver lining
That carries me home

And you got a long list to get through
So let’s start with just letting me down
We been picking up the pieces of a life that got scattered
All over town
Yeah I know you got your secrets
Won’t you come a little closer come and tell ‘em to me now
I’ll give you a place to keep ‘em
If you’ll just come and follow me down

We got a long list to get through
Let’s not start with letting you down
Picking up the pieces of a life that we scattered
All over town
Yeah you know I got some secrets
Just come a little closer and I’ll tell ‘em to you now
Give me a place to keep them
And I’ll just follow you down

david gillespie

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