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LeadsheetsCharts for exploration.
Actually, Actually (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
I am trying to break my habit of prefacing every differing opinion with “actually”. Actually, actually as a filler word is rather obnoxious. The former manager of Fort Collins Coffeehouse, Hayley, called me out on this bad habit one day after I informed her that “actually, my Irish cream latte is quite delicious”. I was writing the chords to the B section of this tune at the time so this seemed an appropriate title.
Blues for Phrygia (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
I was in a Phrygian kind of mood, so here’s a 16 bar blues in Phrygian. Sort of. It’s in 4/4 but there’s a sort of prelude section in 6/8, because if you’re going to write a blues it might as well also be a jazz waltz.
Cibeles (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A quick one in Phrygian/Phrygian Dominant. Named for the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, since Phrygia’s goddess is Cybele.
Coffee Girl (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Vocal | Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
It was a running joke for my college-era band to sing this tune, ending with our drink order, whenever our barista friend was working a gig. She put up with this nonsense for years but, since very few have her patience, I’ve cut the dozens of verses down to just two.
Customary Gates (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
In October of 2019, my friend and fellow musical traveler Liam O’Beirne and I took a trip to Ireland’s County Donegal. We set forth from Dublin, swung by Bruges on the Belgian coast, then passed through Dublin again on our way north. I wrote this slip jig to swing to slip jig on my flight back to Denver to commemorate our uniquely roundabout journey and half-dozen or so trips through customs.
Dearest (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
I found this melody sketched on a Colorado Music Instruction Center payment reminder card from the early 2000s with the word “Dearest” written in script beside it. Given that context, I don’t know if I intended it as a declaration of love or as a reminder to settle a delinquent account. I like to think the finished tune works in either case.
Dunlewey (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Score | Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Dunlewey (properly Dún Lúiche), between Errigal and the Poisoned Glen in the far north of Ireland, is one of my favorite places on Earth. I tried to capture a fraction of its stark beauty with this sort of reel, sort of jig played in 10/8 time.
Frickle Frackle (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A reworking of the odd meter “Fickle Field”, because I really wanted a minor Blues.
For C. and D. (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Definitely one for us jazz nerds. I was trying to make triad pairs sound natural, so this entire melody is alternating C major and D minor triads doing their best impression of the Great American Songbook.
Fossil Creek Tunnel (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | -F
Fort Collins has an excellent system of bike paths. When I moved to the south side of town in 2012, I was thrilled to learn that the Fossil Creek Path would soon be finished allowing me to ride a loop around town. All that remained was a single, soon to be completed tunnel under a railroad track. It was finally finished a few weeks before I moved away in 2019. I got to use it once and wrote this to commemorate the occasion.
Grin (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A triadic melody with unexpected resolutions, too many solo sections, and my favorite drum groove in the outro. It feels a bit like George Garzone meets “Bright Size Life”. This one always makes me smile…
Half the Times I’ve Failed (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A dark melody of few notes, written in a lesson to demonstrate writing to a prompt. Played on my early-2000s “Electric Memory” rig.
I Forgot Your Song (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Vocal | Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
This started as an attempt to write a breakup song for my college prog-rock band. Then I reworked the pieces as a heavy-handed weeper about dementia and lost love for a friend’s abandoned musical. At a gig a few years later, an unknown person of questionable musical taste stole the only handwritten copy along with a messenger bag full of other original charts. I decided to try rewriting it from memory, realized it needed to return to its more bitter roots, and this version is the result.
I Should Dance (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
I really should dance, but wrote this rather long-winded attempt at a jazz standard instead. There were a lyrics for it, once upon a time, but they were lost to the same thief that absconded with the “I Forgot Your Song” chart.
Kiddo (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A dedication to my Grandpa John. The melody is based on a twelve tone row but it’s harmonized as a jazz ballad in E-flat. Grandpa would have loved this as he was both a lover of irony and completely tone deaf.
La Vita Bella (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
La Vita Bella was a basement coffee shop in downtown Longmont and a home away from home for me. Graphite Addiction played there often, and I spent many a lunch break in a corner with a pastry and a mocha, writing charts. This quick swing tune is the last of those, so it takes the name.
Laetitia’s Lost Chords (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
As a teen in the 90s, I learned a Maj7 barre chord and promptly wrote “Song for Laetitia”. My dad always poked fun at its naive harmony so I reworked it with hipper chords. Years later I missed the original’s simplicity and inadvertent mixed-meter so I wrote them into this. It’s proof that I endlessly fiddle with tunes and need to stop using a certain Corsican model’s name in song titles.
Mrs. Harvey’s (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Mrs. Harvey’s Bakery is an historic building on 11th Avenue in Longmont. I wrote this back in 2010 after driving by it a dozen or more times while moving my recording gear from CMIC to my new place off Pratt Street.
Most of the Time (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A medium swing, written back in 2010 while wandering the streets of Longmont after a snowstorm.
Near Majority (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F | Grand Staff
8 bars of this melody are from way back in 1999. I wrote it for an assignment at CU Denver and intentionally tried to make it as difficult to sightread as possible to trip up my professor as he played it in front of the class. It was a jerk move, so as a bit of penance 21 years later I finished and recorded it here. I hope it’s the ugliest thing I ever release.
Nines (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Graphite Addiction recorded an alternate swinging version of this aa “Mental Morphology”. This is my take on the funkier original, trying (and failing) to play bass like Tim Carmichael and drums like Pete Ehrmann.
Penguin Eddie (from Music to Squeak By)
C with Bass | Concert | Bass | Bb | Eb | F
Eddie was a local bar-fly I met after a gig. He told me a tipsy tale of his exploits catching a penguin (“It was an emperor penguin!”) out of a zoo’s exhibit. I wrote this as a tribute to his brilliant comedic timing and syncopated phrasing.
Press of Angels (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Concert| Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
I intended for this to be a bluesy waltz, but it came out more ominous. That seems a bit portentous now, since I finished the chart in early 2020.
Ricky Loves Lulu (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
There used to be a bridge by Erie, Colorado with this graffiti on it. When the railroad removed it someone painted “Ricky Still Loves LuLu”. That deserves a song.
Serva Jugum (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Clan Hay’s motto, “Keep the Yoke” provides the title for this one. It’s a standard gopuccha yati cycle for the head and a funk waltz in the solo.
Smolkin’s Boogie (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Every instrumental guitar album needs a boogie. This one is just a bit confused about where it’s going.
Somewhere Between the Waters (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Score | Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
Colorado was hit with thousand-year floods in September 2013. Homes were lost, roads were washed away, and whole landscapes changed. I wrote this while waiting for the water to recede.
Somewhere East of Omaha (from Music to Squeak By)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
As my late friend Ward Harston put it: “That’s not really a rhythm.”
Somewhere West of Wichita (from Music for Chasing Squirrels)
Concert | Bass | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
This companion piece to “Somewhere East of Omaha” from “Music to Squeak By” shares its odd little 5 note rhythmic quirk. Mainly it’s a feature for my lovely Collings baritone.
Other CompositionsWhat remains.
Messengers from Porlock (from Music for Poochy Patrol)
Score | Guitar | Bass | Concert | B-Flat | E-Flat | F
A trio of guitars (one a Bass VI) constantly interrupt each other’s ideas, as one would expect of those on business from Porlock.
- After Disobedience (for Soloist, Electric Piano, and Sequenced Synthesizer; 2020)—An instrumental musing on the effect of mediation.
- How Long ’til We’re Forgotten (Recording and Reuse, 2007)—About six months.
with Graphite AddictionRefined jams.
- Back of Fridge Experiment (2015)—Pete’s title.
- Ballad for My Grandmother (2015)—Tim has a really hip grandma.
- Benny the Beaver (2015)—Benny’s cool.
- Blu Ze (2020)—Pete once acted like we didn’t know a blues. This is our version.
- Bricks and Sponges (2015)—Opposites attract. Never reccorded.
- Building a Better Tree (2005)—Two tritones. The first tune Tim and I just improvised.
- Call It Two Against Three (2015)—Because that’s what it is. Except for the fives.
- Chasing the Mantra (2005)—Probably Graphite’s most played tune.
- Dachshund Dementia (2015)—Poor Turbo.
- Dreams of Plastic Weasels (2005)—Tim’s title. Not sure if it’s plastic weasels doing the dreaming or if they’re the subject of others dreams.
- Doctor Sus (2015)—Like Marc Johnson.
- El Perro Amarillo (2006)—The yellow dog.
- F.O.U. (2015)—Funk on.
- Francine (2015)—It sounds like a Francine.
- Future Meetings (2019)—The penultimate word.
- Gifelte Wish (2015)—Kinda klezmer.
- Groove EZ We Do (2019)—Yeah, we do.
- Ground Groove (2015)—Not a ground it could be.
- Haley’s Comet (2015)—For someone named Haley, so a different comet than Halley’s.
- Improrealization (2020)—A revelation through improvisation.
- Keep It Green (2015)—Because it’s Colorado.
- Lift It On Up (2015)—Higher.
- The Meaning of Life (2015)—A good start.
- Mr. Phatpants (2006)—Once upon a time, we were named Mr. Phatpants, after a cat.
- Motherland (2020)—Home.
- Number 42 (2006)—Our first recorded free improvisation. Now we have to play it.
- One-Stop Shopping (2020)—It’s all here.
- Peace at Last (2015)—The last tune off “a second chance years later…”.
- Quiet by the Fire (2015)—Not particularly quiet.
- Scalero (2015)—A scary bolero
- Sifferson (2015)—His name is Sifferson.
- Somewhere in Rime (2020)—The final Graphite Addiction jam, frozen for your enjoyment.
- T-Rex Takes a Nap. (2015)—Sleepy dinosaur.
- That Was Nice, Too (2015)—But we liked the first one better.
- Three Makes One (2020)—A trio comes together.
- Tofu Toupee (2005)—No idea how that would work.
- Told You Once for the Second Time (2005)—Third time’s a charm.
- Traffic Saturation (2019)—Stuck in a jam.
- Triptamichigan (2015)—Pete was leaving for Michigan.
- Why? Oming. (2015)—The answer, or at least an answer.
Reference BooksDancing about architecture.
- Thesaurus of Diatonic Sets (Curious Automata, 2013)—A guide to the sets formed by diatonic scales.
- Index of Movement in Diatonic Sets (Curious Automata, 2014)—All the paths between sets in diatonic scales.