tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21956299097603739632024-03-05T17:49:28.871-08:00Jamie Barnettjamiebarnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345046782685145110noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195629909760373963.post-13638906758398511962009-01-09T17:31:00.000-08:002009-01-09T17:37:57.619-08:00Wag Your Tail CD Lyrics<span style="font-weight:bold;"> Wag Your Tail</span><br /><br />Puppy didn’t sleep last night<br />Afraid to close his eyes<br />I couldn’t sleep I laid awake<br />And listened to his cries<br /><br />He barked at all the stars<br />And he was howling at the moon<br />But wag your tail now puppy dog<br />Cause morning’s coming soon<br /><br />Wag your tail puppy dog <br />Wag your tail puppy<br />Stop howling at the moon<br />Wag your tail puppy dog<br />Wag your tail puppy<br />Cause morning is coming soon<br /><br />Puppy’s sleeping all day long<br />While I work hard at school<br />He sleeps down in the kitchen<br />Where the floor is nice and cool<br /><br />He’s dreaming dreams of chasing cats<br />And howling at the moon<br />But wag your tail now puppy dog<br />Your boy is coming home soon<br /><br />Wag your tail puppy dog <br />Wag your tail puppy<br />Stop howling at the moon<br />Wag your tail puppy dog<br />Wag your tail puppy<br />Your boy is coming home soon<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">This is Where I Live</span><br /><br />I was walking at the break of dawn<br />Had my hat and my sunscreen on<br />The sun was rising and the air was sweet<br />It suddenly occurred to me<br /><br />This is where I live<br />This is where I live<br />As far as I can see this is home for me<br />This is where I live<br /><br />The clouds are floating in the sky<br />I see a red tail hawk by<br />I watch him as he glides away<br />It’s a beautiful day<br /><br />And this is where I live…<br /><br />See that coyote just across the street<br />Eying my suspiciously <br />He’s as curious as he can be<br />I hear him say to me<br /><br />This is where I live…<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Lemonade</span><br /><br />Grandma has a lemon tree<br />Everyday we pick two or three<br />She reads to me sitting in the shade<br />Then we go and make some lemonade<br /><br />Grandpa walks with a walking cane<br />His legs tell him when its going to rain<br />He goes to the bank when he’s been paid<br />Comes home and drinks some lemonade<br /><br />One and one and one make three<br />Three lemons from a lemon tree<br />Tell me if you’ve ever made <br />A glass of ice-cold lemonade<br /><br />A pig says oink a duck says quack<br />But a chicken don’t have time for that<br />She counts the eggs that she just laid<br />And then she drinks some lemonade<br /><br />Sweep the porch and shake the mat<br />Feed the dog and pet the cat<br />Then help clean up the mess you made <br />When you were making lemonade<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hello Lizard</span><br /><br />Hello pine tree<br />Can I spend some time with you<br />It’s been a while since we talked<br />So what’s new<br />some branches fallen to the ground<br />and pinecones scattered all around<br />hello pine tree<br /> can I spend some time with you<br /><br />Hello lizard<br />Can I share this rock with you<br />It’s such a nice place to rest<br />And what a view<br />Plenty of bugs for you to eat<br />And I could use the company<br />Hello lizard<br />Can I share this rock with you<br /><br />This rock is just the rock for us <br />It’s like its custom made<br />You do your pushups in the sun <br />While I sit in the shade<br />Hello lizard<br />Can I share this rock with you?<br /><br />The meadowlark he sings his song<br />He’s looking for a friend<br />I know that song I’ve sung it too<br />But I know how it ends<br />Hello lizard can I share this rock with youjamiebarnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345046782685145110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195629909760373963.post-22656397259500198802008-12-04T19:16:00.000-08:002008-12-07T07:25:51.261-08:00Notes about the songs on Wag Your Tail1. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Wag Your Tai</span>l – Just me and my guitar; slow, low, and restful. Once I had recorded this song I thought it would be great if I could get Jean Summerville (an artist in Chico Ca) to paint a CD cover for me. She paints these wonderful dogs with great personality. So she did and I love it.<br />2. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Ride On a Train</span> – My niece Alyssa sings with me on this. My sisters join in later on. Kids at school love to sing this song because of all of the big vowel sounds held out long in the chorus: “Riiiiiiide on a traaaaaaain to the Beeeeeeach todaaaaay.” I wanted to create some excitement about using public transportation.<br />3. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Waterbottle</span> – Definitely one of my favorite songs on the CD. Kids at school love to sing this song. They worked up some clapping games to go along with it. My wife Kathryn and I tried our best to duplicate the rhythms in the short cut after the song. This song is all about having fun with language.<br />4. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Being With You</span> – This is actually a love song. I sing it with my wife in mind but it expresses a simple longing to spend time with someone, a mother, child, father, grandparent, etc.<br />5. <span style="font-weight:bold;">This is Where I Liv</span>e – I was out for an early morning walk not far from where I live. I really wanted to go to the beach but there was no time. I begrudgingly proceeded on one of my routine hikes when I was struck by the unbelievable beauty of my own neighborhood. This song has proved to be a great sing-along. Kathryn sings on this song. I sent the track up to my son Sean in San Francisco. He put bass on it and sent it back to me. He put a bass track on some other songs as well (lemonade & waterbottle).<br />6. <span style="font-weight:bold;">This Tree</span> – Also on a local walk, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of a single oak tree. My son Nicolas is studying music in Austin, Texas (at UT). He plays a beautiful baritone horn on this song. This is one of my favorites.<br />7.<span style="font-weight:bold;"> Lemonade</span> – My mom really does have a magically prolific lemon tree in her yard. It sometimes has more lemons than leaves. This song is also about having fun with language “a cow goes moo, a duck goes quack, but a chicken don’t have time for that. She counts the eggs that she just laid and then she drinks some lemonade.” My sisters sing on this one too (we’ll call them the lemon sisters). <br />8. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Hello <span style="font-weight:bold;">Lizard</span></span> – Songwriting is usually a pretty slow process for me but this song came about almost in real time. I was backpacking. I sat on a rock after hiking one afternoon and realized I was indeed sharing the rock with a lizard. I said out loud, “Hello lizard.” I had some paper and a pen in my backpack and I just wrote the whole song down. I could hear it in my head and when I got home I just played it.<br />9. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Shortin’ Bread</span> – When my oldest son (who is now 26) was in pre-school, his teacher used to just belt out this song. I made up some new rhymes and verses for it. It is an old tune. After some research I found that has gone through its racy and even racist transitions. It is a good tune and deserves to be heard for more generations.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif<br />10. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Got Lost</span> – Like ‘Hello Lizard’, this song was written almost instantly. I was on a routine hike and I really got lost because I was not paying attention. I was just thinking intensely about something and I missed fork in the road. “I lost track of where. I lost track of when, I lost track of which way to go. I lost track of cares I’d been carrying around and I made room for new things to know.”<br />11. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Everything</span> – I had written this song really just to comfort myself during the last months of my father’s life. My brothers, sisters, and I actually sang it to him just before he went in for hip surgery a few months before he died. A good friend later told me that his statement of faith is that “everything is going to be okay.” That was so close to the song I wrote. I realized that – this is my statement of faith. I figured it was a good song for a kid’s CD because we say this to our children all the time “everything is going to be alright.”<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Tracks # 12 – 15</span><br />These are songs that I did not write but they were the first songs I recorded for this CD. I wanted to give something to teachers that they could use in their classrooms. Here in California, we really don’t provide music education for elementary school children. Unless the teacher happens to have some knowledge, talent, or interest, it doesn’t happen. These four songs are tried and true folk songs that are in a comfortable tempo and key for children. I gave these recordings to teachers at my school who have a serious fear of music and I asked them to give it a try. They love it. They provide the instruments and the classroom management and the songs do the rest. Children interact and make the music. It is not as good a true music instruction but it is much better than nothing. I suggest on the recording that children get pencils and boxes of macaroni and cheese for instruments. I’m really suggesting that they find a way to make it work and not to wait for the system to come up with solution. <br /><br />Thanks again for listening.jamiebarnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345046782685145110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195629909760373963.post-45222180151977216992008-11-28T20:43:00.000-08:002008-11-28T21:15:15.192-08:00I'm just learning how to do this blog thing. I am attempting to add a link to an essay I heard on NPR about singing. <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958">Brian Eno</a> the very inventive musician who works mostly with electronic music wrote and recorded his thoughts about the value of singing. It is remarkably consistent with the way I have been thinking lately that I wanted to share it. Hope the link shows up somewhere here. Happy Thanksgiving! <br /><br /><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97320958"></a>jamiebarnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345046782685145110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2195629909760373963.post-69749850052209130342008-11-13T13:38:00.000-08:002008-11-13T13:54:44.001-08:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjo_Ox_VHz-doHxulpTsaPYxPP7ME0R_bDRCp5kPH77WTojH_PvtUueyd5kSUu3vjDeZsBicTo4S81Z5YQsdRvMpg1YptSCB-GIoMCX3XHCh5LqSC08Ba7Tl4UJUcRuSIA4J68yviSXds/s1600-h/jamie+banjo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268260166390087362" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 183px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 260px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjo_Ox_VHz-doHxulpTsaPYxPP7ME0R_bDRCp5kPH77WTojH_PvtUueyd5kSUu3vjDeZsBicTo4S81Z5YQsdRvMpg1YptSCB-GIoMCX3XHCh5LqSC08Ba7Tl4UJUcRuSIA4J68yviSXds/s320/jamie+banjo.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>A few years ago, my class took a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">field trip</span> to a farm. I had just learned a few chords on my banjo and I decided to bring it along. We sat around on hay bails and sang together. It is great to listen to music but it is something very special (even holy) when we sing and play music together. Music shared in this way washes away anger and selfishness and drenches us with joy.</div><div></div><div>I love my job as a kindergarten teacher partly because we sing every day. We sing to begin the day and to end the day. We sing before snack, before work, and before we play. It really <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">doesn</span>’t matter what we sing but that our voices blend together like magic in the air all around. We bless our room with music.</div><div></div><div>Writing songs has become more than a hobby for me. I go for walks in the hills near my home and I listen to the thoughts and melodies that are swimming around in my head. I try to get lost inside of my head. When I begin to bring structure to these thoughts and melodies, I am mindful of the possibility of singing the songs with others. I want people to easily catch on to the song or at least to part of the song. The clearest measure of success for me, as a songwriter, is when I hear kids singing my songs on the playground while they are swinging or jumping rope. The song has then taken root and now belongs to the child. </div><div></div>jamiebarnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05345046782685145110noreply@blogger.com0