The Twelfth Day of Bosque Christmas

January 5, 2020 Timothy Price23 Comments

Tomorrow is Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas. I wrote a version of the Twelve Days of Christmas using the bosque animals that starts with the 12th day of bosque Christmas. Special guest Suzette Presti was gracious enough to do the vocals. Enjoy.

The Twelfth Day of Bosque Christmas
Lyrics by Timothy Price
Vocals: Suzette Presti
Arrangement: Timothy Price
Guitar, bass, percussion: Timothy Price

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve coyotes crooning
Eleven flickers flitting
Ten finches feeding
Nine seagulls sailing
Eight badgers burrowing
Seven cats a purring
Six crows a cawing
Five beaver slaps
Four geese honking
Three cranes in flight
Two owls to hoot and
A pterodactyl in the Tangle-Heart Tree.

Red Cape on the Edge of the Salton Sea

November 29, 2019March 12, 2023 Timothy Price28 Comments

I have a series of photos taken in twilight at the Salton Sea that I was trying to decide how I wanted to present them. I finally decided to write a song and create a music video with the images. I took advantage of this wet, rainy, muddy Black Friday to record the song and put the video together.

Red Cape on the Edge of the Salton Sea
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price

Standing on the edge
Of the Salton Sea
Dancing in the darkness
Destiny

Wrapped in a cloak
Releasing red
Wakening spirits
From the salty beds

Twilight glows
Off the shore
Cape swirls
Disturbed forlorn

Ceremony’s twilight
Apparitions conjured
Silhouettes dancing
in the night
Dusk turns on
A golden somber
Silence calls
Ghosts asunder

Musical Chairs: Classical Gas for Two Chairs. Happy Halloween!

October 30, 2019 Timothy Price21 Comments

As a special treat for Halloween, Lane and Tristan perform “Classical Gas For Two Chairs” which involved exorcising the spirits that possess our counter stools. Lane is First Chair and Tristan is second chair. I added a percussion track and an “on-hold”, “elevator”, Muzak-like track for counterpoint. Happy Halloween!

Coyotes

October 20, 2019March 12, 2023 Timothy Price29 Comments

Coyote (Canis latrans)

I recorded coyotes yipping and howling in the bosque and wrote a song to go with the canine chorale. It was dark when they went off on their bosque flashmob; however, whenever the coyotes start yipping and howling right at sundown we never see them as they are hidden in the brush and undergrowth in the bosque. The coyotes do flashmob howling quite often, and they sound close and often howl from all sides. I don’t have videos of coyotes; therefore, I used photos I’ve done of coyotes, plus videos of me and the guitars I played on the song.

About the guitars. I finished building the Black Tele last week. I built it with standard Tele pickups, so it has a nice twangy sound to it. The blonde jazz guitar is a Guild A-150B with a DeArmond Rhythm Chief 1000 floating pickup.

COYOTES
Lyrics and Music by Timothy Price

Coyotes
howling in the night
Canine chorus
Offers up a fright

Binomial chorale
Reverbs through the trees
Like a bosque flashmob
Surround sound and for free

Dusk falls
Latrans he rejoices
Yipping, screeching, howls
A cacophony of voices

Chile Season & Chile Music

September 22, 2019March 12, 2023 Timothy Price29 Comments

Chile season is upon us. We put up a sack a green chile from Wagner’s Farm here in Corrales this afternoon, and while we were waiting for the them to steam after bringing the freshly roasted sack of green chiles home, I got inspired to finish the music video for my Capsaicin Cub song. The video is meant to be funny, so some aspects are a little different.

Below is a photo of the chile guitar and chile bass I used in the video. They are built by Dean, but I had a photo of chiles printed on a skin by Curtis Osborne at The Village Printshop here in Corrales earlier in the year, and we stuck the chiles skins on the guitar and bass. I got the guitar and bass on eBay at very good prices; therefore, I was expecting to use them mainly as props. As it turned out, the guitar and bass are very good instruments. I played the chile guitar on the recording of Capsaicin Cub used in the video, but Ron Blood played the bass line using his own electric bass guitar. However, I have played the chile bass on many of the recordings I have posted this year.

After pealing, cutting off the heads, and removing the seeds and veins from the green chiles, we normally put them in quart-size Ziploc bags, flatten the bags and freeze them. Since we have a lot of recipes that take three quart-size bags of green chiles, we decided to freeze some of the chiles in gallon Ziploc bags with the same amount of green chile as three quart-size bags in each gallon bag.

Angry Beavers

May 10, 2019March 12, 2023 Timothy Price18 Comments

The Conservancy tore the beavers’ dams out of the clear water ditch again. As you might imagine, the beavers are upset. The Angry Beavers asked the AWB to post “Bite ‘Em On The Old Shin Bone” again to remind everyone about how unjust the Conservancy is destroying the beavers’ hard work. Let alone messing up the ecosystem the beavers create with their dams.

If you would like to read about the video and the lyrics, you can visit the original post at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2017/11/bite-em-on-the-old-shin-bone. If you are curious about the leg with the “Do Not Throw” tag on the toe, you can read about it at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/7/tales-from-my-youth-do-not-throw.

Still Small Voice

February 4, 2019March 12, 2023 Timothy Price28 Comments

Today’s video is original music I wrote using a prayer by fellow blogger Michelle Marie for the lyrics. On December 7, 2018, Michelle Marie posted Still… Small… Voice on Tell Me About It at https://tellmeaboutit.co/2018/12/07/still-small-voice/, and I had a feeling there was an issue with her daughter, Alex, who has serious health problems. I commented that her prayer was beautiful, but sad, and asked how Alex was. Michelle Marie responded that she had been very sick and in ICU the week before. Michelle Marie mentioned that Alex just wants to lead a normal life. I could certainly relate to that having had a lot of health issues myself over the years. I didn’t realize the gravity of the situation until Michelle Marie emailed me with details. Alex almost died.

After getting the full story, I was inspired to write a song using Michelle Marie’s prayer for the lyrics. I was trying to imagine what is was like for Alex to be in ICU clinging to life, and started working on creating an etherial lullaby. I finished recording the song on December 15, 2018, and sent it to Michelle Marie. When I learned that she plays piano, I transcribed a short version of the flamenco guitar into piano and sent her the sheet music. She sent me images to use in a video, but I had to think for a long time how to do a video to go with the music. I finally came up with what I believe is a suitable video. Here’s my version of Michelle Marie’s Still… Small… Voice.

Wild, Wild Life

January 2, 2014 Timothy Price2 Comments

In David Byrne’s movie “True Stories” there’s a music video to the song “Wild, Wild Life.” Chad’s gravity defying stunts and Liz’s jumps made me think of Wild, Wild Life. The problem with stunts in the limited space of our dance room/photo studio is that both Chad and Liz jumped so high that they got above where I was framing the photos in several shots.