Interrupting this vineyard blog with what I like to do in the vineyard: write and record music. It’s what I’ve been doing for half a year now instead of writing prose.
Enjoy the new LP. Harmonium. It’s available everywhere online but here’s some links:
On Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/harmonium/1623412871
On BandCamp: https://patrickames.bandcamp.com/album/harmonium
Amazon: https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0B2HQFJB6?
Spotify:
On YouTube: https://youtu.be/2IQP0bIcxz8
Here’s my website: www.patrickames.com
Harmonium is also the title of Wallace Stevens’ first book of poetry (1923) and I happened to be reading it while in my music studio during the 2021-2022 Omicron virus wave. The poems were inspiring and I borrowed the title for a new music project and then buried myself alive for about four months trying to outlast the inspiration. I was also trying to ignore the news, the virus wave and then the war in Ukraine, trying to be positive, inspired, busy. As such, there are no grand overarching themes in this new LP. Only a purposeful exploration of what I want to matter again. That’s why there’s Grace, the LP’s finale.
Producer Jon Ireson propelled Harmonium within this minimalistic songwriting space. He kept it intact. He kept it curious. His bass lines throughout the whole LP are gorgeous and deserve their own listen. But he also played or programmed almost all the instruments, continuing our long-distance collaboration left over from the Virtualistics LP. What a wonderful joy to work with such a talented musician and producer! His guitar soloing on DontChaWanna is classic and his arrangement and mix on No People Are Supreme is mesmerizing. Every song has something special and you’ll notice right away that Jon changed my voice microphone setup – finally we could get down into some raspy crevices.
Chana Matthews joined us at the end to record and her voice and spirit are beautiful and soaring and we had fun in the studio as you will hear.
Harmonium is a well-produced mashup of poetry, art, music, and 2020’s social commentary. It’s where I went to heal and it’s what I came out singing.
Patrick Ames: Guitars and Vocals
Producer Jon Ireson: Bass, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming
Chana Matthews: Backup vocals
Harmonium Tracks:
No People Are Supreme
Sometimes
Will I Ever Be Noticed
DontChaWanna
Is It Okay to Complain
Last Night Was No Mistake
Grace
Producer Jon Ireson’s notes:
“Patrick approached me not long after we had wrapped the Virtualistics record. The pandemic had given him extra time to reflect and plenty of subject matter so once the songs started flowing, they came quite quickly one after another. 'Last Night Was No Mistake' was the first thing he sent me and the tone of the track mixed with his initial dreamy guitar instantly gave me a lot of ideas. I knew we could easily follow this vibe and make a record.
The songs are varied and compose themselves from a wide array of inspirations. I practiced a sort of complex minimalism, giving the songs some lush texture while keeping Patrick's themes at the forefront. My personal favourite is 'No People Are Supreme'. A simple but powerful idea backed by a hypnotic backing track. I also have a soft spot for the closer 'Grace' which is beautiful in its gospel simplicity and warm spirit.” - Jon Ireson, May 2022
Harmonium
Track 1: No People Are Supreme
The refrain came in an instant. I don’t know from where but maybe a result of my constant doom-scrolling on the mobile. World news is tough to digest but one message kept coming back during these dark times: no people were supreme. After the first take it started to sound like the Doors and then it became a magnet for more similes as we progressed. I put in some trippy lyrics for 1960’s Jim Morrison, and Jon Ireson, the producer, piled on with vinyl record scratches to start the track. But Jon’s instrumentation is both present and supportive, a difficult task with such subject matter. At the end I wanted to showcase the refrain and its ability to make the listener sing the words, repeat the phrase, and make it true if only by repetition. To be frank, I wish this had been written so many decades ago – maybe it would have done some good by now.
-No People Are Supreme © 2022 by Patrick Ames. All Rights Reserved.
It’s time to show up for this democracy
It’s time to wake up No people are supreme It’s time to show up It’s time to see
<Your spirit binds thee>
It’s time to show up for this democracy
<Your spirit binds thee>
Your spirit it binds thee
Your spirit it binds thee
It’s tie to show up It’s time to see It’s time to ban the hate
That Keeps us from being free
<Your spirit binds thee Your spirit binds thee>
No people are supreme No people are supreme No people are supreme No people are supreme No people
No people
No people
No people are supreme
Track 2: Sometimes
How do you write a forceful song about climate change when the world hasn’t done a thing about climate abatement for the past 60 years? What to do? I went back to the cadence and style of the social injustice folk song, Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, dozens more, and stripped it down to the voice/lyrics and a C-F-G melody progression. Again, there’s the refrain, this time of the song title, and the whole thing reminds me of a poetry reading. Jon keeps it that way, too, in his bass lines and in the mix of the accompaniment by Chana. The voice you hear me singing is my 7am Sunday morning voice, without coffee, dragging my ass out to the studio space in the cold, misty December weather just to catch that recording on the first take.
Sometimes, © 2022 by Patrick Ames. All rights Reserved.
Sometimes I wish the world / would re- ally really try
Sometimes I stay up all night / and worry till I cry
Sometimes I think about /the end of modern life
Somehow I choke it down / but it burns just like the fires
Sometimes I wish the world would really really try
Sometimes I wish the world would listen to its youth
Just take a look outside and admit there’s no excuse
Sometimes I wonder how this world even exists
Somehow we lasted this long despite our laziness
Sometimes I wish the world would be- lieve in their youth
Once we lose wonder We lose all hope
Once we blame others We fail to cope
Sometimes I wish the world would really really try
Put away the differences that come with being alive
Sometimes I can’t explain the writing on the wall
Except to say it’s coming fast even though we seem to crawl
Sometimes I wish the world would really really try
Sometimes I wish the world would really really try
Track 3: Will I Ever Be Noticed
Love and atrraction in the age of masks. Clean funky little guitar strums, nice little beat, this one slides along effortlessly with the help of Chana’s backup vocals and Jon’s bass fills. Great outro. It’s actually an older song that I recorded a long time ago although now it’s with a shorter story line. That’s legal. You can go back to your old songs and rewrite, rework, and reissue as a different thang. It’s a take on the third-man theme during the age of masks: boy wears mask and is all but invisible to girl and nothing happens. Chana came in at the end and gave it that brightness. The song lifts effortlessly and takes off under its own momentum. Jon gets on a little groove and everything is mixed perfectly including that soulful rhythm guitar. As a story, the song isn’t very elaborate or special, just street scenes until the all-important bridge where we learn that he’s complaining she doesn’t recognize him with the mask on, the one that he’s been wearing for the past several weeks. I’ll let you imagine what it looked like.
Will I Ever Be Noticed
© 2022 by Patrick Ames. All Rights Reserved.
You posted your picture
Your mask was in your hands
I rated it super highly
Because I like those kind of thangs Will I ever be noticed / by you?
I was at that vegan restaurant
When you showed your vax card and got in
you rushed right pass me in the bar
To a table full of your maskless friends
Will I ever be noticed by you?
why can’t I be noticed
Might you recognize me
I’ve had this same mask on For the past several weeks
Can I ever be noticed by you?
You know I took the bus home from work
And sat in the seat right next to you
But you phone-talked the whole time
With your sister who lives in Duluth
Will I ever be noticed by you
Track 4: DontChaWanna This was originally the slowest track on the LP, then it just started to rock. I think it was the Stratocaster that sits near my desk, and as is usually the case with any of my uptempo tracks. Once Jon got the final lyrics and the Strat rifs, he ran with it. The attack was upped, he played lead guitars, synth, and worked the kit just the way I like it (the fills pass before you notice them). And who can’t like the lyrics. No poetry here, just a refrain that begs your accompaniment when stuck in commuter’s traffic. Chana came in and owned it and Jon’s masterful mix electrifies the track. It’s the energy track of the LP and placed perfectly in the middle for momentum.
Dontchawanna - © 2022 by Patrick Ames. All rights Reserved.
Dont Cha Wanna be Famous
Dont Cha Wanna be a Star
Dont Cha Wanna Dont Cha Wanna Wanna quit your job
Dont Cha Wanna Relax
Dont Cha Wanna Be in Charge
Dont Cha Wanna Dont Cha Wanna Wanna quit your job
Too many days in quarantine
That virus has changed my life
The years are racing in front on me / I don’t wanna to live to work
I’m leaving that job, I resign
Dont Cha Wanna have back
all those years
Dont Cha Wanna Dont Cha Wanna Wanna quit your job
Dont Cha Wanna Meet less
Dont Cha Wanna travel far
Dont Cha Wanna Dont Cha Wanna Wanna quit your job
Track 5: Is It Okay to Complain
This is the one track on the LP closest to Stevens and the whole poetry thing but it’s not a poem that I set to music, though, it’s a song that uses songwriting devices to tell a universal story about a parent and their offspring as they age together. I had no one in mind when writing it. It’s a story of two people and the story line uses repetition of key words and ideas that change stanza by stanza, such as “the Fates” and the reprise of “Look at you now.” I pair those repeating elements with the music and the melody and it’s the only track to have an actual guitar solo, done early on but left intact to reflect the strong emotions running through this parent and child relationship as they grow older. Jon keeps the track focused, not over-produced, slightly bare bones with all the emotion and family angst intact.
Is It Okay to Complain, © 2022 by Patrick Ames.
Look at you now, you’re all grown up
Practical hair frames a face I’ve thought of
Your shoulders are square defiantly straight
You smile when you speak as if thankig the fates
But those eyes have never
and that stare remains the same: Is this what time does to us?
Is this how things change?
Is this how I age with you?
Is it okay to complain.
Look at you now, you’re all grown up
Kids at your feet, their faces need scrubbed
Your body is used as it carefully waits
For your family to grow up and escape their fates
But those eyes have never changed
and that stare remains the same:
Is this what life does to us?
Is this how families change?
Is this how I age with you? Is it okay to complain?
Look at you now, you’re all grown up
Your spouse and you have broken up
You call every week and we talk until late
You squirm in your seat as if delaying the fates
eyes have never changed
because that stare remains the same:
Is this what God does to us?
Is this how things change?
Is this how I age with you?
Is it okay if I complain?
Track 6: Last Night Was No Mistake
This was the first song I wrote for Harmonium after experimenting with a delayed plugin on the guitar. I thought it emulated that afterglow feeling after a new relationship. Was the date pre-ordained? Are you meeting your future spouse? Thus the soaring guitars that play off of one another and Chana’s duets. I finished my portions and sent them to Jon for the first of anything in many, many months: “Hi, Jon! Hey, wow. I did something interesting! Wanna hear!” In the end he was kind and complimentary and it set me off to do six or seven more songs.
Track 6: Last Night Was No Mistake
© 2022 by Patrick Ames. All Rights Reserved.
You know last night you and I escaped
we left the party early and we found a place
Last night / we stayed up late
talked the / whole night long
talked about what’s / right and wrong
Last night / I was blown away
by your / vision and grace
And your / passions and taste
So don’t you believe
We were meant to be
Last Night was no mistake That’s what you told me
So, don’t you know, we were meant to be
Last night / was no mistake
We were / meant to be here
We were / sent to be steered
Last night / we stayed up late talked the /
whole night long Even asked / the stars along
So don’t you believe
We were meant to be
Last Night was no mistake That’s what you told me
Track 7: Grace
The last song to be written, having come out of the other end of the pandemic, being alive, again, another virus wave, after war in Ukraine and shootings in the US and heatwaves and drought, I wanted to be thankful again. I wanted the LP to end with the human condition in a thankful kind of way.
Grace ©2022 by Patrick Ames. All rights reserved.
Thank you for the food on the table
We especially like the cheese
And thank you for all those things we ignore
Like clouds and birds and trees
Thank you for these thumbs that move
Pass the primordial soup
Thank you for this taste of eternity
Oh Thank you
Thank you
Oh Thank you
Thank you from me
Oh Thank You
All I wanna do is thank you
Thank you God
Thank you
Can I get some more butter on my toast?