In 2018, my wife Cat costume designed the Amazon series Homecoming in Los Angeles, so we decamped Brooklyn for a 1930s cottage aerie perched halfway up Laurel Canyon. I couldn’t bring any guitars to LA, because when you pack for an 8-month trip, with no back-and-forths, hard decisions have to be made between fashion studio and music studio.…
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Clouds Over LA (Sarsaparilla Sessions 20210210)
A song written in 2018 in Laurel Canyon, CA. Performed this year in Lowell, MA (which we affectionately called Lowell Canyon while living there for 8 months in 2021).
LYRICS
time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
or faded memories
of deleted scenes
you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams
clouds over LA
dance alone
between skies
distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky
lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
[vid] This Canyon Drive (Limelight.live performance)
Final song in my 30 April performance beta-testing the new Limelight.live music app. Happy always to work out a few kinks, and bring some melody to the current chaos.
well I’m climbing up this Canyon drive
high enough to see across time
to the days where you and I
had nothing to leave behind
up here, on this Canyon drive
a thousand feet up in the sky
on a one-lane two-way graded switchback ride
we opened up and saw ourselves from outside
and knew we wanted no other life
up here, on this Canyon drive
down in the Valley a relentless pursuit of dreams
in every shadow a sorrow and a scheme
a world designed to keep you from coming alive
far away from all the light that shines
up here, on this Canyon drive
what price wouldn’t you pay
to let nothing get in your soul’s way
to quiet dark echoes of unlived lives
at least up here there’s hope you’ll find
peace on this Canyon drive
[sounds] Stripped State: Laurel Canyon Recordings
From January to June 2018, my wife Cat costume designed the Amazon series adaptation of the podcast Homecoming that shot in L.A., so we decamped Brooklyn for a 1930s cottage aerie perched halfway up Laurel Canyon. I bought a knock around Seagull guitar at the perfect scaled All-In-One guitar shop in Koreatown, and recorded a couple dozen tracks in our Gould Avenue house.…
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[music video] This Canyon Drive
Figures that living in Laurel Canyon for six months would inspire one of my best tracks. Special place. Will return with more permanence someday.
[track] The Last Time Up Ahead
this one’s for the ones who stop to think
this one’s for the ones who always knew
this one’s for the ones who see the absurdity
this was a place we lived in peace
a place we lived in silence
a place we lived together in light
the last time
is cloud nine
and you won’t know
you’re dead
but the saddest time
is the first time
you see
the last time
up ahead
how many days can you see through things
how frayed is a soul made of string
how many ways can a memory bring you down
what happened all the power burned out
what happened all that’s certain’s in doubt
what happened all the love turned it back on us
there’s no one around who doesn’t think they know
nowhere you’re left to be, no place left to go
[track] Canyon Songbird Dream #7
i believe in my dream
I believe in my dream
in my song, i believe you’ll see
all the lives we are to lead
searching for answers
is a waste of precious time
destiny doesn’t ring the bell,
doesn’t tell you you’ve arrived
songbird on an electric line
only knows he’s incomplete
caught up in a lookout for love
all his faith on endless repeat
may never know magic
of a returned call
but he never sounds tragic
never sounds small
[track] Paper Streets [20180601.1]
You came a long long way
just to find nothing
on the other end of a promise
from the other side of the sun
the road was mapped but never real
still the dream of a long gone man
now foxtails push up through cracked cement
and long abandoned plans
Paper streets always burn.…
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[track] Canyon Bees, Birds, and a Chicken (20180509.1)
“A bee, a bird, and a chicken are hanging out in the Hollywood hills…” sounds like the start of a joke, but it’s just a field recording. The bees are pollinating a perpetual-blooming Echium Candicans (“pride of Madeira”) flowering shrub in our Laurel Canyon Garden, while a mockingbird, a scrub jay, a few other birds, and a chicken across the street join in the chorus.…
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[track] Every Light Leads (20180426.1)
all you’ve got is a feeling
and what i got won’t show
b/c our visions of love
only intersected long ago
gonna go where every light leads
if it only takes me round the block
i don’t care
at least i’m searching
at least i’m driving
where you’re still aching
to get somewhere
first time i knew luck was
the first time we laughed at the same truth
but there’s only so many lies
you can sell yourself and still pull through
“burning a bridge” burns one ahead,
not one already crossed.…
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[track] Quiet Nowhere (20180426.1)
the smarter you are today
the more you live in shadow
never giving up all you know
‘cos it’s
quiet nowhere
la la la la la la la la la
it’s quiet nowhere
to long for someday soon
is to long for days gone by
they’re both parallel paper streets
through a
quiet nowhere
the sound of things falling is the same sound
as things rising into the air
time spent afraid of what you might hear
well, that’s a quiet nowhere
that feel when the world lets you down
that feel when old friends freeze you out
when you’re seen as wrong when everyone’s not right
it’s quiet nowhere
[track] Love Your Self Any Way (20180426.1)
we were young
you were younger
never were to be in love
i should’ve known better
every price has a one
you wanted the world to burn
vanish into points of no return
‘cos hardest to learn
you never could say
love your self any way
afraid of truth
living in shadows
is no way to move through life
in the end, in this haunted future
you set yourself alight
saturation turns to gray
where there are only beautiful days
you found only
darkness in sunshine
you saw only one
way out
[track] Wonderland (20180418.1)
Mattie was the kinda girl
who saw the end of the world
every time she opened her eyes
Roger was the kinda guy
never turned down a ride
figured “the end of days is just down the line.”
the price you pay
counting on judgment day for love
is to waste the light away
wide awake
wishing on the dark
(in Wonderland)
they found an acre and a half
halfway up Wonderland
in September 1973
they spent a few years
thinking the end was near
and cut down none of their trees
their earth gave way on a red flag day
right around 1982
they held on fast
against a backdraft
into the black they flew
they always thought of each other
as first time lovers
in an endless secret rendezvous
but sometimes living a life of desire
leaves you dreaming of fire
in a state of always almost coming true
[track] What’s Left Of You Is Here (live, 20180313)
I knew everything of you
in how you said your name.
On our way to points B unknown
from whatever points A.
I will never need to know
how the shadows fell across your face
In that place you used to be
Before you escaped
To California. for untold revelations, on a self-sent invitation.…
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[track] It (20180412.1a)
I wanna blow the doors off of everything
just because I can
I got no direction
I don’t care much for a plan
I’m gonna do it just because I can
I wanna call the world out for what it is
just because it can’t
I got a few ideas
that I know that it can’t stand
I wanna do it just because it can’t
I wanna make this life as simple as you say
just because it’s free
I got a few years left
and they’re still ahead of me
I’m gonna do it
just because
[track] Clouds Over LA (20180412.7)
time will not release
a missing puzzle piece
faded memories
don’t know what you mean
you can’t watch a sunrise
through someone else’s eyes
if they never see you
in dreams
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
distant freeways shimmer
traffic as rivers
red and white ribbons
valley to sky
lost friends reappear
in dusty windshields
as evening light hits
California 5
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
drifting the night
suspended from life
shadows of every last good bye
clouds over LA dance alone between skies
[sounds] canyon morning
guitar + sunrise + birds + distant traffic https://t.co/gFHEZCAuzL
— ../westy (@westyreflector) March 15, 2018
March 15, 2018 at 12:44PM
via IFTTT
Canyon Morning [20180314]
a laurel canyon dawn: guitar + sunrise + birds + distant traffic
slow and loose channeling of Tony Rice’s interpretation of Shenandoah
[track] Jupiter & Tennessee (20180313.4)
She said, “Pull off at Exit Two Eighteen.
Let me out, I’ll find another ride.
I just don’t know where the time has gone,
and I’m tired of these freeway signs.
“Your stories make me laugh,
but your songs make me cry.
I don’t think I can live that way.
I need someone not so low, and maybe not so high.…
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[track] Counting (20180310.3)
What if we could ride all the waves
What if the world was safe
for everything we are
What if we could exchange
Every turn we’ll ever take
For one true North Star
Counting on lightning
Counting on dreaming
Counting on sleeping sometime soon
Counting on one plan
Counting on another hand
(and I’m still) Counting on counting on you
What if we could live on a cloud
above the rain
where stars are the only lights
But you need stable ground
your wings need a break
You carry me through the sky
Sometimes the faster you hold on
To each other
The faster you drift apart
Together