Albums, Evensong, music, new release, New Single, Newsletter, Podcast, Poetry

How Well Do You Know Za?

I’m dropping another single from the Trio album this month and wanted to share a little background on it’s conception.

The song has a metaphorically smiling lyric that prayerfully will challenge the listener a bit. The title was actually from a magazine article that I had stumbled upon. When I first saw it, I immediately recognized a lyrical idea that could be light in a comical sense, but at the same time thoughtfully spiritual. History has demonstrated to me on more than a few occasions how wonderfully guard-dropping this approach can be.

I’m always looking for a way to stir up the listener’s imagination, and hopefully conjure up some emotional response from them. In this case, maybe even some abstract thinking.

Musically the composition was once again a reaction to the Blicher, Hemmer, Gadd album called Omara, which dominated my playlist throughout the early months of 2022.

Lyrics:
Early in the morning, any time of day
Any time’s a good time, any kind of way
I can take it cold, any time at all
It goes down easy, in the local church hall
So tell me?
Tell me, please?
Won’t you tell me?
How well do you know ‘Za?

If I had my way, I’d always have more
More than may be normal, a note of folklore
Some cry, ‘oh no!, you can’t do that!’
Preaching to the misfit, like some green-eyed cat
So tell me?
Tell me, please?
Oh won’t you tell me?
How well do you know ‘Za?

Don’t give me substitutes, don’t give me theories
No hypothetical miniseries
Just give me a slice, a verse or two
Yeah, I’m a greek guy, but any version will do

Album: Trio
Video Credit: E.M. | Pizza by Alfredo (dafont.com)
Available on the platform of your choice.
YouTube Link

Albums, music, new album, new release, New Single, Poetry, Video

How Well Do You Know ‘Za?

‘Za is the fourth single release from December’s Trio album. A sparse reimagining of the tradition trio setting.

This song has a metaphorically smiling lyric that should challenge the listener a bit. The title was actually from a magazine article that I had stumbled upon. I immediately recognized what I wanted to say, or maybe play with is a better explanation. I’m always looking for a way to stir up a listener’s imagination, and hopefully conjure up some emotional response from them. In this case, maybe even some abstract thinking.

Don’t give me substitutes, don’t give me theories
No hypothetical miniseries
Just give me a slice, a verse or two
Yeah, I’m a greek guy, but any version will do

I go traditional, I go New York
I go with fold it, or a knife and fork
I don’t go judging, so don’t judge me
Just offer me a bite, and let my manna be
So tell me?
Tell me, please?
Won’t you tell me?
How well do you know ‘Za?

© 2022 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

Album: Trio
Video Credits: EM | Pizza by Alfredo (Dafont.com)
YouTube Link
Website

Albums, music, new album, new release, New Single, Poetry, Video

The DReam

A combination of things brought this song to life rather quickly. It was a year ago February (Black History Month), when I was inspired by the poem, ‘As I Grew Older‘ by Langston Hughes. The softening of time touched a nerve within me and I felt the need to comment on it, and so I did.

Musically as 2022 arrived I had been taking a deep dive into the organ trio Blicher, Hemmer, Gadd and their album, ‘Omara.’ Recalling a season quite a way back where I played 300 some dates in an organ trio, this arrangement became an outcome of the many smoke filled nights from that different world. I truly believe that when we write, perform, and listen to music it seeps deep into our soul and often needs some time to brew down there before creatively rising up in a new form.

The studio process was seamless, it really was uneventful other than my rather large grin that continued to grow through the sessions. There’s no excess on the whole Trio project, just the essentials.

I should add as a clarification that I included the DR in the title, ‘The DReam’ to honor Dr. Martin Luther King.

Lyrics:
A long, long time ago
So long ago I’ve forgotten
A notion filled my mind
A dream divinely begotten
But suddenly a distance appeared
Vanquished, the dream disappeared

A long, long shadow
Grew ever longer every day
In the darkness I struggled
Contentious in my way
But nothing by chance impressed
The dream dimmed and was suppressed

My credence, my steadfast credence
Strengthened my enchanted moonbeam
My journey will not be abandoned
Providence will shelter the dream

A long, long tomorrow
As long as the aim can see
Good fortune will indwell me
I’ve been reassured lovingly
That in the cards works a love supreme
A love that’ll ascertain the dream

Album: Trio
Video Credit: E.M. | 愚木混株 Cdd20
YouTube Link
Available at http://www.eddymann.com

Albums, Art, Art Work, music, new album, new release, New Single, Poetry, Video

For the Love of Art

We are by nature creative beings. We’re wired to be imaginative, to be innovative, and to be resourceful. Regardless of what we do for a living, we’ll do it better if we’re thinking as a visionary.

The title of this song was inspired by a random magazine article entitled For the Love of Vinyl, It grabbed my attention immediately and I found the lyric to be an easier than usual creation.

I had just read an inspiring Rich Kirkpatrick blog on our need be creative so I found myself within the creative flow very quickly.

We are created in the image of our Creator… so dare to be a dreamer.

Lyrics:
Life is a bohemial existence
With a disregarding tenet or two
With non-conventional thoughts and reason
And behavior that some might misconstrue

Life is a juvenescent sandbox
Where building roams beyond confines
Where boundless minds can wander
Coloring where there are no lines

Welcome to the splintered aggregation
Where odd resolve to get even
Curious for the love of art
And the courage to brave the unbelievin’

Life is a poetic string of ramblings
Written in the margins of the day
Multicolored snap-shots in couplets
A work of acrobatic wordplay

Life is a whimsical pallet
Daring you to conjure the extreme
Releasing your inherent rhapsody
For the love of art must venture to dream

For the love of art; write the unspoken
For the love of art; paint the unseen
For the love of art; voice the unheard
For the love of art

© 2022 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

Album: Trio
Video Credit: E.M.
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/RZZURiRreqs
Available at http://www.eddymann.com

music, new release, New Single, Newsletter, Poetry, Video

What If

The question is… Your will, my will, or His?
~ E.M.

Album: Stars Under My Feet
Video Credit: Yaroslav Shuraev | E.M.
Available at http://www.eddymann.com
© 2017 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

Lyrics:
I’d like to believe it’s just you and me
And the tiny little world we’ve carved out
But I can’t deceive what my eyes perceive
That there’s always a speckle of doubt

In your playful dreams it’s just you and me
In a 5 Below novella
But in my prayerful mind I sense a plan that’s divine
And there’s no prince or Cinderella

What if this?
What if that?
What you gonna rhyme if I drop my hat?
I can’t promise you more than the hippest cat
What if it comes down to that?

Will you be mine?
Will you be my sunshine?
Whose will provides the fizz
Will I be yours?
Will there be tempting doors?
Your will, my will, or His?

In the beginning we swore against sinning
And said we’d be pure until ashes
But words won’t protect us from life’s unexpected
Only perfect love’s cancels out crashes

©️ 2017 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

music, new release, New Single, Newsletter, Poetry, Video

Someday

The future is a very fragile and unpredictable thing. We have no way of assuring how each day, let alone our week, or year, will turn out with any certainty. I was reflecting on this and the use of the word someday when I wrote this song. I was thinking about how we often refer to someday in describing our future dreams and endeavors. My parents always spoke of someday as in my future, down the road, and spiritually God also does, but life has an uncanny way of sneaking up on us when we least expect it.

Someday was oh so later
Someday was down the road
But someday just happened to me now ~ E.M.

Album: Stars Under My Feet
(Release Date 5/20/22)
Video Credit: E.M.
Available at http://www.eddymann.com
© 2017 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

Lyrics:
I went to bed a child
and woke a lifetime later
A silhouette of who I used to be
A scattered rush of moments
Missed or worse forgotten
An epitaph of frittered diggity

I sense my mother’s worry
I hear my father’s words
I see my back walking away
You can cry, stormy Monday
You can thank God for Friday
But blink and it’ll be someday

Walking the beach when the surf’s out
Pining your mountain away
Sleeping til noon on a weekday
Someday could happen today

I wandered without purpose
And tuned a stone deaf ear
I figured someday, somehow
Someday was oh so later
Someday was down the road
But someday just happened to me now

©️ 2017 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

Mannerism, music, Poetry, Video

Dree

dree /drē/ verb ARCHAIC•SCOTTISH endure (something burdensome or painful).

The quest to live a loving and compassionate life can be challenging at times. Each day’s ups and downs are different, but the power of love is unmatched, and therein lies our journey.

It’s so gray when I look out my window
Silhouettes upon the hill
I’ve come to expect a winter’s night
Even her kiss brings a chill

There in my mind rests a sight serene
Misty green eyes that say yes
The wind in her hair and the scent of spring
Flowing down her dress

Dree, the sameness overtakes me
Dree, the world’s a tired gray
Dree, I long for something different
I long for yesterday

I can recall when the faces were glowing
Smiles that beckoned us near
The expressions excited with all the unknown
Before there was ever a tear

#Wordprompt #Green #April

Albums, Gifts, new album, new release, New Single, Newsletter, Poetry

The Great Dance Realized on ‘IHS’

Believing on the promise
Denying all happenstance
Prayerfully among the Three
Banding in the great dance
~ E.M.

With the release of ‘IHS,’ my eighteenth album, I’m overwhelmed with the journey I’ve been blessed to partake in. One never knows when life will unexpectedly create a turnabout, and all things common become the stranger, but as I realize this project coming to life, I’m resting in a niche that feels like favor.

Excitedly, I’m looking forward to seeing how these songs resonate with the world. Often in life we are asked to wait on His word, and this venture will no doubt require some patience on my part. So I take a deep breath and relish in the moment of quiet, because there’s still work to be done.

The great dance continues as this period of downtime has been abundantly fruitful. There are a number of projects in various forms of completion that are beckoning my time, and so as I return to my Loft sessions I pray you’ll be enlightened, energized, and entertained by ‘IHS.’

Moving about through the dawn of light
A ghostly luminary
Dancin’ around my stumbling tongue
Shuffling through the dictionary
Framing the flow in perfect love
The poetry of romance
Invited to coalesce the divine
Converging in the great dance
~ E.M.

Pray on,
Eddy

Albums, Gifts, Mannerism, music, Newsletter, Poetry, Video

Pray On!

Those of you who know me well, know that I’ve been using “Pray on!” as a farewell for twenty-plus years. So I guess it was only a matter of time before it became the focus of a song. A short while ago, I was meditating on Proverbs 1:33 when this evolved into a song idea.

‘Peace lies in the heart of the believer
Calm lies in the hands of compassion
Love lies in the words of the one, who’ll pray on, so pray on’
~ E.M.

It seemed timely when I first wrote it, and now today it feels even more fitting as we find our way forward through this time challenging season.

Though it hasn’t seen the light of day as of this writing, I’m excited about introducing it here in video form, and looking forward to unveiling it live in the near future.

Album: Unreleased

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Lyrics:
Peace lies in the heart of the believer
Calm lies in the hands of compassion
Love lies in the words of the one
who’ll pray on, so pray on

Quiet’s in the heart of the believer
Grace lies in the hands of compassion
Love lies in the words of the one
who’ll pray on, so pray on

Fair is the lone star that smiles amongst the clouds
Bright’s the tiny light amongst the darkness
When love shines in the midst of judgment
Hope is the one that’ll pray on

Joy lies in the heart of the believer
Mercy’s in the hands of compassion
Love lies in the words of the one
who’ll pray on, so pray on

Pray on
Pray on
Pray on
On and on

Albums, Gifts, Mannerism, music, Poetry, Video

All Are Welcome

‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28 ESV), and there you have it, in God’s eyes we are one.

There’s a church not far from my northern home, which looks like, and sounds like, the harmony, and color of the world. I believe it’s exactly as God had imagined. All are welcome in His house.

This was written as a gathering song for worship, it has brought my ministry into places that I never would have imagined. It is impossible to understand the hand of God and how he uses our gifts, but every once in a which we catch a glimpse, and when we do, it’s divine.

Pray on,
Eddy

Album: Something Beautiful & New

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Lyrics:
All are welcome to gather as one
All are welcome to worship the Son
All are welcome every color and creed
All are welcome whatever your need

So rise up and praise the King
Lift your voice to Him and sing
All glory to the risen One
To the Savior, God’s own Son

All are welcome to hear His voice
All are welcome to shout and rejoice
All are welcome to hear His word
All are welcome to share what you heard

All are welcome here
All are welcome here

All are welcome as sister and brother
All are welcome as one another
All are welcome across the land
All are welcome God’s Kingdom’s at hand

Works

One Mann's wandering thoughts…

Category Archives: Poetry

The DReam

For the Love of Art

Dree

All Are Welcome