Tag Archives: Songwriting

FLYING BURRITO’S, A HOLIDAY SONG IN MAY, AND BEING PISSED OFF WITH GOD.

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Week 15 Juanita

These past few weeks I’ve gone back to a few old favorites, both originals and covers.

I couldn’t resist doing the song “Juanita”. The great American songwriter Gram Parsons wrote the song along with Chris Hillman during their time as part of the group The Flying Burrito Brothers. There are always a few songs by Gram Parsons that I keep ready to play live. This is one of my favorites. I first heard it when growing up but came to really love it when I heard Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow do their version of it. Best harmonies ever. Check out my video performance of the song right here.

I also recorded a song I rarely ever play out live. It’s called “All That I Need is You”. I wrote it a few years ago as part of a songwriting group I was a member of. We would come up with a weekly word or idea prompt for a new song. One week during December the assignment was to write a holiday song. This is what I wrote. Check it out right here.

Lastly, yes, a song about being pissed off with God. It’s called “Oh Lord”. I wrote it after hearing a man speak on the news who had just watched his whole house be blown away by Hurricane Katrina. Check out my YouTube performance of it right here. The song was also on my last EP “The Singles”. You can listen to the recording with a full band and buy it too by going to my main website at www.RachelLeeWalsh.com.

That’s all she wrote.

Thank for listening. See you again soon.

Rachel

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An Old Song by Special Request

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Week 14 Baby Blue Main

A friend I’ve known for many years requested that I do an old song of mine called “Baby Blue”. I wrote it years ago back when I first branched out my own as a solo artist. I’ve had the song rolling around in my head for a couple of months now so finally decided to play it here for 52in52. Check it out on my RLW YouTube page. This one goes out to Jennifer.

I also uploaded a couple of other songs last week, including covers of “The Wayfaring Stranger” and “The One I Love is Gone”. I was cat sitting at a friend’s place in San Francisco and didn’t have a guitar, so ended up doing some a cappella performances with a bit of hand percussion.

Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoy. See you next week.

Rachel

 

 

“Goodnight To You and Me” by Rachel Lee Walsh

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Week 8 Goodnight To You and Me

Each night I put my toddler to bed, we say goodnight to everything he loves. For example, we say goodnight to his animal toys, goodnight to his cars (he loves cars), and goodnight to the people in our lives. Obviously, I had to write something I could sing to him at this time of day. What I came up with was “Goodnight To You and Me”. I’ll probably write other verses to it in the future, but for now I’ve posted a short version of the song.

I also missed the last two weeks of posting videos, but now have them up for viewing. I played “Something About What Happens When We Talk”, an old favorite of mine by Lucinda Williams. I also played “Leaving Train”, a sweet song by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. With this one, I experimented adding percussion to my performances by using an ankle tambourine. You can view all three videos by clicking the links below.

“Goodnight To You and Me” by Rachel Lee Walsh

“Leaving Train” by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

 “Something About What Happens When We Talk” by Lucinda Williams

Thanks for listening. See you next week. Rachel

“Man on The Wire” by Rachel Lee Walsh

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Week 7 Man on The Wire

I started working on “Man on The Wire” a couple of years ago after seeing the film “Man on Wire“, a 2008 documentary about the high-wire artist Philippe Petit walking on a tight rope strung between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. It’s an amazing story about preparing for the walk, getting to the top of the buildings in secret, and the walk itself. I have an intense fear of heights that I’m always pushing myself to get over, so watching his story was beyond inspiring to me. I will certainly never do a tight rope walk between two buildings as tall as the Twin Towers, but I can at least work toward getting up to the top of high mountains, which is what I wrote the song about.

I’ve recent months I’ve been attending songwriting workshops with a chapter of West Coast Songwriters. I played this song recently at one of the meetups and changed it a bit based on the groups input. I’d love to hear your insight as well.

Watch the video performance at this link: Rachel Lee Walsh YouTube Page.

Thanks for listening. See you next week.

Rachel

 

“Trapeze” A Patty Griffin Cover by Rachel Lee Walsh

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Week 5 Trapeze

 

This week I was in the mood to do a cover of a Patty Griffin song called “Trapeze”. I find the lyrics of the song to be so beautiful and inspiring, so much that at one point I thought of getting a tattoo of the chorus. I didn’t end up doing that…yet.

Check out my video of the song on my RLW YouTube page.

Thanks for listening.

See you next week.

Rachel

 

“Make Room for The New” by Rachel Lee Walsh

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Week 4 Make Room for The New

A couple of years ago I wrote a 30 second song as a writing challenge with The Ignition Lab, a group of songwriters I got together with to write. The goal was to come up with a short song that could be used in a TV commercial. I ended up writing something I thought could be used for a home improvement store. I revisited the song again this year and tweaked it a bit. You can see the video on my RLW YouTube page.

Thanks for listening.

Until next week.

Rachel