Back to lo-fi home recording with acoustic guitar , bass, keyboards and multiple vocals. The theme is in defence of repetitive time consuming behaviour that puts you into a nice comfort zone.

REPETITIONS

I’m doing this thing that irritates - a kind of self-improvement

Yet I’m hearing from you acidic - do I need to it quite so often

Well yeah why not I try to justify - turning up the heat

But you’re needling me like this program is something rotten

Sick of being defensive me

I’m herding angst to make you see

Yeah I

I’m doing this thing to face down the black dog

And if these repetitions feel like a tightening knot

Hey I’m sorry but it’s advantageous for it to be

Everybody has a lifetime of things

That could have gone differently – mmm so much better

And this ground in memory – it fogs the mind

As one is contemplating, mulling thru all this messy weather

Pack your bag anxiety

I got this thing that sets me free

Yeah I

I’m doing this thing to face down the black dog

And if these repetitions feel like a tightening knot

Hey I’m sorry but it’s advantageous for it to be

Better than mythology

These repetitions anchor me

Got the chance to re-record this song (I originally posted 4 years ago) with Scott Seabright in Auckland who has worked with many NZ acts including Neil Finn (crowded House). With Vince the multi instrument session man chiming in, the end result reminds me a bit of a Quincy Jones production and it's a totally real recording with actual drums, bass and everything else all recorded in 1 and 1/4 days..

Minimalist approach to JEALOUS with Guitar, bass, KB, vocals to click track. Also out on SPOTIFY a rerecording of POKER FACE with pro Auckland engineer Scot Seabight and session man Vince

Not Bothering to be Jealous

Had my eye on the half chance

Though half would be exaggerating no?

Cause she’s with that guy I hear

And they’re really quite the pair

But I’m not bothering. I’m not bothering, I’m not bothering

To be jealous

Suffering daily through her fragrance trail

And her laugh behind - the office wall

That guy she’s with must cavitate

When she’s at his door

Thank God I think at 5pm

My reflection in the window of the tram

Won’t think of her tonight

I got songs I’m gonna write

Yes I’m not bothering. I’m not bothering, I’m not bothering

To be jealous

Gotta go pour myself a heavy dose

That calming thing

Trouble is that’s when those big ideas

Come flooding in

Yeah I tell you what, I’ll text her now

Let it all come out, this sacred cow

That there is but one true love

In this universe of lust

So I’m not bothering. I’m not bothering, I’m not bothering

To be jealous

Yeah cause I know you and me

Are the soul of ecstasy

So I’m not bothering. I’m not bothering, I’m not bothering

To be jealous

This is not my song or my voice - it's the work of Marc Steyn who I was in a duo with many years ago. Unfortunately Marc contracted a terminal illness a few years ago. He was such a perfectionist he only released songs reluctantly. I don't think this song has seen the light of day yet - A song Marc was working on in the latter years and which we extracted from his computer. I remember jamming on it when we met up to share songs at that time. Amazing memory. The photo was in the Nelson Evening Mail highlighting a house concert we put on in 2005.

Also this week - out on SPOTIFY a rerecording of POKER FACE with pro Auckland engineer Scot Seabight and session man Vince

Anonymous as Cloud

Where are you?

I haven’t heard a sound

There’s perversion of sensibility

Since fools released the hound

It wouldn’t take all that much

To populate streets tonight

Bring traffic to a standstill

Like Prague in 89

We don’t need guns just numbers and belief oh yeah belief

To flaunt the moral high-ground and get it on the streets

There must be millions of us here

With body and soul inflamed

Hey where you all gone hiding

You’re anonymous as cloud

There’s urgency

Don’t let the train leave the station

The minds of the army

Can be bought by mere oration

Citizens

Held hostage by a deranged few

Think about that

Don’t let it all come true

Anonymous as Cloud by Steve Low

UNITED STATES

Waking up to frosty landscapes

Waiting on a desert sun

Stopped into Nepali’s teahouse

Looking down Milano’s lawn

The scent of London’s summer

Piquant whiff of chanel on a train

Everywhere I look it’s United States

Everything I hear it’s United States

Where’s it going to end the United States

Like their fathers before them

They’re prone to crossing swords

Shooting off their biggest mouth

And prancing ‘round like Lords

Internationals recoil

Talking ‘bout the weather of their lives

Met a Yankee couple at the old train station

He was wringing his hands about that nation

Semi comatose in Tehran

Paper thin the walls around me

Static and announcer’s parlance

Creeping into conscious thought

Crackling the searing bacon

Every now and then a free man’s fate

Keeping it natural with the bass driving the rhythm and everything played and sung largely into a mic - the theme is rather self explanatory.

Friend of the Fabulous

Touched you are by latent hands of Gods

Your face is bloated by the friend you’ve got

You’ve always got the news of their stuff

Someone’s elevated by their lateset bit of status

You’re a friend of the fabulous

It’s so good you’re almost tremulous

You think that we’re hanging on your words

But what’s she really like that piece of work

Oh she’s just so normal and such fun

Everyday’s a party oh if only we could come

You’re a friend of the fabulous

It’s so good you’re almost tremulous

You’re a friend of the fabulous

Let me bathe in your perspective

You’re a friend of the fabulous

If she knew us we’d be so blessed

Everyday you’re locked away

In your love of adulation

So you’re a limpet clinging on

To that association

You’re a friend of the fabulous

It’s the fundamental anchor of your life

Like bees on speed they’re buzzing you a lot

Must be more today who will feed another high

Re-recording of this 2003 song with Ted Key (Organ) and Adrian Secker (Piano). Adrian has played live with us a couple of times this year so it was a project to recreate the live sound in the studio. Back in 2003 there was no streaming and the original recording (song title 'Jack Johnson' ) was on CD and received local radio airplay for a few weeks. Spotify wouldn't accept a song titled with another artists name - hence the title change.

Jack Johnson

Driving up the Kawera gorge to Queenstown

Looking out the windows at the cars

Then you go and make a small commotion

Pointing out the V-dub that went past

Did you think you saw Jack Johnson

Did you see a surfboard and guitar

I think you’ve had way to much my friend

Cause everybody here looks like a star

Coronet is lovely as an ice cream

We’re carving up the snow having a ball

Then you go and make a small commotion

Pointing out a cool dude on a board

Sunday and we’re on the beach hung over

Recalling when the Eichardts was a bar

I feel like some kiwifruit pavlova

You’re still musing bout that V-dub car

The first version of this in 2005 was a reaction to nationalism as exhibited via plane hijackings. This time the US border politics triggered a rewrite with a different chord structure and words. Just acoustic guitar and bass: back to basics!

INTERNATIONAL NATIONALITY 2025

I woke up to face the day Acapulco Hilton

I knew I had to catch a train to the USA

I should be excited but I know I’m not

I’m feeling all the fears that America’s got

There are borders and a national guard

There are people who are living so hard

I think it’s time to make us all the same

An international nationality

Out of the xray beam to the border gate

Who’s got a false passport are they here today?

I’m looking around for a sweaty brow

Has the guard gotta grudge and a sacred cow?

Let’s get something underway

Take away the borders of today

I think it’s time to make us all the same

An international nationality

Free them . . . and you’ll be halfway human

The children . . . let them be in arms tomorrow

I’m looking out through the glass at the other’s world

Seeing them through the fence where they’re all being held

Who’s that getting up and walking around

Are we just gonna leave without making a sound?