Mystery Tree

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Here's a new collab with lyricist Robert George. Any comments or suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks! -mk

Oh yes, and Mark Walker, must send you music tonight! I am such a procrastinator...

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6996548

Mystery Tree

It stood near my granpa’s acres
‘cross the fence line on his ranch
Hollow, crooked, dead and barren
Notches in the lowest branch
And when I went out that summer
Voices whispered low to me
And when red moons rose, spotted owls and crows
Perched upon that mystery tree

Late one night I tried to climb it
And that tree trunk seemed to moan
By the starlight in the meadow
Weeds grew up through mounds of stone
I ran quickly through the high grass
Midnight shadows chasin’ me
Ghostly howlin’ dogs, posses made of fog
Circled that ole mystery tree

Next day granpa chopped and burned that big dead oak
We could hear the four winds chokin’ on the smoke
Then he said a prayer like he’d set somethin’ free
Haunting roots and hollows of that mystery tree

Last July at some museum
Saw an old electric chair
Children laughed and played around it
Like a funhouse at a fair
Suddenly I knew the meaning
Of that childhood memory
And I understood, why granpa burned the wood
Of that cursed mystery tree

©2008 Robert George - Mark Kaufman

[kiramdear]

Another one from you to get carried away by... your songs always put me so deeply in a particular moment somewhere else, some other time. Once again, too short I hate short vacations

Nice job, great delivery, as always, the phrasing is on a par with the author. Sounds like it could be the same person. Kudos to you both!

[beatlefreak]

I like it!

[dogload]

Hey Mark,
just discovered this one. Excellent stuff- the recording really goes well with the lyrics.
Can I be a techie-bore and ask what gear you used?

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Thanks Kira, Kris and Mark!

It's a DADGAD song pitched down to C. I might re-do this one soon...can't get the proper tone on that guitar.

[fireglo67]

I think the guitar sound is superb!
And I love how you've recorded the vocals.
You deserve to be rich and famous!

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Thanks Rob! You're making me blush!

Well...it's an over-compressed recording...I like the guitar sound, but it's a bit over the top recording-wise...trying too hard to make it loud.

Thanks again!

-Mark

[doctorno]

This sounds like it has been recorded in some foreign place very, very far away from the place where I live and well, somehow it sounds typically American to my European ears. But I like it very much. It has an intense atmosphere that I can hardly describe. Great song, great voice, great guitar sound!

[fatcat]

Of course I couldn't just listen to Mystery Tree, I had to play then all.

[kiramdear]

Of course I couldn't just listen to Mystery Tree, I had to play then all.

All 57 of them? Mark is a busy bee!

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Hey, thanks y'all.

Yes Markus, you make me remember that we all live in a foreign land, don't we? It's fun to imagine being exotic.

Don, that probably took awhile...can't believe you had the stomach for that.

Kira Moon, I've written more songs this year than ever before. In younger days I used to write about 10-12 a year, tops...then I wrote nothing for about 12 years when we had babies and careers to deal with. Rather than embrace a mid-life crisis, I chose to reignite the creative fire about two years ago and started writing and recording songs again...now I average about 3-5 a month. I've come to believe that volume is more important than perfectionism...I'm more likely to come up with a good song by writing 5 in a month than by trying to improve and perfect the same one all month.

Thanks for all the listens!

Mark