Second half of the live performance, with the following songs:

Test of Time (end)
Bowl of Oranges (Bright Eyes Cover)
All That Frightens Me
The Last Best Place

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On June 26 I had the chance to perform at the "Best Of" Open Mic night at the Swallow Hill Cafe. Here is the first half of the 20 minute set that I was slated to play. The songs include:

Idle Wishes
Empty and Still
Test of Time

The show turned out amazing! I had the great fortune to play with some incredible musicians, including Wil Key and James Ruff.

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June 26... I'm goin' to Montana!

G/C/Am/C/D - Open

The road is all motion
And the trees just can't sit still
The Rockies point the way into the hills

The past is on my tail
And it's angry with my name
It beckons me to return to where I came

But I'm goin' to Montana
Where the sky don't hold its tongue
Where the lakes will be my silence
And the land will be my song

I'm goin' to Montana
And I'm never comin' back
Till I find a new beginning
Yea I'll find a new beginning

The sky keeps gettin' bigger
The closer that I come
To the land where I can hide from where I'm from

This northbound strip is empty
The wind's talkin' up a storm
To purify this traveler tired and worn

Who's goin' to Montana
Where the stars can hold their keep
So the night just glows forever
And the mountains never sleep

Yea I'm goin' to Montana
And I'm never comin' back
Till I find a new beginning
Yea I'll find a new beginning x2

Cause I'm goin' to Montana
I can smell it in the trees
I can taste it in the sunlight
Feel it tremblin' in my knees
I can see it in the sunset
I can hear it in the breeze
The last best place is tellin' me
It is time to be at ease

Cause I'm goin to Montana
Where the land can set you free
And the soul can live forever
And the people are at peace

Yea I'm goin' to Montana
And I'm never comin' back
Till I find a new beginning
Yea I'll find a new beginning

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Skinny Love with passion
Here is the mp3 of this performance:

http://www.mediafire.com/downl oad.php?hznnyz1izgy

or

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y 9DD9WFQ

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Judi Sheppard Misset & freinds working out to "Move your Boogie Body" by the Bar-Kays.

http://www.jonathanhaile.com

http://www.zazzle.com/jonathan haile

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Sylvia Plath

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http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

Hey everyone! I played at an open mic event last night at an amazing venue called the Swallow Hill Cafe here in Denver. It attracted a very eclectic bunch of talented musicians, so I was fortunate to be in such good company. I shot this video before attending the event in an effort to practice my short set, but hoped that it could also function as a quasi-live performance for all of you out there that live in lands far away from Denver. I apologize for the transitions, as it really kills the live one-take feel, but YouTube doesn't like videos longer than 10 minutes, so I had to cut down wherever I could!

I want to also use this opportunity to give a shout out to a band that I met at the event that has a great sound and is starting to get some solid playing time around Denver. The band is called Facing Sunday, and they have a really cool indie-folk vibe coming from their use of stand-up bass and minimal drum set.

Check them out, if you have time, at:

http://www.myspace.com/facings unday

I hope you all enjoy the show, and thanks to everyone for the support!

Best,
Galen

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On June 26 I had the chance to perform at the "Best Of" Open Mic night at the Swallow Hill Cafe. Here is the first half of the 20 minute set that I was slated to play. The songs include:

Idle Wishes
Empty and Still
Test of Time

The show turned out amazing! I had the great fortune to play with some incredible musicians, including Wil Key and James Ruff.

jvzj0ToNPJk

http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

While the main draw of doing this song was the whistling solo, it is also a very interesting composition by an artist I have just recently gotten into a little bit. If you love Mr. Bird, I hope I did it justice (although he whistles a hell of a lot better), and if you haven't heard of him, his album Armchair Apocrypha is a great place to start (the cover of which starts this video). Peace

___

When our mouths are filled with uninvited tongues of others
And the strays are pining for their unrequited mothers
Milk that sours is promptly spat
Light will fill our eyes like cats

And they shall enter from the back
Wit hspears and scepters and squirming sacks
Scribs and tangles between their ears
Faceless scrumbled charcoal smears...oh dear...

Through the coppice and the chaparral
The thickets thick with mold
The bracke nand brier
Catchweed into the fold

When our mouths are filled with uninvited tongues of others
And the strays are pining for their unrequited mothers
Milk that sours is promptly spat
Light will fill our eyes like cats x2
Cataracts

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http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

A few octaves lower...

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http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

Relatively obscure but nonetheless awesome song by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie - from the album Home: Volume 5 by Ben Gibbard and Andrew Kenny

Capo 3
G/D/C/D x2
C/G/C/Em/C/G/D

I can't begin to compete with you
And everyone knows it, I know you know it too
It's a complicated fear that grows with every year
And it's walking on its own finally

All I can offer are farmer chords
These simple rhymes of you painted in words
You can sing this when alone or whistle it through your teeth
And it'll feel like home no matter how far you'll be
From my lonely arms outstretched just beyond your reach
Singing ooh-ooh-ooh baby please

I can't begin to compete with you
And everyone knows it, I know you know it too
It's a complicated fear that grows with every year
And it's walking on its own finally

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http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

This is as close as I can come to a happy love song (they always need a hint of bittersweet - that's just life).

_____________

You are my everything
Who I love - what I need.
All I want - all that I can see
All that I believe is you and me

You are my brightest dream
All my memories and my fallacies
But this mirage - is not how it can be
And it frightens me beyond belief

You are my tragedy
All my savage needs - all my weakest pleas
Everything I'm not - all that I cannot see
All those stars above me beyond relief

You are my gravity
Keep me on my feet push me to my knees
I'd follow you off the edge of sanity
Through the caves of buried grief for you and me

You are my everything
Who I love - what I need.
All I want - all that I can see
All that I believe
All that frightens me.

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http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

Wanted to write a song about the color orange... this is how it turned out.

From Walter Benjamin's "Theses on the Philosophy of History" - "A Klee painting named Angelus Novus shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."

http://www.barglow.com/angel_o f_history.htm

-----

They say her mother fell from grace was red in the eyes
When daddy turned tail for the east that coward on the rise
They disappeared but left behind an orphan well disguised
A sweet and fateful mixture - the color of our times

Like an autumn breeze that carries leaves So crispy, tan, and brown
Beneath the elder oak trees and their bustling acorn towns
That crowd the picnic blankets with their bright and checkered sounds
And fruits of the same name can't wait to sting our mouths

And the angel of history
Will flap its wings with all it's might
But the cruelest winds don't compromise
And the present will just die within plain sight

A contradiction cursed to stand alone but wield the fire
That scorches Western days and winter hearts with its desire
And with it's badge of fury it will peak and then inquire
The everything of yesteryear will rest upon the pyre

Like those friendly smiles so keen to warm our soft and broken skin
That bucket full of paint that graced the room I grew young in
And every shattered life that must tomorrow start again
A black night serenade - where the orange clouds had just been

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http://www.myspace.com/galensm ithmusic

This song is about faith

________________________

We never remembered the first time
We knew the world was there despite closed eyes
As time crept up like a chilly wind
That never seemed to have its place
But forced all of our layers to grow thick

You even remember the old times?
When we faked sleep to trick the dreary night
And talked of death and what it meant
How heaven seemed a tragic place
That trapped all of the people that got sick

We would close our eyes
Afraid that we could die
And open wide to sunlight shinin

We always remember the first time
We knew that light was shining on our lives
As blood warmed up in our prickly skin
That never felt such imminence
Yet cornered all the future plans wed made

We always remember the last time
We knew that love had left our shaking thighs
And God reached in like a seasoned thief
That never missed a chance like this
But only took enough to keep us weak

We would close our eyes
Forget that golden rise
And open wide to darkness comin

Now the sons of skeptics and the daughters of doubt
Will curse the skies and wallow in their sorrows
And point errant fingers through a fog of war
At those already scaling the stairs
Armed to the teeth

With faith for what they know
A web of lies for what they dont
The light is in the pupils of their minds

So theyll close their eyes
Envision golden rise
And open wide to darkness - to sunlight

So remember the first time
You knew the world was there despite closed eyes
An image of God on its balcony
That feeling of love you believe
Whatever makes you comatose will bring
that new day here.

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