graves are anchors above the sea

photo: iain macadam
Graves Are Anchors Above The Sea.mp3

recently someone asked me which song i was the most proud of & i told them 'graves are anchors above the sea'. the main reason being that the lyrics just came flowing one night when i wasn't really trying to write any lyrics at all. shortly after i grabbed my acoustic and the music came quickly as well. i really believe that my subconscious was working over time cause it knew i wanted to get these feelings out, but that i couldn't really do it if i had to 'work'. anyway i really love this song & i wanted to share it with you as well. its the last track on my 'ghost waltz' album & features dave lotfi on drums & percussion.

graves are anchors above the sea

doors may open, light may play
wind may blow, trees may sway
though the dark's still dark in every way

and death can speak, words may flee
oceans rise, sailors plea
and graves are anchors above the sea
are we? are we?

oh night by night candles learn
that books are bricks we lay and burn
and death is old yet new to us
but all we wonder is who to trust
for men are wrong & women lie
and at the end the questions why?

you're quite lovely a ghost would say
i will not lie i wish you stayed
but new yorks not so far, far away
i'll stay

oh night by night candles learn
that books are bricks we lay and burn
and death is old yet new to us
but all we wonder is who to trust
for men are wrong & women lie
and at the end the questions why?

ghost

photo by dana

gig

hello everyone.
i've decided to start updating this blog on a daily basis. (we'll see how long that lasts) i received an e-mail from anton (books for mai's cafe & otehr ventura venues) asking if i would play for his birthday party on the 7th. its at the beachcomber tavern, which i hear is quite a charming dive bar. for this show i decided to get andy to play drums, along with kenny on guitar & my dad on bass. it seems like i have two bands now; a LA band (which consists of: dave lotfi, justin smith, kenny, & my dad) & a ventura band (which consists of andy macphee, kenny, & my dad). for this gig it will be the ventura band seeing as how the gig is in ventura. makes sense right?
my old friend johnny lloyd rollins (http://www.johnnylloydrollins.com) has asked me to play bass for a few of his LA gigs happening later this month. him and i used to be in a band (with dave lotfi & curtis johnson) called columbia. johnny hasn't told me where gigs will be yet but when he does i will pass along the info to this blog.
"doors & windows" continues to move along. thanks to all of you that have purchased either the cd or the download via itunes. yesterday i was thinking about the differences between 'ghost waltz' & 'doors & windows', and i came to the conclusion that the only very noticeable difference to me was that 'ghost waltz' has lots of organ, and 'doors & windows' has none. the reason for this is that most of 'ghost waltz' was written & recorded when i lived in cambria, with my organ right in my room with me. 'doors & windows' was written & recorded entirely at my house in thousand oaks, where my organ sits in storage in the garage. other than the organ both albums could be like vol.1 & vol.2.
a few people have been asking how the 'old tack pianos' video turned out. my answer to them has been "i don't know". the director josh is currently staying up late with eyelids made of brick, editing the nautical video that is 'old tack pianos'. as soon as its finished i know he will let me know & i in turn will let you. it WILL be worth the wait mind you, kenny b's performance as a sailor is sure to bring a smile to your lucky face. his blog will too. http://www.kennyblogginz.blogspot.com
i finished up 4 new recordings these last couple of weeks. the first was for the harry nilsson blog 'for the love of harry', which i highly HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend to anyone that enjoys nilsson or melodic music. (http://fortheloveofharry.blogspot.com/)
i recorded a song from the 1969 album 'harry' titled 'i guess the lord must be in new york city'. you can listen to it at the previous post, or at the fortheloveofharry blog.
the second song i finished is an original titled 'mark twain boat'. i spent a good amount of time on the lyrics with a bit of input from dana. its an upbeat song with hand claps & chiming guitars. i believe it will soon become a live song though we will have to see what happens.
the third song is titled 'out of the country' & i actually started writing it about 6 months ago but didn't get it finished until last week. its a ballad with lots of vocals & heavy bass. i'm not sure how i feel about it. time will tell.
the fourth & final song i completed is titled 'while candles will burn you down' which i started right after i finished 'doors & windows'. i always seem to write a song right after finishing a album. with 'ghost waltz' it was 'old tack pianos', & now with 'doors & windows' its this one. its upbeat with 50's sounding guitars & backing vocals. i had my dad add a harmonica solo which is seriously great. the man is truly a great all around musician.
anyway there is your paul starling news for the day (maybe the week). ok so i've already decided against this daily update thing for the blog. that was quick.
la la la la,
~Paul

p.s. don't forget you can purchase 'doors & windows' by clicking the album cover below, which will lead you to the rockshot records website:



& you can also purchase the album on

ghost waltz now available for download

hello friends,
webmaster mac has added a cool new feature to paulstarling.com. you can now download the album for 10$ directly from the site. all you have to do is go to http://www.paulstarling.com then to the store and you will be there! the songs are all high quality mp3's that you will own forever! in the future we will also offer additional non-album tracks & videos for download. go check it out!
la la love,
paul starling
http://www.paulstarling.com

p.s. don't forget to check out my latest song 'all the good looking girls are dead' on myspace now

no giraffes

wednesday night i finished writing and recording 'no giraffes'. i really like how it turned out. it has a very different feel than my usual stuff. its not that the music is much different from the ghost waltz stuff, its just that the way i recorded it ex: the sounds of the guitars and bass and such, sounds very different. i think its a little harder around the edges, not so much reverb on the vocals and such. right now i have about 14 newish songs, by new i mean either recorded after or during ghost waltz. the ones recorded during were never intended to be on that project because of my mind set at the time. i wanted ghost waltz to stand up as one piece of work. i think the next thing i do, be it a album or ep, will be more of a track by track adventure. then again who knows. i may change my mind. as of right now i'm still all about ghost waltz and trying to get it heard by as many people as i can. in fact i have two pretty interesting shows coming up in september. hopfully we can sell some more cds and gather more contacts. as for now i need to put together some more albums.
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currently reading: the biography of marion davies by fred lawrence guiles
many years from now by barry miles