Hey All,

So my master plan for today is to head out to Huckleberry’s on 10th and Monroe between 4:30pm and 5pm and play for a couple of hours.  Hopefully it wont be too rainy or hot or windy, and hopefully a few people will stop on by.

There is a beautiful view from the front of the store, and there is a nice place to sit and drink icy cold beverages or have a little picnic.

Maybe I’ll see you there.  If you come by, please let me know that you saw this blog post.

Frankie

This is the last offerring from yesterday’s street music outing.  Jim Croce has some amazing songs.  I find singing this song inspiring.  I hope you find something that inspires you this week.

Happy Summer!

This is more footage from my outing yesterday.  It’s funny how songs from my youth are coming back into my life.  I spent a lot of my life performing with pop/rock bands.  I’m loving the freedom of folk music.

I hope this finds you in the middle of a great love affair.

Have an awesome day.

Frankie

This is from tonight outside of RiteAid on the South Hill

You can hear the skate boarders careening by.  Dwayne had to save himself halfway through the song.  You might see something in the guitar reflections.

I really do love performing in real life settings with background noise and people coming and going.

Happy Summer

Frankie

https://www.youtube.com/audio?feature=vm&v=cwJZKUzTE4o

Hi everyone.  I went to Seattle last weekend for a workshop.  I fully intended to do some good, old fashioned street singing, but the weather didn’t play along.  I did record one of my original songs in the hotel room.

When I used to is a song I wrote when teaching middle school choir.  I realized that some of my students were just getting to the point where they felt they couldn’t talk about things that were bothering them.  If they needed help or just needed someone to listen, they put on a brave face and suffered in silence.  This song is from the perspective of a “grown-up” who is a envious of very young children who haven’t learned to stop crying out what they want and need.

WHEN I USED TO CRY

When I used to cry, “I’m feeling lonely” then

Someone would come to me

And they’d give me company

When I used to cry

Someone would hear me, but

Now I’m older, and

I don’t cry anymore

*

When I used to cry, “I’m cold and hungry” then

Someone would come to me

And they’d warm and feed me

When I used to cry

Someone would hear me, but

Now I’m older, I

Can’t seem to cry anymore

*

When I used to cry, “I’m feeling frightened” then

You’d come to my room, and

And you’d turn the light on

When I used to cry

Someone would hear me, but

Now I’m older, and

I don’t cry anymore

*

Frankie Valinda Ghee

Beauty

Beauty thrives in Clichéd imaginings

In brilliant sunsets, clear oceans

Bright futures and romantic pasts

In such common things as truth and hope

And love that lasts

Beauty rests in campfire’s orange glow

In a problem solved

In an unclimbed tree and in an offered hand

In a cheek gladly turned

And in a taken stand

Beauty lives in the mundane

A parent’s watchful eye

A child’s mischievous grin

A simple compliment, a complicated equation

The recognition of a friend

Beauty is what saves us from plummeting over the unguarded edge

It is the longing to rush in where only foolish tread

Beauty is the heartbeat and breathe of a sleeping dream

It is the texture and depth of a story well told

Beauty is in the believing

Formula 521

Formula 521 keeps you from dying But it doesn’t keep you young There will still be aging And aching And watching still another one That you loved Passing   Your skin wrinkles and withers Your memory fades And your bones become porous You will disintegrate Into a rickety pile Of wheezing, rasping dust That sits alone Reeking of vapor-rub   And you become accident prone So that no one can stand the sight The smell Or the responsibility of you This lingering pile of something They once loved and knew And they pray for you to die And you try But only decay a little more And the stress upsets the delicate fabric Of your intestinal lining