David Elroy music:

Welcome to David's music page. David creates and records music at his home in Oakland, California.

Some songs are original; others are interpretations. Most can be described as dreamy folk music with gloomy or psychedelic overtones.

Some songs are free; others are available on CD. Enjoy.


'Groovy Love' - written for fun, 2003
Groovy Love

'China' - including vocal by Klaire Xing Lan recorded 2005
China


ALBUMS on CD:

Each album is available for $6, plus $1 postage.
If you would like to order, please use PAYPAL, sending the appropriate funds to caterpillarpress@yahoo.com, and contacting me at that address with shipping information.


BOUND FOR BODIE is my first album, with a bunch of Old West songs but also some fantasy-tinged folk songs, and some instrumentals.

1. Conversation (4:17). The elements personified. A relationship between man and nature that lasts into the far future; the key line begins with “Stretching back behind us...” Half the melody came from a dream in which I was playing this song at a jam at a party at a strange Victorian mansion.
2. Backward (5:03). An old-fashioned romantic, not born for our jaded, cynical, materialistic, artificialized modern times. Find her in the past. Vocal by the lovely May Mei Chong.
3. Mustang (2:07). Instrumental. A wild horse, a sun-swept plain.
4. Snake Eyes (2:00). I particularly like the shuffling beat of this one.
5. Wiped Out (3:33). Inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec. The maracas are a MIDI loop until the end.
6. Margaret Cries (2:50). Lyrics inspired by “Spring and Fall” by the great Gerard Manley Hopkins. Vocal by the wonderful Kit Soo; backing vocal by David.
7. China (2:50). Vocal and lyric by the beautiful Klaire Xing Lan.
8. Visio and Vita (3:51). I put a huge effort into this one, but it doesn’t sound half as good as I’d hoped. I had a lot of trouble keeping time with three or four guitar parts going at once. Played with classical guitar.
9. Down (1:42). My very first song, written while learning to play guitar, winter 1989, Vassar College. Of the two dozen songs I wrote before I moved to CA in 1996, this is one of three that I still enjoy playing.
10. Macduff (2:07). Instrumental. Inspired by “Scottish Tea” by the Amboy Dukes.
11. Magic Secret (2:14). My softest song using my favorite chord progression.
12. Prairie Dog (2:50). Another song using my favorite chord progression. I tried to sing it with a scratchy Tom Waits kind of voice.
13. At the Shore (2:40). Instrumental. Written amidst the swirling fogs of a California winter.
14. Master John (3:11). Inspired by Mark Lanegan and by Negro spirituals such as “Roll, Jordan, Roll.” Probably my favorite of the ballads.
15. Rain and the City (2:25). Instrumental. My favorite of the instrumentals.
16. Groovy Love (3:27). I was trying to combine a hip-hop beat with a Lou Reed vocal style, and somehow I ended up writing this.
17. Alligator Love (3:17). Inspired by observing the alligators at the Oakland Zoo.
18. My Rifle, My Pony, and Me (2:10). Original version by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster. Sung most famously by Dean Martin. Backing vocal here by the wonderful Kit Soo.
19. Far Away (1:30). Inspired by a drive down the California coast. Classical guitar.
20. Lucy’s in the Sky (3:01). Original version, with a similar name, is of course by John Lennon, copyright 1967 by Northern Songs Ltd.


FOOTSTEPS OF WENCESLAS collects my more spiritual and formally complex songs. I also included a few folksy songs for interludes.

1. Age of Aquarius (3:25). Original music by Galt MacDermot and original lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, 1967. My melody is almost completely different, but the words are the same. MIDI track courtesy of Cakewalk.
2. Naked Sky (3:15). Inspired by “Watcher of the Skies” by Genesis (Foxtrot, 1972). An immortal, with great power. But at what price?
3. Heaven Calls (4:00). The verses were written in 1993, the chorus in 2004.
4. Lords of September (3:22). A season personified. The song was somewhat inspired by “September” by David Sylvian (Secrets of the Beehive, 1987).
5. Autumntime (3:33). The xylophone is a vintage Tudor Tru-Tone from 1960.
6. The Seafarer (5:33). Inspired by the famous Old English poem of the same name. This is probably my most ambitious song in terms of epic scope.
7. Sunrise (2:52). Instrumental. Written 1992, revised 2005.
8. Tea for Two (3:30). I wanted it to sound elfish and twinkly. Tudor xylophone again.
9. Closer to Home (4:20). Written shortly after I moved to California, winter 1996.
10. Wicked Rictus (2:10). Instrumental. Perhaps it’s about a falcon, or a roc.
11. Lucy’s Got the Diamonds (2:45). Inspired by the John Lennon original, © Northern Songs Ltd, 1967. The second installment of my Lucy Trilogy.
12. Good King Wenceslas (3:03). Classical guitar. The original melody was from Sweden (mid 1200s); my version is about half genuine. Words by John M. Neale (mid 1800s).


BUFFALO DUSK is a tribute to the Old West.

1. Mujer Loba (2:00). A song about the wolf girl of Texas as recounted by folklorist J. Frank Dobie in "Straight Texas" (1937).
2. The Cowboy (2:50). Lyrics adapted from the original song, late 1800s.
3. Lariat and Lasso (1:00). Music written and performed by Curt Ferson.
4. Little Dogies (5:00). Music written and performed by Curt and David.
5. Lonely Dogies (2:00). Written by Curt and David, performed by David.
6. Apple Fields (3:45). A special place to hide away, a secret childhood place. Vocal by Martina Tran.
7. Punchin' the Dough (3:15). Adapted from the original, late 1800s. Vocal by Martina.
8. Deception Pass (3:20). The famous pass from Zane Grey's "Riders of the Purple Sage."
9. Big Nose Kate (2:00). She was Doc Holliday's girlfriend in Tombstone, AZ. Music by Curt.
10. Smoke Signals (2:00). Music by David.
11. Doc Holliday (3:00). Gambler, gunslinger, dentist. The harmonica is a vintage 1940s Hohner.
12. Tumbleweed (1:00). Music by Curt.
13. Buffalo Dusk (2:50). Inspired by the Carl Sandburg poem of the same name.
14. Old Paint (3:30). Lyrics and melody adapted from the 1860s folk classic. Excerpts from Jess Morris, fiddle and vocal recorded 1942 in Dalhart, TX. Morris learned the song from Charley Willis, a former slave who worked as a cowboy in the 1860s and 1870s.
15. Once Upon (3:00). The Western prairies of days past have largely been destroyed by "development" and "progress" but they live now within our stories and dreams.




Except as noted, all music copyright (c) David Elroy Goldweber. This page updated 2011.

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...Click here for David's Lucy Album - this is David's favorite, and you can download it free.

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