Playlist

Preface

"Society for the Confusion of Useless Knowledge.
[...]
It is intended by the Company to supply the present enormous mental appetite of the public with a full feed of science and literature in a series of sixpenny bits, or bites. To prevent the appetite from become cloyed by too continuous a fare of any one kind, the bits will be so intermingled and diversified as to keep the biters always expecting and never satisfied. Thus, the biography of Bacon will be relieved by a bit of the history of Greece; a bit of Astronomy, by a bit of Brewing; a bit of Roman History, by a bit of Algebra; a bit of Chemistry, by a bit of Commerce; a bit of Physiology, bit I., will be probably followed by a Treatise on Probability, from the study of which the reader may, if he please, try to find out when he is likely to see Vegetable Physiology, bit II. The whole will thus form, in the mind of the student, a most desirable complication of the Novum Organon, Athens, Malting and Mash-tubs, the Cæsars, Logarithms, Oxygen, Tariffs, Telescopes, the Arian controversy, the Building of St. Paul's, Cellular Tissues, and Reversionary Interests."
from The Comic Almanac, 1st Series 1835-1843

Texts

Recorded

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 8, 2026

Piano Sonata in E-flat Major - John Field - Benjamin Frith

1
this music has heard Mozart and Clementi
almost over-galant
nigh to shy
a sheltered life not devoid of feeling
a well tended garden 

2
children
skipping games
most pleasant frolic

Album d'un voyageur, S. 156/R. 8, Book I, "Impressions et Poesies": VI. Psaume (de l'eglise a Geneve) - Franz Liszt - Ashley Wass

an honest chorale
opens to the skies
bathes the land
lifts into heaven

Gesänge der Frühe, Op. 144 - Robert Schumann - Peter Frankl

1
lovely voicing in the chorale 

2
the thread
is truly caught in this tangle 

3
ferocious tempo yikes!
whew! 

4
stiff headwind 

5
domestic peace

6 Romances sans paroles, Op. 76: III. Idylle - Cecile Chaminade - Mark Viner

characteristic humorisms

Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72: No. 4, Halling from the Gnome's Hill - Edvard Grieg - Håkon Austbø

effective dance music
must be about the noise it's making
its tool
for controlling
the rate of motion on the floor
but also
the sad rooms in the back

Of Thee I Sing (Incomplete) - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

the microphones had become
{in the 1950s}
remarkably good at capturing
every nuance
of a voice
and singers took advantage

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 9, 2026

Birthday - The Beatles [from The Beatles (White Album)]

dance track with codetta
for the DJ's signal to move on

West of the Fields - REM [from Murmur]

deliberately loading the words
at the front half
of the chord block spans

Papa Doesn't Love His Children Anymore - U-Men

riff built on a kickback echo
features a metrical modulation

part of the compositional image
is the protracted repetitions
that don't obviously count in twos and fours and eights
as to iteration count 

torn page ending gambit

Wenn Ich in deine Augen seh - King's Singers [from Chanson d'amour]

a choral arrangement of the Schumann Lied
the dialog between voice and piano
becoming one between groupings of voices

The River - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

acoustic opening
hearkens back to pre-industrializations 

amplification signals modernity

Easy Ride - Madonna [from American Life]

bathed in unguently voluptuous string wash 

the ambitus of her tessitura
is comfortable for me
at her octave 

composed dance production ending:
a repeating stanza
finish back in unguence

Paper Gangsta - Lady Gaga [from The Fame]

amplified piano 
more percussive
its attack envelope within human psychoacoustics
is much sharper 

loud attack sounds
get louder than sustained sounds do
under the same gain 

the best way to play it
is to bang it
anything more subtle will be lost

August Phonography and Microtonal Piano 8 - S. Eric Scribner [from Odds and Ends]

{see doodle}

August 10, 2026

Duet - Tom Swafford [from Violin Improvisations]

enacted within the fingers' placements
and the bow's impersonations of both duet parts

Threading The Channel - Steve Layton & Sound-In [from The Many Voices In Our Heads]

maker
collector
distributor
of sounds
made
a curatory art

I Got Plenty O' Nothin' - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong [from Porgy and Bess]

razzle dazzle from heaven

With You - Rusty Dedrick Orchestra [from Irving Berlin All By Myself: Notable Compositions 1926-1933]

such a sweet talker

Pink Cadillac - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

an elaborate euphemism
goes around at least one too many times

Mudride (Demo) - Mudhoney [from Superfuzz Bigmuff]

giant robots of distorted guitar
electrorockemsockem

Molly On The Shore - Percy Grainger - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

the particulars of a local dance type
dressed up in its festival garb

Queen of All the Tarts (Ouverture) - David Bowie [from Reality]

a bit of meter play sneaks in

Diva - Beyoncé [from I Am...Sasha Fierce]

power politics for dancing to

Happiness - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]

sagging heavily over the lines

I'll Keep On Trying - Brenda Ray [from Original Songs/50s Music]

determination
a hymn of its time

Bad Life - Bad Hug (w/ Bree O'C) [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have to Be Cool]

taking stock

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 11, 2026

You're Gonna Hear From Me - Bill Evans [from Some Other Time / The Lost Session from the Black Forest]

shape of song audible
within its sheer flowing garment

Carolina Shout - The Canadian Brass [from More Greatest Hits]

an arrangement
depicting an arrangement
removed from its original demotic urgencies

Lady Be Good [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends 3]

music as an audible costume
to seem authentic

The Hands of Time - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

music for an aging clientele

This Is What It's Like - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

notes to self
a journal song

Black Magic II - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]

ad copy

Circles - Christina Aguilera [from Lotus]

kiss off
with production value

Diabelli Recomposed (continued) - various [streamed May 11, 2023]

43
poking around in Schoenberg's junk drawer 

44
as a moody naiad 

45
whack-a-mole 

46
tipsy we stagger
lamppost to postbox 

44
(pause for preparations)
we see what's left of it
lying around in the innards

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings]

we are taught the tune
from more angles
than we had thought it had

One Minute of Silence - Soundgarden [from Ultramega OK]

white noise
with some studio clatter (distant)
and occasional electronic popping

Myung O. Hahn - Korea [from The World Sings Goodnight]

sung into institutional empty space

Claude et Eric - Frieze of Life [from Nuclear Frog Pond]

rough road
but the moon buggy bounces on big tires
the path smooths out some
picking up speed

Emjayernai-Tom - Sacajewea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

music doesn't care what shape it is

Track 8 - Peterman [recorded live at Victory Lounge, Seattle, July 6, 2013]

dive-bar music
as vent for pressure release

Must Be Nice - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

frustration spewing

Lullaby - Megan Ihnen [from Sleep Songs - Wordless Lullabies from The Sleepless, volume 2]

a machine is switched on
and continues
is shut off
and back on
its sound is examined
in the light of select sung pitches
linguidental fricatives (voiced) 

a right sharp little piece
that keeps its focus stalwartly

96 Tears (Unreleased Version) - ? and The Mysterians [from The Best of ? and The Mysterians]

zero sum love game

Don't Believe The Hype - Public Enemy [collected from Neal Kosály-Meyer's Bo and the Beat]

its rep is its matter
rep is the matter

Animal - Pearl Jam [from Rearviewmirror]

size and power
music as mech suit

Life's on the Line - 50 Cent [from Get Rich or Die Tryin']

antagonistic posture

Zim - B'Shnorkestra [from Go To Orange]

some musics
are concerned with their own goingness
as music
sometimes
in the context of
or in consideration of
a population of musics
in the same way
that some persons
are concerned with their own goingness
as a person
in the context of
or in consideration of
a population of persons

Baby Born In a Stall [from Unmarked Christmas Album]

some music is smarmy
but this has it beat

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 12, 2026

Respect Yourself - Mack Rice [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

listening to another culture's music
can be a way to explore those other cultures
and to better understand cultural interactions in general

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn - Lake Washington Singers, Betty Eisenbrey, JoAnne Deacon - December 1968

listening to a music
from one's own past
(such as this)
can be a self-exploration

Rebonds B - Iannis Xenakis - Rob McEwan

a study in articulated steady states
listening to a discovered culture
ostensibly international
but only within a thinly distributed population

Whose Lion Is This? - Participants [from Jack Straw Cultural Center, Blind Youth Audio Project 2003]

a radio drama about a lion surgeon
doing brain surgery
predictable results

Telling Some Lies - Spinning Whips [from Sentimental Groover]

building a stanza from tempo up
demonstrating regions of other tempos
in relation to the root

San Francisco - Whitney Ballen [from You're A Shooting Star, I'm a Sinking Ship]

epistle poem

In His Own Voice - Milton Babbitt - Nina Berman, Steve Beck

after the manner of a cultural critique

Cello Set 2 - Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury [from Brad Hawkins, Jesse Canterbury]

a poem in the shape of a squeaky hinge

Younger Then - Star Anna [from Go To Hell]

epistle to a parental unit

Overdrive - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]

draping poemlines across a regular rhythm
rhymes where it needs to

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

Grand Duo for Violin and Piano - Lou Harrison - Romuald Tecco, Dennis Russell Davies

1
announcement
make yourself comfortable
this spreads itself vastly
follows every ripple to the shore 

2
lectures in dance
minutiae
furious scribbling of notes 

3
an ancient evening peace fills our hearts 

4
long yearnings
haunt these halls
insatiate
weary 

5
macabre skipping games

War Failure Deluxe - Doug Haire [from The Crawford Opera]

heavy machines on the move
with siren windup

Little Ghost - Cumulus [from I Never Meant It To Be Like This]

message to an inner experience

Questions for the Angels - Paul Simon [from In The Blue Light]

neighborhoods of grooves passed through

Enchanted Prelude - Elliott Carter - Da Capo Chamber Players

followed closely
it leads
to where
we
hadn't thought
we
had got

The Night I Met Maria C_____ - Chris DeLaurenti

we'll take a walk with Chris
as folks talk with Chris
looking for a party somewhere
with a marching band
takes a leak and a level
scenes from an event
or series of same

Together - Bass Violin [from Bass Violin]

loosely looped pizzicato
and ground

Fever Doggs - Slothrust [from The Pact]

scenes from an unsatisfactory life together

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

August 13, 2026

'Zoon - Bruce Huber

Bruce was a fellow student at Bard
when I was there 

he sent me a tape
with some synth pieces on it
in 1988
including this one 

I'm not sure what he was using
but it might be early digital
or some sort of analog device

Loretta's Flowers - Swearin' [from Surfin' Strange]

a musical unit
(among other things)
is a token of personal and cultural exchange 

for my purposes
in this regard
it is its personal voice
that takes precedence
that is
how it is
between its maker and me
is primary
to how it is
between its culture and mine
and certainly
between its culture
and any more general culture

Giving Me Life (feat. Slick Rick) - Mariah Carey [from Caution]

which may explain
my general problem
with the broad cultural aim
of industrially produced music
which leans into its generic signifiers
in order to confuse the fewest audients

Poem for Sixtext - Benjamin Boretz - Benjamin Boretz [from Open Space 56]

when the token of exchange
is one made
by one personally known to me
and
when the totality of generic signifiers* in play
can be dismissed on a few fingers
the status of that token's broader cultural value
diminishes to vanishing
not that such a value might not exist
but
that it is radically irrelevant
to my experience of it 

*that it is a piano being played
in the usual way
for instance
is superseded
by the fact
that I've played that piano myself
in the usual way 

the image of the person
to whom this music is addressed
is singular
for me
it is clearly addressed
to me
(of course
it need not be true
that such was the intent
of the one making it
exactly)

this music is not outfitted with modernist gadgetry
or even supposedly de rigueur musical piece-forming rhetoric

Walla Walla Point Park, Wenatchee, WA

Ray of Sunshine - Smokestack and the Foothill Fury [from Lone Buffalo]

a music such as this
is comfortable in its clothes
and what they signify
it wears them matter of factly
and adroitly

Metaphor or a Mishap - Canals of Venice [from Fall On November]

some musics
for their realization
rely
on a collaboration of cooperating agents

a common set of musical assumptions
is a social lubricant
easing such collaboration 

this is not a problem necessarily
if
as in this music
those assumptions
are generous enough
to allow a specific music to emerge

Sentimental Journey/The Way We Were - West & Wheeler

a coworker of mine in the 80s
gave me this tape
made by her and a high school friend of hers
who had been known to sing duets together
back in the day 

so
they got back together
for an anniversary
and reprised their gig
singing along
to a music-minus-one-type orchestral accompaniment 

for what it is
it is creditable
they have pleasant singing voices that blend well

Is This All There Is - Swingset Showdown [from Cymbal of Appreciation]

what more was expected
left unspoken

Wild Mountain Thyme - SeaStar [from Sinners and Angels]

porch singalong native

In Session at The Tintinabulary

August 9, 2026

Lockport and Coda - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 162 Lockport and Coda 260809 [260809]

August 10, 2026

Banned Rehearsal 1157 - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer

Keith Eisenbrey · Banned Rehearsal 1157 260810

Postscript

Drops

Keith Eisenbrey 34: 2024-2026 Arrangements of Shape Note Tunes (Part 2: Common Meter)

Hymnals find me. For decades I had been wondering how I might make use of all those notes. In July of 2023 I decided that each Sunday morning I would make short piano arrangements of each tune in the oldest hymnal on my shelf, The Christian Minstrel, from 1846, which arranges them metrically. Since mid-2024 I have been working through the "Common Meter" (86.86) tunes, and am happy to share them with you now. Part of my discipline is to spend no more than an hour or two on each one, from first transcription of the tune to finished recording. When I got to the 100th tune in the book I amused myself by writing its arrangement with exactly 100 notes.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream.

Playlist

Preface

"Oh! lawk; oh! dear; oh! crimeny me; what a downright sin and a shame,
To try to put down old Bartlemy Fair! I don't know who's to blame:
Whether it's the west-end nobs, or the city folks -- confound 'em! I could cry with vexation
But this I will say, if it's the latter, they ain't fit for their city-wation.
What is to become of all us poor showmen, as has embarked every penny we've got,
In learned pigs, and crocodiles, and sheep with two heads, and wax Thurtells, and what not?
It's werry unfair to make us an exception to the general rule of the nation;
You orts to consider our wested rights, as free-born Britons, and allow us 'a compensation.'
When you stopp'd the rich West Indy merchants from dealing in poor African ______,
You allowed them twenty millions of money; and surely, showing a few hinnocent wax figgers
Aint worse than stealing one's black feller creturs, and carrying 'em off, and treating 'em worse than swine;
And, let me tell you, a lamb with two tails is much more preferabler than a cat with nine."

from The Comic Almanack, 1st Series 1835-1843

{There will be no blog post next week, May 9, but I intend to be back the week after that, on May 16 -kee}

Texts

Recorded

April 25, 2026

Soundform 1 - S. Eric Scribner [from Soundforms/Multiples]

a stillness passes through

Sunnyside Ave - Peterman [from Red Vinyl]

holding a constant rhetorical pressure

Samos - Steve Layton [from Virtual Composition]

passage through an imaginary garden

Totem 28 - Sascia Pellegrini [from Totem VI]

a lone hollow whistles in the void

Sonata in A Major, Kk. 323 - Domenico Scarlatti - Pieter-Jan Belder

cheerful at the work bench

Novelletten, Op. 21: #6 in A Major - Robert Schumann - Florian Uhlig

we twist easily through
separate into staggered entrances
to regroup
at a later measure

Buch der Lieder I, S. 531: V. Der du von dem Himmel bist - Franz Liszt - Leslie Howard

where Schumann pulls us closer
Liszt spreads out before us 

our spirits are enraptured at the prospect

Sonata in C, Op. 70 (#10) - Alexander Scriabin - John Ogdon

the tonality of a passage
is a motion in discrete increments

April 26, 2026

Shine On Me - Ernest Phipps and His Holiness Singers [from Anthology of American Folk Music]

sharing community vowels

Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong [from Porgy and Bess]

ironic lullaby

Money (That's What I Want) - The Beatles [from The Beatles Anthology]

the economic engine hindwards of it all

Never Let Me Go (Alternate) - Bill Evans [from Alone]

accentuated lines
as though they swerve close by us
or trace the path
of the distance
between two dancing bodies

Thundercrack - Bruce Springsteen [from Tracks]

a little country song to relax to
the arrangement is attractive
and more transparent than some of his more orchestral work
does rather go on and on though

Think of Me - Madonna [from Madonna]

while we dance
the singer spins a conversation
such as dancers might need to have
a communication aid song
as social commodity
packaging all the way down

You Could Look It Up - T. Bone Burnett [from The Talking Animals]

accusatory stance

April 27, 2026

On a Plane - Nirvana [from Unplugged in New York]

heavy word accent
2-count
in pairs

Romeo and Juliet - Brave Combo [from Box of Ghosts]

to words serviceable and easily forgotten

Sister Twin - Goodness [from Goodness 1995-1998]

the whole sound
is pitched forward in the head

Royal Blooded Dingle - Christian Asplund [from Viola]

speed talking

Boundary - Your Mother Should Know [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]

fiddling with the set up
then Karen sings it
folks are reasonably polite at the bar
a bit of an oddball song for a dive bar
more loungey

Hollow by Footsteps - Tim Root [from Constance and The Waiting]

thoughtful memory scene
big drama on the screen
the music says so
with Rachmaninoff fists

Ent'racte - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]

an amusement
a bit
of a quodlibet

Ideas - Monk Hazel [from That Devilin' Tune]

quick footed

Walt Singing - Norman Monath [from Songs of The Pogo]

plink plinky plink plinky

Super Nova - Wayne Shorter [from The Classic Blue Note Recordings]

going in hot

Laughing - REM [from Murmur]

narrow ambitus
wider ambitus
to differentiate parts of the melody
as parts of the poem

Into Thy Hands, O Lord - Cambridge Singers [from Brother Sun, Sister Moon]

goes by above our heads

Cold Mountain Songs: No One There - Robert Morris - Deborah Norin-Kuehn, Margaret Kampmeier [from Open Space 30]

hesitant empty

Danza Mora - Tingstad & Rumbel [from American Acoustic]

a dance is a social network
worked from above

Assembled Introductory Fibs - Chamber Music Camp Participants [from Eisenbrey 2003]

Mom talks about a Pennsylvanian
who went to Egypt
there must have been props

Survival - Courtney Marie Andrews [from Urban Myths]

distinctive use of small vocal ornaments
and brief melismas

Song 3 - Old Man Williamson [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]

a tendency to overdo introductions
to turn every outing
into a stadium sized triumph

April 28, 2026

Impermanence - Joey Largent [from Earth Drones]

sound as of cars along highway
or waves upon shore
a low gong signifies portent
or time passing
this music comes across
like the somber opening
of a spectacle
such as a beheading
or crucifixion
or the recession
in aftermath
mood sign
exit through the darkness
to the fore

Throw Down in Whispertown - The No-Ones [from My Best Evil Friend]

aging surf rock

I Used to Call Her Baby - Dallas String Band [from That Devilin' Tune]

the string bass
is played with a bow
to insinuate the pitch
the way the singer does 

somewhat louchely

Do It Again - Sarah Vaughan [from Sarah Vaughan Sings George Gershwin]

lifting clever devices into grandeur

Everything Happens To Me - Thelonious Monk [from The Complete Columbia Studio Solo Recordings: 1962-1968]

some songs present themselves on stage
with lights and choreography

Smash It Up Parts 1 and 2 - The Damned [from Nancy's Mix]

my guess is that the original Nancy's Mix
skipped part 1 of this
as the compilator
was much more into the smashing
than the soulful 

music can be a signifier
of shared attitudes
its signification is its meaning
coolness is all

To a Lady Seen from the Train - King's Singers [from My Spirit Sang All Day]

glee club bon bon

Prelude - Baltimore Consort [from La Rocque'N'Roll]

a tonality discovered in scraps

Wishlist - Pearl Jam [from Rearview Mirror]

constricted thoughts
easier to ship in bulk

Don't Think Twice It's All Right - Karen Blaine [from Dirty Money]

everything in its place
chords
rhymes
and breaths

Anthem - The Tiptons Saxophone Quartet [from Laws of Motion]

the opening repeated segment
is in square time
with a fetching hesitation
in its final breaths
a melody
with a warm human heart

Song 4 - Peterman [recorded live at Victory Lounge, July 6, 2013]

about a town in New Jersey
which spends its life staring across the river
at success
brutal and unlovely

Thumpy - Bret Hart [from Dubble Thud]

it is a happy thing
that there is a place in this world
where such things as this
can be
even with the inhuman grid of clock time
quietly harvesting us

Psalm 22:9-10 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]

there are times
when I have needed to be doing self proving
many of my songs are demonstrations of skill

Good Old Turnip Greens - Bo Chatman [from Really The Blues]

cuisineology
as social satire
regarding racial issues

Leave My Woman Alone - Ray Charles [from Yes Indeed!]

back off friend
Ray is the master
of the use of back up singers
to turn his words into dialogs

Long Green - The Kingsmen [from The Very Best of The Kingsmen]

drink along
swig dance
more fun than Louis Louis

Those Conga Drums - Jonathan Richman [from Jonathan Sings!]

for Jonathan this counts as a big production
but its heart seems to be mostly in the right place

The First Noel - London Symphony Orchestra [from Joy To The World]

the back up singers did say
on a throwaway figure 

the singer overdoes the word painting
by enunciation

negotiating those vowels in Soprano
is a technical challenge
and this singer is up to it
but why?

Yellan and Pollack - My Yiddishe Momma - Itzhak Perlman [from The Art of Itzhak Perlman]

a sad melody played beautifully
how sad 

my melancholy
is more melancholier
than your melancholiest melancholiations

Track 12 - Eckstein Middle School Students [from Mach 6]

nightclub cosplay club

I Woke Up - The True Bugs [from 25 Songs]

going for a Dylanish rhythm to his lines

The Seer - Shelby Earl [from Swift Arrows]

film in strophic scenes
a ballad

Agnes Gray (Echo Wanderer's Wild Violet Mix) - The Science of Deduction [from Alternate Works]

we are lifted
by alien space beam
into the land of eternal artifice
wash yourself clean in dance

Juice - Tom Baker, Anna La Berge [from Sand]

careful notations are made
of each sample in turn
further tests
beyond each further test
maximal universal scanning device
all objects
known
by knowing each 

data securely stored
severely stoned

'Mid the Pyramids - Clarence Jones [from That Devilin' Tune]

loose jointed mule cart
16 frames per second

Ballade of a Teenage Queen - Johnny Cash [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

she loved the boy next door
who worked at the candy store
oops
jilted him for movie stardom
but came back
how sweet

Good To Me As I Am To You - Aretha Franklin [from Lady Soul]

the blues are a chamber music
of commiseration celebration

April 29, 2026

Gastrophone - Ross Rabin, J. K. Randall, Daniel Warner [from Inter/Play]

the mechanism moves jerkily
regroups fallen parts
between each heavy footfall

personifying music
by imagining a body
whose motions are this music 

a man of loose parts
and doohickeys
its giant joints
squeal and scrape 

we perch upon our pile of wreckage
and bellow like a bear

Steppin' Out - Girl Trouble [from Hit It Or Quit It]

more threats to keep women under thumb

Dere's No Hidin' Place - Robert Shaw Festival Singers [from Amazing Grace]

very low bass at the cadence

Blood Hound (feat. Young Buck) - 50 Cent [from Get Rich Or Die Tryin']

at the ends
he rhythmates his rhymes

Beadie and Bob - Empty Cage Quartet [from Stratostrophic]

lounging at the corner
checking out the scene

Coronach - Princess [from Selling Sulphur]

music here
is a flavor of din
a sonic density
and little else

Fuck Me - Choke The Pope [from Who Cares]

full powered failure celebration

5 Duets - Keith Eisenbrey - Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]

originally for two clarinets
they become fingering studies on piano
how two agents collude
to share material
only occasionally colliding
leaves off
at its most focused point

I Would If I Could - Al Miller [from Turn Me Loose White Man]

we amuse ourselves
with stories from our common life
populated by clown types

Jailhouse Rock - Jerry Lee Lewis [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

hammer hand piano pounder

Song To A Seagull - Joni Mitchell [from Song To A Seagull]

a voice to which a gender might attach
is a voice first
idiosyncrasies of vocal anatomy
among a population
the stereo goose
on the last strum
was unnecessary

R. P. Williams Blues - Dan Sedia [recorded live at Bard College, March 18, 1983]

doing what he does into orbit

Dragana I Slavei - Bulgarian State Radio & TV Female Vocal Choir [from Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares Volume 2]

sophisticated vocal arrangements
with vocal style
that signifies folksiness

No Woman, No Cry - Nina Simone [from A Single Woman]

Nina shows off her brand of vocal technique

Moment of Clarity - Jay-Z [from The Black Album]

a tense scene
in stasis
for the duration of the poem

You're Not Sorry - Taylor Swift [from Fearless]

voice is a performance of self 

to listen with self identification
is transference

Roach - Chaotic Noise Marching Corps [from Smashed at Smash Putt]

street fair clown band
tattoo drumming 

gots their them there rudiments down
by thunder
sticking by Stone

Capitol - Bad Luck [from Four]

nasty weather
officious liaison
punctiliarly punctual
I hope I'm not intended to follow these instructions 

it spit sputters

• lickety split
• bullet lists 

once a certain velocity is achieved
rules will be difficult

Track 9 - Star Anna [from Love Shades, streamed February 14, 2023]

we value a voice
for the specificity of self it performs 

selves are valued
as we value each other 

Crazeology - Bud Freeman [from That Devilin' Tune]

long hanging stylish suits
flash pants hats and dos 

dance with hips low

College Man - Bill Justis [from Sun Records Definitive Hits]

frat rat twist party strut

I'm Running Out of Love - Dolly Parton [from Just Because I'm a Woman]

daytime television plot land

In Bluer Skies - Echo & The Bunnymen [from Porcupine]

to sing
to give a poem a voice
and self
in the voice

Make It Funky - Audio Two [from What More Can I Say]

we describe our dance
and provide examples 

ends with a width of cycles
for a clever party
to layer a new cut
atop

Down In Honky Tonk Town [from New Orleans Traditional Jazz Legends Vol. 3]

old timey jazz
for the visitors to marvel at
glitzy entertainment
all the prescribed raunch
(family friendly)

All For Me Grog - Scurvy Bastards [from Battle Born]

beer hall guzzler

Truth Or Dare/Greatest X - Janet Jackson [from Discipline]

what happens to a song
when we gender the voice that sings it
especially when the musician
seems intent
on signaling one

how much
is costume

Healthy Punk - Chastity Belt [from No Regerts]

bands run a risk
of becoming an attitude brand

Track 4 [from Unlabelled Christmas Album] 

this music is wrapped in silks and incense

How Firm a Foundation - Keith Eisenbrey -  Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]

demonstrating to myself
that I can write music skillfully
but not fussily

April 30, 2025

Since I Laid My Burden Down - Elders McIntosh & Edwards [from Goodbye, Babylon]

tent meeting rouser
lifts the whole canvas

Sweet Little Rock 'n' Roller - Chuck Berry [from The Best of Chuck Berry]

about a daughter?

Someone's Coming - The Who [from Magic Bus]

the brass players sound bored
I hope they got paid

Stand Back - Stevie Nicks [from Timespace]

the backing groove functions like a fancy metronome
the greater timekeeper for dancing fools

Where Is My Mind? - Pixies [from Surfer Rosa]

much of the industrial sheen
left out on the sidewalk in a heap 

once again
back to basics 

small stage
small audience
intimacy

France - Jean  Lilensen [from The World Sings Good Night]

very short

Yes - Beyoncé [from Dangerously In Love]

establishing boundaries

Special Agent - Goat [from Special Agent]

if a figure appears
in a pairing
with a like figure
that implies a trajectory
from one to the other
but also a duality of types
the one type
and the other type 

do subsequent figures
sort themselves into like pairings
interlocked along the rhythm webs
or
do they only need to seem to
or
be likely to
in order
to provide
the experience
of cohering

I'm Not Gonna Worry (Cinnamons Cover) - Acapulco Lips [from Acapulco Lips]

dancing in the light
of a suburban young love fantasy

Drive This Thing - Lost In Space [from Live at The Player's Lounge]

work it low inside

Silent Crowds - Movement [from Dirt Cult Records: You Don't Have To Be Cool]

elemental guy thing

He's Coming Soon - Laura Henton [from Goodbye, Babylon]

tent meetings were traveling circuses
music was among its many attractions

Something Inside Me - Ray Charles [a Rescued Record]

Ray owns his vocal in this

Slim Slow Slider - Van Morrison [from Astral Weeks]

evanescent images
addressed to their object

Leave a Tender Moment Alone - Billy Joel [from The Essential Billy Joel]

mansplaining man's many moods
its the same ride the second time around

When 2 R In Love - Prince [from Lovesexy]

clarity in the mix
was carefully crafted
all the parts fit together

Save Room For Me - Fastbacks [from Zucker]

teen bedroom
pajama party
bop

The Loneliest Guy - David Bowie [from Reality]

swimming slowly
dim lit depths

Another Crazy Song-Zander - Sacajawea Elementary Students [from Digital Dreams]

convention floor showcase

Harsh Mistress - Antique Scream [from Two Bad Dudes]

a social music
can serve as a pattern of acceptable behavior
for that social group
how to be
this
or that
type
of gender
for
each other

Mountain - Whitney Ballen [from You're a Shooting Star - I'm a Sinking Ship]

gendered larynxes

Jeremiah 17:5-6 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey [from Keith Eisenbrey #7, 1995-2001]

better and better every time around

Nightmare - Alfonso Trent [from That Devilin' Tune]

not from the tent meeting circuit
this is from a different demimonde
or its afterparty

Get a Job - The Silhouettes [collected from Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock & Soul]

live the small town
change in your pocket
teen dream

Can't Get Enough of You Baby - ? and The Mysterians [from The Very Best of ? and The Mysterians]

want your arms to wrap around me twice

Walk With Me - Brady "Doc" Barnes, Lucy Barnes [from The Art of Field Recording]

daily work song prayer

Where Duty Calls - Patti Smith [from Dream of Life]

duty is suprasocial oppression

Me-Jane - Pj Harvey [from Rid of Me]

guitar heavy

Stormy Weather - Glenn Tate [from Days of Wine and Roses]

conjuring a whole scene from memory cues

Love Story - Mariah Carey [from E=MC2]

credits roll on sappy romance

Go To Orange - B'Shnorkestra [from Go To Orange]

finding a comfortable berth
within the prevailing culture

Seven Months - Red Ribbon [from Dark Party]

this version of the song
is more static
than some of her earlier performances
more subdued and constant

Got to Make a Comeback - Eddie Floyd [from Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos]

quite the throb on the guitar
it has an effect
on the sense of the meter

In Session at The Tintinabulary

April 26, 2026

Welford - Keith Eisenbrey

Keith Eisenbrey · 147 Welford 260426 [260426]

April 27, 2026

Gradus 432 - Neal Kosály-Meyer

after the new note is runged
a blast from decades past
a lone A-natural
as companion
a grizzled veteran note 

this one
is becoming many 

repeatedly 

thresholds of audibility
among the envelopes of partials
as they decay

the new old pitch enters
and the cosmos shrinks
to the gap between them

their interval relaxes
into a more generous value

April 30, 2026

7 Preludes for Guitar - Lockrem Johnson

these little pieces came up in my listening recently
in Douglas Rice's fine performance
and I wondered what they might be like
as pieces for clavichord
so I recorded them to find out

Postscripts

Drops

Music of Gavin Borchert (part 2)

This volume collects 30 additional two-part inventions by Seattle composer Gavin Borchert, performed on clavichord. The recordings were made at my home in 2023.

recordings of my compositions (and more!) can be found at keitheisenbrey.bandcamp.com - free to download or stream