So Few Words

Back during my first stint in graduate school, right before I dropped out and wandered into my "lost" years, I used to visit a friend down in Galveston, Texas. It was a messy time for both of us, probably best forgotten, but there was something about her insistence that we go to to the beach to swim in the Gulf that sticks with me. The sky was dark, the winds were cool, the beach was dirty, and we were totally and utterly lost. I still hear the weird sounds of the beach: the odd percussive 'whoosh' of waves, the reverse echo of seagull voices, the silence between us. So anyway, many years later, thinking about all these chasms, I wrote a song and recorded it immediately. Although I say "Sheraton Bay" in the song, I actually mean "Galveston Bay." I recorded the electric guitar in my bathroom to get a natural echo. The song is called "So Few Words."

Joy - So Few Words [mp3]

Another song I recorded, more recently entitled "1989 Or so." I was trying to do a power pop song, and play around with bars and meters. This is one of the few songs I'd had in my mind as a complete work and just tried to record it exactly the way it was in my mind. I was trying to get that feeling I used to get while flying a kite in a Dallas suburb on a spring day.

Joy - 1989 Or So [mp3]