George Krauss Music Stuff
Whats Up With This Page?
So, Here I am, a fifty something year old man who is finally doing what I love most....making music and sharing it with friends.
The idea of this web page is to keep my friends updated on what is happening musically in my life (if anyone cares), and to share and promote the music that is created. I guess it will also be a place where I can talk about stuff...mainly music and life.
Have a listen to my new album POP G...loaded below!
New Album "POP G"
Finally done with this new "album"...Calling it "POP G" because my grandson Adrian calls me that. Hopefully my new granddaughter Myla will call me that too!
I think there are some good songs here...I sure hope you like them.
Gotta thank Rob White for playing bass on six of the tunes and Jan Byer for playing drums on five tracks...both are wonderful friends and enormously talented musicians. Gotta thank Joyce (my lovely new bride) for putting up with plenty of lonely evenings while I obsessed over this stuff!
So I hope you enjoy. If so, hit me up on Amazon, Google, Apple / i Tunes, Soundcloud, YouTube etc....This will be uploaded everywhere very soon. Tell your friends, enemies and lovers to listen as well. Email me...show me some love. Now I get to work on the next project....
Today Matters
Album Number Two
So, here we are on album number two called "Today Matters". You can look at this thing two ways. 1) Today really "Matters" or 2) Can we discuss"Today's Matters"....I can argue both ways really.
I guess you can "learn from the past, plan for the future" but "Today Matters".
Most of the music here is reflective of my life "stuff" both good and bad. I mean who could have ever predicted the last twelve months of my life. Losing my dad in February and Christi in May was devastating...hands down the most painful time of my 54 years.
Christi put up with my music obsession for 30 of those years!
My Dad supported me through a lifetime of music.
None of this would be possible without them.
I miss them both ALOT!
So, all of the lyrics have meaning....if you care about the words, I will explain them below...if words mean nothing to you, skip to section 3 HaaaaHaaaHaaaa.
Some words come to you from out of nowhere...they just pop in your head like "Moonshone"...the song was done and the lyrics hit me later... "Alone" is obvious right? ...other lyrics are likely the ramblings of an old dude who has lived a lot of life. (see "Peace of Life").
I can't express enough love and gratitude to a few people who help me making this stuff work.
Rob White is literally my soul brother. For twenty years or more Rob and I have hung out and partied, played a ton of tunes together, wrote some stuff ect but mostly we have become family. Rob plays Bass on the whole album (well, except: "Oh Yeah" and "Dropped"). Rob kills it on this stuff!
Jenny....What can I say? Jenny Flory does it again...she sings my crap better than I do!! Her work here is so good...like really really good! This doesn't work without you Jenny! (nobody wants to hear me sing...believe me).
Brent Mullin returns! He plays a beautiful piano solo on "We Walked" and a funky jammy organ solo on "Say What". My buddy Brent...If only he would drive CW and lay down more tracks....I may have to pay him mileage.
Nathan Emond helped again too...he nails it on "Hours"...such a perfect groove. He also plays the funky shit! Great lead on "Say What". More to come with Nate too I hope.
Last but certainly not least my long time pal, Mike Brandenstein...Via E-mail...all the way from St.Louis or something! I bugged Mike for so long to play on one of my songs....any of them...well, he landed on "Oh Yeah...Thats Right" and he crushed it! So much fun having Mike and I on a recording. Hope to do more in the future!
OK here is the part where you bail out UNLESS, you actually care what these songs meant to me as I composed them....If you dare, read on.
Track one - "Today was the day, I was to spend all of my time with you..." Live life Today because "it doesn't matter what tomorrow brings". I think this is one that I had some basic words / thoughts on paper before I had a real song in my head. I sang the melody into my phone while sitting in traffic on I70E I think. Thats the truth. What more can be said "Today" matters.
"We Walked" Started with the conga loop and basic piano...it just struck me as a walk along the Gulf Shore as the sun is setting into the horizon on a nice warm summer night.
"How You Got There" is all about getting to the top regardless of who you have to step over...some people get there and realize...man "it's such a long way down"...The lesson is to appreciate and be thankful for what you got, it don't mean shit when you leave this world.
"Say What" I got distracted! This started as a drum loop that I was playing along with...its always fun to layer horn parts! I thinked I named this tune 2 other names and it just never felt right...then one drunkin night, I was shutting down and it came to me...this is just a down and dirty funk tune from the 1970's..."Say What"?
"Moonshone"....I really like this song a lot!! Great groove, Rob's bass line is so spot on...just a beautiful song. I always wanted a guest soloist to lay down a track on this. One night I was listening to this for the millionth time and the words just kinda came out....I sang it and it was pretty bad. Jenny just seems to get what it's all about... that midnight in the back yard, sitting around a fire, looking up at the moon glow and just thinking of your life....its good therapy.
"Alone" I don't know what to say...you get it. Jenny is the only person I would ever trust or want to do this for me.
"Hours" We've all been there...its the middle of the night and you are laying in bed wanting to sleep but no, your brain won't turn the fuck off! I think about so many things...music, work, life, death, money, sex, the reruns of Columbo on MeTV...such great detective work! This song was named early on in the composing stage...it just seemed right.
"Oh Yeah...Thats Right" again, we've all been there as well...Best laid plans, stuff you need to do but man...there are so many distractions in life. The title struck me right away actually....it just fit rhythmically "oh yeah, that's right". Mike absolutely nailing the bass line...thumpin, pickin, doin' that Mike thing!!
"Take a Swig".... its a warm summer night and you are among friends outside by the pool with some cool Steely Dan type music playing and people are drinking and having a great time. At some point, a time comes for everyone to "Take a Swig"...as the night goes on, you take multiple "swigs"....its that feeling, only better. Rob with a great bass line...he even slapped!!
"That Time Before" is me playing a pretty cheesy piano line to a drum track one drunkin night...I didn't put a melody to it for quite some time. It developed pretty slowly as I recall and the title just happened one night after I finally had a melody. It should remind you that memories happen and they can be a blessing and a curse! It is our nature to look back and remember "That Time Before"...there are words in there somewhere...maybe one day...Stay tuned.
"Dropped" is my masterpiece! haaahaaahaa...This thing was a drum loop and me playing really dark chords at 2am. I listened back and felt like that old school Peter Gabriel low bass swell would be perfect....I just kept adding parts and boom, it reminded be of that feeling of a deep solemn weight that somehow "Dropped" on your back...it's that burden you have to bear.
So, that's about all I can say about this Album.
I really hope you like it.
Stay tuned...I will have CD's and photos and stuff soon!
All Lyrics Written by Me and are Copywritten!
TODAY - Today was the day that I was to spend all of my time with you...It was going to be, a perfect day for me, to be with you. And it matters to me baby please don't go...for all the times and plans we know...and it doesn't matter what tomorrow brings.
Today is the day that somehow we make all of these dreams come true. We hold on so tight and we cherish this time that we have today....and it matters to us baby please don't go....all the times and plans we know...you just can't let go. And it doesn't matter what tomorrow brings, we have this today we hold this so close, and its a perfect day...we had this today.
How you Got There - It never matters when you go or how you get there, it doesn't matter how it goes let it leave you, it doesn't matter when it flows let it leave you, it only matters cause the thing is right in front of you!
Its such a long way down...and everything is all around you...such a long way down and what you think you see may not really be!
Never thought it mattered and you knew that you'd get there, something happened in the way that you got there, felt so funky and you felt like a millionaire, It doesn't matter cause your happy that you got there.
Its such a long way down and everything is all around you, its such a long way down, the bottoms comin due, its right in front of you!
Everything is still the same way, it hasn't changed, its still the same...its just how you got there!
Moonshone - All this time I think I've got it all worked out...I hit my head so hard, I can barely breathe...It makes me wonder why, I thought I'd be fine...I didn't know, I never knew, that missing you was going to be so hard!
I read the signs, I read the book, I was afraid to take a look inside...It burns my eyes, I can't see, anything but right in front of me. And then it wears me out - wears me down - it tears me up - tears me out, all the things I gotta keep inside....ooooohh Moonshone....
ALONE - I never thought that it would end so soon, I never thought I'd be alone, I never felt like things could slip away, I always thought it would go on and on.
I never thought that it would ever change, there'd always be a time for you and I...Now I'm home alone and you are gone, I never thought I'd be alone.
It's such an empty place inside...I wanna be back to the time...see you smile and watch your face...I can't believe its down to me Alone.
I always thought we had all this time, I always thought you were forever mine...It always seemed like life was really fair, it always seemed to go on and on...There's no way for me to know, how this ends or why it has to be...Now it hurts so bad and you are gone I never thought I'd be alone.
Oh Yeah...Thats Right So anyway, I'm standing there waiting for this guy to move away from the bar and as I stood there I started thinking about all the stuff I planned to do yesterday! There were plans, strategies, ideas and schemes...none of which were ever done! As I stood there wondering why, it occurred to me...Oh Yeah...That's Right....