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THE MUSIC

C.F. MARTIN FACTORY TOUR OCTOBER 2013

I dropped off one of my Martin guitars at the factory for repair and took the tour with Sharman. Here are some photos taken with my phone. NOTE - javascript required.


Thanks to Bucky Clark for those 2 years at Abington Senior High School, North Campus, in 1964 and 1965. It's why I'm still singing.


Explore all of the links on the Music menu above. There are many covers of songs from Gordon Lightfoot, John Prine, John Stewart, Paul Simon, Neil Young etc. The performances are not just by me, but by other good singers and musicians as well.

There are no commercially-released files on this site, all are original recordings.

Most of the files below are performances by me of songs I have loved for years. It's a hobby for me at this point although I once did sing for money. There may be a couple of exceptions from time to time which are noted in the individual song descriptions.

My recordings are simple, usually just one guitar, one voice. I have put some of my music onto a few CDs which I have shared with (or inflicted upon, depending on your viewpoint) my friends.

MP3

These MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) files were generally encoded at a sampling rate (64 to 128 kbps) to produce decent quality and not be an onerous download using a dialup connection. Still, some may be rather large and using a dial-up connection could take 10 or 15 minutes to download. But they'll be PDQ with broadband.

NOTES - Depending on your browser's capabilities, and how it's set up, you can just click on a song link below and it will download and then play. If not, try this: RIGHT CLICK on the song, then pick SAVE TO DISK (or SAVE TARGET AS or SAVE LINK TARGET AS), and select a folder where the file will be stored. After the file downloads to your hard drive you can play it with your standard music player(s).

Please note

All songs are copyrighted by their respective owners except for:

A Minstrel's Carol - Copyright Ed Mullen

Courses - Copyright Ed Mullen and Matt Carl

Melodies - Copyright Ed Mullen

My Love Song - Copyright Ed Mullen

No Time To Cry - Copyright Ed Mullen

SONGS - General

Songs added August 2007 - Gotta love this new Web host with all this disk space! The following OLD cuts are from the era when I started singing for "a living." Our friend Ed Tourigny on bass, Sharman's brother Steve laughing, some comments by our friend Mack, and, of course, our Black Lab Lightfoot barking. Oh! And Sharman ran the recordings on all those 1975 Toftrees, State College, PA (our apartment complex) cuts! The recordings were made using a Shure Vocal Master mixer/amp and a TEAC 2300 open reel 1/4" two-track tape deck.

  1. Good Old Song The Alpharetta Sessions
  2. Drift Away The Alpharetta Sessions
  3. I Will Remember You The Alpharetta Sessions
  4. Help Me Make It Through The Night circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  5. More Often Than Not circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  6. Rainbow Trout circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  7. Rocky Mountain High.mp3 circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  8. 10 Degrees And Colder circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  9. Affair On 8th Avenue circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  10. Solitary Man circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  11. Solitary Man circa 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  12. Cracklin' Rosiecirca 1975, Toftrees, State College, PA
  13. Talking In Your Sleep 1972, The John Thomas Tapes

The Town I Loved So Well - written by Phil Coulter

I grew up fully immersed in the Italian side of the family. It was wonderful and warm, full of fun people, lots of love and food. It wasn't until I was an adult that I started to wonder more about the Irish side of the equation. I saw a made-for-TV movie (must have been in the late 70s) starring Charles Haid (best known for his role as a cop on Hill Street Blues) about American couples who sponsor Irish children to visit the USA for a summer. The children are from Belfast in Northern Ireland. It was a very moving show and the one song that ran throughout was this one. I was also spending a fair amount of time in Irish pubs at the time and heard numerous traditional Irish groups sing it. Took me about 15 or so years but I finally learned it in 2000.

The Rebel Jesus - written by Jackson Browne

Maybe I've been saving up music for when I have time to really listen to it. Who knows? But, I have gone through stretches of many many years of loving and admiring people like Jackson Browne, The Eagles, and others without ever having owned any of their music. I bought a JB "Best Of" CD and found this tune that I'd never heard before.

Nova Scotia Farewell - with Derek Kidd - written by Anonymous

This song goes back to around 1964 for me. I haven't done it regularly in a couple of decades. Then I saw it mentioned in the Gordon Lightfoot newsgroup (alt.music.lightfoot) and dragged out the sheet music.

I sent my original solo track to my buddy Derek Kidd in California. The next thing I know I get this file back in my email! Derek - you rock! (Or, Usted Roca!)

July, You're a Woman - written by John Stewart

Recorded 1998 - Here's one by request from fans of John Stewart

ORIGINAL SONGS BY ED MULLEN

A Minstrel's Carol - written by Ed Mullen, (Copyright 2001 Ed Mullen)

Only took me 23 years to finish this one. It's not as depressing as it sounds. Honest!

Courses - Lyrics, Ed Mullen - Music, Matt Carl, (Copyright 2000 Matt Carl & Ed Mullen)

This is probably my personal favorite of all the things I've written. (thanks to Melissa for the grammar correction) Originally it began as a poem I did while musing about Gordon Lightfoot's 60th birthday in 1998. I later posted it on the Lightfoot Internet newsgroup. Matt Carl liked it and asked if I minded if he tried to put it to music. I'm glad I was smart enough to say "Sure!" A while later he sent me a recording that just blew me away. I sent one back to him in a different key. From there he went on to create a new mix of it with background vocals, lead guitar, pedal steel, and bass! Awesome job, Matt!

My Love Song - written by Ed Mullen, (Copyright 1978 Ed Mullen)

This is Sharman's favorite of mine.

No Time To Cry - written by Ed Mullen, (Copyright 2001 Ed Mullen)

Is it about September 11, 2001? Is it about something else? Well, I'll say that out of tragedy comes honest emotion. I like this one and I generally don't have much to say about what I write. I like the idea that, if well done, a song can be a window into the soul of the artist but, best of all, it's about whatever the listener hears. I tried hard to make this not just another story about planes, buildings, nations, fanatics, and all that. I hope it works for you on some level.

Actually, as I listen in February 2015, it's about reconcilliation. Yes, I do revisit these things from time to time. I wonder if someone like Gordon Lightfoot does that? Actually, if you look it up, he does. I guess that's where I got it.


LIGHTHEADS - THE ALPHARETTA JAMS 2009 <<--- that's a link to the jam page

The gang got together in June 2009 at our house in Alpharetta, GA. I recorded 4 days worth of jam sessions. The players were: Ed Mullen (that would be me!), Matt and Deb Carl, Derek Kidd, Denny and Melissa Joe, Bob Kremer, and John Bowles. When you hear a flute, that's Deb. When you hear a washboard, banjo or kazoo, that's John. Hear a harmonica, that's Melissa. Bob, Matt and Derek all played the bass at various times. The dobro is Matt. Lead guitar licks are usually Matt and Derek although John and Bob also added some nice backing. Kibitzing from the peanut gallery was from: Sharman Mullen, Jody Bowles Donna Kremer, and Bill and Patty Powis.

All of the files are now online. All 229 of them! Dang, we apparently don't know how to just shut up!


LIGHTHEADS - THE AUSTIN JAMS <<--- that's a link to the jam page

When we get together to make merry and play music I usually record everything. "Everything" meaning 354 File(s) 2,494,294,990 bytes of "stuff" over the years. Here are some highlights. I sift through it periodically to try and find some "gems." So, like all else here, the playlist changes.


LIGHTHEADS - THE EAGLE SESSIONS <<--- that's a link to the jam page

Recorded September 2008 at Matt Carl's in Eagle, MI


SATURDAY CIRCLE <<--- that's a link to the jam page

Members of Matt and Deb Carl's Guitar League and the Lightheads, September 27, 2008 in Eagle, MI


THE LIGHTFOOT TRIBUTE BAND <<--- that's a link to the band page

As far as I know we are the original and first Gordon Lightfoot Tribute Band.

In 2002 we did a tribute concert to Gordon Lightfoot and in 2003 we did tribute concerts for Lightfoot and singer-songwriters at the Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY, the oldest continuously operating coffee house in the U.S.

The jewel box insert.

Here are the MP3 files for both concerts in 2003 .


Dear, Wareham & Rounds

Bob Dear, Tommy Wareham, and Jon Rounds played together for a while in the late 60s and early 70s in State College, PA. This is the soundtrack from a TV show we made of them at then WPSX-TV where I worked. I ran audio on this show and made a tape of it. In 2003 I found the tape in a box, got out my old TEAC 2300 and made mp3 files of it.

Tommy and Jon are still with us. Sadly, Bob passed away February 4, 2017. He is sorely missed.


COUNTRY SONG LYRIC GENERATOR

An Excel 2000 workbook, approximately 111Kb. It is one of the stranger things I've ever done. It's pretty self-explanatory; just load the file in Excel and click the button to generate a country song!

Country Music Songkit v101.XLS

SAMPLE SONGS


The '67 Tapes

In 2003 I found a box of old reel-to-reel audio tapes in my basement. Among them were two from 1967 when I was 17. They were made in my friend Marty's bedroom on a Sony 1/4" two-track open reel recorder.

I still have my old TEAC tape deck so I decided to try and recover a bunch of the tapes. It turned into about a two-week project. I had to restore the lubrication to many of them because they had been in storage so long.

The ones from 1967 turned out to be great fun for me and Marty to hear again. Surprisingly, they weren't nearly as embarassing as I thought they'd be. Don't expect anything great, and we did get kind of goofy at times. At any rate, here they are.


MORE INFORMATION

This page has a brief description of how I record, software and hardware used, my guitars, etc. It includes software for recording, editing, converting formats, playing mp3 files, encoding, ripping, etc. Additionally, there are a few links to sites with info on recording techniques.

The Living Room Tapes - artwork and CD information

The Alpharetta Sessions - artwork and CD information

The Gordon Lightfoot Internet Tribute CDs - Information and Ordering. Why is this here, you ask? Because it's an interesting compilation and I'm on Volume 2. Ok?

The Gordon Lightfoot Crossword Puzzles


Sometimes More Stuff

Sometimes this page contains additional music and other stuff. Sometimes.


This page last changed: Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 10:50 AM USA Eastern Time

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