Mark Shepard: A Life In Song

Posts Tagged ‘singer’

Just figured out how to make an audio player to play every one of the songs on Ocean of Dreams…they should play one after another all by themselves. Ain’t technology grand?

To download your free copy of Ocean of Dreams, just add your e-mail address to the from at right or below (you’ll get a secret link which will take you to a secret page where you can download all the songs or just the one’s you can’t get out of your head).

Fill in your e-mail address and get instant access to the entire Ocean of Dreams CD =====>

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Ocean Of Dreams | 5/28/08-6/22/08 | Song #382

Sometimes I feel so fragile
That the merest hint of a breeze
Could pick me up and scatter me
Across the ocean of dreams…

Sometimes I cannot find
The strength to smile
And I am filled with dis-ease
Then a look from you
Could shatter me
Across the ocean of dreams

Across the ocean of dreams (X3)

Sometimes I feel like I’m made of glass
Sometimes I feel like I’m never gonna last
And I want to see you…one more time…before I go
Yes I want to see you…one more time…before I go

Across the ocean of dreams (X3)

And then I remember
As I stumble through the shards
That I assemble myself
From my dreams
And I decide what they mean…
(and it lifts me up)

Across the ocean of dreams (X3)

Sometimes I feel like I’m made of glass
And I was born To allow the light to pass
Right through me To illuminate your eyes
Let the light through me to illuminate the skies

Across the ocean of dreams (X3)

Sometimes I feel so powerful
That I can smash right through
Any obstacle that blocks my way
Or obscures what is true…

Across the ocean of dreams (X3)

Sometimes I feel like I’m made of glass
And I was born to allow the love to pass
Right through me to illuminate your eyes
Let the love through me to illuminate the skies
Let the love through me to illuminate your eyes
Let the love through me to illuminate the skies

Across the ocean of dreams
(X3 high intensity, then 1x soft and low)

Commentary: This song brings to light a process of healing and transformation that epitomizes the NLP process. It starts with a frank acknowledgment of pain and struggle. Then, in the middle of the song the very image of fragility, feeling like glass gets turned on it’s head. Instead of it being about being fragile or brittle or broken it becomes a powerful thing. The ability to be transparent. Glass may be fragile but it also allows light to pass through it. So what starts out as a defeat, as a giving up song becomes a song of empowerment and victory. This song reminded me once again that the very writing process that songs emerge from is inherently healing for me. The next step ( the one that has eluded me for 30 years) is to share it congruently with other people who can get value and healing from listening or singing along.

Please share this song! You can e-mail it, or post it to social bookmarking sites or even embed it in your own blog with the little widget thingys at the top of the page.

To find out how you can get instant access to Ocean of Dreams as well as the 12 other songs I wrote in 2008 for free please register in the box at right ====>

Ocean of Dreams by Mark Shepard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Here’s how to get my “Ocean of Dreams” album (and a huge number of other songs) FREE!

“Ocean of Dreams” consists of every single song I wrote during 2008 in chronological order. It’s an all acoustic project so you can hear the songs in their raw, “un-produced” state recorded in pristine digital sound at Joe Mennonna’s studio.

I’ve sneak released a few of the songs here on the blog in the past few months but if you want the whole thing and in much higher quality than what you can download here, you will want to get this now.

For a limited time it’s FREE. Yes. Free. 13 digitally mastered original songs instantly down-loadable to your computer. fer nothin’. Nada. Zip. Zilch. FREE, FREE, FREE. (I think you get the idea huh?)

Soon though, I’ll be adding it to the the catalog at $20 (okay probably more like $15)  So get it now.

Here’s how it works.

Get your Backstage Pass by clicking  Get Your Free BackStage Pass NOW! , fill out the little form and you’ll have access to ALL of my songs free. Not just Ocean of Dreams.

Once you are a backstage pass member, and logged in, you can go to the members tab on the menu bar above and use the drop down menus to find the treasure. Ocean of dreams is in Life In Song 2008.

1. Zoooooom!
2. It’s like an unexpected Birthday present.

Thanks again for caring enough about this music to give it a listen. I know you’ll love it. Everyone who’s heard it so far is raving about it. One of the first folks to get it said this:

I Just wanted to let you know that I have listened and think it is awesome!!! Sincerely, Maria

Your friend,

Mark

P.s.  the CD has been exquisitely mastered and sounds way better than your little computer speakers can handle so make sure you listen with the headphones.

Hey. I need your help. I have all this music and I need to get it out into the world where people who care about great music and lyrics can hear it.

So for a limited time, I’m giving away my Visions and Voices CD in it’s entirety. For FREE. all you have to do is go to Download Visions & Voices CD at http://Last.fm, sign up for a free account and download away.

The more people download the songs, the more other people will want to down load them. I’m trying build up some critical mass here. You can also just download the songs you like. Or you can just listen. Or you can find other music you like…

Check it out and Thank you very much for caring enough to help. Here’s the link again:

Download Visions & Voices CD at http://Last.fm,

BTW I have just heard from my very first Song Sponsor. I’ll do a post on that tomorrow in case you’re curious how you too can achieve digital immortality…

- Mark

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Also you can follow me on twitter at http://Twitter.com/MarkShepard

Click here to play the song. Right click the “Download” link to save to your computer free.

 

 Rose Colored Glasses by Mark Shepard: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you feel so moved, please use the donation link in the right side bar or at the bottom of this post. Proceeds from this site will be used to preserve and share the songs that have never been recorded. Thanks for listening!

Rose Colored Glasses | July, 6, 1993 | Song #190

I may look like a fool in my rose colored glasses
I may look like a fool in my rose colored shades
I may look like a fool but I don’t care
Cause I believe in the power of prayer
To pull me a miracle or two right out of thin air*

I know that the good times are gonna catch us
I know that the good times are gonna come and stay
I know that the good times are gonna catch us
Though today they seem slow as molasses
I know that the good times are gonna come and they’re gonna stay

Refrain:
The Sun is hot and mean this morning
It’s a hundred in the shade the radio’s warning
And I’m wishing for a breeze to blow a storm in through these trees
I’m wishing for, I’m wishing for a breeze…

I called you on the phone but you weren’t home today
I called you on the phone but your home and that’s okay
I called you on the phone to tell you why
I refuse to hang my head and cry
Called you on the phone and you weren’t today

Refrain:

I’m walking down a road that’s got no name and has not end
I’m walking down a road that’s got no name and has no end
I’m walking down a road that has no name
Just mountains, rivers, valleys and plains
Walking down a road that got no name and got no end

Refrain:

I may look like a fool in my rose colored glasses
I may look like a fool in my rose colored shades
I may look like a fool but I don’t care
Cause I believe in the power of prayer
To pull me a miracle or two right out of thin air*
To pull me a miracle or two right out of thin air
Gonna need a miracle or two or three right out of thin air…

*Alternate:
‘Cause I’m floatin’ on clouds of air
I know that someday soon I’m gonna have it made

Commentary:

I wrote this song at what was arguably the worst time of my life. I had bought 4 houses for “nothing down” at the top of the 1980’s real estate bubble. The “Bubble” subsequently burst and left me owing far more on the houses than they were worth. I made a living at that time as a Title Insurance agent. And that was a business that was totally dependent on the real estate market as well. So when I talk to a lot of the people in this current economic “melt-down” I have deep compassion. I know that horrible sinking feeling in your gut…

The old saying goes, “the only way to avoid making mistakes in business and life is to have experience. But the only way to get experience is to make mistakes.”

Ultimately after all the twisting and contorting to try to find a way out of the financial mess I was in I ended up losing the houses to foreclosure and went through the “humiliation” of bankruptcy.

I had a lot of moments of sheer panic and doubt and anxiety where I saw myself and my family homeless and living out of cardboard boxes…But on occasion I was able to clear that out and focus on miracles. One miricle that happened was when we went in to court for our eviction hearing. The Bank attorney never showed up. We had 6 more months of living in our home before they found the file that had “fallen through the cracks”. Call it what you will I call it a miracle.

The reason I’d bought all the houses in the first place was because I was trying to make a lot of money so I could do my music. Ultimately I had no choice but to do music. My friend Gene Moore said “Mark, this guy comes to my son’s day care center once a week and plays songs for the kids for $75.00 an hour.”

I had written a bunch of kid songs for my own three children and so I opened the Westchester county phone book and started “cold calling” nursery schools and day care centers. I have since helped a lot of professionals overcome their fear of “cold calling” and I know what that terror feels like staring at the phone…knowing that if you don’t make that call you may not eat.Being  terrifed of “rejection”. But I figured “how mean could a nursery school director be?”

I had no choice. I made the calls and I started getting a few opportunities to play for kids. Ultimately that economic meltdown gave me a chance to do something that I truly loved to do.

Eventually I added drums and story telling to my bag of tricks and DrumSongStory was born (which in this current economic meltdown is still providing income as well as satisfaction.)

Now don’t think that all my financial challenges were over. Because I have yet to discover how to get “steady, passive income” flowing. I am continually challenged by changing circumstances and economic conditions. But the point of the story is that sometimes when it seems really grim, the solution is trying to get your attention. Sometimes when everything else falls apart it’s an opportunity to re-align your core values. And ask some powerful questions like,

• “If I knew I could not fail, what would I be doing?” or

• “If I only had a year to live what would I be doing?”

Take a moment and write some of that down. Now start doing it. Even just 15 minutes a day. Do what you would do if you knew you only had a short time here on earth.

And as you focus on that and begin to do that, I guarantee all the other stuff begins to lose it’s scariness.

Thoughts? I always appreciate hearing from you.

© 1993-2009 by Mark Shepard http://MarkShepardSongs.com
All commercial rights reserved.
Permission granted to reprint with copyright info and link intact.
Permission granted to download and distribute/share the mp3 file for non-commercial purposes

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 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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containing this song and 12 others: $20.00 Postpaid

 
 
Lift Me Up  |  Song # 171 | 7/20/91

I know you’re out there some where, you dancing warrior
I know you have a message for me like some mystic courier
When you call I get so far away, I get so out of sorts
You’re more patient than a rock, wiser than a tree,
Cooler than a corpse!

Refrain:
Lift me up into the devastating stillness of your eyes
Lift me up onto the rooftops and release me to the skies
Life me up into the lightness till the heaviness subsides
Lift me up…Lift me up…Lift me up…

A flower is a soldier and a butterfly is a thief
A sidewalk is a desert that heaves and buckles in the heat
My thirst is like a canyon and I cannot find relief
So I pray for a cooling breeze to blow on these melting city streets

Refrain:

Bridge:
Love is tenderness, love is war
Love is loneliness, love is more
Love is magical, love is a chore
Love is the ceiling and love is the floor

A crow can wear a thousand masks but a sparrow merely sings
The world is more than what we see and every thought has wings
I challenge you to answer me and tell me what it means
Instead you dare me to wait like glass and see what the Spirit brings

Refrain:

© 1991-2008 by Mark Shepard All Rights Reserved

Commentary: This song is from my Visions & Voices CD and is heavily influenced by the writings of Carlos Castaneda. Far from being some weird new age mumbo jumbo I found the concepts contained in his books to be crystal clear and practical for helping one get one’s head out of one’s butt! One of the key concepts was the step by step elimination of self importance and self pity. Indulging in self pity sucks tremendous amounts of energy from us and is the antithesis of what a spiritual warrior is all about. One of the Toltec challenges given to Castaneda by his teacher, Don Juan Matus, was to erase personal history. Castaneda was left to his own devices to figure out how to do that. I believe NLP (neuro linguistic programming) is “how” to erase personal history. By that I mean NLP gives us specific and precise tools to clear the negative and heavy influence of our past. You’ve heard someone say “He has a lot of baggage.” haven’t you? Lift me up is all about letting go of that baggage, erasing the personal history that drags us down and limits us. To learn more about NLP visit my www.ModernJedi.com site

Please leave a comment below or “Stumble” or “Digg”  or “Facebook” or “Twitter” this. You can also email this post to a friend. Thanks! – Mark

Grab a cup of coffee or tea and pull up a comfy chair on Sunday November 23rd from 2-4 pm. You’re invited to join me  as I do my first “open to the public” concert in over 2 years.

The Space is a small, vibrant performing arts venue that is perfect for the intimate kind of music I do. There’s plenty of parking and it’s easy to get to.

Bonus! The first 20 people to register online will receive a CD of 13 of my best songs FREE!

Admission is $20 in advance / $25 at the door.

Concert Location: “The Space” 295 Treadwell St., Building H, Hamden CT 06514 203-288-6400

Get Directions To The Space

You’re gonna have fun! But don’t take my word for it!

Hear a song from my last Public Performance 4/8/06:

 

 Narcissism Live Performance 4/8/06: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download