Words & Music

by Mike Power

latest

  • Demo: Within You and Without You

    I was noodling around on guitar the other day and stumbled onto this melody. The Irish songs I’ve been working on rely more on notes than chords and this song does the same thing from a land 5,000 miles east of Ireland.George Harrison’s Within You And Without You kicks of side two of The Beatles’… Read more

  • Fictional Humans of NY – The Actor

    In the first place, the actor looks nothing like me. But even if he did, I’m just not buying the performance. I don’t really act like that, do I? If I did, who would have anything to do with me? Maybe he’s doing some kind of subtle method acting that’s going over my head.Maybe he’s… Read more

  • Last Licks

    There’s no way around it – 2016 is a shitty year for music fans. So far we’ve lost Prince, Merle Haggard, David Bowie, Keith Emerson, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, and Maurice White. And it’s not even May yet. It got me thinking about the final recordings that artists make and what it says about the… Read more

  • Review: You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine

      I’ll start my review of Alexandra Kleeman’s You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine with the highest praise I can think of for any book: the storytelling reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut’s. The same horror at conformity and conventional wisdom screams from every page, in a sweet and thoughtful way. And there are… Read more

  • Baby Jewels

    Good morning, Baby JewelsAnd how are you today?Do you have someone to help youKeep the wolves at bay? I’m still losing the same fightI’m still waking up with youThe first thing on my mind I’m still hacking through the weedsI’m still scraping on my kneesI’m still providing answers for crazy peopleI’m still missing you I hope… Read more

  • Demo: How About Tonight?

    I wrote this song on a barstool in a place called Reichenbach Hall. I wrote a lot of lyrics there.The song is an ode to hedonism. Because the world doesn’t have enough of those, no matter how hard men like Oscar Wilde and Keith Richards have tried. When you feel like tomorrow might not come… Read more