I see a picture of myself entering a wild uncultivated bush land hoping to find a way through. At first there seems no trail of any sort but then I see a broken frond and looking down, the faint markings of a footstep and I start to follow. Continue reading ‘The Path’
I was in a recording studio a few weeks ago, working on a batch of new songs and the producer kindly asked if my fascination with the spiritual world and this ‘following Jesus business’ had hindered my career in any way. The short answer is no (from my vantage point) and I went on to explain, much to his surprise, how much favor I have enjoyed in placing these types of songs in network television and or playing them in pubs and clubs around the world. Continue reading ‘The Name’
Love and Justice
I still feel safer walking the back streets and dark alleys of Hollywood late at night than I do wandering around facebook… but one of the benefits of social networking is following those narrow threads from ‘friend to friend’… and like Dorothy skipping along the yellow brick road towards the land of Oz… occasionally you meet someone interesting. Continue reading ‘Love and Justice’
At one point or another all of us find ourselves trapped in a dark cloud, we can’t see our way out… and no one can see in… or so we think.
Its easy to get stuck in that murky fog and though we secretly want someone to rescue us, whether its through shame, pride, pain, ignorance or just lack of strength we keep stum…. and suffer alone. Continue reading ‘Have Dark Cloud Will Travel’
Breathe in
(Track 01 of “Rescue Me”)
A good writing session is a moment in time. I sit quietly… consider an audience… usually a person I know… and I start singing to them.
There is a face attached to each song on this album.
The first person I sang to… needed to relax… Chill out!
You know the type. Continue reading ‘Breathe In’
A very good friend of mine, with tears in his eyes was sharing his concern for his ailing wife. She had been ill for some time and he felt helpless. In a moment of inspiration (he says) he looked at me and declared that I should make an album on healing.
I have to admit that I inwardly groaned. All of a sudden I felt this immense pressure on my shoulders and I wondered what magic button he thought I could press to make my music a miracle cure.
But… he got me thinking about my life as a musician thus far.
If I’m thinking right of a morning I will avoid going straight to the computer to check emails (to see if anybody still loves me)….. I’ll take a walk a round the neighborhood before it gets too hot…. I will then make a pot of tea, some toast and have breakfast on the back patio. Unfortunately I don’t do this everyday…. Continue reading ‘I’m a Life-Aholic’
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I am not very PC. In fact my father used to say of me that I only opened my mouth to change feet. He once suggested that I make a card that read “Have Foot in mouth: Will Travel”
I do believe however that the best kind of humor is self deprecating….. in other words when we laugh at ourselves. Continue reading ‘I’m Not Very PC’
The Apple Don’t Fall
Over the years I have been a sucker for the slick sales pitch. I guess I am habitually looking for the good in people and often don’t notice the ‘evil’ until it’s too late and… by then I have bought the faulty product or signed the dodgy contract.
My friend Al has been telling me for years. “If a guy says he’s an apple tree make sure there are plenty of apples on the ground beneath him” Continue reading ‘Apples and Lemons’
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I Want to Be Like Jesus
Linda McCrary introduced me to this song about 15 years ago. She and her family would often sing it, along with many other traditional gospel songs during their Church services, usually held in a storefront building in a tough neighborhood, somewhere deep in the San Fernando Valley.
The first time I heard this song, it became mine. It said what I wanted to say… only better. It is a simple prayer… and it’s enough. If this prayer could be answered in me then I would be a better man… and the world would be a better place.
However… I must confess that I have omitted the first verse that says, “I want to be a Christian in my heart etc”. Continue reading ‘What’s in a Name?’
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When I moved to America I saw myself as a singer-songwriter/bluesy guitar player. My songs were about life…. some were about brokenness, others had my slant on the gospel and some were inspirational (hymns). I came here to play clubs and theaters etc to share my blend of “peace and goodwill to all”….. but when Broken Records folded I was vacuumed into another label and placed in a box…. labeled worship….. and though this form of expression has played an important role in my life, I found this recording industry experience quite suffocating. Continue reading ‘HMJ or Robbo Part 2′
What Would Love Do?
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Have you ever seen those bracelets WWJD? I hate those things. It’s a bit like having a fish sticker on your car (which seems to give you a license to drive badly and abuse people on the road…. I could be generalizing here.) WWJD, if you didn’t already know ….. stands for What Would Jesus Do.
Poor Jesus he gets blamed for everything. Continue reading ‘WWLD’
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“I get no satisfaction when I see a good man fall, one who was so tall.”
This week, in the US we all witnessed a very public fall from grace of another leader…. and though it has been painful to watch…. (even more painful for he and his family…… especially his wife)….. there’s still that feeling we all share…… hiding just under the surface perhaps….. that he deserved it.
You’re awful Muriel? Continue reading ‘Who’ll Save Elliott?’
True Champions
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Walking with You (c) 2007 Chris Falson
I wrote and produced this song for the Avon Foundation to help promote the Breast Cancer Walk campaign. To see a higher resolution video, Or to find out more about the Walk for Breast Cancer campaign, visit the Avon Foundation website. Continue reading ‘True Champions’
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It’s funny how sayings or proverbs get lost in translation….. or intentionally misconstrued to win an argument.Like….. “for money is the root of all evil”. This has often been the rallying cry of the poor against the wealthy, affluent, moneyed, well-to-do, prosperous, opulent, silk-stockinged, loaded, flush, stinking-filthy rich. But the original phrase reads “…. for the love of money is the root of all evil”. Not only does this change the meaning …. but it turns the onus away from the money…. to the lover of money. Continue reading ‘Treasure?’
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There are some things…. incidences….. accidents….. circumstances over which we have no control or say. There are words we wish we could take back and there things we would prefer not to have on our CV. Worse still are the opportunities we did not seize or potential fortunes we left untouched. Perhaps we let them slip through our fingers ….. or put them off for another day…. and that day has long since passed.I have several of these……. but there are two in particular that shaped my life ….. hopefully for the better. Continue reading ‘The Making of a Man’
(c) 2007 This Amazing Grace, Chris Falson
Early 2007 a writer/producer with whom I often work called to see whether or not I had my own (vocal) version of Amazing Grace. He was in the final edit of a documentary about a Prison and was at odds with the score for a particular scene…… he had tried placing several songs into the situation including Sufjan Steven’s recording of Amazing Grace and had yet to find ‘the one’. As he described the scene I could imagine the sound of an old, gray headed, blues singer (John Lee Hooker) sitting on a porch, playing a beat up guitar and singing to nobody in particular. But I wasn’t the director of this documentary was I…….. Continue reading ‘The Moment’
One night, laying in bed, my wife and I looked out through the frame of our window to a purple moon resting on a canopy of opaque clouds. Perhaps the clouds were purple and the moon was opaque. I am color blind and it was my wife who ‘chose the colors’….. but it was a special moment…. and though we live in a city that never sleeps…. it seemed to us that the world had stopped…. and our crazy life was still…. and quiet….. and maybe we were in neverland (and I mean the original neverland!)…… in a place where all our dreams could come true. Continue reading ‘Purple Moon on Clouds’
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How Long (c) 2007 Chris Falson
Being a writer, whether it’s music or other could seem like a glamorous way to make a living. It’s not really. It’s a job like any other.
Don’t get me wrong, I love writing and recording music, and that’s about all I know how to do, but it’s work none the less. Some days I am full of inspiration and time passes quickly and then there are the other days….. well you know what they are like. They are slow and boring. You feel like you are sinking in mud and by dinner time you look at your work and think ” this is a load of $%^&*UI!” Continue reading ‘Writer’s Block?’
Use Words if You Have To
(c) 2007 Chris Falson
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Saint Francis in Prayer, by El Greco 1580 C/O Joslyn Art Museum
Saint Francis of Assisi is one of my heroes. He didn’t just talk about his convictions…..he lived them.
Though the son of a wealthy merchant and nobleman the young Francis forfeited all of his inheritance…..wealth, estates, prestige….to pursue what he sensed to be his calling.
It is one thing to talk about love and sacrifice….or about laying one’s life down for another…..or to stand on a pulpit and ‘preach’ a gospel that welcomes ‘all men’….it is another thing entirely to risk all….life, friendships, reputation….for the sake of another.
I am tired of hearing ‘messages’, Continue reading ‘Use Words if You Have To’
Faith
(c) 1997 Chris Falson
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I am of no faith….. no faith in particular that is.
I remember the first day at school (aged 5 or 6). After we gave our names we had to tell the teacher what our father did for a living and then say what faith we belonged to. On both counts I failed the test…. or at least that’s how I felt at the time.
While all the other kids said that their fathers were bankers, or builders, or butchers or firemen…. I announced in a matter of fact voice that mine was a musician. Well the kids went wild….”his dad is a magician, woweee…”…. “no he’s a musician” I yelled out over the din…. “What’s a musician?” I felt like Bart Simpson…. my father had let me down because no one knew what he did….. except the teacher…. she was most impressed. Continue reading ‘I am of No Faith’
Season for Goodbye
(c) 2003 Chris Falson
During the fall of 2003 I was writing one piece of music after another (songs, themes, stings etc) for a music publisher who had a deal with the networks. I was churning them out, often writing one or two a day…. I am not saying they were all ‘good’….. but occasionally one would stand out and it would be a ‘keeper’….. however, believe it or not, most of the pieces I wrote would end up in either a Network or Cable show. Often the most difficult part of the ‘pulp’ writing was coming up with the title. Continue reading ‘Season for Goodbye’
The Climb
There is an old saying that goes something like this….. “Consider it a gift when tests and challenges come at you from all sides because under this kind of pressure the real you is forced out into the open…. and your faith, your real faith, (not what you say you believe) will be revealed in it’s true colors …… whether you like it or not”.
It seems a strange notion to be thankful for bad times. And even stranger still to rejoice when your nakedness is made public. Imagine throwing a party every time you were surrounded by difficulties.
What would people say? “Boy he throws lots of parties…. he’s a party animal!”
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It is said that “love covers a multitude of sins”… or wrongs….. or mistakes….. or errors in judgment….. or words ill spoken (my favorite)….. the list goes on. I recognize this kind of love in others but rarely in myself. I am too quick to judge, or ‘right people off’….. perhaps this is the meaning of the phrase ‘ he doesn’t suffer fools gladly’….. and yet I am the real fool for behaving in this manner.
I wrote Unconditional Love as a result of a ‘run in’ with a friend. He was our manager for a season and during one disastrous east coast festival our friendship was tested to it’s limit.
A Brief History
I was born and bred in Sydney, Australia and after an unsuccessful tertiary education I was ‘apprenticed’ by my father into the music business. This was 1977. Over the next 14 years, playing guitar, bass (and some trumpet and keys) in clubs, theaters, orchestras pits, recording and TV studios, schools, concert and church halls, the occasional tour of NZ, Asia and Europe etc I learnt my trade. My songwriting skills were a little slower to develop but if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Eventually I had my first song published, and then another, and another and so on. And then one day I had a song on a hit record ‘in the States’…. and this changed my life…. because instead of me sending unsolicited material to labels and publishers around the world they started calling me hoping to sign me as a writer and recording artist.
And so I moved into the next phase of my career. Continue reading ‘A Brief History’
Several years ago Disney produced a remake of Freaky Friday starring Jaimie Lee Curtis. The music supervisor was having trouble obtaining the rights to a John Mayer song and so the call went around to songwriters and artists (like me) who had a JM vibe. The premise of the movie (just in case you didn’t see it!) was……
‘An overworked mother and her daughter do not get along. When they switch bodies, each is forced to adapt to the others life for one freaky Friday.’
The producers wanted a song along the lines of…. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me but I’m not quite myself today’ …… but it had to sound like John Mayer. Continue reading ‘Not Feeling Myself’
Chris Falson is an Australian born singer-songwriter living and working in LA. He is, in his own words “a jack of many trades, master of none”…..making a living as a songwriter, studio musician, touring artist, published author and teacher, father of two and husband of one. These past few years he has been making a name for himself as a composer, writing songs and music for such TV shows as Star Trek, Extra, Meet My Folks, Without a Trace, Roswell, One Tree Hill, Jake 2.0 and Queer Eye. With 7 solo albums to his name Chris still finds time between writing and producing to do the odd (very) tour of pubs, clubs and Churches here and there (mostly US and Europe). His recent album “Flesh and Bone” was released in 2008.
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