About Me
Now I try to enjoy simple pleasures and realize this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with what I can do for others. This, for me, is the key to happiness. When I forget this is when I get myself into trouble. When I remember it, the universe unfolds remarkably easily and my spirits are lightened and I smile like a baby. Whether you dig this music or not, I appreciate your interest in a dreamer and wish you happiness.
Hardin Thomas' unfinished "All in a day's dream" has already had two of the recorded songs,"Yellow Bird", and Movin' on", on a Relix "On The Rise" music sampler with the likes of Ani Difranco, Bruce Hornsby, Keller Williams, Umphree's McGee, Old Crow Medicine Show, Kaki King, Damien Marley, and Wolfmother with over 100,000 cd's released in the US alone.
This website hosts only the newest songs. All hard copy discs of both albums are sold out but available for download. Proceeds go into finishing the current works. The most downloaded tunes from "All in a day's dream" are "Yellow Bird" and "Deborah."
Notes on All in a day's dream:
My original goal was to write an album that involved dream sequences or songs inspired by a nocturnal dream. "Beautiful Lies", "Wasted Time", and "Yellow Bird" all fit that mold. "Sweet Misery" was conceived while listening to an AM radio station and hearing an angelic voice through the static.
EP was produced by Danny Barnes. has worked with, among others, Ronnie Lane of the Rolling Stones, Widespread Panic, The Seattle Symphony, and helped work on an album last year that was one of the top ten jazz albums of the year according to the New Yorker magazine.
Wasted time.
Wasted time is nice and fragile. Not unlike an orphan or a king or any one in high school. Barnes shapes this tune with a Danelectro vibe. It certainly lends to the dream state of what's going down. This was the first song to get radio play of the first three songs we've recorded. It will be the end of the album once it's completed, with the lyrics "was it all just a dream? I was all in a daze. It was all just a dream" before the final chorus.
Yellow Bird:
The most well-received tune on the EP, this is a Rhumba, with trumpet, trombone, danelectro guitar, acoustic guitar, bass and drums. It's about a beautiful blonde who is in an abusive relationship but doesn't know she is : "when it's so hard to move it's so hard to know what the truth is". The tune is telling her to realize what's really going down. This was a daydream. I met a girl who worked at a coffee shop- a wonderful spirit- who had a really ugly, jealous boyfriend. I was riding by one day and I saw him pick her up and force her into his car. I then rode my bike by a bird sanctuary and saw a beautiful yellow bird singing a beautiful yellow bird song. I took out some napkins (i like to write on napkins) and wrote the tune.
Blankets and Sheets:
This tune is about the girl that you meet when things are looking down (maybe after a break up)- and something about her gives you hope that things are going to be ok.
"The flowers in her hair say you don't have to be alone.
Be who you are. Be who you'll be. She says don't be scared.
She says with flowers in her hair. May love love love never grow old. Never grow old".
The author daydreams about this girl and then returns home to have nightmares about lost love and friends passed. When he wakes up it happens all over again until an epiphany occurs about the power of her flowers as a symbol for hope.
Beautiful lies.
This song is my favorite, because of its cyclical nature and how the rhythm section kicks you in the gut and the viola work and the fragility, which is what I was going after. It also blends and morphs, but the lyrics remain essentially the same. I was inspired by a chinese book I was reading. In the translation of the book, all the pronouns are interchangeable. We, she, he, they, all represent the same being. This is one of the songs that I use in a tuning I figured out by turning knobs. (boredom has its own opportunities). The tune features Eyvind Kang on viola. He has an amazing ability to fill in gaps with cascading tones. His playing is flush with imagery. He emulates birds chirping while lyrics drone during the bridge: 'sittin' on a park bench nothin left to do nothing on my conscience but my shoes...' You can almost see them. Eyvind seems to have a mind that allows him to see colors more vividly. He listened to the words of the song and really wanted to understand it. He has worked recently with Beck and Bill Frisell and visits Vienna to perform his own classical works as well. He is definitely blessed, well-spoken, and polite, and was serious about the piece. He was excited about doing it, too, which was so cool for me, as I was basically the rookie of the unit and trying to just absorb everything.
Movin' On.
This is the tune you'd shake your finger to if you played it on a jukebox. Danny does things that no one has ever done on a banjo. This is why he is reknowned. He is one of them jaw dropping cats. When he plays you turn to your friend and look at eachother like, did that just really happen? He had become a strong influence in my life and has taught me on a bunch of different levels and I can't express enough the gratitude that I was able to work and chill with him. The last I've heard from Danny, he played with Dave Matthews. It was surreal to hear the banjo on "satellite"
Deborah
This song I wrote on a piano in a hospital in Center City, Minnesota. The best part about this song is the paralell minor before the chorus. This song I tried to be as fragile as I possibly could, quavering the vocal. Garey said this song has the softest vocal he has ever recorded. It was recorded with Danny's friend Robyn Holcolm (Atantic Records) playing the piano. She gives a maternal vibe to it, which lends well to the child-like nature of the vocal. The intro and outro she made up on the spot.
I'd like to give special public appreciation to my family and friends for all of their love and support. As for you, don't be a stranger. Life's too short. Write. I'm interested in you. And I humbly thank you for checking out this music and other independents. Peace to you.
If you have interest in this music, please check out my first album as well. Many enjoy that one- it's not as vocally fragile- original fans maybe like it even more (although I think my current stuff is by far the better of the two). If you would like to purchase "Soul Mountain" or "All in a Days Dream EP", the downloads can be found on iTunes and CDBaby.
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