I have been really focused on writing and recording for a while now, and have not been playing in public all that much. But I recently discovered this awesome open mic called The What Have You, where they provide all the instruments and amps, and whoever shows up can form an impromptu band for any given song. It's my new happy place, and a great venue for trying things out.  So I decided to try out this new song.

I wrote "Strength and Peace" at the beginning of this year, for a Song Writing and Recording Challenge. This is my favorite song that I've written in a while. In writing it, I was thinking about how 2024 looks to be a year full of loud voices yelling at each other, and this song is a simple prayer for the fortitude to make it through.

It's basically a simple singer-songwriter folk song, at least originally it was, but in this performance it turns into a nice little Indie Rock tune. I think this version has a lot of potential, so I might make an additional studio recording that sounds more like this.

The performance recorded here is very much a first take... I had only ever played the song a handful of times in my basement, and none of the other musicians had ever heard it before I started playing it in front of them. So, big kudos and respect to them for making it sound as good as it does here.

I am not entirely sure what key it should be in, but I think this was too low for me... you sort of lose my voice at the end of the chorus, I think. We're playing it in G major, which was the key I originally wrote it in. The SWARC recording was in C, which was a bit too high for me, so I think maybe it needs to be in A or so. That's one of the things I need to figure out before finalizing a studio version.

Oh, and here are the lyrics:

Shallow vision
Keep it away from me
Deep division
Keep it away from me
Can’t win, just keep it away from me

Give me strength and peace

Bad intention
Keep it away from me
Mad religion 
Keep it away from me
Don’t know why they need what they take from me

Just give me strength and peace

Empty feeling
Take it away from me
Secret demon
Please take it away from me
Sorry if I'm not where I’m supposed to be

Just give me strength 
Give me strength
Give me strength and peace