What Are We Waiting For?

What Are We Waiting For.mp3

Crappy days have this one major benefit: sweet creative tension.

It may not be my best song (falsetto soul singer songs) but it came out pretty complete, the chorus first, then a verse, then a not-so-horrible bridge. If I stole it openly from any song you can think of, let me know. It's nagging in the back of my mind...

What Are We Waiting For?
by Steven Wesley Guiles

Was it something I said? Was it something I did?
Well let me take it back.

Was it something I lost? Was it something I hid?
Well let me give it back

What are you waiting for? What are we waiting for?
Get your feet up off the floor?
What am I waiting for? What were we waiting for?
Get on up through the door

Did I leave you in pain, child?
Did I wipe out your sweet smile?
Well that's why I've come back

Here take another tissue
I think I'm gonna need some too
Let's have ourselves a good cry here and now

What are you waiting for? What are we waiting for?
Get your feet up off the floor?
What am I waiting for? What were we waiting for?
Get on up through the door

No, I never thought I'd see your face again
Now I'm comin' around back from where I've been

No, I never thought I'd see your face again
Now I'm comin' around back from where I've been


verse and chorus chords: Em-G-D-A
bridge chords: C-G-D-A 4x


Photo found here. Great pictures!

I Tried To Make Sense of a Senseless Act of Will

This picture was taken by this nice lady. Here's a link to the photo.


This song was written as I watched the news on Columbine eight years ago. I've posted it on my Myspace page so you can hear it. I thought I wouldn't post it here, since it's not a new song, but it felt like something I could share. I may write another song about this soon as a way to cope.

These things are horrible and evil.

Here are the lyrics to Mary:
(The character Mary, in this song, is a name I gave to a person standing outside on her phone waiting for news after the shootings...)

Mary

I tried to make sense
Of a senseless act of will
There were only questions in my house
Why they had to kill

Someone tell me why this happened
Someone tell me why we’re all crying
Someone tell me this never happened
Someone tell me this will never happen again

Someone’s gonna get back to you Mary
Someone’s gonna get back to you soon
I’m sorry if you are feeling badly
Sitting in your room
Sitting in your room

Look into my eyes again
Tell me it’s alright
Look into the TV set
Will Mary get a call tonight?

Someone tell me why this happened
Someone tell me why we’re all crying
Someone tell me this never happened
Someone tell me this will never happen again

Someone’s gonna get back to you Mary
Someone’s gonna get back to you soon
I’m sorry if you are feeling badly
Sitting in your room

Someone’s gonna get back to you Mary
Someone’s gonna get back to you soon
I’m sorry if you are feeling badly
Sitting in your room, crying in your room

Let It Go

This one has been a tough one for me. I sorta wrote the entire song in a silent testing room and then had to figure out the melodies, etc. I just knew I wanted the chorus to be a little sweet, and sour at the same time (if that makes any sense).

I actually JUST started feeling like I have a little idea of what the verse melody is, but it is definitely a work in progress.

This song has so perplexed me that I actually wrote a song that is partially about my frustration with this songwriting experience.

I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on this one. If anything sticks with you or rubs you the wrong way. Hopefully it does a little of both.

Sweet and sour baby!

Let It Go.mp3

Let It Go
words and music by Eric Shouse

You’re the light in my corridor
Don’t know what else you’re looking for
We’ve been having this conversation, and you’re nowhere to be sound

You collect and hold on
Your treasure is like a tomb
The vault’s become a grave and you’re becoming a slave

Let it go… (Let it go and fall with me)
Let it go… (Let it go and crawl with me)
Let it go… (Loose your grip and feel the wind)
Let it go… (… no more, it digging in your skin)
Let it go

They’ve been nothing but cold to you
Don’t know the traders (traitors) they sold you to
All because you see in dreams what is right before their skies

They can’t hear the truth through its clarity,
never been sick with fidelity
You give and you give and you give and give and give and give again

Let it go… (Let it go and fall with me)
Let it go… (Let it go and crawl with me)
Let it go… (Loose your grip and feel the wind)
Let it go… (… no more, it digging in your skin)
Let it go

You’re the light in my corridor
Don’t know what else you’re looking for
We’ve been having this conversation, don’t know any way around

I am the stop in your drain
But I just couldn’t make it rain
Guess my dance can’t measure up and all the water’s drying up

We’re the branch that I’ve clung to
After all that we’ve been through
Wish it never had to stop and I’m frightened of the drop
Hope the angels break your fall and I’ll miss you most of all

Let it go… (Let it go and fall with me)

Let it go… (Let it go and crawl with me)

Let it go… (Loose your grip and feel the wind)

Let it go… (… no more, it digging in your skin)

Let it go

A little somethin' somethin'

So that lady up there is my best gal pal. She's a singer/songwriter out in Denver, named Kate Laurel Smith. Yesterday a fan of hers emailed her an mp3 of a song he had "re-recorded" with a drum part he heard in his head, and she passed it on to me... what a huge compliment for an artist! Somebody she never met before spent time and attention on her music, and didn't do a bad job of it, I must admit.

So she and I got to talking, and figured something fun would be to open up her catalogue, so to speak, for others to mix and remix, and we'd post things on a new myspace page. I naturally thought of you apples and thought, maybe we could have some fun here, too- I don't know what ya'll have available, but I'm gonna try a few crappy attempts myself. If you're interested in her sound, her myspace is here, her webpage is here, and the newly designed repliKate is here. (heh heh, I thought it up all by myself.)

In my hiatus from writing, I'm trying to stay creative on other fronts; the juice doesn't leave, it just switches pipes.