Odd musical thingies created with my acoustic guitar, alto saxophone, Yamaha keyboard, and GarageBand. These are mostly rough demos or sketches, as I dabble in making music. They were mostly created for various comedy projects or just for myself.

“Ballad of the Waitress”
(Aaron Lyons/Corey Blake)
This is the first song I ever performed in public. It was created for a sketch comedy show when we were part of the fondly remembered Foe Pa. Aaron Lyons wrote the lyrics more as a latter-day Johnny Cash song. It was very somber with deadpan dark comedy, a great twist on a folk and country song tradition. I loved it but within the context of our show, I thought it might slow things down too much. So I completely twisted his intent and turned it into some odd Gene Autry ditty (if Gene Autry had a psychotic obsessive side). It was such a thrill to perform this live, and I really enjoyed being Carole King to Aaron’s Gerry Goffin (or if you prefer, Elton John to his Bernie Taupin). Later we tried to write an additional final verse where the main character gets his comeuppance but it just never seemed to click in with the rest of it. I made an attempt to record it, but it seemed the more I worked on it, the more unsatisfied I became. It probably works better as a live performance to really show the shift from the verses to the chorus.

“Happy Mother’s Day”
(Corey Blake)
My mother bought me my first guitar, so I wrote her my first song. You can read more about it, including the lyrics, here. It needs drums and the effects on the vocals are over-done but it basically does what it’s supposed to do.

“Happy Father’s Day”
(Corey Blake)
Well I couldn’t leave him out. You can read more about this song and its lyrics here.

“Shane”
(Corey Blake)
This is really rough. You can hear the breaks between verse and chorus, which were all recorded separately and then clumsily patched together without any transition, and my guitar work is more lacking than usual. But this was never really meant to be heard by more than me; it was created to remind me how the song went while I was practicing it to perform live, and it’s only ever been performed live once. Back in the good ol’ days of Bill Johnson directing the Magic Meathands improv group, he would put on a sorta-roast for people that had hit 100 shows with the Meathands. This was for Shane’s roast, and it’s packed with inside jokes that probably no more than 12 people will get. I think I came up with the idea of the song about a week before the show, so this was very hastily done. At the show, I played off of sheet music (amateur!) but it was worth it. I always have a blast performing with Shane and I couldn’t pass up the chance to pay tribute to him. This is also notable for being a rare recording of me actually swearing.

“Pants”
(Corey Blake)
This nightmarish soundtrack was created for the sketch comedy video Pants: A Nightmare, made during my Magic Meathands days. In some weird way, this whole project was inspired by Randy Newman’s hilarious song “Pants” but this is obviously not a cover of that song. The first is a rough draft and the second is the one used in the video.

“Stalkin'” and “Working”
(Corey Blake)
These are two simple instrumentals used for the sketch comedy video Corey vs. His Nemesis.

“Sneaky Snake”
(Tom T. Hall)
This is probably the best of the lot. It’s a cover of Tom T. Hall’s classic children’s song, recorded as a birthday gift for my sister. My wife Nahleen is on tambourine. The best part is that Nahleen didn’t know I’d stopped recording and started in with a hearty “Happy Birthday” after her “woo” at the end. For a few seconds I debated whether to break it to her. Originally posted here.