Laura Griffin Designs

I love the song Dante’s Prayer by Loreena McKennitt. She wrote it in 1995 while traveling alone by train across Siberia. She later recorded it in Peter Gabriel’s studio in England for her album Book of Secrets.

Tonight, I was drawn to the piano to create my own interpretation. I recorded it in about an hour. The final version was a single take, so this is a bit raw with just my piano & voice. I like the end result, though, and I hope you enjoy it! Click on the image to the left or here to listen to the Dante’s Prayer mp3.

“Cast your eyes on the ocean… Cast your soul to the sea. When the dark night seems endless… Please remember me.”

Happy to be singing & creating music again,

I’ve been on a music kick lately & wanted to share one of my fav artists with you. I first discovered Imogen Heap about 2 years ago. She has an incredibly unique voice, can play the piano brilliantly, & is one of the most talented producers I’ve ever seen (actually performing hundreds of performances live as a one-woman band with just her & her studio equipment). She is currently recording her 4th major album in the basement of her childhood home (in England) and is doing a video blog on You Tube showing her progress each week. Really fun to see her creative process.

Years ago, she was part of a 2-person band called “FrouFrou” whose claim to fame was a song called “Let Go” that was featured in the movie Garden State. Here’s an acoustic version of the song with just Imogen & her piano. It is so beautiful & raw that I had to share…. “There’s beauty in the breakdown.”

Every once in a while, I hear a song that blows me away…that stops me dead in my tracks. Almost Lover is one of those songs. I first heard the song (written by A Fine Frenzy ) a few months ago and I just couldn’t get the sad, haunting melody out of my mind. During my recent trip to Europe, I played it on repeat as I sat staring at the Irish ocean on Killiney Bay. I decided I wanted to do my own interpretation and share it with you here. I arranged the piece on my Clavinova piano with some basic string instrumentation. Hope you like it! Just click on the image below or here to listen to the Almost Lover mp3. FYI – you may need to increase the volume a bit on your headphones or speakers since the recording is not mastered. Hope you’re having a great weekend!

I don’t know about you, but I’m a complete sucker for sappy dramas. The first time I watched “A Walk to Remember” starring Mandy Moore – I think I cried for an hour straight!

We’re not talking an award-winning film, but something about the movie stayed with me…and I think a lot of it had to do with one of the songs on the soundtrack. It’s called “Only Hope”, and it has a beautiful, haunting melody and the lyrics tell about spiritual surrender. I decided to record my own version last night for piano & voice…and this is what I came up with. Click on the image to the right to take a listen to the Mp3. Thanks for dropping by!

Arthur William Edgar O’Shaugnessy. Isn’t that a fabulous name? He wrote a poem circa 1874 that caught my eye tonight & I set a portion of it to some music. It’s a very rough cut with my piano & a microphone, but I like the tune. I may add extra verses & a bridge later since this was kinda improvised & the last half is just piano. Click here to listen to the “Music Makers” MP3. A copy of the poem is below…

Ode

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;   

Side note: I just looked up the poet in Wikipedia, and it ends up this poem was already set to music by the famous composer Edward Elgar back in 1912! *LOL* I’ll have to get a copy from the library to hear someone actually do the words justice!