(Scroll down for lyrics…)

Asher was an earnest, smart, and affectionate dog. He settled well, was awesome to take on a car or canoe ride, delighted in “Keep Away” and body rubs, and loved, loved, LOVED a great many people. It’s a testament to his personality that we think a couple of families were inspired by him to adopt dogs of their own.

The video is a little “Best Of”, and if you want to see even more of “the best decision we ever made as a married couple” (Kit’s expression, and I agree), just search for #AsherTheSchnoodle.

Soundcloud:

YouTube:

Ludicrous

You started small
Just a bouncing ball of fuzz
And you made us laugh because
We couldn’t keep you contained at all

Flat on the couch
Single hoop in my left ear
Never should have let you near
‘Cuz then you bit it and ripped it out

      And loving you is ludicrous
      Just look at what you do to us

We tumbled out
To the sidewalks and the lawns
To reveal what’s going on
And to relieve any local drought

You settled down
On a chair or in the car
Such a stoic superstar
You didn’t care long as we’re around

      And loving you is ludicrous
      Just look at what you do to us

Through all the years
Never lost your favorite game
Grab the toy and run away
Then turn around with those hopeful ears

Fast turned to slow
And we cherished every day
Till the night you went away
We see your face every place we go

      And losing you is ludicrous
      Just look at what you do to us
      And loving you is ludicrous
      Just look at what you do to us

      Look at what you do to us…

© Copyright 2017 Nate Orshan

*** Aliases included Ashy, Ashy Bashy, Asha Basha, Oosher, The Boosh, The Schnood…

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Fab Fact

Once upon a land in a different time
Telling any lie was a social crime
   Uh-oh, no way to stay a hero
   Throw a stone and you wind up alone

Any bill of goods that you’d try to pass
Bouncing back to smash up all your glass
   Oh yes, did you make a big mess?
   You best go and change your address

Then they turned off all the lights
   Can’t tell one thing from another
Switching out the wrong and right
   Can’t see, head is under covers
Cheat, deceive, and fake their friends
But when lying finally ends

      It’s time for party nation
      When the fab fact is back again
      A giant jubilation
      When the fab fact is back again
      The fireworks and confetti
      When the fab fact is back again
      We’re dancing free and pretty
      When the fab fact is
      Back at home inside the mind and
      Waking us from this bullshit nightmare

Buried encyclopedia
Under the home-made media
   Look out, makin’ up your own doubt
   Shout loud and you get a crowd

Buried encyclopedia
With all the dirt they’re feedin’ ya
   Gone ‘round, covering the whole town
   All clowns wanna get dumbed down

Made a slave to every fear
   Pretend that you got your freedom
Blindfolds on the eyes and ears
   Pretend that you’ll never need ‘em
When they burn through every friend
Look who’s coming ‘round the bend

      It’s time for party nation
      When the fab fact is back again
      A giant jubilation
      When the fab fact is back again
      The fireworks and confetti
      When the fab fact is back again
      We’re dancing free and pretty
      When the fab fact is
      Back at home inside the mind and
      Waking us from this bullshit nightmare

Truth is truth is truth is truth
   If you prove it then you own it
From the basement to the roof
   If it’s true you don’t outgrow it
One thing left to recommend
Roll the credits now, my friend

      It’s time for party nation
      When the fab fact is back again
      A giant jubilation
      When the fab fact is back again
      The fireworks and confetti
      When the fab fact is back again
      We’re dancing free and pretty
      When the fab fact is
      Back at home inside the mind and
      Waking us from this bullshit nightmare

© Copyright 2017 Nate Orshan

Here’s a song I wrote for the Winter Solstice, peace, and perseverance.

This started out as a homework assignment from the Burlington Writers Workshop‘s Songwriting Workshop (for December 8, 2016), a wonderful and welcoming group of songwriters meeting every month and led by Vermont multi-talented multi-instrument songwriter Seth Cronin*. We try to have a (non-mandatory) songwriting prompt, and for this month it was:

I follow the prompt when I can, so I set out to make a secular-humanist Winter Solstice song***. As it turned out, I’d recently broken a string on my guitar and was about to bring the whole thing in for an adjustment (plug: at Advance Music), so it was either do it on keyboard…or maybe just with a hand drum…****

Thanks for taking the time to hear my exhortation for being strong together through the darkest time of the year. May our new year bring peace. Hand in hand we stand, awake and alive.

Longest of Nights

Longest of nights
Glittering lights
Winter in the home and hemisphere
Has arrived

Tilted away
Still here we stay
In the only orbit
That we obey

And when the hard times turn up
We won’t be afraid
A new year’s revolution
Shows the only way
We get to the green time

Longest of nights
Glittering lights
Hand in hand we stand
Awake and alive

And when the hard times turn up
We won’t be afraid
A new year’s revolution
Shows the only way
We get to the green time

Longest of nights
Glittering lights
Hand in hand we stand
Awake and alive

Hand in hand we stand
Awake and alive

© Copyright Nate Orshan

* Who, I just discovered, was recently co-awarded a patent for a system for reserving parking spaces. OK Seth…where’s our song about that?**

** …So maybe he was a little busy getting married this year. Congratulations, Natalie and Seth!

*** Because that’s what I am.

**** And tried lighting the performance with candles for that “we’re just a-sittin’ out here by the campfire” feel. Hopefully that didn’t turn a would-be nice song too creepy-looking…

***** Thanks to the Burlington Writers Workshop for being here for writers, for Seth Cronin, now leading the Songwriter’s Workshop for well over a year (and for being awesome), and for the rest of my fellow songwriters, especially Hannah Hausman, Jim D, Josie, and Candelin Wahl, who were there when I debuted the song, sang along (!), and encouraged me to record it. It’s an honor to grow as a songwriter along with you.