The Shure Call for Legends Contest

I've applied for the Shure Call for Legends Contest.

This is my profile: My Profile

And also, this is my first blog post in a long time.

Ilko Birov - Everything She Knew

This is the version without the soaring backing vocals (I jest). A demo of sorts.

Click here, for this is the link to the song on my Soundcloud

I'm leaving home now
Don't know when I'll try to get back
I'm gonna roam now
Might find myself in a year or two

I gotta tell you, that I'm awfully fond of the way
You treat me night and day
I want to show you, that I'm better off on my own
Truly better off on my own

I met some friends here
Really hope they don't pull one on me
'Talk a lot about nature
And how most people should try and be free

I feel like crying, but I'm awfully fond of the way
That you treat me night and day
Just wanted to show you, that I'm better off on my own
Truly better off on my own

na-na naa

I got into some trouble, with the law
I wrote to you, but you still didn't call
So later, when they say I'm ready
I won't feel so adventurous at all

I promise, I promise, I promise

-------------------------------------------------------


(I like the "na-na naa" part best)

Enjoy!

Ilko Birov - Our Game (Very rough demo)

Soundcloud Link

A tribute to Elliott Smith

Here it is: Chained to the Ground

I've often felt very inspired by his music and ambiance
and evermore so after listening to this: fantastic Elliott Smith rarities collection

My Cover of All I Have to Do Is Dream

Song is here: Recording

Enjoy.

Ilko Birov - Ice Cream

Check out my new ditty here: Ice Cream

My Cover of The Passenger

The Delta Blues Master

Ilko Birov - Monday Morning Groove

This is a link. Click on it to reveal what lays beyond.

Pretty Boy Floyd

If you'll gather 'round me, children,
A story I will tell
'Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw,
Oklahoma knew him well.

It was in the town of Shawnee,
A Saturday afternoon,
His wife beside him in his wagon
As into town they rode.

There a deputy sheriff approached him
In a manner rather rude,
Vulgar words of anger,
An' his wife she overheard.

Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain,
And the deputy grabbed his gun;
In the fight that followed
He laid that deputy down.

Then he took to the trees and timber
To live a life of shame;
Every crime in Oklahoma
Was added to his name.

But a many a starving farmer
The same old story told
How the outlaw paid their mortgage
And saved their little homes.

Others tell you 'bout a stranger
That come to beg a meal,
Underneath his napkin
Left a thousand dollar bill.

It was in Oklahoma City,
It was on a Christmas Day,
There was a whole car load of groceries
Come with a note to say:

Well, you say that I'm an outlaw,
You say that I'm a thief.
Here's a Christmas dinner
For the families on relief.

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life you travel,
Yes, as through your life you roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Why

Why

Why can't you try to be happy?
Why must you always be sad?
Why spend your only life waiting
to have what you know you can have?
Why spend your only life hoping?
What a torture to be always blue, darling


Why spend your only life waiting
to do what you know you can do?


What's the worst thing that could possibly happen
to you?


Mmm


Why spend your only life hopin',
What a torture to be always blue, darlin'


Why spend your only life waiting
To do what you know you can do?
Why spend your only life waiting
To do what you know you can do?


Ooh

- Josh Ritter


From the forthcoming EP "Bringing In The Darlings", available on February 21.

Ilko Birov - I Want You

the I Want You song

I want you
baby, I want you for good
I may not know what that entails
But I'll figure it out, and if that's all I ever do
I'll do it

I want you
darling, I want you and it hurts
If I don't live for the moment, why am I really here?
Anyway..
You know? Just to try and find the words
To say

 I've been alone, got pushed around, have no intention
 of letting your  heart down, like the droplets of water
 on your windshield

 Went to the bridge, that lion's gate. Saw everything
 flash behind these eyes , was so surprised.
 Then I realized

I need you
dearest friend, I need you and I can't let go
It's every time I turn, every crowded space
Just your face I see
My heart belongs to something
that isn't there
'Cause my heart belongs to something that just
isn't there.

Ilko Birov - Simply More (Tremolo)

Sigh, see you tonight
Sigh

Ah, look through my window
Sunny snowflakes wait

You will come around and knock me off the ground
Sigh
I am feeling lost, never to be found
Sigh

The Song

Ilko Birov - Hot Winter Day Rag

Today I came up with a nice ditty on the ukulele that would be my tribute to all the beautiful music I've listened to by the legendary Jelly Roll Morton.
My song also reminded me of video game music, which I am also very fond of.
I imagined a Donkey Kong sort of thing, or a One Piece game.
It's heavily snowing today, hard to get from one place to another, but I'm definitely somewhere else.
And I hope you enjoy my song, even though the recording sounds very bad.

So without further ado, here is my Hot Winter Day Rag

Click here, please.

Allez-hop!

Gish

Oh, Lillian, you're so purty 

sweet as a girl may ever be

you remind me of dewdrop

and perfection, and all that

one today doesn't often see

Ilko Birov - I'll Be

Song


I'm staring into the looking-glass
All I can see is your smile.
I'll be waiting for my darling.
I'll be waiting for a while.


Your sundial sits on my mantelpiece
I turn to it seven times a day
And I'll be waiting for my darling
And then I'll be on my way

My white horse gallops in your garden house
Tells me I've gone insane.
But I love you and I know not
Of much more inside my brain

When it's cold outside we
Call each other.
Things seem clearer, don't they?

I'm looking through the looking-glass
And all I can see is your soul
I'll be waiting for my darling
I'll be true I hope you know

Teaching "Man Gave Names To All The Animals" (Bob Dylan cover)

A while ago a friend and I organized a summer learning course for kids (aged 5 to 8) called "Adventures in the English Language".
I took it upon myself to pick out a couple of children's songs and arrange them for guitar, so that we would all sing them together.
The kids enjoyed these so much I decided to record what I had come up with (at the end of the course each received my cd along with the lyrics printed out).

This was the piece they enjoyed the most! At first my colleague and I started by laying pictures and stuffed animals on the tatami in front of the kids (we were in a karate club), and after they got all the names, they started to hum, some shyly, others with confidence.
Eventually they got the whole song, and the chorus really came to life.

So, here is my humble recording of this masterpiece by Bob Dylan:

Man Gave Names

Enjoy.

Ilko Birov - A Bearable Lightness of Seeing (first take)

The Link to Soundcloud

I used to be myself
Would not be no-one else
And now I wake up, look at where
I stand

Can not get peace of mind
Ecstatic all the time
Stepped on a banana
Peel today

And you're the one to blame
For absolutely nothing
And everything all the same

And you're the one to blame
For instilling fear and trembling
Where there's nothing left but
Hopeless despair

Take back the fiery calls
All sacrifices stalled
There is no time to fool
About

Most relationships
Are flawed
Lamp-post lovers seem to
Know it all
So play it again

Put it away
And play it again


Me on Reverbnation

You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

I’ve seen love go by my door
It’s never been this close before
Never been so easy or so slow
Been shooting in the dark too long
When somethin’s not right it’s wrong
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Dragon clouds so high above
I’ve only known careless love
It’s always hit me from below
This time around it’s more correct
Right on target, so direct
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Purple clover, Queen Anne’s Lace
Crimson hair across your face
You could make me cry if you don’t know
Can’t remember what I was thinkin’ of
You might be spoilin’ me too much, love
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Flowers on the hillside, bloomin’ crazy
Crickets talkin’ back and forth in rhyme
Blue river runnin’ slow and lazy
I could stay with you forever and never realize the time

Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud
But there’s no way I can compare
All those scenes to this affair
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m doin’
Stayin’ far behind without you
Yer gonna make me wonder what I’m sayin’
Yer gonna make me give myself a good talkin’ to

I’ll look for you in old Honolulu
San Francisco, Ashtabula
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know
But I’ll see you in the sky above
In the tall grass, in the ones I love
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go

Bob Dylan's fifth track off the critically acclaimed Blood on The Tracks, said to be his most mature record.
And one of my favourite songs.








Check out this brilliant jazz version by Madeleine Peyroux

If you'd like to download the original song, click here

Cash and Dylan

One thing cooler than the Dylan and The Band sessions is surely the Dylan and Cash sessions in February of 1969.


It's election day today in Bulgaria. Here are a couple of amazing recordings to make the day somewhat more exciting. Enjoy






















And without a doubt one of the sweetest songs, and one of my most favourite Dylan tunes, dones here on the Johnny Cash show:





And um, yeah. Go and vote.