Author Archives: Stephen

Song-a-week XVIII

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This is in the news again… and hopefully will be for awhile as it is extremely important. My small contribution to the fight against tyranny.

We Will Not Comply

Share it if you like it.

WE WILL NOT COMPLY!                  (Stephen M. Tefft)

Inspired by the Declaration of Independence and a letter by Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, Bishop of Marquette

 1)         As when in the course of life / A tyranny should arise / It becomes necessity / Free men should strive for liberty. / Some might say that time is here / When the freedoms we hold dear / Are all, once more, stripped away / And we must rise again today!

 Chorus:            Stand up, brothers! Stand up, friends! / Against this we must unite / To regain our liberty again / Don’t let them take away our rights! / We will not comply! / We will not comply! / Let this be our battle cry! / We will not comply!

 2)         There are truths self-evident, / Not bestowed by Government, / But by Nature’s God to us / And so in Him alone we trust. / First among these rights is Life, / (To protect this we must strive) / Liberty is what comes next / And then Pursuit of Happiness.

 3)         We petition for Redress, / Just a little common sense, / Then we do as free men must: / And may the Good Lord be with us. / For when in the course of life, / A tyranny should arise, / It becomes necessity / Free men should strive for Liberty.

Bridge:             When the Government will not defend / But becomes destructive of the ends, / Then it falls upon us to resist / And to alter or abolish it. / It is plain the People don’t consent / To the Congress, Courts, or President. / And, as what was done in history / Once again we fight for Liberty!

Advent into Christmas

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I know many people who dislike, and loudly protest the use of Christmas songs, imagery, etc. before the actual day of Christmas. And I can see their point… I guess. You wouldn’t sing happy birthday to someone everyday for two weeks or more leading up to the actual day of their birth… unless you really loved them… or they found it annoying and you were just trying to get a dig in…

I disagree, however. I really like Christmas music, when it’s done well. It puts me in mind of what’s coming and thus gently reminds me of how I should be acting. Much like the sacramentals we use year round and the holy pictures and statuary we keep to help us constantly recall God, Jesus and all the saints. It helps redirect our thoughts to what’s important and true.

I will agree that so much of what is put out there as Christmas music is really, well,  junk and noise. And having to listen to the trivial constantly from before Thanksgiving up to the 25th is maddening. I really feel sorry for those who work in retail for they have to listen to the, dare I say it?, crap, all day everyday over the in-store loud speakers. It’s no wonder they often seem surly and cranky.

As a songwriter, I often listen to music and think to myself, “I could do better.” So I try. Thus I will be sharing some of my original Advent and Christmas music here, where no one will listen to it except my wife, who, because she loves me, has no choice but to pay attention. I love you, honey! Thanks for marrying me!!

To begin:

The Annunciation

1)         In the town of Nazareth in Galilee / God began His greatest plan in history. / To redeem the fallen nature of the world / He sent an angel to speak to a young girl.

Chorus:             He said, “Hail, highly favored one. / You are full of grace. / You shall bear the Lord God’s only Son / To save the human race.” / The Spirit will come over you, / The prophecies fulfilled.” / Humbly the virgin answered, / “Be it done according to God’s will.”

 2)         The obedient reply of this one girl / Made it possible for God to save the world. / Because, in God she knew she placed her trust / The Word became flesh to dwell with us.

3)         May we follow the example she has set. / May we do our very best to not forget / In the town of Nazareth in Galilee / God began His greatest plan in history.

This is from my Rosary CD, available wherever fine music is found on the web (see sidebar). However, if you want something more traditionally Advent-y:

O Come, Emmanuel or perhaps:

Put the Holy Back in the Holidays or, for the more secular crowd:

Bring Me Back To Home

And one more, just for laughs: Mister Santa Claus

I try to do it all. And don’t forget that CD’s make excelent stocking stuffers.

God bless!

Song-a-week XVII

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Haven’t posted in a while… Been a bit down due to the injury. I really miss playing guitar. Turns out that when I broke the wrist, I also tore my rotator cuff and it went undiagnosed for 10 weeks bacause no one thought to check out my complaints that my shoulder still hurt. Oh well, life goes on, but physical therapy hurts a lot.

Anyway, I have two new CD’s available for anyone interested. The first, Before the Break, is a recording of the last concert I did at Bear Creek Coffee in Omaha prior to my injury… Thus “before the break…” The next is a recording of a concert I did at the Holy Family Shrine in Gretna, NE after the injury, hence it is all a cappela. If anyone might be interested in purchasing these, please email me at smtefft  @  gmail . com (minus the spaces). They are $10 each. Personally, and this is a totally unbiased opinion of course, I think these songs are some of my strongest. I really like Before the Break and I’m having trouble deciding which song I should share first. I’ll go with this one for the following reason…

Heal Me

I’ve given away 15-20 CD’s to friends, family and co-workers with the request to let me know what they thought of it. Crickets. I even asked a co-worker what she thought of it, weeks later: “Oh, I haven’t listened to it yet… But I will!”

It really makes me wonder why I do this.

One exception. My friend, David, (may the good Lord abundantly bless him) told me he really liked this song. So, for him, I share it here where no one will listen to it.

I guess it’s better that no one listen to my music here than no one listening to my music on the CD’s I give them.

As a writer I get ideas for certain projects. I wrote songs for the mysteries of the rosary. I wrote songs for Bishop Guglielmo Giaquinta’s book The Cenacle. (available online, see the side bar) I will, one day, write a song for all 150 Psalms… So I got this idea one day to write songs based on the 12 step program for AA. Don’t know where the idea came from but there it was. This one, Heal Me, is for step 7 and is the only one of the 12 steps I have recorded. I like it. It’s got kind of an old-timey feel to it. Almost an “O Brother, Where Art Thou” vibe. Or it would if I had better instrumentation and Allison Krause’s awesome voice on it. But this is a live performance CD and I only had myself. It’s still a good song.

 

Next: I had been scheduled to perform at the Holy Family Shrine last year. I got cancelled due to some construction projects there. They rescheduled and… I broke my wrist. My thought was, no guitar means no concert. The wife said differently. I even tried to cancel it myself. The wonderful people at the shrine said no, they needed me to do this. So I did. I tried to get some friends to accompany me… no luck. Too busy or not interested or too shy. So I went through my songs and picked out some I could sing without accompaniment. Still not sure if I did a good job of it but I did the best I could.

Intro_How Sweet the Very Thought of You - How Sweet the Very Thought of You

If you are interested, you can get the full concert of me @ the Holy Family Shrine or a CD with just the songs, no talking. Email me.

Heal Me!                (Tefft)

Step 7 – Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

1)         From my every sin / From my every stain / Come and wash me clean / Come and heal me. / From my every fault / From my every pain / Come and wash me clean / Come and heal me. / Come and heal me…

 Chorus:            In humility and in all sincerity / O Lord, hear my plea and heal me… / I’m down on my knees, I’m asking You to see / O Lord, hear my plea and heal me…

 2)         From the bad I’ve done / And from each regret / Come and wash me clean / Come and heal me. / Help me to atone / For I can’t forget / Come and wash me clean / Come and heal me. / Come and heal me…

 3)         From my selfishness / From each sad mistake / Come and wash me clean / Come and heal me. / For the ones I love / And for heaven’s sake / Come and wash me clean / Come and heal me. / Come and heal me…

 

HOW SWEET THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU                     (Tefft)

Based on Jesu Dulcis Memoria by St. Bernard of Clairveaux / Trans. Fr. Edward Caswall

1)         How sweet the very thought of You / With joy You fill my heart / The sweetness of Your presence, Lord, / Surpasses all earthly art.

2)         Mere words cannot express Your love. / No tongue can quite explain / The sweetest sound in all the world / Is our Savior’s Holy Name.

3)         O Hope of  ev’ry contrite heart / And Joy of all the meek, / How kind You are to all who fall / How good to all who might seek.

4)         For You can hear each childish prayer. / You know each foolish thought. / Yet, what great gifts; all grace and love / Are given freely when sought.

5)         All glory be to Father, Son, / And to the Spirit, blest! / In You alone, my Joy and Prize, / My soul can finally rest.

6)         How sweet, how wondrous is the Lord / Whose love sets sinners free. / Let all the world His praises sing / For now and eternally!

For Matthew

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Let the Lord’s infinite love envelope him and perpetual light shine upon him.

We love you and miss you.

Gone But Not Forgotten

1)                  Life is often fleeting. You hold it in your hand. / It slips right through your fingers just like so much sand. / And the harder that you grasp it the quicker that it goes / And what it all amounts to no one really knows.

 Chorus:            I remember when I knew you as a friend. / And now it all is gone but not forgotten.

 2)                  I once saw a picture of a child in the sun. / Laughter there upon the lips, eyes so filled with fun. / I once saw a picture of a mother’s painful tears. / Live your life in moments, don’t worry about the years.

 3)                  I once heard a story. A lesson to be learned. / Someone set a fire and everything was burned. / And there, beneath the ashes was a diamond wrapped in gold. / Though everything must perish, love will not grow old.

Song-a-week XVI – We Will Not Comply

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So, I broke my wrist. I fell backwards while playing basketball and broke my radius and scaffoid (sp?) bones. Now I have a plate and 11 screws in my left wrist, my thumb and wrist are splinted and I have lots of painful therapy ahead of me before I’ll play guitar again. Frankly, I’m quite scared I’ll never be able to play again. I’m trying hard to hold on to the thought of God’s will be done… that I can still praise Him without the guitar, but I miss it terribly.

Anyway… Luckily, I recorded my last coffee shop concert (as it might be truly that.) so I have all my newest songs safely recorded. And now I can share them with the one or two of you who might be interested.

We Will Not Comply

I’ll start with this one as I think it needs to be out there. It’s one of my few blatantly political songs. I’m not really an “in your face” kind of person. My attitude tends to be “live and let live.” However, I am a Catholic Christian and I truly believe my faith and take it seriously. Thus, I am called to defend my beliefs when they are questioned or attacked.

I wasn’t a political person until the John Kerrey election. I ignored all things political, and was really much happier, until he came out and said that he could be a Catholic in good standing and still support the evil of abortion. I’m sorry, you cannot. So that led me into the vast wasteland of the political realms.

I hate it! I hate the deceitfulness, the games, the bias, the manipulation, the hostility… and that’s just from the media. Don’t even get me started about the actual polititians!

Anyway, this song was inspired by a letter by Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, Bishop of Marquette. That led me to re-read the Declaration of Independence and the song was born. There’s a time to be subtle and a time to be blatant. Now is the time to stand up and speak out.

Please share this song. With everything else that is going on, people are forgetting this issue is not resolved. The game is still afoot. The fight has not been won.

And while you’re at it, say a prayer that the evil of abortion might be ended.

WE WILL NOT COMPLY!                  (Tefft)

Inspired by the Declaration of Independence and a letter by Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample, Bishop of Marquette

 1)         As when in the course of life / A tyranny should arise / It becomes necessity / Free men should strive for liberty. / Some might say that time is here / When the freedoms we hold dear / Are all, once more, stripped away / And we must rise again today!

 Chorus:            Stand up, brothers! Stand up, friends! / Against this we must unite / To regain our liberty again. / Don’t let them take away our rights! / We will not comply! / We will not comply! / Let this be our battle cry! / We will not comply!

 2)         There are truths self-evident, / Not bestowed by Government, / But by Nature’s God to us / And so in Him alone we trust. / First among these rights is Life, / (To protect this we must strive) / Liberty is what comes next / And then Pursuit of Happiness.

Bridge:             When the Government will not defend / But becomes destructive of the ends, / Then it falls upon us to resist / And to alter or abolish it. / It is plain the People don’t consent / To the Congress, Courts, or President. / And, as what was done in history / Once again we fight for Liberty!

3)         We petition for Redress, / Just a little common sense, / Then we do as free men must: / And may the Good Lord be with us. / For when in the course of life, / A tyranny should arise, / It becomes necessity / Free men should strive for Liberty.

 

Never Forget

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In Memory           (Stephen M. Tefft)

 1)         Most will say that fateful day started out like any other. / Most assumed that it would end the same. / Now we see it differently. We look back and we shudder / Remembering the images of flame. / The innocents whose lives were rent by this malignant act / Must never be forgotten or ignored. / Don’t overlook the lives they took, the terrible attack, / Don’t forsake what we are fighting for!

 Chorus:            Together we must rise and overcome the threat. / Our memories will not be bound. / It’s so important that we never do forget / The day they knocked the Towers down. / That day they knocked the Towers down.

 2)         We weren’t sure what had occurred, the what, the why, the how. / We just knew that everything had changed. / In our heads we stopped and said, just what do we do now / To rise above the fear, the loss, the pain? / We stand transfixed, disgusted, sick, at what occurred that day. / Together we all bear the awful scar. / For the dead we bow our heads and to God above we pray / That they forever rest beside His heart.

3)         Do we recall the awful fall? The Towers all a-flame? / The smoke and dust blocking out the sun? / Never say that it’s okay, that we deserve the blame! / Nothing justifies what they have done! / As time goes by the tears may dry. Still vigilance is best. / We wouldn’t want their memory to fade. / In times to come we’ll stand as one, and we will pass the test, / And show them all that we are not afraid!

Song-a-week XV

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Something fun… with a wee bit of history.

Inspired by a song I wrote about pirates and the Muppet Show’s skit “In the Navy” with Link and the pigs portraying vikings pillaging a village… Classic!

The Viking Song       (Tefft)

 1)             Vikings in their sailing ships. / The ocean is their home. / Another of their ”buisiness” trips. / To new lands they will roam. / Hoist the sails, pull the oars. / Hone the axe and knife. / Brand new places to explore. / They love the viking life.

 chorus:                   And it’s hey!  Ho!  Away they go! / O’er the horizon and gone. / The tide will ebb, the tide will flow. / Still they sail on…

 2)             Vikings on their vessels true / Under cloudless skies. / The lookout cries, “Land in view!” / Sleepy sailors rise. / Beach the boat, jump ashore. / The village, yonder, waits. / Then say a thankful prayer to Thor. / The viking life is great!

 bridge:                                    But it is not all games and fun. / The captain can be a jerk. / But after all is said and done / They still love their work!

Song-a-week XIV

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Peace

from:

available at all fine music downloading sites...

Lord, I am afraid. We are afraid.

 1) Don’t You notice the violence that rages around us / Striking fear in our hearts and the hearts of our children. / Why don’t You return and bring us peace? / Why don’t You return and bring us peace?

2) Once again You invite us to love with the example of Your Son / Who renounced violence and brought us peace with His death. / We are responsible to bear peace! / I am responsible to bear peace!

 also: Peace Reprise

So, I guess it’s a twofer day… One question, though, Good Bishop Giaquinta. How do we bear peace in such a hateful and violent age?

Fortnight for Freedom

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Perhaps a trifle heavy-handed… I tend to prefer more subtlety, but sometimes it takes a smack to the back of the head to get the point across. We cannot allow our government to take away our freedoms anymore. We’ve already lost that right to life due to the atrocious rulings on abortion. We cannot comply anymore! I’m just an unknown, humble singer/songwriter, but I’ll do what little I can to help. What will you do?

For The USA                     (Tefft)

1)         Used to be / When the stars and stripes were shown we would stand tall. / Now it seems / So many people just don’t care at all. / But realize / That flag stands for the country that we love / And she still flies / For us all, one nation, under God above!

 Chorus:            When you see Old Glory wave / Think of all of those who gave / Up their lives, fighting so we can be free. / For Old Glory still stands, / Flying over this great land, / For justice, for truth and liberty. / For the U.S.A, the home of you and me

 2)         Who will care / When the world needs help in fighting tyranny? / We’ll be there! / Just as we’ve always done historically! / And we don’t need / To worry about those who will not fight. / For we can see / When it’s time to battle for what is right!

 3)         We commend / Our veterans throughout our history. / Such brave men / And women who would fight to keep us free. / Though many gripe / And whine and try to stab us in the back, / The stars and stripes / Will stand strong and bravely weather all attacks.

Song-a-week XIII

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The Priest   (Giaquinta/Tefft)               based on The Cenacle by Guglielmo Giaquinta

1)         The priest is not alone / For Jesus Christ is with him / As Servant, Priest and Victim, / To help him on the way. / We need them as good shepherds / From the world protecting / Dangers they’re detecting / keep us safe each day.

 2)         The Shepherd and the Servant / The High Priest and the Victim, / The priest should imitate Him / Who gave His life for all. / And with the Holy Spirit / The light and consolation / To aid in inspiration / When answering the call.

 3)         By Father, Son and Spirit / With Mary as his Mother / And every priest as brother, / The priest will be sustained. / And living as example / As leader of the faithful, / The world by God’s Own grace will / For Jesus be reclaimed.

I am still very proud of this project. It’s not easy to take a book, try to distill the thoughts and themes down, simplify them a bit and set them to music. Then to arrange and record the songs in a basement using inexpensive instruments and equipment… I worked very hard on it.

I listen to pieces of it everyday, as it’s the bedtime CD for my boys. I like what I did. I enjoy listening to it. Is it perfect? Not even remotely. I hear things I wish I could change, places where I’m a bit off rhythmically or my voice is a bit flat (or sharp)… But, over all, I think this is one of my best efforts and I hope that it pleases the good Bishop Giaquinta, if only a little bit.

The rest can be found on Amazon, iTunes, etc.