Howdy Fred,

Hoo-eee - this is fun

I sat down with just the melody print out, and my guitar (acoustic Taylor 812) tonight and came up with a chord progression. This song "felt" right for me in E, so that's what I'm working with it in at present. Of course since it's your piece, you can put it in whatever key you want it The progression goes E E7 A A7 B7 B7 (yes, two measures) E Eb3(little "twang" on the E)E. Pretty simple, straightforward blues/rock progression. I figured since you lost your little mama, it had to be some kind of blues, right? ;)

So, after I figured out what the chords might be (this is merely my interpretation, so get out the salt shaker ;) ), I tried playing around with Band in a Box, as I had a couple of stylistic ideas that I wanted to try out quickly. The one that pretty much fit the "feel" that I'm hearing in my head is called the Dr Jon Shuffle Rock, and I'm attaching a file below.

What I've done to it is to add an intro (which is just the whole chord progression only once through), then the first verse, chorus, then I made room for a 16 bar solo - it fit the progression a bit better, then the last verse, and I added in the chorus again. I banged out the rhythms for the lyrics, but haven't adjusted the pitches yet (and I don't think what I was singing in my head exactly matched what you had written out, but we can see how that all fits together).

I also added a track (currently blank ) for the sax solo. I thought perhaps with the "band" there, it might provide a bit of inspiration for filling up those 16 bars. You may want to chop the piano out at that point, as I think it (and maybe the guitar, too) might be too much over a sax solo as they are now.

So, does this fit the "3 chords and a cloud of dust" feel? Of course since you started this, you can mess around with it to your heart's content Or, if I'm just way off, you can of course toss it

BTW, I'm using the beta version of Pro, so I'm going to put both a .not file (which you'd have to use Pro or the Player for) and a mid file, if you're using Composer and want to work on it.

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Sax Rock Sherry 1
Saxophone rock Sherry.not (281.6 k)</td></tr></table></center>

<center><table border=1><tr><td>Sax Rock Sherry 1
Saxophone rock Sherry.mid (31.6 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Off to beddy bye for me
Sherry