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The First CD features 12 original songs. Right now, lyrics for First are printable on your desktop. This method of distributing lyrics and liner notes is an innovation for the digital download age...  (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, you've probably already got it on your computer).  Please click an icon below -- it takes a few moments for the PDF lyrics page to open even with a high-speed modem. For example, the PDF for Track 3, Time To Ride has lyrics, description of the Jim Chaps Horse-J logo, some additional notes and a photo and caption of Tiznow winning his second Breeders Cup Classic.

I became a songwriter during a great era of singer-songwriters in the 1970's. At age 18, I sang my songs at the Hinge Coffeehouse -- Saturday nights at University of Michigan's Dearborn campus. Thank God for desires that burn years hence and callings that don’t quit. Please enjoy some of these vintage songs and those I've been writing at the present time. Peace.

First CD song lyrics

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7. (Instrumental) Man With Blue Guitar

Second  features an original arrangement of Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner titled: Acoustic National Anthem; plus a patriotic Ralph Waldo Emerson poem Concord Hymn (sung in duet with Laurie Colton-Farrar.) Also Second features a flamenco guitar instrumental in the song "Conquistadores" (First included a flamenco instrumental "Man With Blue Guitar" that is popular on digital download sites).

A couple of thought provoking songs are on this project. You Are Here is about the likelihood of an Intelligent Designer. Also, the song Yellow is a call to conscience regarding animal abuse.  At the moment a free download of You Are Here is available on the homepage of this website.
Other songs on Second are Woody Guthrie's classic This Train is Bound For Glory, Three Wooden Crosses written by Doug Johnson and Kim Williams, and Chris LeDoux's Riding For A Fall. LeDoux recorded 22 independent albums before gaining attention beyond the rodeo circuit--talk about never giving up! Hope you like this version of the song, as it is kept very scaled down, one mic, one guitar, one vocal. 

FIRST and SECOND CDs available from Internet music download sites: Apple iTunes and MSN Music, Yahoo Music, Napster, etc.  (Genre: Folk; Artist: Jim Chaps.)

   Hello and welcome. Some information about me and my songwriting: Much of my time is spent south of Tampa Bay on the Gulf Coast of Florida (a home there.) I've most recently released my second project CD. I love graphic art and logo design. 
   Some of my writings are upbeat and amusing, like All I Think About is Girls, Big Sam From Birmin'ham. Arriba, Muchachas! Last Minute Charlie and Little Doggie Boy. Some songs are sincere and heart-tugging, like East From River, and New York For Firemen - (This is the one about Mr. Gerald Hanley, retired New York Fireman residing in Venice, Florida who attended a local 9-11 commemoration in Sept. 2003... (a PDF with lyrics, and pics of Staten Island ceremony available on this site.) 
   Some of my music appeals to ladies who say it's soothing and helps them to relax. Hey, when Mamma's happy, everyone's happy--I'm doing what I can to make this world a better place.  I'll also create lyrics that are fun linguistically; using alliteration or what I like to call "rhyming consonant sounds" as in the chorus of Last Minute Charlie emphasizing on the "sh" sound in wish and glacier:

     "We all wish down a well,

       For a glacier in hell,

       When you quit making everyone wait."

   I have several co-written songs with interesting collaborators, deceased, published poets like Arthur Guiterman, Robert Frost, Robert W. Service and Wallace Stevens. During my first couple years of college I wrote songs and performed at The Hinge Coffeehouse, on campus of the University of Michigan-Dearborn. (Great aside, The Hinge Coffeehouse was in the basement of Fair Lane, home of auto pioneer Henry Ford. Ah, such history. Check out the PDF for the track named Sometime, Somewhere from the Second PDF document, there's a photo of Fair Lane.) As a student at UM-Dearborn I took an English Lit class, in which we read and studied quite a bit of poetry. A verse from the poem by Wallace Stevens "Man With Blue Guitar" floored me, and inspired the "poems to music" aspect of my songwriting. It is debated whether some poets would approve of their words being put to music. I've enjoyed audio recordings of the great Robert Frost reading in his New England-accented voice, his own poetry. For certain Frost was not, averse, to  people hearing his writings. The brilliant use of words and varying rhyming patterns in great poetry can be enhanced with suitable melody. Music can make poetry more accessible, quite enjoyable and will widen the influence of the poet.

Thank you for being here. Please visit the other pages on this website too. Enjoy.