This is Heart of My Heart, the eleventh single from the upcoming CD NARROW AND STEEP by San Franscisco based singer-songwriter Denny Brown. 

Every 3-4 weeks a new single will be released in a RANDOM ORDER, each with its own unique cover, leading up to a full digital release in the beginning of 2016. In addition, we will be releasing a few short films, both unplugged performances as well as music videos.

"I am interested in timelesss music. Not nostalgia but a sound that defies to be part of a certain period. Music that is hard to pin down when it was first recorded. When a sound, a song structure, a melody feels both of the past and present, and when they melt into one another, it can be forever."
Denny Brown San Francisco 2016

Single #8 Heart of My Heart

This song was created with lyrics from the great American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 – 1906). 

He is not very well known, although, there are schools and hospitals named after him in Detroit, Chicago and Baltimore.  He lived in Dayton, Ohio and actually knew the Wright Brothers.

He was extraordinarily prolific during his short life.  I was totally taken with his imagination and the breadth of his writing. I spent a couple of years creating music for some of his poems/lyrics.  I will post more of them in the future.

The instrumentation on this production features a National resonator guitar, wah wah electric guitar and fantastic harmonica playing by David Earle.
The song has a spooky country blues feel.  There is a wonderful Skip James song, ‘Devil Got My Woman’ with the lyrics ‘I’d rather be the devil than be my woman’s man’.  While not exactly similar, it has a feel that I was striving for.

Heart of my heart, the day is a chill
Mist hangs low, across the piney hills

Heart of my heart, those dark storm clouds
The sun is the face of heaven’s shroud

Heart of my heart, the day is a chill
Where there is love, the voices are still

No songs arise, without some love
And my soul sinks down, just like a frightened dove

The rain hides the sky from me