WaltsBand.com logo and legend
WaltsBand.com logo and legend

Featuring the songs of Nick Sullivan

Demos, discussion, lyrics, sheet music

Waltered States Blog

Waltered States

The vow of silence is one of the more attention-getting vows of abnegation one can make. On many occasions, the getting of attention may be the whole point. At other times, a vow of silence may lead to spiritual growth of a yeasty sort. Here’s Vow Of Silence, a new song.

Vow Of Silence sheet music (detail)
June 12, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

The harsh discipline of musical life under Walt’s repressive regime does not allow us to pursue every possibility a given song might suggest. Here’s a harmony vocal for Trouble On His Mind that didn’t make it into the official sheet music package.

Trouble On His Mind harmony vocal sheet music (detail)
June 5, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

Today we release the video and sheet music for Trouble On His Mind, the third track on my Songs Sung Sideways album. It is a song with some really obvious subtleties — helpful for those who find ordinary subtleties hard to grasp.

Trouble on his Mind, "War and Peace" style
May 29, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

Many of the songs I play most are by Long Dead Songwriter, whose body has returned to Nature, and whose works have flown up to join the Public Domain. Here’s a video and free piano arrangement of Alberta, a song I met through Bill Dobbin, whose birthday is today.

Sheet music of Nick Sullivan's arrangement of the traditional folk song Alberta
May 24, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

My new song Forgotten Dream raises some difficult questions. One of them is, “In what style am I written?”

Forgotten Dream sheet music (detail)
May 21, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

Two weeks have now passed since Walt’s Band was launched and Just The Moon was released on May 1. What better time could there be to pause and reflect upon the stately rhythm of Walt’s Wise Plan, whose clock ticks but once a fortnight?

Thumbnails of the sheet music for our first four songs
May 15, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

In addition to its primary function of masking baldness, a pianist’s hat serves a myriad of purposes: lending a jaunty air; casting a shadow of mystery; mitigating shortness of stature; providing variation from the naturally dull shape of the head; to name but a few.

May 12, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

Just The Moon is not a Scott Joplin rag in character, structure or even time signature, but without classic piano ragtime the song probably wouldn’t have existed, and we might not have Travis-style guitar picking, either.

Just The Moon sheet music (detail)
May 5, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

The poet Péguy spoke of a facile writer nonchalantly pulling words “from his overcoat pocket”. Over You is the ultimate overcoat pocket song, springing to life fully formed like Athena (though she emerged not from Zeus’ pocket but from a cleft in his skull).

Over You sheet music (detail)
May 2, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

If it weren’t for Walt’s sponsorship of this site, his participation, and his leadership, it could never be anything more than an overblown vanity project on the part of a single, self-obsessed songwriter. Thanks, Walt.

A man's hands playing the piano
April 30, 2014 by Nick Sullivan

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