Category: Demos

demos of new songs by Thomas Oliver

Like a Lover (a demo)

Clichés are death to good writing in any form. Songs, speeches, essays, newspaper articles, short stories or movies scripts. (I try like crazy to avoid them like the plague at all costs.) Still, it’s hard to write a love song more »

Late Last Night (a demo)

This song offers a twist of sorts. A tease, perhaps. The first verse could be the beginning of a love ballad; of how time stood still when the singer first saw his one true love. Only in the second verse’s more »

Getaway Smile (a demo)

      John Wynn, a fellow musician who liked my song “The Girl with an Accidental Memory,” suggested I write one about someone with a make-believe memory. In other words, maybe what was remembered happened; maybe it didn’t. And more »

40 Days (a demo)

      Mary Todesca, the wife of fellow musician Jim Todesca, thought for a long time that the line “coming down on a sunny day” in John Fogerty’s “Have You Seen the Rain” was “coming down for 40 days.” more »

I Got a Witness (a demo)

This is my attempt at gospel music. Gospel music, like the blues, has it origins in the early 1800s and comes from the black oral tradition. Its rhythmic history is rooted in the handclapping and stomping when the singing was more »

Never Been to Austin (a demo)

In Atlanta, Melissa and I liked to attend house concerts, where lesser known but incredibly talented singer/songwriters earn most of their living. It’s an intimate setting, usually in the living rooms of super hosts, who invite friends and neighbors to more »