Two/Three - Roger O'Donnell Paul vanDongen Erin Lang

Around about the time I released my first solo album I started thinking about this project. It was so different
and such a contrast to the concept of the Moog album it made perfect sense. An entire album of songs
recorded on Piano and Cello, very simple and very pure and natural. One of my best friends, Paul van Dongen
is a Cellist and one of my favourite instruments is the Cello, I remember once talking about writing some songs
for him but I never got around to it. This project takes it one step further as we would work together on an album.

Early last year Erin started a charity project called Rosehips and Hibiscus, it was very close to our hearts as it
supported people going through treatment for Lymphoma which Erin had only just recovered from. At the heart
of the project was a concert and a compilation CD and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out
the Piano/Cello idea. Easier said than done hahaha it took me about a month before I came up with something
that I was comfortable with, a song called A Field of Lavender. I had Paul play on it and we were really
happy with the result. Around this time I thought it would be nice to have Erin sing on a few of the songs so Two
became Three and the name evolved Two/Three.

Over the past Summer I set aside time to write the rest of the album. It was a very emotional Summer for us for
many many reasons and the emotion seemed to unlock the stream of songs that came and the lyrics that I wrote.
I have 7 songs as of today including the one from the compilation, I think three of them will have vocals and I will
probably add a piano only song that I have had knocking around for a few years.

Over the last couple of weeks ( 29th September 09) I have been in Toronto and recording with Paul at Tip Top
studios were we always record Cello and it is starting to sound really really beautiful. Once the Cello is done
Erin will add her magic and we are hoping to release "Before" on February 25th to coincide with a rare live
performance of the album which will be orchestrated and played by The Corktown Orchestra in Toronto. It will
be a very special event and we will film it and stream it and probably release on DVD.

I will use this page to keep all things Two/Three updated and post some smaples when they are ready. In the
meantime here are some photos of Paul recording at Tip Top and Erin performing at her Tea Party.

A Field of Lavender

Heres a video of Paul recording Before which will be the opening track on the album

Track Listing

So I have a track listing now and there may be just one more change. I added a song which is just piano and voice and
think it may be nice to add one which is just cello and voice, I do like symmetry! Erin is going to start work on the vocal
parts this coming week so far she is singing on five songs and I'll put an asterisk next to those and start to write some
descriptions and add the lyrics but they will probably change as Erin adapts and changes them to suit her vocal
arrangements.....

Before *
A Field of Lavender
Like Water Through My Hands *
Anywhere Else
The Crow Flies *
Clear Blue Day
Lie For Me
The Long Walk *
Tell Me A Story *

The Crow Flies

In a kind of turn around from something I did on 'The Truth In Me" this song started life as a Moog piece.
Last year I was invited to play at Concrete a bar within the Hayward Gallery and I wanted to do something
special for it so I wrote a piece of music largely influenced by the coming Autumn. It was 13 minutes long
and Erin and I only performed it once, the vocal part was about three minutes in the middle of the arrangement.
I had written some words and the melody was obvious but Erin made up an incredible layered vocal part.

The song also enjoyed another life as part of a feature on us on the Moog website and a good friend of mine
Jason at Moog Music played some Moog guitar on it. I really loved the vocal part and thought it would be nice
to arrange it for piano and cello in the same way as I had re arranged this grey morning from piano to Moog
on "The Truth In Me". It worked out really well and I kept Erins orignial vocal parts, I made up a new piano
part and wrote the cello lines for Paul to play.

Lyrically the song talks about the end of Summer and the onset of Autumn and Winter. We live in the
country and it's very obvious when things start to change, the first sign is the Swallows leaving.
Here are the lyrics, I'm not a great lyricist and when Erin compliments me it's huge for me. A line in
this song she said she wished she had written so I am very proud of it. I think this song says everything
about this album....

The crow flies, the lark falls
The swallow tries, to race the call

Of the browning leaves and the dying sun
The tired thieves of the summer done

The mist returns,the shadows weep
For their fading learns, of the winter sleep

The crow flies, the lark falls
The swallow tries, to race the call

Of the trees distress her heart undone
The fallen dress and lover gone

The night steals away the day
The winter wheels in now to stay

The crow flies, the lark falls
The swallow tries, to race the call

Tell Me A Story

This is a really simple story to tell, it's a lullaby. Erin as a lot of you know was very sick last year and there
were some very difficult moments. One of them looking back was funny, at the time it wasn't but you have to
see the humour in all things don't you?
So this is a lullaby about when I made up a story as my parents used to with me to lull her to sleep, it was
a simple story about an ordinary family nothing fairy tale about it.
The piano part is just very simple chords with only my right hand playing and the cello filling out the
bottom and Erin telling the story. Its the last song on the record

Tell me a story and help me to sleep
I'll keep both my eyes shut no I wont peep
Of children and parents and treats and delights
Not a magical story with dragons and knights

An every day saga that never ends
With picnics and parties, invisible friends
Tell me a story just like when I fell
When the words span around me an invisible spell

Falling deeper and deeper gently to rest
With your voice softly filling my feathery nest
Happily ever after the story must close
What will happen tomorrow nobody knows

No one knows No one knows