The first thing I remember knowing was the lonesome whistle blowing

Yesterday, a friend told me that he thinks of me as "a dirtier Aladdin."  I'm not sure what that means, but personally, I'm hoping that when I die I'm known as the Arab Merle Haggard.

On that note, I recorded a bunch of songs today.  Now the disclaimer: I've been playing the 'oud a month and I can't even get lessons yet because of Ramadan, so bear with me.  And I'm a terrible singer.  Also, when I don't like the lyrics I've written, I just mumble them.  Just making sure we're clear on low expectations.

With that out of the way, I did two originals and a couple of covers.  "Life is Not a Highway" is a country song about the Middle East that I wrote on a bet, I believe.  It's a kind of reply to Tom Cochrane's totally upbeat hit.  I also wrote "Cairo Waltz," which is lame and self-explanatory.

The covers I did are "Right Moves" by Josh Ritter, who is amazing if you aren't listening to him already.  At one point in the song, his lyrics are so tightly packed that he starts tripping over them, and finally says, "I'm here with you.  I'm coming to the chorus now."  It's a great moment that I do my best to interpret.  Finally, I did "Chinese Translation" by M. Ward.  A little bit out of my range, but whatever, I like that song.

They are downloadable to my mom's ipod at http://drop.io/tedssongs