This page contains newly completed pieces - most recent at the top.

All music copyright protected by Michael Fontenot .

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SHELBY'S WAR : Shelby Foote is one of my hero historians. A writer and civil war expert who played a major part in the production of "The Civil War" by Ken Burns which ran on PBS. His baritone voice, deep south accent, and passion for the history of the times was my favorite part of the series. So, when my sister-in-law Amanda mentioned that my recent pieces (the 2 below) were a little difficult to critique because she was too familiar with the subjects (my son and her mother) I got a great idea. MORE MUSEUM MUSIC but this time base it on Shelby Foote. Well, as usual, the piece got more involved than I thought and came out quite differently than the prievious pieces. This piece combines Shelby's voice with music from the series. It lasts about 5 minutes. The formal structure of the piece is fully classical -- anyone who wants to understand why need only ask me once! By the way, these pieces are meant to be listened to intently. You'll definitely get fired if you crank them up while working on your overdue email responses in the office.

ALARMS: This piece is in the same vein as ARGYLE SOCKS and if you didn't like that one, you better skip this one too. BUT, I LIKE IT and this will NOT be the last of its genre! This piece features Gordon (my 25 year old son) telling a story of his fire alarms (which are networked throughout his apartment) going off in the middle of the night -- we've all been there! Next, I plan to do a piece based on a non-family member voice. For those of you who are true blue members of the "Michael Fontenot For Composer of The Year Club," you might review Ken Burns' Civil War Series to get ready. Those of you who have seen it will probably be able to guess.

ARGYLE SOCKS: Sarah's parents, Ruth and Jeff, came to visit a year ago and Ruth recounted a story. As newlyweds, Jeff present Ruth with 2 pair of argyle socks, hand-knitted by his previous girlfriend. They had to be hand washed which Ruth did dutifully for years. However, standing in front of a washing machine full of hot water, she could take it no more and chuncked in the 2 pair of argyle socks shrinking them to a sized befitting their 1 year old daughter Amanda. You will notice that this piece represents quite a departure from previous music. I am looking to discover the music (melody and rhythm) inherent in the spoken word.

THE WHISPER OF MY LIFE: This is the first song I've done in a while. I really liked the opening guitar and the hook line and everything else just fell out from there. Also a pretty good fretless bass part - got this bass just to experiment with and I think it's coming along pretty good.

OCEAN OF PAIN : This is a response to a posing on Taxi for a piece like the "Ocean's Eleven" theme. Honestly, I don't think the iece hits the mark, but I LOVE THIS PIECE so I sent it in anyway. It's the first piece I completed in 2008. Thanks to Bobby Range; a local kid who was willing to lay down the drum tracks. He did a great job on short notice -- and I swear I'll never use anythinfg other than Neumann condensers for overheads!

PACO'S PADRE: This is a piece that I wrote in the summer of 1987. I was the camp physician at a diabetes camp; Sarah was pregnant with Andrew and it was a sweltering summer. Sad.y, one of the camp counselors received word that his father had died. The counselor was a Spaniard named Paco, and he could not get back home in time for the funeral. I wrote this song for him on the front porch of our cabin. Last week I re-recorded it. I won't even bother to post the original as the technology has changed so much that it renders the original unlistenable! There was a recent request for "sad pieces" through TAXI and I will submit this along with "The Fields" (posted below.)

ANTICIPATING HOME: I forgot to post this one. It is an orchestralromantic home-y (as opposed to"homey") piece I did for a TAXI request that I can no longer recall. I remixed this one to add a bit more punch in the cellos and basses. I think that the piece has a nice feel to it -- that's the "home" part.

THE BONNIE, BONNIE BANKS OF LOCH LOMOND: Trish McCabe asked me to do a piece for her website. Now, a more astute contractor would have said, "With a name like 'McCabe' it's got to be CELTIC." Well it took me a couple of conversations but I finally got there! I found this old Celtic song and set it to guitars. She liked it and you can find it on her site. When she finally finishes the site, I'll update this entry with the link.

ON THE RUN AGAIN: I was responding to a request for music for a film chase scene. After the last few pieces (below) it was nice to get back to bacic rock and guitar work. I really had fun mixing the nylon string guitar sound with those processed electric sounds. The title is an obvious cheap reference to Willie's song, but not as cheap as "On The Commode Again" (you'll have to write me to hear that one!)

THE STRIDE: The request is for an uplifting piece: "electronica influenced orchestral piece a la "Chariots of Fire." The song would be used in sports TV settings. I love the opening continuo -- I actually reprogrammed my synthesizer (Motif) to get the sound I wanted. I liked the melody, but fell in love with the song during the process of arranging it. It's always shocking to witness what a good arrangement can do for a melody -- witness George Martin and The Beatles.

AROUND THE CORNER: This is another submission to the samelisting as "MYSTERY." I was a little concerned that "MYSTERY" was a little to melodic for what was requested. This piece was less thematic and (I hope) more provocative . The actuarequest reads : "The Owner of a new Music Library needs a wide range of DRAMA INSTRUMENTALS (no vocals) for MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/HORROR SCENES for use in film/TV/commercials, etc." Who knows what they're looking for!!

MYSTERY: This is a recent submission for a request for Dramatic pieces for a music library -- looking for suspense scenes -- although, this may have more of the feel of the closing credits.

HERE WE GO: I was getting a little grungy with this tune -- I guess a backlash from the previous pop tunes below. Kind of needed to clense the palate!

TAKE A LOOK AT YOURSELF: This song has a great hook and a big sound in the chorus. To me the chorus has a "Coldplay" feel in its instrumentation.

WAITING IN LINE: This is a sweet little melody I wrote after listening to some Ben Harper songs. Add a raspy voice and the feel of the song would change. This arrangement is very pop.

THE FIELDS: I wrote this piece on the train from Austin to Chicago a few years back and finally got around to recording it. It has a classical feel and also a touch of nostalgia -- a native american mood.

NYLON RUN: I first wrote this on the classical guitar (nylon strings) and the song has a "running" feel to it. Ultimately changed to a steel string guitar but loved the play on words in the title (you know -- a woman's stocking) so I kept it. Intrumental popular sound with alot of guitar finger picking.