tuesday songs

performed by Kai Widmann

It's been my new year's resolution for 2011 to spend more time making/recording/mixing music. To force myself into doing so, I decided to put up this page and post one song I recorded every tuesday.
After eight months I couldn't go on with this. Having a stressful job and a family leaves not enough room to post on a weekly basis. But I will continue posting songs every once in a while. If you don't want to miss a song, you can follow me on SoundCloud or subscribe to my RSS-Feed.

Since 2021 I'm part of a band again, Fahmi Friedrich Widmann, check our LinkTree page to see what we're up to.

Feel free to leave comments. And please share!

Song 67: Diamond In The Rough (Rowena Wise)

3 November 2026 - I stumbled upon Rowena Wise scrolling through Instagram. There was a clip of her covering a song I really like, «Between The Bars», originally by Elliot Smith, though my favourite version is on the album «Careless Love» by Madeleine Peyroux. Anyway, Rowena Wise's stripped back acoustic guitar and voice version got me intrigued, so I listened to her first album. I fell in love and bought it right away (that's something I rarely do in the times of Apple Music). Get yourself a copy of «Senseless Acts of Beauty», it's gerat.

Now some time in the first half of 2026 the first advance single for her second album was released, «Diamond In The Rough», hauntingly starting with organ and vocals only. I had to cover it.

A while later while on holiday in Switzerland, I sat outside with my Zoom recorder and did a single take of it (you can hear the sound of the nearby stream in the background) while recording some other songs preparing for the next FFW concert. I did not intend to publish it, but this one turned out quite alright, so I'd like to share it.

Kai Widmann: vocals, guitar

recorded on 9 August 2026 in Prato Sornico (Ticino, Switzerland) on a Zoom H6, playing a Martin 000-15M

written by Rowena Wise

originally released on Rowena Wise - Bad Things Feel Good* on 7 August 2026

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Song 58 – 66: Spuren der GØTTER (2026 Remaster) (Die kaputten GØTTER)

21 July 2026 - 40 years ago, on 12 July 1986, my first band "Die kaputten GØTTER" was founded. To celebrate this occasion, here's their final demo tape "Spuren der GØTTER", remastered from the original mixes. Thank you Martin Friedrich (ex Heike) for your support.

You can download the full album with a PDF version of the original booklet and some alternate covers on www.heynonnynonny.de

performed by Kai Widmann, Holger Geißler, Eckart Willer, Martin Heike, André Richter, Jura Kojetinsky, Maik Hahn and Corinna

recorded and mixed in the summer of 1990

written by Holger Geißler, Kai Widmann, Jura Kojetinsky and André Richter

originally released as the band's final demo tape in 1990

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Song 57: Better Be Home Soon live (Crowded House)

28 September 2025 - This one's in loving memory of Miguel Barrios. More than a friend. He was family.
We shared our love for music. We didn't record much together, but when we did, it was a joy. Listen to his percussion on "Roads" or his vocals on "Alyda". I always enjoyed singing with him. No one I know sang better harmonies. That's why I chose today's song, a live rendition from a night of singalong songs. Martin and I were playing and Miguel was in the audience, spontaneously joining us with the harmony vocals without any rehearsal. Since everybody knew he could pull it off, he was asked to sing along at the start of the song, when he was still in the middle of a heated conversation, as he quite often was. But by the first chorus he was ready to join in. Crowded House was one of his all time favourites, and it wasn't the only band we both loved.

You'll be missed, brother!

Kai Widmann: vocals, guitar / Martin Friedrich: bass, vocals / Miguel Barrios: vocals / The BAS community: vocals

recorded live on 26 October 2024 in Felsberg

written by Neil Finn

originally released on Crowded House - Temple of Low Men on 5 July 1988

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Song 56: So Much (Peter Gabriel)

31 December 2023 - My beloved friend and drummer Handrin recommended this song and somehow implied that this might make a good cover for our next Fahmi Friedrich Widmann concert (18 May 2024). And right he was. I listened to both originals (bright/dark side mixes) only a few times, then learned to play it myself just two days before recording it yesterday. The recording was done in a hurry (as usual) and originally was intended for Handrin (Fahmi) and Martin (Friedrich) only as a draft how it could be played . But it got better than expected, so I decided to share it here.
It's the last day of 2023, so Happy New Year to all of you!

A (quite minimalistic) video for this song can be found on YouTube.

Kai Widmann: vocals / guitar (Martin 000-15M)

recorded and mixed on 30 December 2023

written by Peter Gabriel

digitally released on 3 July 2023 (dark-side mix) and 17 July 2023 (bright-side mix), part of the album "Peter Gabriel - I/O"

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Song 55: Fred Jones Part 2 (Ben Folds)

22 April 2023 - I loved this song ever since I first heard it in 2001, but I never tried to play it until I recently stumbled upon it while I was researching songs for a future concert project (only songs in 3 based time signatures like 3/4 or 6/8), so I learned to play it. This recording was a one take, done in a rush, for the first time ever recording with my newest instrument, a tiny Gitalele (oh boy, how do I squeeze my huge fingers in those tiny frets?!?).
This cover version might have its live premiere at a concert I'll play in Heidelberg next saturday (29 April 2023) with my dear friends Handrin and Martin, see our linktree page for more information. Hope to see you there!

Kai Widmann: vocals / gitalele

recorded and mixed in February 2023

written by Ben Folds

originally released on Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs on 11 September 2001

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Song 54: A Thousand Years (Christina Perri)

24 May 2022 - During the last few weeks I've been working on covers for a new Zoom concert, themed "female artists only" – that's my favourite so far. Join me, If you want, on 25. June 2022 at 19:00 CEST. Leave a comment with your mail address, then I'll send you the access link and login credentials.

Kai Widmann: vocals / acoustic guitars

recorded and mixed in May 2021

written by Christina Perri and David Hodges

originally released as digital download on 18. October 2011 as part of the soundtrack album "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack"

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Song 53: Mamy Blue (Pop-Tops)

25 May 2021 - Mamy Blue by Pop-Tops was a number one hit in Germany from November 1971 till January 1972 and my mother was listening to the radio a lot during that time. So this became my first favourite song and somehow my first cover, at least my mother told me, that I was singing that song even before I was able to speak.
Fast forward almost 50 years ...
To celebrate my 50th birthday I did a Zoom concert that I opened with "Mamy Blue". For the concert I prepared a backing track with drums, bass, jazz guitar, hammond and some tracks with backing vocals. Actually I didn't plan to record as many tracks, it just "happened", the tracks came out in a rush and somehow added up to a dark Calexico-Violent-Femmes-Country-Americana version of that song. The lead vocals and the acoustic guitar were performed live during the concert. Unfortunately I don't have a decent recording of the "semi live" performance, so I re-recorded the acoustic guitar and the vocals yesterday. Quite rough around the edges, but somehow charming.
You can find the live version on YouTube.

Kai Widmann: vocals / acoustic guitar / jazz guitar / bass / hammond / drum programming

recorded and mixed on 16/17 April and 24 May 2021

music and French lyrics by Hubert Giraud, English lyrics by Phil Trim

originally released on the album "Mamy Blue" by Pop-Tops in 1971

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Song 52: Come Out And Play (Billie Eilish)

4 January 2021 - Exactly 10 years ago I posted my first Tuesday Song. To celebrate this occasion I had to record something new. This one is dedicated to my goddaughter Lydia, who is a huge Billie Eilish fan. I learned to play that song just a few weeks ago in preparation for a Zoom concert. What a lovely tune!
With this project I switched my recording software from Cubase to Logic. It's all quite new, but I like it so far, I especially love the virtual Drummers. But they could never replace Handrin!
Track 49 (Fall At Your Feet) was also updated today, see below.

Kai Widmann: vocals / guitars / piano / hammond / drum & bass programming

recorded and mixed in December 2020 and January 2021

written by Billie Eilish O'Connell & Finneas O'Connell

originally released as a single on 20 November 2018

Comments

Holger - 05 January 2021, 18:07:02

Hi Kai!
Kenne das Original nicht, gefällt mir aber sehr gut.
Finde auch "Ocean Eyes" wunderschön. Gruß Holger

Knörkelpott - 16 January 2021, 02:20:19

Mag das Arragement! Vermisse mit dir zu spielen und denke sehr gerne an die wunderbare Session mit Handrin …

Volker Plaschke - 25 January 2021, 15:49:16

Hey-ho,
hier meldet sich ein Geist der Vergangenheit.
Bin beim Lockdown-Surfen über den YouTube-Livestream aus dem letzten Jahr gestolpert und wollte nur kurz schreiben, dass ich das eine super-lustige Idee fand!
Viele Grüße
Volker

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Song 50 + 51: This Is My Day / Mental Vibration (Hey Nonny Nonny)

24 March 2020 - You'd think that there's plenty of time making music during the Corona lockdown, but actually there ain't. I'm working full time from home, I'm kind of a home teacher and parent representative for my son's class, my son and I organized a digital classroom together (his idea, I'm so proud!). So it never gets boring. But through a facebook challange (post a picture from younger days) I began to rummage through a hard disk full of old images and audio files and so I rediscovered not only images, but also lots of music, good and bad. And here are two tracks I think are more on the "good" side, two songs by HEY NONNY NONNY that were minor local hits. These aren't the versions from our album "Grow", but different mixes from a sampler called "Subway Bubbles", sounding a little rougher.

This Is My Day - Kai Widmann: vocals, acoustic guitar / Holger Geißler: electric guitar, backing vocals / Volker Plaschke: bass, backing vocals / Handrin Fahmi: drums, backing vocals
Mental Vibration - Kai Widmann: vocals, accordion / Holger Geißler - electric guitar / Volker Plaschke: bass, backing vocals / Handrin Fahmi: drums

recorded and mixed in 1993

This Is My Day - music and lyrics by Holer Geißler
Mental Vibration - music by Hey Nonny Nonny, lyrics by Kai Widmann

originally released on Subway Bubbles Volume 3 (1993)

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Song 49: Fall At Your Feet (Crowded House)

11 June 2019 - Finally a new track on tuesday songs. And this time it's even a new recording, the first in six years.
I've always been a huge fan of Crowded House and especially of Neil Finn's songwriting. I think he's one of the best songwriters there is. For ages I wanted to do a Crowded House cover on tuesday songs. "Fall At Your Feet" is not their first song I learned to play, but the first somewhat decent recording I got "on tape". I've got an old recording of "Private Universe" somewhere in the archive, but I was never quite happy with it.
If you're into Crowded House and want to know more about the band history, I recommend the book "Something So Strong" by Chris Bourke, I enjoyed it a lot and especially the troubled history of the album "Woodface" is quite interesting.
Recently I finally found some time to learn new songs and to record some of them. It's really good to have making music back in my life! So I hope there will be more tuesday songs following some time soon.

UPDATE 4 January 2021: It's the tenth anniversary of my first tuesday song today, so I'll upload a new recording later. But first I have a new version of this song. I was never really happy with how it turned out in 2019 and I always wanted to revisit the recording. So now I did. I rebuilt the project in Logic from scratch using the old tracks from 2019, added a second guitar, re-recorded the vocals and did a new mix. The old mix is still there (below) for you to compare.

Kai Widmann: vocals, guitar, melodica, accordion, hammond, e-piano

2021 Version - recorded in May and June 2019 and in January 2021, mixed in January 2021
2019 Version - recorded in May and June 2019, mixed in June 2019

music and lyrics by Neil Finn

originally released on Crowded House - Woodface (1 July 1991)

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