unexpected mermaids...
By emily on May 10, 2026 4:41 am
some observations from a walk downtown on a saturday afternoon
and some direction from Moira Rose:
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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / emily's music / unexpected mermaids...
A lovely day for a walk! Love how your vocals sound 
also... Yay pelicans!
Super fun and super soothing!! Really enjoying the vocal work here, and such a fun little ending!
I suddenly feel like taking a stroll myself, to... not feel like a disgruntled pelican.
Lovely little tune!
I'm in awe at how you are able to find these scenes or vibes, and just bring them out in music. It feels so effortless (in a good way, if that makes sense?). Like you're just putting me inside of this world instead of having me imagining it.
It's very inspiring!
I always have to listen to your songs last when I do my rounds, cause I know I'm going to have to open my daw afterwards.
Have a good week!
A nice combination of rootsy instrumentation with a spacey and ethereal sound. Sounds like a lovely walk.
haha I love this. really paints a picture. im not sure where you and J live but this sounds east coast!
djippy wrote:
Everybody likes a nice banjo line. And mermaids.
Yes, this. This is true I believe!
This made me smile! I felt like I was on the walk, with a spring in my Sprint-time step.
Perhaps all mermaids are unexpected. Hmm. When we start to expect them, well now we're going places!
Disgruntled pelicans indeed. I feel like that birds always has a touch of the disgruntled about it. They know something.
Enjoyed the walk!
Felt like the sea washed over me, realized how much i miss those sounds, living inland right now.. even the seagulls..
Move over folk music - here comes MERfolk music! 😎
Wonderful oceanic soundscape and banjo playing - perfect soundtrack to your spoken word reflections!
Fun playing and great vocals/lyrics. I love the swirling background vocals on the L/R of it all. The lyrics are insightful and fun.
fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I love the vocal stacks, and the stream of consciousness is perfect!
I miss the beach
no ordinary...
jwh wrote:
u r
that's me
Tone Matrix wrote:
A lovely day for a walk! Love how your vocals sound
say hi to the pelicans for me!
Stenny wrote:
Super fun and super soothing!! Really enjoying the vocal work here, and such a fun little ending!
glad it was soothing
As_Yoesual wrote:
I suddenly feel like taking a stroll myself, to... not feel like a disgruntled pelican.Lovely little tune!
hope you had a lovely stroll
in_bocca_al_lupo wrote:
I'm in awe at how you are able to find these scenes or vibes, and just bring them out in music. It feels so effortless (in a good way, if that makes sense?). Like you're just putting me inside of this world instead of having me imagining it. It's very inspiring! I always have to listen to your songs last when I do my rounds, cause I know I'm going to have to open my daw afterwards. Have a good week!
well you made my day - thank you so much for sharing this with me - this is very meaningful and makes me want to keep going don't quit!
djippy wrote:
Everybody likes a nice banjo line. And mermaids.
Cosmic Cairns wrote:
A nice combination of rootsy instrumentation with a spacey and ethereal sound. Sounds like a lovely walk.
monstret wrote:
haha I love this. really paints a picture. im not sure where you and J live but this sounds east coast!
i didn't do the best job explaining the setting - jwh & i live in Indiana very close to a river & riverwalk that has a walking pathway to our downtown - we hadn't been downtown in a while - they've been developing/gentrifying downtown and there was a new Barbershop in the old building I used to take swing dance classes in - under an old dance studio... the window of the Barber shop had WW2 posters with a model ship, a painting of a mermaid and a metal pelican statue... it just all was very unexpected in the window of the old dance studio in the middle of the midwest 
what's fun on that same walk we started noticing cement pelican statues that folks have in their gardens - after writing this song i've been noticing more of them on our walks - we do get Pelican visitors here but don't often see them
we live in a city very close to where there used to be a giant wetland that rivaled the size of the Everglades & it's possible the manitees from down south used to come up north in summers where the waterways connected... so we also are/were on a route for many birds coming north for summer too... but after the "Indian removal act of 1795 - 1846"/death marches - Indiana drained the river, and blew up/drained the largest lake in the state and made it into some of the most prime farmland in the world... we are again doing horrible things to this state - that farmland is being destroyed for the Amazon Data Center they just built over our aquifur... in a flood zone... to the north the farmland is being taken over by microsoft for their data centers on a historical farm that they bought up - a farm in an area that often flooded... this is part of why i'm feeling like such a disgruntled Pelican these days
miraclemiles wrote:
This made me smile! I felt like I was on the walk, with a spring in my Sprint-time step. Perhaps all mermaids are unexpected. Hmm. When we start to expect them, well now we're going places! Disgruntled pelicans indeed. I feel like that birds always has a touch of the disgruntled about it. They know something. Enjoyed the walk!
they know! perhaps we would expect the mermaids more if we lived in the sea - us landbound folks are not so used to them appearing eh? glad this inspired a walk!
Minnamari wrote:
Felt like the sea washed over me, realized how much i miss those sounds, living inland right now.. even the seagulls..
i miss them too - the seagulls we actually get to see & hear as they like the river & we are not so far from one of Michigan's Great Lakes - for a while this winter some giant seagulls seemed to be guarding these little diving ducks that we don't see year round here - there were always a pair of seagulls kinda watching over them whenever we spotted the ducks - it was very cute
i hope you can hear,see, smell the sea soon!
DESLRV wrote:
A possible occurrence when you combine beaches and banjos.
the magic combo
levelcapybara wrote:
Move over folk music - here comes MERfolk music! 😎
Wonderful oceanic soundscape and banjo playing - perfect soundtrack to your spoken word reflections!
merfolk music now an updated tag
Crash Overture wrote:
Oh the banjo and seagull! So fun. I giggled. This fun!
MRDRCAT wrote:
Fun playing and great vocals/lyrics. I love the swirling background vocals on the L/R of it all. The lyrics are insightful and fun.
DataJanitor wrote:
<} Moira / Katherine O'Hara... Yes!
This is ... amazing, Emily.
i'm meh but thank you for the compliment - Katherine was amazing!
Tom Foolery wrote:
fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I love the vocal stacks, and the stream of consciousness is perfect! I miss the beach
hope you get to the beach soon