Colin Meloy's Machine Shop | Substack

Annotated Songs: Down By the Water

A song from 2011 bats its lashes

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On Tim Walz, Gus Walz, and Neurodivergence

Aug 23, 2024 • Colin Meloy

I had ChatGPT write a Decemberists song

Feb 11, 2023 • Colin Meloy

Deep Dive: Joan in the Garden

Mar 27, 2024 • Colin Meloy

Live from the Farm

Dec 13, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Recent posts

My Favorite Things 2025

Another year in the trenches

Dec 30, 2025 • Colin Meloy

1:00:03

Live from the Farm

In which I give the new rig an airing

Dec 13, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Song Tutorial: Severed

And a history on the evolution of the song

Dec 9, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Minneapolis/Chicago Solo Shows

Coming your way in March '26

Nov 18, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Orchestral Manoeuvres

In Seattle and Portland

Nov 11, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Demonstration Tapes: Annan Water

Oct 28, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Colin Meloy's Machine Shop

Colin Meloy's Machine Shop

A sporadic journal about song-making and story-writing

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DrawTogether with WendyMac

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Wendy MacNaughton

Demonstration Tapes

Demonstration Tapes: Annan Water

Oct 28, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Demonstration Tapes: Eli The Barrow Boy

Out from the water troughs and the barrow downs

May 13, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Demonstration Tapes: One Engine

The one that (barely) got away

Mar 4, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Demonstration Tapes: Acts of Men (aka A Beginning Song)

An early early draft

Dec 5, 2024 • Colin Meloy

Other Peoples' Songs

Other Peoples' Songs: Oh My Stars

Rest easy, Michael Hurley

Apr 15, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Other Peoples' Songs Request Line: The Sun and the Rainfall

Returning to Depeche Mode

Oct 21, 2024 • Colin Meloy

Other Peoples' Songs: Me and Magdalena

In which I take a crack at Ben Gibbard's Monkeesong

Jan 23, 2024 • Colin Meloy

Other Peoples' Song Request Line: The Shins' "Those to Come"

Chutes Too Narrow is twenty!

Dec 5, 2023 • Colin Meloy

Song Tutorials

Song Tutorial: Severed

And a history on the evolution of the song

Dec 9, 2025 • Colin Meloy

8:39

Song Tutorial: Eli the Barrow Boy

4 chords and a ghost

Jun 10, 2025 • Colin Meloy

13:39

Song Tutorial: The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing

Come all ye fuzz pedals

Jan 23, 2025 • Colin Meloy

10:57

Song Tutorials: The Gymnast, High Above the Ground

It's been ever so, ever so gray

Nov 13, 2024 • Colin Meloy

The Reading Room

The Reading Room Feb '25

stuff what i've been reading

Feb 12, 2025 • Colin Meloy

The Reading Room September '24

The Machine Shop pivots to video

Sep 24, 2024 • Colin Meloy

The Reading Room: April '23

On Kafkaesqueties

Apr 29, 2023 • Colin Meloy

The Reading Room, March '23

Onward from the Pickwick Club

Mar 22, 2023 • Colin Meloy

Lost Songs

Lost Songs: In Listvyanka

A Siberian reverie

Sep 18, 2025 • Colin Meloy

Lost Songs: Our Holidays

A sad little thing from the I'll Be Your Girl days

Jul 9, 2024 • Colin Meloy

Lost Songs Preservation Project: Honest Dog

Sipping will not make you thinner

Jul 7, 2023 • Colin Meloy

Lost Songs Preservation Project: Half A Mind

Yoinked from 2002

May 26, 2023 • Colin Meloy

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