Latest Entry
Jun 28, 2009 DIY, sojourn, songwriting
It’s hard to quantify how much I get out of absorbing great material, sound instruction and interaction with peers, at least until I filter what I learn into writing, recording, performing or promoting [etc.]. Here are some of the activities and objectives I focused on and participated in over the last couple of weeks:
I’m spending more and more time listening to fresh generally non-mainstream songs and writers, primarily by setting up stations on slacker.com, which enables me to listen to both old and new material by heavy-weight writers and artists like Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin and Pink — the list is virtually … endless!
Though I wasn’t selected for the 2009 Horse & Writer Invitational, I was invited to attend three 1-hour conference calls with Skip Ewing, who graciously gave his time to mentor a small sub-group of writers deemed to have significant promise. As a result of Skip’s insights and encouragement, I’m asking different questions about what I’m saying in my songs and my approach to developing context and characters — plus — I played my piano for the first time in months.
I’m a TA (teacher’s assistant) for SongU.com and recorded/posted the transcript for weeks one and two [of four] of a basic theory course with Jai Josefs (Chord Chemistry). While I consider myself fairly proficient at theory, it never hurts to practice and refresh. Jai is a great instructor, and he led us through a quick but effective analysis of the Lighthouse smash “First Time” where we learned how contrasting harmonic function between sections significantly enhances the flow and punch of a song.
Last night was another solid evening of song and pickin’ with Rick Spreitzer at Summit Coffee, where we play every 4th Saturday. Then I got up early today (like, real early for a Sunday) and went into town with friends John and Cate Cloer for a photo shoot as part of my 
website update project; upon return (and after a sweet cat nap) I got on the horn with friend and Indie artist Brian Hartzog to kick-off planning the main topic for our next NSAI monthly meeting. The last thing I plan to do today (after a couple of hours of yard work and an early dinner) is setup an area in our bedroom strictly for writing — not recording, just writing… a desk, piano and guitar… complete with notebook, score paper and music stand.
I’m feeling pretty good about what’s going to come of all these efforts in the weeks ahead. I’ve got a several new songs in the hopper, including a couple of rewrites and co-writes. Of course, there’s rehearsal later in the week for a 4th of July gig in Greensboro with the talented Desmond Myers, the gig itself, and then prepping for my first songwriter round in quite sometime on July 18th.
I don’t expect I can keep this pace up every week, but surely hope it all leads to my becoming a better writer and performer, as well as a more complete musician and artist. Seems the more I get done the more that’s left to do. I’ll just keep shaking, stirring and pouring myself into the songs and let the chips fall where they may.
Recent Entries
Jun 21, 2009 sojourn
This past June 10th marked the 2nd anniversary of Dad’s passing, a day threaded with pangs of remembrance. But today is Father’s Day, and the void is even more pronounced. Maybe coz it’s the weekend and I’ve had more time to reflect upon memories as well as the cause and effect of his being gone.
I still find myself talking to him, wondering what he would say about things going on in the world today, or situations in my life or the lives of my siblings. I left the nest pretty early on, and for the most part it took quite some time for the values and lessons he taught me to take. But today I can honestly say, I rely on the simplicity in his wisdom. Wisdom founded on honesty and integrity, hard work and gratitude.
I wish I could say I don’t struggle, that by now I’d learned every lesson well, and he’d give me a pat on the back and we’d go grab a beer. But the truth is I’m still a wild horse that yearns to roam, often shamefully thankless for the many blessings in my life and stubborn as a 3-foot thick wall. Of late, the restlessness in me is at fever pitch. Do I cross the river here, where the rapids are swollen and strong, or keep heading down a rocky stretch of terrain where at least I can negotiate my footing? Thankfully, I still hear his voice saying, “hang on buster, let’s dial it back a notch and think about what you’re about to do.”
Dad passed away from several medical/physical conditions, but it was the Alzheimer’s disease that broke him down mercilessly. I was the last to feed him real food, his favorite of roast pork with rice and beans. I have a few family pictures I scanned right after he died, so I could keep them electronically and look back, way back, at how he got me to where I am in this life. How I wish I could do so many things over and thank him today for all his sacrifice and care. He taught me regret is an anchor, so I’ll press on down the pathways he cut for me.
If you guys are using the Internet in heaven, I just want to say I miss you Dad…
(Dad and me c.1972)
Jun 13, 2009 sojourn
Seems the harder I try to eliminate distractions of late, the more distracted I get. It’s not trivial stuff either, some of the scenarios are simply life hitting cycles I knew would come, but all at once?
I’m not getting into details ’cause that’s not the point.
What’s key right now is that I keep my ear to the ground for the voice of God and my nose to the grindstone, doing what I can to progress as a player, writer and performer. We watched a Ralph Murphy/ASCAP webcast at NSAI last Tuesday. Funny though I’ve heard what Ralph spoke of many times, there were a couple of threads that resonated anew.
Like the word “blame” shouldn’t be in my vocabulary, at least when it comes to my journey as a writer/musician. It’s up to me to hone my skills and persevere. Rejection and disappointment are part of the process and if I’m not getting rejected regularly I’m not out there working it. And no matter what obstacles I face, I have to do what’s necessary to keep the passion sparked. Keep listening and experimenting and learning and when I get knocked down, get back up again, fight off the anger and fear that creeps in, and dive headfirst right back into the process.
Like I said, the distractions I’m experiencing are pretty significant, routines and responsibilities are changing, but a direction for any type resolution doesn’t seem obvious, at least not right now. A few days ago I woke out of a dream where I was buying a drink in a small town store. The person behind the counter asked if I was just passing through, I replied “for now”. And I’ve a couple other pretty vivid dreams of late where I’m living in a more wide open space with other “newness” around me. Again, not sure what to make of it, but it feels like someone is trying to tell me something.
I’m listening.
May 31, 2009 DIY
After a very thought provoking service this [Sunday] morning, I took the afternoon totally off from anything but enjoying the outstanding tennis from Roland Garros in Paris at the 2009 French Open. Having played in years gone by, I get the passion and toil that goes into competing, and how the ebbs and flows of a match play with the mind.
Afterward, I sipped some coffee, made notes and doodled ideas for a lyric I’ve been working on seemingly forever, wondering — am taking the wrong angle, trying to be too fine, pressing… just like I used to when I was on the wrong end of the score in the 3rd set of a tough match?
Yep, the comparison is there. Tennis is grueling, yet there’s art to it, too, and I won’t give up on this lyric/song much the same as I would never give up the fight in any match I’d play. Not that I played “serious” competitive tennis, more like a few club tourneys and years of public court knock down drag out matches. So here I am a songwriter and musician, not competing at the label level, but working at it nonetheless, same passion, different game.
Why?
Why not? I love what I do and am able to get done, and while I’m by no means prolific or published or p-whatever, I keep writing, and playing and competing… till I play my last point.
I also enjoy watching my friends, peers and acquaintances compete to get heard, write for the art sing for the joy of it all. This week I got to play, hang or listen to some really good writers and musicians, next week should be just as cool. Over the last 24 hours, though, I’ve been tracking a real interesting thread that might be of interest to you, too:
A relatively new virtual acquaintance is a singer/songwriter in TN with a contagious passion she pours into life and her songs. She’s on a mission to get to Chicago and using her smarts to help this cause by posting a set of tracks for the taking, though she’s hoping folks who can will “chip in” and help fund her road trip. The project is called “Ten in Ten“, check it out.
Like I said, I don’t know Courtney, we may never meet, speak or whatever, that doesn’t matter. She’s got game and she’s bringing it. I don’t know if she plays tennis, but she’s the kind of match I used to get cranked up for, and the kinda writer I’ll do what’s possible to support.
May 24, 2009 sojourn
Seems like eons since the peaceful refuge of holiday just over a week ago. Happily, I came home determined to avoid getting back into dead-end ruts that often squeeze the life out my creativity. Catching up at work after time away is always quirky and challenging, but things went pretty well, and I was also able to reset myself at home, too.
What was different?
Before heading out for vacation I built a new personal dashboard into a mind map to help me be ready to get things done (GTD) upon return, and by Friday night I was ready for a productive weekend. Cool thing is when stuff I consider important gets done, time for unplanned, yet valuable efforts sprouts from these seeds of planning.
This weekend a few new CDs crossed my path, so I’ve been listening to a lot of different styles, including Bon Iver, Jason Mraz and The Country Way (Vol. 2), the latter delivered with this month’s American Songwriter. I also had time for Austin City Limits, and catching up on reading articles I’d dog-eared in magazines or online as well as tweak a couple of songs that are now ready for home demo.
The activities of the last 48 or so hours erased last week’s smog and brought about a little clarity — I’m not looking back.
May 17, 2009 muse
I’ve just returned from a totally sweet week on HHI (Hilton Head Isle, SC), always a bit of downer coming home to “reality”, but then, reality is what it’s all about, right? As grateful as I am for the escape, for the rest and restoration I so needed, I’m also looking fwd to what comes of it all.
Long walks on the beach brought peace and stirring. Observing the joy of a child’s first encounter with the ocean and watching my youngest daughter catch a wave on a 50 ft. boogie board ride left imprints on my mind. Swimming out to get as close as possible to the 4 -5 dolphin some 100 yards off shore was scary and exhilarating. Perhaps not as scary as sneaking up on a 500+ pound gator for a picture, thankfully it slipped back into the lagoon before I could get any closer. Having enough sense to make up for picking the wrong restaurant early in the week worked out, and all was forgiven.
We beat the weather odds Friday and had the perfect final afternoon on the beach (yes, beach time was the absolute highlight of my week). Not a typical sun clad afternoon, but us in the midst of storm clouds wrapped around the island, enjoying the waves and breeze and never getting rained on for a solid 3 hours.
When we got back to the “hut” I got to thinking that in the midst of the “normal” stuff one does on vacation, I also was very fortunate to stay connected to songwriting and art in general. I skimmed more of a book called “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci”, blogged and journaled, applied to Horse & Writer, re-learned a couple of my old songs, got a first look at some prospective layouts for my web presence, discovered Robinella while browsing through a gift store, and spent a good bit of time enjoying the evening breeze while sipping a beverage and contemplating… what’s next?
I’ve got more on my plate than I can handle for the next 6 weeks, but I’m going for it. There are also 3-4 half written songs I’ll add to the mix knowing, too, that my life at work could be about to change rather drastically. Sometimes it takes a little faith to “unclog the pen” and get the flow of prose and lyrics and melody flowing again, sometimes it takes alot. Last week was a major blessing to me, and I believe to my family as well. My well was running low, it feels good to have the creativity level rising again.
May 13, 2009 sojourn
Today’s been really cool. Got news that friends (congrats Alan, Jimm, Jessica, Dusti) did well in the John Lennon songwriting contest, and a co-writer of mine (way to go Allen) won a Telly Award! This is one of the reasons I love writing, it’s being part of a community, albeit more virtual every day, whose members work hard to put their art out there and be heard.
I’m grateful that even while vacationing on Hilton Head Island this week I still can write and stay plugged in to what’s going on. Though I missed our NSAI meeting last night, I’ll get the “scoop” from my good friends The Cloers. John and Cate are not only wonderful writers and musicians, they have an unparalleled passion to share what they know with other indie artists, and they do it so well.
So, I’ve made my mind up to apply to the Horse & Writer Invitational, which, if selected, would quite likely be my most unique songwriting adventure to date. While I don’t expect to make it, it’s a step in the right direction, as the application process is more involved than any other I’ve completed and really helped me level set my current state as a writer.
But today is about the success of friends, and I plan to celebrate it, even from afar!
May 1, 2009 muse
Over the last couple of years I’ve begun to read books for enjoyment and inspiration, a discipline over the last 15+ years limited to technical stuff for work, not generally a conduit to artistic creativity. But as I got through the first couple of phases of experience as a songwriter, and got more familiar with writers themselves, one theme emerged time and again — to write quality works, one should be an avid reader.
For me this was like being really hungry but the only thing on the menu is liver, no thanks! But I want to be a better writer, and as I more and more of my peers are avid readers, I realized it was time to get on with the process. So I joined an online book club, borrowed books, hit the library, etc, and though I’m by no means a prolific reader, I now regularly draw inspiration from reading.
Which gets me to a book I just started, “Poetry As Spiritual Practice“, by Robert McDowell. Poetry was a stumbling block in college English, I’ve tried reading it in the past, I just have trouble “getting it”. Reading excerpts by and discussions with successful writers who allude to Whitman, Dickinson, Longfellow, Frost, etc. and curiosity lead me to this book. I want/need to go where the poetry might take me, hopefully I’m ready.
Apr 19, 2009 sojourn
Pressing edges into song, what?
I edited the tag line for my blog, really just shortening it from “pressing life’s edges into song” to “pressing edges into song“. For all practical purposes this is the first time I’m peeling back the context for this theme and it’s got my mind churning faster than I can type.
When I press, and I often do, I get fragmented. Many of these fragments end up on the fringes of what’s happening, or life’s edges. Like when I try too hard to please someone, and fail another, or myself. Or my work suffers because I allow circumstances out of my control to press me, to put me in difficult positions I should avoid at all cost. Then there’s the proverbial painting myself into the writer’s block corner because I’m too scattered and frustrated and thinking everything I write sucks, and begin wondering what’s the point in writing at all?
This, of course, is all fodder, all grapes on the vine waiting to be pressed into a story, prose for a blog post, and, yeah, maybe even a song. But more often than not I let my insecurities and self-consciousness derail me. I reread an interview with Rodney Crowell last week in which Rodney is deemed as one who ascribes to the notion “… self-consciousness is the enemy of art.” Also last week, Bob Lefsetz posted a blog titled “Dylan on Buffet” that really spoke to me this week, too, in which he declares “The role of the artist is to open the door just a little, so we can experiment, so we can take the unpopular route, so we can become enlightened.”
I guess I’m still crawling out of my shell as a writer, still allowing the threat of rejection to stifle my creativity. Sure, it’s not all doom & gloom. There are many encouraging signs, too, and that’s what I need to focus on. I see and hear lots of friends and peers just tearing it up with their work, getting their songs and music played everywhere from MTV to Internet radio to churches to nursing homes, both live and recorded. That’s the goal, eh? To have our art seen and/or heard? Surely a big goal for me.
I just had a pretty positive song evaluation done where my “coach” qualified the song as being about recovery from addiction. Now, I agree with the assessment, but the more specific perspective from which I wrote the song is that we all live on the edge of addiction, the edge of love, the edge of understanding, knowing the real “you” comes out in the end. And that what really matters is having relationships with those to whom the real “you” is perfectly acceptable. Serendipitously, someone tweeted a Dr. Seuss quote this week that sums up this mind set so much better than I ever could, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
My edges have already taken me somewhere today, for that, I’m grateful.
Apr 11, 2009 sojourn
Still… a beautiful, multifaceted word with several meanings, often used as a literary device in novels, prose, poetry and song. This morning I got to thinking about this word in two totally unrelated ways.
As a DIY songwriter [get ready for an off the wall analogy], I kinda consider my self to be running a still, yes, as in moonshine. The plumbing and methodology is different from any other still. I might funnel the elixir into a mason jar or flask or bottle (media delivery), and it won’t likely taste (sound) like any other moonshine, but that’s OK. If you like it, you’ll drink (listen) and hopefully come back for more.
A couple of days ago a heartbreaking dose of reality I can’t seem to shake… this week I got stopped in my tracks by news of a singer, who I only met once, and not even by name, had recently and tragically taken his life. I was rather profoundly still as I contemplated the sadness of the news, in the futility of why. I wrote a bunch of lines, here’s an extract, maybe it’s poetry, maybe a lyric, dunno, but I need to listen to the still, small voice inside me telling me to get it out:
it’s all good
till the waters get rough
and enough is enough
I thought you understood
maybe I can
step down off of this ledge
so I can pull out this wedge
and the splinters from my hands
I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason, some call it luck, fate, God’s sovereignty, to each his own. But there’s a reason I went to ATL first week of March and was fortunate enough to see this singer so incredibly express his art. There’s a reason he’s gone, but somehow still here.
2009 © zero360music