Monthly Archives: November 2010

Listen, New Song

New Song: I ain’t low down

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Wrote this tune last week on Tuesday. It’s another one of those personal reflection songs that really ain’t personal at all.

So don’t take it personal, okay?

I’ve probably used this melody before. I heard it in the morning before I wrote this one off an old Blind Boy Fuller record. His song’s different, though, cause he can really hammer it out on guitar. I, on the other hand, didn’t take the time to put any work into the guitar part (except a small Lester Flatt lick).

The words are completely different from anything that’s ever been written before. You can’t ask for more than that, I say.

So let me know what ya think of this one. Feedback, positive or negative, constructive or destructive, is always accepted.

Listen, New Song

New Song: I’ve heard it told

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Okay, folks. Here’s the new song for this week. Sat down and hammered it out last night.

This one is a little different than others I’ve written. It’s a bit more stream-of-conscious, which I’m not sure of right now. I’m not used to that. Don’t know if I’ve got that style down quite right. But it’s a stab at something new, I guess.

Once I started in on the song it came pretty easy. Maybe 30 minutes total to get all the words down and fumble through a couple different melodies and guitar arrangements. I don’t know if I’ll ever play this out, or even keep working on it, but I bet some form of this song shows up later, down the road somewhere.

That’s all.

If you’re looking for some live music to go see this weekend the Barehand Jugband has a couple shows. Friday at the Hideout is the first one. It’s a Happy Hour session from 5:30pm-7pm in the front room. Always a great time.

Listen, Talkin' Headline Blues

The Talkin’ Headline Blues #1-5 (Combined)

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Okay. I forgot to post the compilation of all five versions of Talkin’ Headline on Saturday. So, here it is today. It’s basically a new song. Indistinguishable from anything else.

The new song for this week will be coming. I’ll be working on it today. So look for it tomorrow.

This compilation, though, is pretty interesting, I think. It’s how my brain felt at the end of the week after reading so many headlines and not any substance of any news items. This should probably be the theme song for this whole blog. It’s absolute vomit.

There are a couple things I like. Occasionally the repeating chorus lines sync up in the different versions, and that’s pretty wild. Especially since all the versions are in different keys. Also, the mouth harp is basically going throughout the whole song and has a sort of sinister sound going.

Then the end clears up really well. It’s like waking up after a really heavy dream.

Hope ya like it.

Listen, Talkin' Headline Blues

The Talkin’ Headline Blues #5

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Here’s the 5th, and final (or final until I play this song out and have to write a new version based on what’s going on) version of Talkin’ Headline.

By Thursday it’s pretty easy to see that news organizations start to run out of things to report. Some headlines start to repeat, or are rewritten to seem relevant. Really, all the news happens over the weekend. Or, more likely, is saved up through the weekend and then reported on Monday morning so that all the readers have something to stare at when they get to work.

This also has the effect to give an audience a little bit on Monday and make them need to come back each day of the week to check in on the progress of the story they read at the beginning of the week. Everyone needs closure.

And then, maybe, you click on a link of advertising or two and everyone gets exactly what they set out to get. A little bit of money and a little bit of time gone by and spent.

So that’s it for this week. I think it went pretty well. It’s easy to write songs when ya got so much material to choose from. Tomorrow I’ll post a summary of all the songs. It’ll be a great expression of how it felt sifting through so much news in one week. Of how my brain feels after all that.

So be sure to check back on Saturday.