All posts by Andrew

Father. Partner. Folk singer. Guitar picker. Vinyl record collector. Comic book reader.
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Nothing Oughta Be Like Nothing (Part 2)

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Arrangement Week

Next installment. Banjo. As you can tell I’m a really below-average banjo player, but I tried real hard and that’s half the battle.

I got the second verse of the song done today. I started it last night, but it came together nicely this afternoon. I’ll thank the Canadians for that. Them of the “if there’s no sign saying you can then you can’t.” As opposed to us Americans of the “if there’s no sign saying you can’t then you can.” I’m not saying one’s better then the other, I just needed one today more than the other.

So the second verse is done. I sung it over banjo. I rarely play banjo other than to pull it off the wall and strum it. I have no idea how to claw-hammer and I’ve never been to good at fingerpicking even on the guitar. But I gave it a whirl and I think it turned out okay.

I’m getting closer to a title. Maybe something like Oughta be like. But that feels unfinished. There’s definitely a repeating line, sort of, now. Maybe tomorrow a chorus will spring up.

I think probably on Friday I’ll put the whole song together, all the parts…layered…and I’ll post that.

Anyway, here’s a picture for all of ya that might be strugglin with gettin that next bit of creation out.

A wall oughta not stand in your way when creating.

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Nothing Oughta Be Like Nothing (Part 1)

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Arrangement Week

Okay. Here’s the deal. I’ve got a song in the works. It ain’t one of those that can just be written and done in 5 minutes. The first verse came out tonight like a dream and then the second verse kinda stalled and wiggled and wouldn’t break. So, this week, I’m gonna do a new verse each day, to this new song, which also does not yet have a title. I’ll call it Untitled Song Number 1.

I was also planning on changing instruments each day of this week, hence the week being called Arrangement Week. I’ll still attempt to do this. Maybe the challenge of a different thing in my hands each day will rattle some words out of me.

This new one is kinda shapin up to be like a lot of other new one’s I’ve written recently with a similar (or exact) repeating line instead of a good old chorus. The melody isn’t stolen from anything that I know of and I’m just apickin on the guitar.

I also don’t have any image to go with this post. This song is too new and too unfinished to have any idea what it’s about. So I’ll just go with this, it’s unfinished too:

Nothing is ever finished.

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New Orleans

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Songs About America Week

Last song of the week. This one is called New Orleans, or I was born in New Orleans. Either way, it’s a pretty close approximation of the song Portland Town, which I first heard done by Derroll Adams on the record The Ramblin’ Boys, which he recorded with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

Map of New Orleans

New Orleans was written and recorded way back in 2006. I was really into imitating Ramblin’ Jack as close as I could back then. But Ramblin’ Jack is still alive and there’s not many people that could imitate him exactly. Bob Dylan tried and couldn’t. I tried too and couldn’t. I don’t talk that much.

So I changed the words of that Derroll Adams song because Portland just ain’t what it used to be when that song was first recorded and New Orleans ain’t what it used to be when I recorded this song.

I’m pretty sure I only ever played this out live one time. Probably at the Grafton open mic that I was frequenting back then. When I was still figuring out how to sing and how to play and how to make sense up on stage. I’m slowly getting back to that point now. Went to Gallery Cabaret again on Thursday night to try out 3 more new songs: Lawd Almighty, Mister Mayor Says, and Pray to your Lord. Went pretty well. Lawd Almighty I’d never played out before and it went a lot better than I ever thought it could’ve. But I was in a religious way that night.

Anyway…on to next week. I got a song to write for Monday and a theme to come up with. See ya…

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The Mortgage Blues

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Songs About America Week

Here’s a song I’ve never recorded: The Mortgage Blues. I’ve played it out probably only 2 times. And those two times were completely improvised. I didn’t even write down any official lyrics for this until about a month ago when I started getting some news songs together for to play in the jugband and to record.

My song is a complete rip-off of the Carter Family song the Coal Miner’s Blues. Check out the similarities here. I don’t care if it’s the same. It’s folk music. And, besides, both songs are just as relevant today…coal mining disasters are just as likely as foreclosures. It’s just that foreclosures affect more people now, not just coal miners and such.

I hope I don’t have to explain why this is an American song. It’s in the form of a traditional American blues and/or early country style. The lyrics were written in approximately the middle of 2008.

Here’s what a mortgage looks like:

Don't you just love your mortgage?!

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Shock & Awe

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Songs About America Week

This is one of the very first songs I wrote. (At least, in the past 4 years or so.) I wrote it sometime back in 2006, maybe even late 2005. This recording is from early 2008, though. I played this one out occasionally when I was first gettin going. It’s a relic now. It’s in the past. The title is Shock & Awe.

I got the idea for this song from the great old tune “Peg and Awl.” If you have the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music you’re probably familiar with that song. Here’s a link to that tune. I always loved it, but couldn’t sing it. It ain’t my life. Peggin’ shoes and then a machine comes along and does it for me. That sounds like science fiction to me.

Anyway. Shock and Awe is all about America. It’s about American war. American politics. American people. American fireworks. American money. American grub. It’s about as American as you could get. Mainly because the song could keep going on into infinity, adding a new verse about every new year. Eventually it would become a big circle again. That’s how every day is in America. You wake up and the sun is a-shinin and the birds is a-singin and by the end of the night you just lay down dead as a rat.

See ya, here’s some shock and awe for ya.

Nothing like some good hard shock & awe to whet an appetite.