Here’s the new one for this week. It’s a standard blues tune based on Blind Boy Fuller’s “Step It Up and Go.” I’ve used this a lot in the past and it’s a good one to fall back on when I don’t have any idea what kind of tune I’m gonna write or what kind of melody I want to sing.

That’s not to say I took an easy way out, though. I still wrote all the words and the guitar parts are my own (they’re not exactly like Blind Boy Fuller, because, well, I ain’t that good at guitar).

Also, while it seems like this song is about one thing, and while I was writing it I thought it was about one thing and that kinda made me giggle and kinda made me almost pass this song right by. But really it’s about something completely different than you may think. At least to me it is. I wonder what it is to you? Maybe you’d like to share, huh?

So, that’s it for today.

Tomorrow, though, I’m playing with the Barehand Jugband at our regular last-Tuesday-of-the-month show at the Hideout. Starts at 9pm. Goes all night. Promises to be a dance-filled night full of sweatin and kissin. Come out and celebrate the start of Summer with us. It’s only 5 buckaroos.

Here’s the new one I wrote last night. Didn’t really have anything coming to me all week. No life experiences that presented themselves in any particular way.

So, by Friday I was trying to write some ridiculous song about the end of the world and the creation of a new one exactly like the old one. I got two verses in by Saturday night and let it rest. Woke up on Sunday and scrapped the whole idea. It’s not the kind of song I want to write anymore.

Instead, since I didn’t have any other ideas or feelings, I just used a writing technique that I lean on when I got nothin else. Take an old song and destroy it until it because something of your own. Maybe not destroy it, but at least twist it up a little. Change some words. Change some ideas. Change the timeframe and outlook.

I’ve done this type of thing countless times and it comes pretty easy once I get going.

For this song, though, I went at it a little different. Instead of picking one tune to work with I picked images and themes and lines and melodies from a bunch of songs. So it’s more a collage or sorts. Similar, in that respect, to the song “Mismanaged” that I recorded back on March 21. Go listen to that and see the similarities.

Know any of the songs I used? Go ahead and post a comment and see if you’re right.

Now, I don’t think this song is finished at all. It’s missing something, I think. I had the idea that maybe next week’s new song will be the rest of this one. Maybe if I finish it this week, though, I’ll post the rest on Friday. So check back….

Here’s the new tune for this week. Wrote it last Wednesday. It’s kinda different, I think. I played bar-chords in this one, so it’s got a slightly different sound. The format of the song, though, is pretty much the same as what I’ve been writing lately. Bluesy with a repeating chorus-line at the end of each verse. No big anthemic chorus to sing along to. I guess I should try for one of those. That’d really stretch me in a new way. Maybe look for that next week.

This new one is probably actually two new ones. I wrote it last night and came up with the chorus first and filled in the 3 verses after that. I don’t know that they totally go together or fit in any way that makes sense, but it was getting late and I was tired so I just went with it.

Really there’s nothing in the song about bad habits. It’d probably be clearer if I listed my bad habits or made light of all of them, but I didn’t do that. Didn’t feel like putting myself under the microscope too much late on a Sunday night.

Anyway, that’s that for this week.