This song I wrote last night and it was kind of a struggle. Or, really, I mean that I just had to work on it for a while. Take a few breaks in-between each verse. Get up. Walk around. Wash the dishes. But once I started it I knew I had to finish it.
Some songs aren’t like that. You start em and know they’re not going anywhere and they never get finished.
Others you pound out in 5 minutes, let sit for a few days, and going back to them you can’t remember what you thought was interesting at all.
This one still strikes me as something. It’s similar, in that way, to the song from two weeks ago, “All the Answers of Old.” Plus, like that one, it’s a pretty straight-forward, old-fashioned folk tune, so-to-speak.
This one was written last night. I wrote about 9 or 10 songs last week, but none of them were really working out the way I was hoping. So I sat down and hammered this one out.
Kind of a more laid back number.
And not much to say about it. Hope ya enjoy.
In other news…the Barehand Jugband is playing at Fitzgerald’s this Thursday (1/13). You should come check it, especially if you live close and definitely if you’ve never been there before. Plus it’s only 5 dollars. Show starts at 8pm.
Here it is, folks. The first new song released in the new year. This one I wrote last week on Wednesday night. Came pretty easily. Had an idea instantly. The form and pattern of the song developed out of all the other songs I’ve written the past few weeks and months. Same for the words. Then the repeating chorus came through. All in about, say, 10 minutes or so. Then I worked out 3 more verses and an ending and I had a complete song in about an hour.
That’s how it goes writing a folk song. And this sure is a big ol’ folk song. With a capital “F.”
Anyway, I feel like it’s a good song to start off the new year. Get’s me headed in some direction at least. Now I’m barreling down on the curves of the road.
Remember. Tomorrow (and every Tuesday for the rest of the year) is Talkin’ Headline Tuesday and then two days later is Replay Thursday. You don’t wanna miss that. So you gotta come back often and listen.
Here we go. The last song of 2010. This one, I think, is purely for my own enjoyment. Maybe for someone else. Maybe. I wrote it on the 23rd. Finished it on the 24th. Ain’t no Christmas song. More like a Thanksgiving song, I suppose.
It’s inspired by a certain someone. Thanks, Certain Someone.
Anyway. It’s a pretty typical blues tune. Actually, it’s almost exactly the same melody and guitar part as the song “Leavin’ You” (originally titled “Oh mama, don’t you make me”) that I wrote back in July. You can hear that song here.
So that’s that for 2010.
Well, not really. I’ll write and post a new version of Talkin’ Headline tomorrow and re-record a new version of the song I wrote one year ago this week (Out in the Cold Cold Wind) on Thursday. And, of course, the new song I write that I post of January 3rd could possibly still be written in 2010. But, apart from those, 2010 is up.
Let’s take a look back, huh?
All in all I wrote and posted 48 new songs. This includes all the songs I posted brand new on a Monday (or later in the week if I missed my deadline) and any additional songs I wrote and posted (if more than 2 in a week). Also in there are the 6 versions of Talkin’ Headline that I posted. (I actually wrote 7, but only recorded and posted 6, so I won’t count that one, which is now irrelevant because its full of old news.) It doesn’t include any re-recorded material that was written in a previous year or any songs I wrote but didn’t record for one reason or another.
Not bad. 48 newly published songs. That’s almost one for every week of the year. I went from January 4, 2010 until February 15 really strong. Didn’t miss a day. Didn’t miss a beat. A lot of the songs I wrote in this period made it onto one or the other of my two albums.
Then I hit a rough patch. I remember it well. I wasn’t writing. I was just waiting around for songs to come. That ain’t a good idea. Ever.
I finally picked it back up the week of April 28. Seems I recorded 2 songs that day. And then didn’t miss a week of posting a new song for the rest of the year (expect for the week of July 26 when I was busy getting my two albums to the production line and getting everything finalized for the release of both).
Anyway. I kinda fell into a groove. It got really easy to just churn out a song. So I started doing a couple different things. I tried writing a song every day of the week (that was hard), I wrote one new verse each day for a song and recorded each verse on a different instrument (that was fun), and I did a whole week of new talkin’ blues songs each day based on headlines on cnn.com (that was mind-numbing).
For 2011 I’ll take a few of those ideas and keep at them. I’m sure I’ll come up with a few others, though. I’m also planning to record and release another album with songs from the past year. (there are probably 5 to 7 that I think will definitely make it, can you guess which ones?) That’ll hopefully happen by March sometime, but I haven’t thought about it too much.
Mostly I’ll be trying to get out and play some of these 2010 songs. So I’ll see ya around.
Okay. This song is a bit different and a bit the same as most that I write. First off, it’s in a minor key. And I wrote it with an understanding of what it was about, but wrote it in sort of a metaphor. That usually doesn’t work too well, but I think it goes pretty much okay in this case. Can you think what the song’s about?
I’ll give you a hint.
Or just tell ya. There’s enough surprises comin your way this week, so I won’t keep ya guessing.
It’s inspired by this newspaper article I read last Thursday. (So, that’s also how it’s similar to other songs I’ve written. It’s a topical piece.) Here’s a link to the article so you can read for yourself. Pretty interesting stuff, no?
Not only is it true that you should get under a desk, put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye, but, you should stay right at home and kiss your lovin babe goodbye too. And just keep on kissin until it’s safe to come outside.
So, see…this isn’t some sad, melancholy, depressing song. It’s about the lovin season of winter. When everyone should be holdin everyone else tight and warm.
So here’s to holdin tight and warm. Good luck on the holidays.
Music Vomit 