Listen, New Song

New Song: Baby, Work It All Night For Me

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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.

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: I Can’t Help It (version 2)

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I recorded and released “I Can’t Help It” this week last year. Here’s this year’s version. Recorded last night.

This tune wound up on the full-length album I released last August, which is fairly similar to the original recording (which is right here). This was also one of the last songs I wrote before I started recording that album. I kept writing songs last year and releasing them, but I had to stop myself at some point with some group of songs.

Anyway, you can still buy the album. Download or CD. The money goes to my next recording, so it’s a donation on your part, in a sense.

So, now, the new recording. You’ll notice I used an electric guitar on this one. So that’s different. The song’s basically the same structure, other than singing it a little different and I broke out the last two lines of the original first verse and used them as a chorus throughout instead of a repeating line. And there’s some occasional phrase/word changes here and there, but nothing major.

I like this song though. It’s a little bizarre to hear, I guess. Let me know what you think.

And, for those of you who’re interested…I plugged the guitar right into my Tascam USB Interface. Used no effects or anything like that in Garageband. Just turned up the volume and got some good old unfiltered digital feedback. I’ve got a 1955 Fender Telecaster. It stays nice and warm in its case. This is probably the first time I’ve had it out in, say, 3 years I think.

Also, the Barehand Jugband is at Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn tonight at 8pm. And we’ve got a big Friday night Double Door show coming up on June 24. We’ll be opening for the Infamous Stringdusters. Gonna be a hot show. Get your tickets now, cause they’re almost sold out.

Listen, Talkin' Headline Blues

The Talkin’ Headline Blues #29

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It’s all about being consistent and not wavering and never letting on what your secret formula may be. It’s a sleight of hand and it’s gotta be quick and abrupt and, most of all, shocking, otherwise a great snore descends over the sky and the thunder bolts sound muted and lazy in the late Spring heat.

Wade into the water falling from the sky ripping at the gravelly road on which you walk. Great pectoral muscles ripple in the tiny atoms dispensed in puddles gathering dust and termites.

See how much nonsense there is.

Don’t be bashful of anything. Drop your pants and slink into the night, watchful of the weary trash cans collected on specific routes. There’s disease here. Don’t take any medicine for it, though, or they may be unwanted consequences, such as bloated bladders and hypertension in your head. You would try to explode the entire world in one try. Failing you’d gain a deep sense of depression. But there’s a special drug-of-choice for this specific ailment too. It also cures chronic sex syndrome. Be careful with it. Sit in many bathtubs. Chop down all trees. Marry yourself to the idols of Christmastime.

But, in the end, don’t worry. All is well. The Earth is still spinning on it’s hell-fast axis. People are still passing each other in hallways without notice. And all our lives are still private.

Listen, New Song

New Song: I ain’t nothing at all

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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….

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Brown-skinned Woman (version 2)

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This week last year I wrote and recorded “Brown-skinned Woman.” This is one of the tunes that ended up on my full-length album. You can check out the original version here.

The new recording’s a little different. Was hard to get away from that original melody, though. Especially since I’m singing this tune out at live shows. It’s gettin engrained in my head. Plus it’s one of those old Carter Family that’s almost too good to mess around with.

So this was a real good exercise.

I came up with something on Monday night, but then when I sat down last night to record I couldn’t remember exactly what that was. So this recording has a little of that and a little something else. I decided to go with the stutter last night. Was doing it all through the whole song at first (it’s something new, so I got excited), but realized that was a little too much of the same thing. So I cut it back a little. It’s still not really where I want it to be, but I like the place where it’s headed.

Anyway, that’s the new version for this week. Like I said, I’ll post the old one tomorrow.

Songwriting, home recording and vinyl records from Chicago folk singer and songwriter Andrew Francis.