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Leavin’ You

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New Song Week

I barely got this one done. I sat down at 11:18pm and churned it out. Was a real struggle today. I didn’t take a whole lotta time for to write a song and so I ended up puttin in a last gasp at the very end. That’s a terrible way to write. I’ve learned ya can’t wait around for inspiration to hit ya. There’s a quote by someone…Norman Mailer, maybe…floating around out there that goes something like, “Inspiration is for amateurs.” And that’s the truth. Ya gotta put it in t get it back out.

I didn’t put it in and so I’m left with this little blues song. I kinda started diggin it after the second verse, though. And I’ll probably work on this one a little. It’s got something going for it. Like a train engine. Like a trout.

Anyway, goodnight, sweet dreams. Here’s what I’ll be a-dreamin about:

I'll never be leavin' you, but if I do, it'll be on a Triumph.

See ya tomorrow for the next new song.

Listen, New Song

You’re All I Got

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New Song Week

So this week I’m gonna try to write a new song each day, Monday through Friday. I actually wrote You’re All I Got last night, so, really, I’ll be writing new songs Sunday through Thursday. Anyway.

This one is an attempt at a love song. I’ve been told my love songs aren’t really love songs at all. Maybe that’s true. But I tried really hard at this one. Maybe it counts. I can’t tell. I know I was feelin some love when I wrote it.

The melody came pretty easy and the words kinda fell right into place fairly quickly. I had a chorus, but it didn’t add anything new or interesting, and it wasn’t really a chorus. Maybe a bridge or something like that. A divider? Either way I cut it out, so I’m left with 4 short verses and a song that’s about one minute long or so. One minute is really easy to listen to, even though you’ve got so many other things to spend not very much time on.

No harp on this because it was late and I didn’t want to wake anyone up.

Let me know what ya think. And drop in tomorrow for the next new song.

Sometimes it feel like a pile of logs is all I got.

Listen, New Song

Nothing Oughta Be Like Nothing (Part 4)

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Arrangement Week

I took the (somewhat) easy way out today. I was gonna be ambitious and play the fiddle for the fourth part of Nothing Oughta Be Like Nothing, and I did try, but Good God. I used to know a little bit of fiddle, but let’s just say, I saved yall from some serious pain.

So instead I played the mandolin. I’m by no means a good mandolin player, but I can at least strum the chords I need to strum and sing while I do it. There’s no bow involved. No rosin. No tuning fork. It’s all tuned the same, though…like an upsidedown guitar with four strings.

Anyway. I finished the song this afternoon. There’s no chorus. No bridge or extra part. It just is what it is. But it’s one I can really get behind. I usually don’t really get behind songs that take me a week to write…I guess I just worked harder on this one.

Tomorrow I’ll merge all the files together and we can hear what that sounds like. It’ll most likely be a big mess. On Saturday I’ll record an “official” version of the song and then it’ll be done and I’ll maybe start playing it out around town.

So, there ya go. Four days of the creative process or struggle or whatever ya call it.

Nothing is hard when you work hard and put in time.

Listen, New Song

Nothing Oughta Be Like Nothing (Part 3)

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Arrangement Week

Okay. I’m really putting myself out on a limb here today. I’m playing upright bass on this one. Upright bass looks like this:

Nothing oughta be as hard as playing upright bass with a blistered thumb.

I’ve had one of these for a while now, but I’ve never actually sat down to even try to play it. I guess I see it more as an accompanying instrument (even though that’s ridiculous because I love Charles Mingus.) Anyway, I took it down today and got a big old blister on my finger.

I finished the third verse this morning. It came to me pretty easily without a whole lot of wranglin. The hard part was singing it and playing the bass. This recording is probably the 5th or 6th take. Which means the 5th or 6th time I’ve played bass. I’m not apologizing, though, cause I like how it turned out. The melody of the song kinda gets lost in there cause I’m focusing so hard on the instrument playing and then the instrument playing gets fuzzy when I start focusing on the new verse. But, all-in-all, I think I did a fair job of holding it together.

I probably coulda played it a few more times and got it cleaner, but maybe not. My instrument track was actually turned off by accident on this recording, which is why the bass is kinda quiet. It still got picked up by the vocal condenser, though. But it’s small things like that which lead me to believe that I probably wouldn’t get it perfect without a couple hours of practice. But who wants perfection anyway.

So, the song is shaping up. I’ll work on one more verse for tomorrow. I’m still kinda hoping for a chorus, but now I kinda think that it doesn’t need one. The title is probably also gonna be Nothing Oughta Be Like Nothing. I just made that up right now.

See ya.

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