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.

Here’s to the new year a-comin down.

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.

Here’s a song about the weather. Go figure. It’s winter in the Midwest, so what else am I gonna write about?

I jotted this one down on Saturday over the weekend when I was practicing some other new songs from the past couple weeks.

I think I was actually going through the song “13 Women” that the Barehand Jugband does because I butchered it at our show on Thursday night and wanted to be sure I had it down for our show tonight at Double Door. (You’ve already got your tickets, right?)

Anyway, I was up-the-neck, so I just was kinda fooling around.

The words of this one kinda fool around too. They’re basically what I initially wrote, save for a few spot changes; and I dropped an entire verse that just was’t going anywhere fast.

So have a listen. And remember to come back on Thursday when I’ll post a re-recorded version of the new song I released one year ago this week.