Crown of Stars

Crown of Stars will likely never be performed live, but it’s up on the player because I think it’s worth a listen. No, I don’t have any intention of abandoning my folk, acoustic act. This “song” came about as a result of some mad experimentation last night. It’s been a few years since I wrote anything other than on the guitar, but this one reaches out a bit. Somewhere deep inside me is a movie/TV soundtrack songwriter that is trying to get out.

A quick note about the arrangement and recording. There is no “programming” on this recording. The different instrumental voices were all played live in real time by me either on keyboard or acoustic guitar.

The spoken word you hear in the background came about after I listened to the music a few times. I heard this “nearly intelligible” conversation going on in the background so I went to an old book of poetry I have, given to me by a friend of my grandma’s back about 35 years ago, and picked out three poems and read. Panned one left, one right and the other dead center and there it is.

My left coast brother in songwriting, Steven Wesley Guiles is partially responsible for the creative outburst as well. He has hornswaggled me into trying this thing called FAWM (February Album Writing Month). More about this later. In the meantime, thanks for reading and listening!

John
January 31, 2009

Crown of Stars.mp3

The Song is in the Air...

This post came about as I sat around the other night and reflected on a great live gig at a coffee shop (originally posted on my Wordpress Blog). The difference, though, was that I had been obsessing (as I am wont to do) over a particular song for about a week. I finally got to play it out the other night and as I wrote this blog entry, I played the song over and over to see what would happen. It ended up being more than just a "post-show blog entry"....


*presses play and reflects on a great evening*

Well, it’s “fare thee well”, my true love
The song is in the air
I hear the West calling
See what’s for me there

This song, The Open Door by Darrell Scott, has been “in the air” all week. I’ve been playing it daily, just like right now. I’ve been humming it in the shower and waking up in the middle of verses in my mind. I catch myself staring out the window at work hearing the melody. Tonight it’s the soundtrack for my blog entry. Playing on repeat, helping me to remember…
Some travel in the darkness And rest upon the shade Some wrestle with their demons And face them unafraid

Musicians travel in the darkness quite frequently. I’m no different I suppose. We rest upon the shade of the evening. Wrestling with our demons, we take the stage unafraid. We exercise whatever ills cumber us about. By performing for you we become liberated. We become free. And, hopefully in some small way, we free each other, even if only for a few hours.

We argue for our better selves
We only ask for more
We take the mirror from the shelf
And find the open door
Find the open door

Like Oliver Twist, we ask for more, but not in a materialistic or greedy sense. We try to improve our craft every time we perform. Hopefully make that connection with you a little stronger this time. We take that mirror from the shelf and try to break down the distinction between performer and listener, searching for the open door. Jiggling doorknobs… that’s what we performers do. Hoping someone lets us in.

I love you with a fever
I love you with a past
My heart is a keeper
As long as it will last

Tonight wasn’t about the music at all. There was love in the room tonight. For over two hours it flowed back and forth between us. From where I sat, tonight was a keeper, for sure. You listened, talked, sang, ate, drank, swayed to the music and interacted with each other and me. For as long as it would last…

Sitting here a few hours later, I remember each one of you. I see your faces. As I sing, you talk, eat, drink, laugh, smile and sing along. Tonight I am grateful for the songs that I write, the songs others write that I am able to learn and sing and the folks who came out to be a part of this evening. These “shows” are not about me or you. What are they about?

As long as it will last
I’ll tell you what I know
We walk this road together
And we walk this road alone

From where I sit tonight, it’s about a group of people walking together with one another for a few hours. I’ll tell you what I know… we spend too much time in this life walking alone. Once in awhile we connect to one another. Music helps us do that. Thanks to everyone who came out tonight for taking a little musical walk with me.

Until next time…

“Fare thee well”

John

January 23, 2009

FAWM: Crap And Diamonds

Do yourself a favor. If you've ever said, "I want to write a novel" or "I want to write a song" or maybe "I want to learn how to play (insert instrument here)" then this is for you.

If you've ever said any of these things, it's time to get busy and stop talking and start rockin'. Join FAWM (February Album Writing Month) and take a stab at writing 14 songs in 28 days. You've never even written a song before? Cool! Then you're welcome at FAWM. Don't think you can write all 14? Who cares! If you write even ONE song, you'll have one more song than you had before.

You can write instrumentals. You could just write lyrics. It's up to you. There's no pressure (except the pressure you put on yourself) and the community is extremely supportive.

It's time to dive in and get workin'!

This may sound very "infomercially", but it worked for me. Two years ago John and I started this blog. We wrote a song or two a month. It wasn't easy, but we DID it. It was all about knowing that someone else was there to check on us and see how we were doing. It was about having a deadline. It helped us create by having some set goals. FAWM is just like that. By setting a goal (write a song every two days) you have a real deadline that helps focus your energies.

Last year I was able to do this by dropping a lot of unnecessary things from my life (TV, extra web surfing, sleep, meals) and I wrote down and pursued almost ANY idea that came to mind. Were all the songs good? Uh...no. Some were total crap. But, in the piles of crap were several diamonds that were well worth slogging through the other crap to find.

Friends, it's time to make some crap. And diamonds.

See you there!

Peace,

Steve

What Is The Future Of Songwriting?

Here's an interesting discussion taking place on the 50/90 forum about the future of songwriting.

Ira Glass Indirectly Teaches Us Songwriting

If you listen to public radio, ever, chances are you've heard one of Ira Glass' snippets of This American Life.  He's a GREAT story teller and he talks a little bit about what makes a good story.

There are several of these and I think they all will give inspiration for us as songwriters as well.

Dive in!

PART 1


PART II



PART III



PART IV


What do you think? Anything YOU can use as a songwriter?

Apples and Birds In The News

Well, not yet.  But real soon.

Apple will soon make it easier for you to copy iTunes purchased songs to any device you own.

Here's the news.

Andrew Bird has two new records coming out, "Noble Beast" and "Useless Creatures".  You can get into his songwriting process at one of my favorite music blogs.  Here's that article.

Songwriting Inspiration Information

awesome photo by this guy

First, forgive the unforgivable sin of blogging:  infrequent updates.

Here's some new content for ya:

Songwriting Sessions Hosted by John Mayer called "Inspiration Information".  
Sure, the video is sideways, but it's worth it anyway.  A friend at Facebook told me about this.

Part 1
 Part 2
 Part 3
 Part 4
 Part 5
 Part 6
 Part 7
 Part 8
 Part 9

 

And these REALLY COOL podcasts on the structure of song from Pandora.  Each podcast focuses on what makes each TYPE of music unique.  What are the elements that make country music SOUND country?  What are the song structures and chord progressions?  Very useful for a songwriter.

Podcasts on the structure of music.

And this super-duper awesome blog that interview several different songwriters and asks how they managed to write 50 songs in 90 days.

Songwright.co.uk

Hijacked!!

Well, somehow our website address at www.songwritingapples.com got hijacked. We're pretty sad about it and if you have skills, and the means, and you know how to get it back for us, we'd sure be grateful. But if not, life goes on.

We still have all our posts here. Some of the files are missing and a few of the pictures (like our header).

More posts to come.

Tweedy Tells His Fans To Just Shut The F Up

And I'm kind of glad he did.

And he said it in such a nice way.

Probably the nicest use of the F word in a long, long time.

Five Four? What For?

Because it's COOL, that's why.
Try it. Break out of that 4/4 thing and put an extra beat in your step.

Here's the NPR article on the subject.