Archive for the ‘sojourn’ Category

Shake… Stir… Pour

Jun 28, 2009 DIY, sojourn, songwriting

It’s hard to quantify how much I get out of absorbing great material, sound instruction and interaction with peers, at least until I filter what I learn into writing, recording, performing or promoting [etc.]. Here are some of the activities and objectives I focused on and participated in over the last couple of weeks:

I’m spending more and more time listening to fresh generally non-mainstream songs and writers, primarily by setting up stations on slacker.com, which enables me to listen to both old and new material by heavy-weight writers and artists like Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Shawn Colvin and Pink — the list is virtually … endless!

Though I wasn’t selected for the 2009 Horse & Writer Invitational, I was invited to attend three 1-hour conference calls with Skip Ewing, who graciously gave his time to mentor a small sub-group of writers deemed to have significant promise. As a result of Skip’s insights and encouragement, I’m asking different questions about what I’m saying in my songs and my approach to developing context and characters — plus — I played my piano for the first time in months.

I’m a TA (teacher’s assistant) for SongU.com and recorded/posted the transcript for weeks one and two [of four] of a basic theory course with Jai Josefs (Chord Chemistry). While I consider myself fairly proficient at theory, it never hurts to practice and refresh. Jai is a great instructor, and he led us through a quick but effective analysis of the Lighthouse smash “First Time” where we learned how contrasting harmonic function between sections significantly enhances the flow and punch of a song.

Last night was another solid evening of song and pickin’ with Rick Spreitzer at Summit Coffee, where we play every 4th Saturday. Then I got up early today (like, real early for a Sunday) and went into town with friends John and Cate Cloer for a photo shoot as part of my IMG_2245website update project; upon return (and after a sweet cat nap) I got on the horn with friend and Indie artist Brian Hartzog to kick-off planning the main topic for our next NSAI monthly meeting. The last thing I plan to do today (after a couple of hours of yard work and an early dinner) is setup an area in our bedroom strictly for writing — not recording, just writing… a desk, piano and guitar… complete with notebook, score paper and music stand.

I’m feeling pretty good about what’s going to come of all these efforts in the weeks ahead. I’ve got a several new songs in the hopper, including a couple of rewrites and co-writes. Of course, there’s rehearsal later in the week for a 4th of July gig in Greensboro with the talented Desmond Myers, the gig itself, and then prepping for my first songwriter round in quite sometime on July 18th.

I don’t expect I can keep this pace up every week, but surely hope it all leads to my becoming a better writer and performer, as well as a more complete musician and artist. Seems the more I get done the more that’s left to do. I’ll just keep shaking, stirring and pouring myself into the songs and let the chips fall where they may.

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Internet in Heaven?

Jun 21, 2009 sojourn

This past June 10th marked the 2nd anniversary of Dad’s passing, a day threaded with pangs of remembrance. But today is Father’s Day, and the void is even more pronounced. Maybe coz it’s the weekend and I’ve had more time to reflect upon memories as well as the cause and effect of his being gone.

I still find myself talking to him, wondering what he would say about things going on in the world today, or situations in my life or the lives of my siblings. I left the nest pretty early on, and for the most part it took quite some time for the values and lessons he taught me to take. But today I can honestly say, I rely on the simplicity in his wisdom. Wisdom founded on honesty and integrity, hard work and gratitude.

I wish I could say I don’t struggle, that by now I’d learned every lesson well, and he’d give me a pat on the back and we’d go grab a beer. But the truth is I’m still a wild horse that yearns to roam, often shamefully thankless for the many blessings in my life and stubborn as a 3-foot thick wall. Of late, the restlessness in me is at fever pitch. Do I cross the river here, where the rapids are swollen and strong, or keep heading down a rocky stretch of terrain where at least I can negotiate my footing? Thankfully, I still hear his voice saying, “hang on buster, let’s dial it back a notch and think about what you’re about to do.”

Dad passed away from several medical/physical conditions, but it was the Alzheimer’s disease that broke him down mercilessly. I was the last to feed him real food, his favorite of roast pork with rice and beans. I have a few family pictures I scanned right after he died, so I could keep them electronically and look back, way back, at how he got me to where I am in this life. How I wish I could do so many things over and thank him today for all his sacrifice and care. He taught me regret is an anchor, so I’ll press on down the pathways he cut for me.

If you guys are using the Internet in heaven, I just want to say I miss you Dad…

(Dad and me c.1972)

Trying to tell me something?

Jun 13, 2009 sojourn

Seems the harder I try to eliminate distractions of late, the more distracted I get. It’s not trivial stuff either, some of the scenarios are simply life hitting cycles I knew would come, but all at once?

I’m not getting into details ’cause that’s not the point.

What’s key right now is that I keep my ear to the ground for the voice of God and my nose to the grindstone, doing what I can to progress as a player, writer and performer. We watched a Ralph Murphy/ASCAP webcast at NSAI last Tuesday. Funny though I’ve heard what Ralph spoke of many times, there were a couple of threads that resonated anew.

Like the word “blame” shouldn’t be in my vocabulary, at least when it comes to my journey as a writer/musician. It’s up to me to hone my skills and persevere. Rejection and disappointment are part of the process and if I’m not getting rejected regularly I’m not out there working it. And no matter what obstacles I face, I have to do what’s necessary to keep the passion sparked. Keep listening and experimenting and learning and when I get knocked down, get back up again, fight off the anger and fear that creeps in, and dive headfirst right back into the process.

Like I said, the distractions I’m experiencing are pretty significant, routines and responsibilities are changing, but a direction for any type resolution doesn’t seem obvious, at least not right now. A few days ago I woke out of a dream where I was buying a drink in a small town store. The person behind the counter asked if I was just passing through, I replied “for now”. And I’ve a couple other pretty vivid dreams of late where I’m living in a more wide open space with other “newness” around me. Again, not sure what to make of it, but it feels like someone is trying to tell me something.

I’m listening.

Erasure

May 24, 2009 sojourn

Seems like eons since the peaceful refuge of holiday just over a week ago. Happily, I came home determined to avoid getting back into dead-end ruts that often squeeze the life out my creativity. Catching up at work after time away is always quirky and challenging, but things went pretty well, and I was also able to reset myself at home, too.

What was different?

Before heading out for vacation I built a new personal dashboard into a mind map to help me be ready to get things done (GTD) upon return, and by Friday night I was ready for a productive weekend. Cool thing is when stuff I consider important gets done, time for unplanned, yet  valuable efforts sprouts from these seeds of planning.

This weekend a few new CDs crossed my path, so I’ve been listening to a lot of different styles, including Bon Iver, Jason Mraz and The Country Way (Vol. 2), the latter delivered with this month’s American Songwriter. I also had time for Austin City Limits, and catching up on reading articles I’d dog-eared in magazines or online as well as tweak a couple of songs that are now ready for home demo.

The activities of the last 48 or so hours erased last week’s smog and brought about a little clarity — I’m not looking back.

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Labor Bears Fruit

May 13, 2009 sojourn

Today’s been really cool. Got news that friends (congrats Alan, Jimm, Jessica, Dusti) did well in the John Lennon songwriting contest, and a co-writer of mine (way to go Allen) won a Telly Award! This is one of the reasons I love writing, it’s being part of a community, albeit more virtual every day, whose members work hard to put their art out there and be heard.

I’m grateful that even while vacationing on Hilton Head Island this week I still can write and stay plugged in to what’s going on. Though I missed our NSAI meeting last night, I’ll get the “scoop” from my good friends The Cloers. John and Cate are not only wonderful writers and musicians, they have an unparalleled passion to share what they know with other indie artists, and they do it so well.

So, I’ve made my mind up to apply to the Horse & Writer Invitational, which, if selected, would quite likely be my most unique songwriting adventure to date. While I don’t expect to make it, it’s a step in the right direction, as the application process is more involved than any other I’ve completed and really helped me level set my current state as a writer.

But today is about the success of friends, and I plan to celebrate it, even from afar!

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Tag Line

Apr 19, 2009 sojourn

Pressing edges into song, what?

I edited the tag line for my blog, really just shortening it from “pressing life’s edges into song” to “pressing edges into song“. For all practical purposes this is the first time I’m peeling back the context for this theme and it’s got my mind churning faster than I can type.

When I press, and I often do, I get fragmented. Many of these fragments end up on the fringes of what’s happening, or life’s edges. Like when I try too hard to please someone, and fail another, or myself. Or my work suffers because I allow circumstances out of my control to press me, to put me in difficult positions I should avoid at all cost. Then there’s the proverbial painting myself into the writer’s block corner because I’m too scattered and frustrated and thinking everything I write sucks, and begin wondering what’s the point in writing at all?

This, of course, is all fodder, all grapes on the vine waiting to be pressed into a story, prose for a blog post, and, yeah, maybe even a song. But more often than not I let my insecurities and self-consciousness derail me. I reread an interview with Rodney Crowell last week in which Rodney is deemed as one who ascribes to the notion “… self-consciousness is the enemy of art.” Also last week, Bob Lefsetz posted a blog titled “Dylan on Buffet” that really spoke to me this week, too, in which he declares “The role of the artist is to open the door just a little, so we can experiment, so we can take the unpopular route, so we can become enlightened.”

I guess I’m still crawling out of my shell as a writer, still allowing the threat of rejection to stifle my creativity. Sure, it’s not all doom & gloom. There are many encouraging signs, too, and that’s what I need to focus on. I see and hear lots of friends and peers just tearing it up with their work, getting their songs and music played everywhere from MTV to Internet radio to churches to nursing homes, both live and recorded. That’s the goal, eh? To have our art seen and/or heard? Surely a big goal for me.

I just had a pretty positive song evaluation done where my “coach” qualified the song as being about recovery from addiction. Now, I agree with the assessment, but the more specific perspective from which I wrote the song is that we all live on the edge of addiction, the edge of love, the edge of understanding, knowing the real “you” comes out in the end. And that what really matters is having relationships with those to whom the real “you” is perfectly acceptable. Serendipitously, someone tweeted a Dr. Seuss quote this week that sums up this mind set so much better than I ever could, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

My edges have already taken me somewhere today, for that, I’m grateful.

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Still

Apr 11, 2009 sojourn

Still… a beautiful, multifaceted word with several meanings, often used as a literary device in novels, prose, poetry and song. This morning I got to thinking about this word in two totally unrelated ways.

As a DIY songwriter [get ready for an off the wall analogy], I kinda consider my self to be running a still, yes, as in moonshine. The plumbing and methodology is different from any other still. I might funnel the elixir into a mason jar or flask or bottle (media delivery), and it won’t likely taste (sound) like any other moonshine, but that’s OK. If you like it, you’ll drink (listen) and hopefully come back for more.

A couple of days ago a heartbreaking dose of reality I can’t seem to shake… this week I got stopped in my tracks by news of a singer, who I only met once, and not even by name, had recently and tragically taken his life. I was rather profoundly still as I contemplated the sadness of the news, in the futility of why. I wrote a bunch of lines, here’s an extract, maybe it’s poetry, maybe a lyric, dunno, but I need to listen to the still, small voice inside me telling me to get it out:

it’s all good
till the waters get rough
and enough is enough
I thought you understood

maybe I can
step down off of this ledge
so I can pull out this wedge
and the splinters from my hands

I’m a firm believer everything happens for a reason, some call it luck, fate, God’s sovereignty, to each his own. But there’s a reason I went to ATL first week of March and was fortunate enough to see this singer so incredibly express his art. There’s a reason he’s gone, but somehow still here.

2009 © zero360music

Stoking Embers

Mar 10, 2009 sojourn

I’m very fortunate to be at a point in life where I can play gigs without sweating how much money I’m going to pocket. Of course I don’t always play for free, though at times I make barely enough to cover gas and a drink, but I don’t turn down opportunities to stretch my musicality and be around fresh sounding players and writers that spark inspiration into my own works.

This past weekend I packed a bass and made a trip to Atlanta to back a 17 year old guitarist/writer named Desmond Myers. With heroes like John Mayer and The Beatles, he’s a welcome breath of fresh air. Not only talented, but a great guy and I certainly hope nothing but the best for his career.

Aside from basic expenses (food/lodging) I made the trip pro-bono, and I’m REALLY glad I did. I got to hear other bands and writers, many quite young, most with an infectious hunger to make music at all costs. I got to hang out with Desmond’s producers, Alan and Jimm of Hit Music Studios in Spencer, NC., as well as a couple of other budding artists being produced by HMS.

The road to ATL was an interesting one, to say the least. I hooked up with the situation via friend/musician with whom I recently reconnected, after 25 years. We rehearsed less than 4-hours total, and did both gigs without sound check. Not everything went off without a hitch, not all the music I heard enamored me. But, overall I came back to CLT pumped about future opportunities with Alan/Jimm, and, perhaps more importantly, ready to freshen my approach to practicing and writing… not to mention the prospect of cutting an EP by summer.

First thing after dinner, I caught up on emails and to do’s. I listened to a talk on creativity and read a blog post on Lefsetz Letter that really helped put the weekend in context (a 5-minute read). There’s so much negative press about the music industry these days, but there are many spurning the pundits and choosing to invest the time and energy to get in the game for the long-haul.

Few will make it big, some will make it regionally, others, like me, perform in coffee houses because we love to play and sing. But the revolt is on, and it’s fueling the dreams of many, including mine. Indie artists with quality material and a well defined sound can and will make inroads. There are audiences out there wanting to escape the media’s torrent of lousy news, and our music is part of what they seek as refuge. It takes guts, planning, a ton of practice, and some luck, but, at least in my mind, passion trumps odds, and I’m seeing a lot of passion out there.

True artists get after it every day… it would be very easy for me to say “hey, I tried”, grab a cup of coffee and sit back and watch “younger crowd” fight the good fight. This past weekend reminded me of many past experiences, good and bad. I’ve been working pretty hard over the last 5-6 years to rekindle the fire by developing some songwriting chops and re-activating my bass playing. I’m still in the game, and plan to be till the embers go out.

Risk the Reward

Mar 1, 2009 sojourn

What a whirlwind 24 hours… the culmination of planning a workshop, then both witnessing and reaping the fruit of hanging out and learning from seasoned veteran artist and songwriter Craig Bickhardt. Going out on Friday nights is always tough for me, with work and my desire to just degauss at home. But once I get to the venue, relax and enjoy the show, I realize every step of this mini-journey is so worthwhile, and this past Friday night was a great precursor to the next day’s workshop.

Saturday morning it’s an early rise and get to the Well to setup and greet our workshop attendees and presenter. The day goes off without a hitch, the interaction very much in tune with expectations for our time with Craig. Our NSAI chapter is so dynamic; we had a couple of brand new faces and some recently signed members in attendance, all willing and enthusiastic participants. And Susan, our hostess at The Well serves the group like family… just can’t thank her and The Well enough.

No punches pulled in the accounts Craig shared of both success and rejection, perspectives on the current and future states of the music industry, especially as it pertains to the songwriter. But even with the less that “hopeful” picture, I think we all left encouraged to press on with our respective art and raising the bar for the work we produce.

There were many nuggets of wisdom shared. Craig’s views on creativity always stir introspection. He told a story of two groups of children being asked to draw pictures, one was offered candy for doing so, the other just asked to draw. The drawings from group that got the candy were not very creative at all, the focus was on the reward, not the potential art. The group that created without the objective of being “compensated” for their effort produced thoughtful and inspired works of art.

What’s the point?

To me, and I think we as writers know this, there’s risk in being a writer. It takes time, often significant amounts of time. Time away from family, sacrificing sleep, and time away from our comfort zones. It takes guts, and money, and shattered hope through rejection, and the fear of sharing that first draft or forgetting the words or melody, on and on… there is risk in being an artist.

What about the reward for taking such risks? Truth is, there is no realistic promise or guarantee of tangible reward. But the heart of what I got out of this segment is the need to do a gut check on my motivation for creativity. I need to expose the nagging slack in my discipline and slay it by making time away from being tethered to the Internet, closing the door to my studio and being willing to sit in silence as my mind and being dive into a character, scene or feeling that might end up in a song, story, or other form of art.

We didn’t spend much time on tools like literary devices, but Craig made what I perceived as a pretty profound perspective regarding imagery… that is, to use imagery to reveal and expand upon a character, motivation, and/or emotion. This is where taking time in quiet is key to “seeing” what I’m writing about.

Though quite tired and drained, I drove home Saturday afternoon through heavy rain inspired to press on as an artist/writer, re-committed to the understanding that being true to my own art means embracing risk and putting forth effort to produce the ultimate reward — art itelf.

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U-Turn

Feb 20, 2009 sojourn

Last Sunday I was pretty bummed. I had hoped to make a road trip to Nashville with a co-writer friend of mine, Allen. He and I were going to cruise west, spend the week hanging out, writing, just having fun with it all.  This was to be a very beneficial trip as I was to get introduced to a few of Allen’s relationships — some very solid writers and club owners/managers.

So, around 6:00PM, while hanging out, guitar in hand, thinking, “dang, I really should have found a way to make this trip”, I noticed an email on my Blackberry from a bass player friend in Delaware.  He shared some details about a scenario in need of a bassist to cover some hot young guitarist’s artist showcase dates, and said I should make the call to the owner of a studio where both my friend (a fine musician who’s played with notables like Bad Co.) and this young up and coming artist record their material. I figured, what the heck, and called the studio the next day… no answer, so I left a message. Later that Monday evening, I got a return call. Seems these guys had exhausted their stable of bass players and are down to the wire. Footnote: I’ve been here before… a situation that comes to mind is a door knock while sitting home on a Friday night and being asked by a drummer and keyboardist to get dressed and grab a bass — theirs was in the hospital with food poisoning. I had a blast, and the gig just a few weeks later.

Anyway, the call with the studio owner/producer was pretty brief. I sensed both calm desperation and a good bit of caution on the part of the person I spoke with, justifiably so. He was only talking with me because my friend in Delaware said I could handle the gig… even I had my doubts at first, then figured, what the heck. So, I grabbed the songs off his me.com site and downloaded them onto my iPod. Over the next couple of days I listened through a couple of times, and now have 4-5 hours with bass in hand lifting bass parts off eight well written songs by this young guitar player, singer, and songwriter (who shall remain nameless for now).

Next step is to meet with the guys pulling together the band for the fast approaching shows to see if I fit the mold and have the chops to cut the gig. Whether I get the nod or not is not as important as the fact that if I had made the trip to Nashville I would not have had the opportunity to meet with these guys. Sure, the trip to N’ville could have opened some doors, but this opportunity could actually have a much greater ROI.

Why?

These gentlemen own a well established, productive studio. The recordings I’ve been learning off are out of this studio are high quality tracks, and were not only recorded at said studio (which also shall remain nameless for the time being), but produced by the owners, one of whom also plays drums, percussion and bass on the tracks!

I’m very much looking forward to see how things pan out… I have about a 75% grip on the songs, and should be close to 90% efficiency by the time we meet Sunday morning. The material is right up my alley, and there’s very little doubt in my mind I can do this thing… the opportunity is there because I made a u-turn away from what I wanted to do to where life was calling me to be.

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