SAC Songwriting & Blogging Challenge #2 - A Story Song Blog 2

As mentioned in my first blog on this second challenge, I did think of another little story. I drafted the verses and chorus, and have been working on it this week. This time, I had hoped to get it and the post to my blog submitted well before the Saturday midnight deadline. Maybe even a day in advance! Ha! Being at a cottage for the last half week with my daughter's family made me almost as late as I was for the first challenge. The internet was non-existent, and my data plan connection very weak. I spent far too long trying to play, listen, and respond to other songwriters - and one afternoon attempting to reply to Roseanne's comment on my post. It does not help that I have an iPad #1.

So.. Today I was home just long enough to pack a bag for SongStudio - the fifth time around for me. For those of you who do not know it, SongStudio is a week-long songwriting intensive. This year it is July 16-22. During the meet and play/sing session today, I was able to warble through my answer to challenge 2. That means there is some hope that one of the musicians in the program will be able to accompany me on it. But not today. So my song demo is a Capella again, and very rough yet.

Overall, this song has emerged within the musical theatre genre, I believe. That is the best way to describe it. Although the chorus has an old-fashioned, singalong sound to it, very appropriate for the setting. But the verses have that slightly operatic, almost recitative quality, with a sort of conversational feel to the way the words are strung together, uneven lines, and internal rhyme in a lot of places. It is still rough, as I said earlier, and I am finding it particularly difficult to sing the same melody in the top half of the second verse as in the first. The chorus and the second halves of the verses do not pose that problem. It is an arch in the line that I want which tends to elude me the second time I come to it.


I hope this blog does give a few of those who work from an instrument a bit of an idea of how I work as an a Capella songwriter. And do enjoy the story of a Port Stanley Summer Love!

SAC Songwriting & Blogging Challenge #2 - A Story Song Blog 1

Of course. Because I just finished recording the best story song I have ever written or likely ever will. The most important new song for me. And just heard the mix today. So the idea of writing another story song just now was a little daunting. I surveyed through my brain for the songs I have written before that might be story songs. Let's see. Stay Down Here With You...yep. That is the story of someone going to Australia, falling in love with the land, finding the love of a lifetime and deciding to stay. And my song Reunion, it's a story of meeting an old flame, remembering how it was, and admitting to having been in love at one time. But what will be the first song on my new EP, to be released in the fall, that song, Swing Daddy, is my father's story, started the summer he would have been 100. It's the best I can do.

However, I did think of another little story. So I have drafted the verses and chorus. It will take the rest of the week to get it in shape for recording. This time, I will get it and the post to my blog submitted well before the Saturday midnight deadline. Maybe even a day in advance!

Singing at 120 Diner July 12 at 10 - Special Guest of Chris Birkett

So this is exciting.

My wonderful producer, and brilliant songwriter and musician, Chris Birkett, invited me to appear as a special guest for indie night at 120 Diner, July 12, at 10 p.m. If you haven't been to 120 Diner, you must go. The food and ambience is great! The music will be wonderful. Chris performs with Shari Tallon on keyboards and flute and with the amazing Jeremy Erwardes, who plays every sort of harmonica or clarinet. It remains to be seen who and what will be playing for me.

You see, I am an a Capella singer-songwriter. There is nothing quite as exciting as hearing music played for recording one of my songs - it is fantastic that I can sing it and they can get it. However, when I perform, I usually stick to a Capella - singing the sounds in my head. However, I have sent Chris the potential song list, so come on down to 120 Diner and see whether anyone will play for me, or if I have the mic to myself, singing my words and melodies on my own.

Hope to see you there!

SAC Songwriting Challenge #1 I Do Not Speak The Language

So...

I have not written a blog for ages. And I do have a website via WordPress under construction. But I keep spending my money on recording, and mastering, and so forth. So the web site design has had to wait. Therefore, this old blogspot will have to do for the challenge. If others read it, well so be it - I am pretty sure it is linked to my fb page.

As  I told North, I must have been out of my mind to accept a spot in this challenge. My time this summer is very limited. But one advantage of being an a Capella songwriter is that it can be done in the background of the brain while, oh, I don't know, taking the grandkids to Wild Waterworks, for instance. Or the market. Or to buy penny candy at Bulk Barn while I buy gluten free cornbread mix to make for dinner. 

However, and what the many of you who are musicians will not understand, I do not speak the language of chords and riffs. Consequently, I was about to bow out and leave my spot for someone else. Rosanne suggested that I find two notes to build a melody over. Hmmm. Maybe. Both explained that a riff was like a repeated melody or line. Well, that gave me a starting point. All I have been thinking for days is, "people, please, put down your guns." So, that is what I built a gentle little folky protest song on, and I finally posted it to the group. 

Now, I do not know if we are supposed to critique ourselves. I will wait to hear if I met the challenge. What I do know is that to me the song is repetitious, a little precious, a lot trite, but somehow heartfelt. And sad. Because nowadays it all seems so impossible. And yet, 50 years ago, it is what we did. Regardless of Put Down The Guns future as a song, there is a starting point in it that may develop into a song or poem that I love somewhere down the road. 

International Women's Day - where I am at

Hey,
It's been awhile, I know. You probably know all about my first EP, Celtic Cat, released in 2015 and available on iTunes, Amazon, and wherever music is sold, from Silverbirch Productions, and from me :)

My second EP Cool Cat is chugging along, produced by Chris Birkett (Goggle him - you'll be amazed. And I cannot believe my luck to have him working with me.) I have laid down 3 of the 7 songs. On March 10, we record the rhythm sections: drums, upright bass, keyboards. Sax later in the day and pedal steel another day for one song. There may also be clarinet and backup singers added before the EP is ready, for at least some of the songs. I am using a lot of my older songs to tell a story of love found, lost, and remembered. Plus a new one - Swing Daddy, which tells its own story. Cool Cat falls under the broad umbrella of jazz.

I am way behind in getting the content written and the photos chosen for my website. No matter. I can't afford to pay for it anyway until Cool Cat is wrapped up.

A trusted poet buddy reviewed a collection of 20+ poems and I was gritting my teeth when we met. But that quickly turned to a grin when he had nothing much but positive feedback and told me to send him more. So later this year, again, after Cool Cat, I may get that chap book ready to publish. I am also going to publish pieces on my web site from time to time, once I have it up!

I"ve started to piece together a third EP, Wild Cat, but will have to wait patiently to save enough for it - sometime in 2017. Hey! I made royalties last year! A few dollars were deposited in my account in February. Thank you, SOCAN.

Well, the sun is shining in my office window. The heater is keeping my feet warm against the cold basement floor. And I need to work out the budget for the musicians who will record for me on Thursday.

Happy International Women's Day!

Finally Some R&R

It has been crazy around here the last little while. Ever since I finished SongStudio, the Songwriters intensive on July 27, there has been one thing after another consuming my days, energy, attention, whatever. You get my drift. Today, finally, with my 8 year-old granddaughter off to Art Camp and a bit of alone time (other than our carpenter friend and his work mate sawing and banging away on the porch reno), I feel as if I might have a calm, relaxed day of self-direction and grace. After I shower and dress (yes, it has been a slow lazy morning thus far) I have given myself a bit of a to do list of odds and sods to get done around the house. Then I will pick up the young artist at 3:30 and have a bit of fun with her on into a quiet evening. The to do list includes washing and drying the vegetables I harvested from the garden yesterday (green and yellow beans, cucumbers, green peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes) as they keep better and longer once that is done. I am also going back to my weekly sort schedule. Today it is the gable room's turn. It's full of a lot of stuff from parent households, old photos, stored clothes. I have made a dent but would like to get it cleared to make room for a single bed for grandson visits. I may get there in the hour devoted to it today. Otherwise, I have a lot of correspondence to catch up on, reflections and photos from this year's trips to deal with, and all at a lovely leisurely pace. It is cool and rainy today. Great for working inside.

Long Weekend in Melbourne Finis

This is a continuation on a blog thread startd during a visit to Australia in late May, early June: our Monday in Melbourne had been reserved for a visit to the Museum accompanied by BJ and her lively little daughters, who skipped ahead across the green as soon as we left the cars. They had a PA Day so no school to go to. The large trees there were all wrapped with wide bands of metal sheathing meant to prevent damage from possums. That is one animal we did not ever see in our travels - not a single possum. Apparently, they are as plentiful as our urban racoons, and are protected, but do a fair amount of damage to the trees they nest in. Anyway, the girls were most anxious for us to see the bower birds. The museum is huge. Just inside the entrance is an glass enclosed atrium like a conservatory, filled with native trees, birds, and samples of pond life. We had a lot of fun looking for the bower birds, she blue and green, he a brilliant blue-black. When we found the bower, complete with salvaged bits of blue detritus, the littlest niece was delighted. It was the main event as far as she was concerned. We did take in a few dinosaurs and diaramas about prehistoric Australia but we kept the visit comfortably short. After a quick snack break, I went to the gift shop and bought post cards and a few gifts for our grandchildren back home. Other than a final lovely visit with BJ and family, the only other remarkable instance was finding a shop named Birdie Num Nums and taking a picture of us and the girls pointing to the sign. This for our youngest daughter, E, who at one time in her teens listed The Party among her favourite films and did a very good take on Peter Sellers reciting that famous line. On Tuesday morning we said good-bye and headed back to Canberra.