shed my skin and...

Music Friday!

2011-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

A run down of some music I've come across, just for you. Yes, specifically for you.

Join me on a little musical journey after the break!

First up is Asa. Check this out. And no, this isn't a Grateful Dead cover!

She's got a nice vibe, yeah?

Second, here's Branko Galoic & Skakavac Orkestar with their tune Tako Los. Love the tar playing!

Next up: Fatoumata Diawara singing Kanou. Lovely!

Next on the platter, Irishman John Doyle's song Liberty's Sweet Shore:

Pieta Brown sings her lovely ditty, Never Did Belong:

The Paper Aeroplanes performing Winter Never Comes:

Michigan ladies Nervous But Excited play Said and Done:

He's not new to me, but I like this song. Alexi Murdoch playing Some Day Soon:

I love this one. Meg Baird singing Dear Companion. Beautiful.

Cool soundscape on this next one. Apparat with Black Water:

Alright now check out this killer groove from the Barr Brothers - Lord, I Just Can't Keep From Cryin'

Here's another one by the same group. They're pretty versatile!

Well, that's enough for one night. I'll try and put up some more next week. Stay cool.

The Song Project: All of us are Strangers

2011-09-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the song: All of us are Strangers

I've always been interested in the accident of birth. I don't believe in any guiding intelligence; it's always seemed to me at heart a cruel concept. If it was the choice of some being that I should be born into relative comfort, with loving parents, a (relatively) sharp mind, and all my advantages, then it was also that being that chose people to be born into the most horrendous, hellish lives; to be born broken. To be born into famine and disease.

On the afternoon before I smashed my finger (as of this writing I can play for short periods, but alas still no busking) I happened to record the acoustic guitar for this song. Later, as I refined the song, I had to do a bit of clever editing, since I couldn't play. When I decided I wanted the A minor in the verse, I had to cut and paste the measure of A minor from the chorus and stick it into the verse. If you listen closely, you can here that there's more looping going on than usual in the acoustic. Indeed, if you listen to the verses carefully, you'll hear that A minor measure is exactly the same every time it comes up!

Anyway, here's the first verse:

It could have been me beneath the freeway

holding a sign out for my bread

It could have been me in the alley

looking for a place to lay my head

All of us are strangers, walking through this world of woe

Some wear a cloak of sorrow, and some let it go

Here we introduce the concept. But for luck, there go I. The last two lines hint at the idea of recognizing our own suffering, and letting it go. The "cloak of sorrow" phrase is from one of my favorite poets. I wonder if anyone can guess who?

We were some to the earth we were some to the sky

We were some to the truth we were some to the lie

Have mercy for those who are lost on the way

Take heart for this is the dawn of the day

The chorus sort of sums it up. Each of us cleaving to our own path. Have mercy for others. And the final line is my nod to an idea: that even though we look back and see the thousands of years of history, we can choose to see this moment as only the beginning of a much longer and perhaps ever brighter future; that history is only just begun. It makes me think of one of my favorite MLK quotes - "the arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice."

It could have been you in California

with a million-dollar dream

It could have been you in the headlines

your face on the silver screen

All of us are strangers, some are high and some are low

Take your comfort from tomorrow, and just let go

Here we switch to second person, and take the idea in the opposite direction. Yes, you could have been born into abject poverty. You could be homeless. But you could also be famous, you could have been someone with a very easy life.

It could have been us in a trailer

broke and broken down

It could have been us in the railyard

jumping a train back to Charlotte Town

And all of us are strangers, some are blue and some are gold

And some spend their life in the bottle, and some let it go

The final verse is a "we" voice. And back to more depressing alternatives. THe blue and the gold could be the sky and the sun, or the sky and golden grass. Who knows?

I like this song. It feels quite whole. I don't think it will need a lot of editing when it comes time to record it properly. To my mind, this is the third song in a row I've felt pretty good about! Of course, pride goeth before the fall. Having a string of decent songs made the next song devilishly hard to write. I had been doing pretty well, letting go of my judgment as I wrote, but I noticed trying to follow up three good ones, that I had relapsed. Once again I was being such a perfectionist! I'll be posting that song and blogging about it shortly, so I'll leave the rest of that process for later.

New Project Songs, and My Absence

2011-09-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know. It's been awhile.

I had a bit of a stumble - I went to Virginia for a gig, then got a bit sick, and soon I was two weeks behind on my song project. I'm almost caught up, but now there's another impediment. The Friday before last, on my way to my usual busking spot (Main and Howard), I did something stupid. I was carrying my guitar case on my shoulder, as I do when I'm hauling my busking gear. I turned my head at precisely the wrong moment, and walked straight into a parking meter. Full speed. And of course, the impact came entirely on my left ring finger, smashing it between the metal meter and my hard guitar case.

I set up and tried to play through it, but couldn't get past two songs. My finger was swollen and purple. Damn it! Here it is, a week and a half later, and I still can't play my guitar. So frustrating.

Fortunately, I'd started catching up on my backlog earlier that day, so I had two songs with guitar recorded. I was able to finish them up, thanks to some clever chopping and pasting of the guitar bits I had on file. Here they are:

Love is a Wonder
This is a very positive song. Shocker. Dirk writing a positive song? Unthinkable! Well, what can I say. I'm a positive guy, and it comes out in my music.

Falling (In Slow Motion)
I had the melody. I liked the melody. Didn't have a clue what to write. And then it hit me. The song is told through the eyes of a narrator who is being hanged for something. Perhaps it's the same character from Alibi. Maybe the whole alibi thing didn't work, and he's now being executed. Who knows? In any case, the idea is that the song takes place in that brief moment between the platform being dropped, and the rope snapping his neck. Sounds morbid, right? But that's not the feeling I get from the song. It's more of a moment of clarity and insight. I was really satisfied with how this song turned out.

I wrote these on the same day, and I must say, I'm pretty happy with both of them.

I had a third bit of guitar recorded as well, which I should have a completed song out of tonight. And then I'll need to do this week's song, and then I'll be caught up. I think. I've lost track now.

In other news:

I have a new tool/toy. It's an iPad, and I love it. I've got some great songwriting tools on it. Garageband for the iPad, while limited, is an incredible tool for writing on the fly. Using the "smart" instruments, I can cut and loop chord progressions in minutes, anywhere. Using the built-in microphone, I can even record vocals. I have an app called "Songwriter's Kit" or something, which is a lyric-writing tool. I can assign lyrics to verses, bridges, choruses, and move them around. It has a built-in rhyming dictionary and a sort of thesaurus. Awesome.

Oh, and now I can take credit cards when I sell merchandise. Pretty sweet!

Yesterday I took it to the dog park and started working on ideas for this week's song. What an amazing tool.

My finger is still too sore to play, so who knows if I'll be able to busk this weekend. At this rate I'm guessing not.

My apologies for the long silence, I'll try to be better about updating! Have an excellent day.

Gig Weekend

2011-08-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

It's arrived. Another gig with Baaba Seth - my worldbeat band on the East Coast, for anyone who doesn't know. Every year I fly back once or twice for a show. It's always a blast. I love playing solo acoustic, but there's nothing like the rush of playing with these awesome musicians and good friends.

Tonight, I'm busy. Writing my song for the week, then packing. I am always afraid I'm going to forget some vital piece of gear when I head out for these gigs. Or that my guitar will have to be checked and get broken. So far, though, I've been lucky.

We're playing Saturday at the Devil's Backbone Music Festival in Nelson County. I'll be getting into Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday afternoon, and flying home Monday morning.

We formed in 1991. I was looking for a way to express my original songs in a context that draws heavily from African and Reggae music. I guess we were a bit ahead of our time - these days, artists like Vampire Weekend, Brett Dennen, and others are starting to incorporate African sounds. Heck, these days, Femi Kuti is practically mainstream. And even though we stopped doing the band full-time in 2000, we've been really lucky. Everyone in the band are friends, and we all love the music enough that now, eleven years after we "broke up," we still get together and play several times a year. Much to our joy, we still have a very strong fan base in Virginia, so we can not only have a packed, energetic show, we can also make enough money to cover our travel expenses and still get a bit of money in our pockets.

I'm looking forward to this particular show, mostly because since I've been busking every weekend, my chops and my voice are both in better shape than they have been over the past decade.

Well, I'd better get writing and packing! I'll be back next week for the usual project stuff!

The Song Project, Week Six

2011-08-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

Oh man, if there was a way to monetize forgetfulness, I'd be a rich man. Once again, I forgot to put out a blog post on time. Ah well. For week six, I didn't record the song at all in my studio; I filmed myself playing it and posted in on Youtube here. I've also filmed the previous five songs, plus an intro. They can be seen in this playlist.

This song, called "The Wilds of the Day," was written very quickly - in about one and a half hours. I had several stops and starts on Thursday (my usual songwriting day). I went in about three different directions, and then hit on this particular motif.

I knew I wanted to go a little more uptempo this week - I'd been producing a number of slow to mid-tempo songs, and wanted something a little more energetic.

Here's the lyrics:

I dreamed I wore a calico coat and an old fashioned tie
no memories of heartbreak, and no reason to cry
with one foot on the trampoline and one foot on the ground
if I could fly I didn’t know it
but I could fall without a sound
All my memories have twisted, oh they seem to slip away
left abandoned by the gardener in the wilds of the day
in the wilds of the day

I’m a fool for the night
I’m a fool for the dawn
waiting for the light
or for you to come along
yeah I’m waiting here for you to come along with me.

Leave the trials for the faithless leave the funerals for the dead
leave your worries in a bundle right here beside my bed
take a step into the ocean leave your past up on the shore
the fires of your heartbreak don’t burn here any more
don’t burn here any more

CH

I dreamed that we were flying out across the great divide
we were bluebirds in the blue gathering across the sky
and we looked down upon the people
they were lonely and afraid
left abandoned by the gardener in the wilds of the day
in the wilds of the day
CH CH

On Friday, as I was practicing the song in order to play it when I busked that night, I made an adjustment. I thought that "the wilds of the heart" sounded a little more appropriate to the theme. So I changed a couple of lines. "All my memories have twisted, oh they seem to slip away / left abandoned by the gardener in the wilds of the day," became "All my memories have twisted, oh they seem to fall apart / abandoned by the gardener, in the wilds of the heart."

One other part still bugs me a little. I feel like the tag at the end of the chorus, "I'm waiting here for you to come along with me / fall in love with me," doesn't quite gel thematically with the rest of the tune. However, I've yet to decide how to change it.

Overall, though, I think it's one of the better efforts in this project. Which I guess goes to show that the outcome of a song isn't always linked to the amount of time spent writing it.

I have a little bit of anxiety about this project. I feel like it's going to get harder and harder to produce fresh and original tunes as I go - I keep thinking I'm going to end up rehashing stuff I've already done. And even though I keep telling myself that's OK, that I am not trying to produce "album-worthy" material week after week, it's still hard. I desperately want every song I write to be awesome. Letting go of perfectionism and ego is definitely the hardest part of this project!

I'll be writing this week's song tonight, as I'm leaving for the weekend tomorrow. I'll be blogging about that trip, and more about my band Baaba Seth, in the next hour or two.

Have a great day, everyone.

The Song Project, Week Five

2011-08-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

The song is here.

Butterfly is a story about a girl in Coeur D'Alene who has died from an OD. Needless to say, the story is fictional! This song is short and to the point. I had started writing a very different song, with a different style, but realized that the path I had chosen would have taken far too long.

Anyway, here's the lyrics:

When I was born in the fallows of the day

and chased across the wilderness, and followed through the gray

I'd face the gallows just to see you again

my black-haired girl down in Coeur D'Alene

Beneath the skin, the ink of your heart

writes an ode to the dark

There's no songs for the storm upon the water

there's no redemption for the lie

just broken dreams for the sins of the father

and broken wings for the butterfly

Seeking shelter from the pouring rain

from the dusted memories of hope and pain

cast your line to the schools of doubt

and all the wonders you can live without

beneath the bones of a thousand angels

keep your face to the day

There's no cure for the sharks in the water

there's no ease for the wise

just broken dreams for the sons and the daughters

and broken wings for the butterfly

You were born in the glory of the day

tempted by the needle and lost in the hay

I'd give my life just to see you again

my black-haired girl down in Coeur D'Alene.

As always with these quickly composed songs, it'll need a fair amount of editing before it is ready to be recorded for real. I also feel, at least a little, like I'm getting into a stylistic rut. I even had a part of the melody for this song I had to change, because I realized it sounded too much like part of the melody from last week's song!

I'm considering the idea of making videos of me playing these weekly songs and putting them on Youtube. Good idea, or not?

I could just do my songwriting project without sharing these rough drafts with the world (well, really with the few folks who check in with this blog), but I'm doing it this way for two reasons. First, it keeps me motivated to really do it, since others will know if I slack off. Second, I want to promote the idea of constant writing as an important tool for songwriters to improve their craft.

One final note: at the bottom of the home page of my blog, there's a banner link to Amazon. If you use that banner to access Amazon, a small percentage of your purchases will go to me, to help defray the costs associated with storing and distributing my music online. And it doesn't cost you any extra. Indeed, you can click through once to the Amazon home page, and then bookmark that page, so you don't have to click through every time you want to shop at Amazon while helping me out. Thanks!

Anyway, have a good week, everyone!

The Song Project, Weeks Three and Four

2011-08-09T01:14:00.000-07:00

I just realized that while I did record and post my song for Week Three (here it is), I never blogged about it. I spent the last week down in the Jackson Hole area without a computer, so I'm just now getting caught up. I wrote song Four while I was down there, but let's start with song Three:

God's Only Daughter

It was week three. I'd been listening to Nick Drake again, and wanted to write a song inspired by his smooth, mellow style. God's Only Daughter was the result. Here's the lyrics:

Sunday night before you went to bed

you took my hand and touched my head

before you told us you were leaving home

you gave me a song in the shape of a bone

of how we read the book and took the wine

of the jealous god we left behind

you disappeared into the dying sun

the gentle hands, the gentle tongue

Behind the chair in the living room

hiding from the wandering moon

afraid of the dark, afraid of the light

we told each other it'll be alright

we knocked on the walls to find the dead

to flee the shadow sleeping in our bed

if there's a way back to London town

I'd find you now

Put me in the ground give me sun give me water

Living in the lost and found with God's only daughter

Oh in the dark of night

with your face to the wall

afraid of it all

coming down

Oh in the morning light

you're back into the world

back to the girl who's living in the

lost and found

Trace your skin from memory

one more time I'm almost free

a box of answers in a dusty room

all the ones I never sent to you

I've made a song from the Queen of Hearts

but I messed it up right from the start

If I could I'd follow you down

and find my way back to London Town

Put me in the ground give me sun give me water

Living in the lost and found with

God's only daughter

Yeah, it needs a little editing, but I'm basically happy with it. It's got a nice melody.

I spent very little time recording this song as you can tell from the occasional extraneous noises in the background.

***WEEK FOUR***

Jackson Hole and the Great Divide

The song can be heard here.

On Sunday, we returned from a week in Jackson Hole with my parents and sister. It was a lovely area (we were staying just outside Driggs, Idaho, a mile from the Wyoming border). The gorgeous scenery of the Grand Tetons was the inspiration for this song. I wrote it on Thursday, and recorded it tonight. Since I had the whole evening to record without writing, I spent a little more attention on the process. Anyway, here's the lyrics:

There's a ring around the edge of the world

where the stones that we throw disappear into the gold

when you dream do you dream of the stars

the silver lights over Jackson Hole

the broken hills, the morning chill

the bitter will of our own shadow

Give your heart to the fallen and the wicked

give your eyes to the blind

give your hands to the lonely and the broken

give your love to the Great Divide

Don't it seem like we float between the nights

the orchestrated fights that leave us buried in the air

and Don't it seem like we dance before we fall

and in the wonder of it all we learn the way back home

the passion plays, the longer days

we found our way back to Jackson Hole

Give your heart to the fallen and the wicked

give your eyes to the blind

give your hands to the lonely and the broken

give your love to the Great Divide

Don't you weep for the children of the dead

or the dreams that you had before you ran away

don't it seem like we fumble for the light

from the dark into the brightness of the day

from you to star, from star to coal,

from coal to far away from Jackson Hole

I rather like this song. I could see writing some lyrics for the bridge if I go back to edit this one later.

I've gotta say, I'm enjoying this project a lot. Writing a song a week is challenging, which of course is the point. If I could write 50 songs a year, I think I would easily be able to pick enough good tunes to put out an album a year. And that would be pretty cool, because I really enjoy making albums!

Be well, and have a good week.

The Song Project, Week 2

2011-07-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

First of all, my apologies for getting this one out almost a week late. I did finish the song on time, but Blogger was acting very strange for me, and I wasn't able to post anything. Turned out I needed to dump my cookies (A phrase that would have been rather humorously nonsensical only a few years ago...).

So, here's the song. And now, the timeline of its creation:

Thursday, July 21. 8 PM.

This week I deliberately waited until Thursday night to start writing. I wanted to really challenge myself to come up with a song in the clutch. I realized that I took too long writing the first week's song. The point of the exercise was to write quickly, not spend days trying to perfect every aspect of the song.

Tonight when I sat down to write, I decided, rather randomly, to do two things differently. First, I would write the song in 3/4. I don't write many songs out of the 4/4 time signature, so I thought this would be an interesting challenge. I may try to continue this idea - setting myself certain challenges as I set out to write each song. Second, I decided to write the chord structure on a keyboard, rather than the guitar. I'm not a very confident pianist - and I certainly do not have the skill level necessary to play the piano while singing (unless the progression is truly simplistic) - but I find that writing music on an instrument other than my main one can offer a different sort of spark to my creativity. I'll often end up with a chordal structure I wouldn't have come up with on the guitar.

9 PM

Alright, I've gotten the basic chord structure mapped out for the verse and chorus. I won't write a bridge until I have lyrics. I've chosen an ambient, tremolo organ sound, and recorded the basic pattern. My next step is to loop the chord pattern, and play it over and over while I contemplate melody and maybe start to form some lyrical ideas.

As I was listening, a phrase came to mind, "broke but not broken." I kind of liked the concept, but ended up refining it into "cracked but not broken from the fall." This would become the theme. The song is coming together. It's very, very mellow.

3 AM

I've finished the lyrics. As you can tell from the timeline, lyrics are still taking up the bulk of my time in the process. So here's the lyrics:

Oh when you waltz across Virginia and all of your welcomes have been worn
Oh when your hope floats away and all of your dresses have been torn
Bring me your heart in a box, bring me your soul in a photograph
Bring me your heartaches and your sorrow, you know I'm yours

Oh for the wandering lovers all
Cracked but not broken from the fall

Faded and worn I'm waiting outside the door for you
Won't you come out from the dark and into the blue
I've made you a bed by the river, I've made you a blanket from my heart
Come lay your head on my shoulder when the world falls apart

Oh if our lives spin out of control
Cracked but not broken from the fall

All of us stumble, all of us fall
We're cracked but not broken, now

Oh when you waltz across Virginia, oh when you've given me your heart
Come lay your head on my shoulder when the world falls apart

Oh for we creatures great and small
Cracked but not broken from the fall

Conclusion

OK, it's not Shakespeare, but I can live with it. Unlike last week, where I took the time to record several instruments, this week I focused mainly on the writing. The recording is very sparse, just vocal and keyboard. The end result? I'm fairly happy with it. Frankly, it's a better song than I thought it might be when I sat down at 8 PM to start writing it. When I'm ready to record my next album, I'll probably pick songs from this writing project and refine them, do some re-writing and editing, and give them a proper recording treatment.

The Song Project, Week One

2011-07-15T00:23:00.000-07:00

So here's my first song. It's called Lose the War. I guess.

I'll admit, this was far tougher than I thought it might be. I had so much trouble letting go of my sense of perfection about the lyrics. I don't think they're terrible or anything, but I spent way too much time this week wrestling with them. I ended up running out of time before I had a chance to write and record a bridge.

Over all, I think it's a pretty decent song. For next week, I'm going to try and spend less time writing, to make it more challenging. Again, I'm going for a complete song, not necessarily a "great" song.

Songwriting Challenge

2011-07-13T01:42:00.000-07:00

OK, this will be a quick one. I've decided to do a songwriting exercise. I'm going to write a new song every week, record it as well as I can, and post it online every Thursday evening. I really think that forcing myself to write like this will improve my songwriting; and putting it out there will help me get over my self-consciousness about my music, and it'll probably help me write better material while loosening up my sense of perfectionism. So, stay tuned. I've started on this week's tune, and I'll post it Thursday evening.

The idea is to write with fewer constraints as far as good/bad judgments go. Obviously I won't be trying to write badly, but the goal is more to write a complete song, not necessarily a "great" song, every week.

Wish me luck!

The Creative Spark

2011-07-11T16:39:00.000-07:00

If you ask a room full of six-year-old kids how many of them can draw, almost all of them will raise their hands. Ask the same question to a room full of eighteen-year-olds, and very few will respond affirmatively. So what has changed in that time? Are the younger kids delusional, or have the teenagers succumbed to the common notion that creativity is the province of some inborn ability? Is the development of our creativity really any different than developing any other skill?

Most of us tend to think of creativity as something someone either has, or doesn't have. This belief is reinforced in many ways. Most of us knew someone in school who seemed to be able to draw, play an instrument, or write, at a level far beyond their peers. It seemed to come from nowhere, really. And throughout our school years, we are taught in an analytical fashion that suppresses creative thinking. There's only one right answer. There's one way of solving a problem. By the time we finish school, our thinking about creativity is entrenched.

Due to natural genetic variation, we are not all born equal. Some people do have bodies that are better adapted to playing a sport at a high level of proficiency. Some people have a natural talent that enables them to translate what they see into a drawing. Some people have a musical proclivity that allows them to learn to play an instrument very quickly, and be an excellent musician from a very young age. Seeing these people, hearing about them, sitting next to them in class, we are intimidated by the natural ease with which they excel. Because we associate art and music with creativity, we view these prodigies as evidence of creativity being a "some folks have it, some don't" sort of thing.

But is it, really? Proficiency does not equal creativity; it is a tool through which we can express creativity, but on its own it is a skill, a craft. And the thing about skills is, they can be learned. Anyone who practices the guitar for two hours a day is going to become a good guitarist if they stick to it. It's the same with anything. Draw every day, and your artistic skills will inevitably improve. Sure, there's prodigies out there. But most people have to put in a lot of time practicing to develop a skill. People don't just hop up on a balance beam and start turning flips. They don't wake up one day and run a marathon. They don't randomly pick up a guitar and play a Jimi Hendrix solo.

Of course, that's not something people always like to hear. We're always looking for some magic bullet that will allow us proficiency without effort. Thinking that creativity - or great skill - is something inborn only in the few, allows us to dismiss it as a possibility in our own lives.

Since I am a songwriter and a musician, I want to address this area more specifically. These days, if you have a computer, you can, with very little investment, produce music of a sonic quality that approaches that of a major studio. Production technology has advanced to the point where high quality audio can be produced without much in the way of skill. We have these incredibly powerful and easy-to-use tools. With only a very small learning curve, someone can open GarageBand and produce something that sounds very good. On the whole, I think this is great. I can focus on writing and performing music, without having to get the equivalent of a college degree just to understand how to make it sound good in a studio. But having all these great tools at our fingertips can also be a trap.

Spend some time on a forum like GearSlutz, and you'll quickly find a slew of people who are convinced that the only thing separating them from the hit-makers is some new piece of gear, a new plug-in, a better compressor. In my opinion, they are putting the cart before the horse. Like any other skill, the way to write better songs is by writing songs, over and over. The way to get great guitar tracks isn't to find better and easier ways to "fix it in the mix," it's to sit down and play your freaking guitar every day, for as much time as you can. There's no easy way. And it's no different with creativity.

Creativity is something we all have. It's a defining part of our humanity. But like anything else, it atrophies if we don't use it. If you want to write songs, you need to work at it. Write a song every day if you can. Don't worry if it's great, or if it sucks. Just do it. Pick a chord progression and come up with five different melodies that fit it. Take a chord progression from a song you like, and write different melodies on top of it. Don't worry about the quality of the melodies. Stretching your creative thinking is an exercise like any other. Yet when it comes to music or art, we are taught to think it's somehow different. Partly, I think this is because there's an ephemeral quality to it. The process isn't readily apparent in the product. When you see a table, the process of its creation is more observable. You recognize that, though you couldn't just hop out to your garage and build one, it is a skill you could understandably develop.

So when it comes to creative thinking, my advice is the same as Nike's: just do it. Do it over and over. Do it til you're sick of it, and keep doing it anyway. Don't be discouraged by the prodigies; there's always going to be some kid out there whose effortless mastery seems daunting. Just think of your creativity as a skill like any other. Don't give up. Just practice, every day.

Busking, Updates

2011-07-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

Dear reader, my apologies for the lack of posting recently. Once I finished going over all the songs, finding material to blog about has been more of a challenge. So here's a general update.

I've been busking regularly for a couple months now. On July 4, I played for six hours in the park, with one half-hour break. My fingers are getting very tough. In fact, the callouses on my left hand are so thick, my iPod Touch often refuses to respond to my left hand, won't recognize it as skin I guess.

I'm not much for playing covers, but I did recently add one to my busking repertoire - Steve Earle's classic Ft. Worth Blues. It's a great song, and to my surprise it fits my voice better than I thought it might. Particularly if I let my inner Virginia drawl come through a little bit.

Yesterday I picked up a Roland Cube Street, a little battery-powered busking amp. It has two channels - one for guitar, one for a mic. And it sounds surprisingly decent for its size. It's truly a boon for my busking - I can finally introduce more dynamic variation. I can actually finger-pick and sing softly. Unamplified, I had to strum everything, and belt out the vocals.

I took it for a test run last night, and was very pleased. Now I've got quite the little busking set up. Well, not so little anymore. Here's what I have:

1. Guitar. Obviously.

2. a 2x3 foot rug. Gives me a sort of "stage."

3. I took the bass drum pedal from my electronic drum kit, and duct-taped a tambourine to it, so I can get some rhythm going with my foot for the upbeat numbers.

4. Roland Cube Street.

5. My trusty Shure SM58 microphone, with a boom stand.

6. My tip jar is a bright orange felt cowboy hat I bought at a thrift store.

7. CDs.

8. My Boss Loop Station. I haven't actually used it yet. I took it last night, but the patch cable I brought to connect it to the amp turned out to be junk. The Loop Station allows me to do live looping. I can make a two-bar rhythm loop, hand drumming on the guitar, then add as many loops as I want on the fly. A shaker, more beats, guitar parts, whatever.

9. My Boss Octave pedal. I can use this to create bass lines for the loops.

10. Tuner, Capo, picks, extra strings.

11. Water bottle. Gotta stay hydrated - but not too much. If I have to use the bathroom while busking, it's a real pain in the ass, as I have to pack everything up.

12. Business cards.

13. Milk Crate. I place my tip hat on the crate. It helps if people don't have to bend all the way to the ground to drop money in.

14. A folding stool. I stand for some stuff, but for long busking shifts, it's nice to be able to sit at times.

15. A positive attitude!

Now that I can use the loop station, I'll be adding a few more instruments: harmonicas, kazoo, melodica, maybe a small hand drum.

I'm able to pack everything but the rug, mic stand, milk crate, and guitar into a large rolling suitcase. I lash the rug and the mic stand to the top of the suitcase, so getting it all from place to place is actually not very difficult.

I love pretty much everything about busking. I've always been an avid people-watcher, so I really enjoy that aspect of busking. I get to watch the world walk by. It's also a very pure, market-based performance. My tip collecting is really based on my presentation of my original music; so I'm not getting any tips because someone "really loves Brown-Eyed Girl." I enjoy meeting people, and you meet a lot of people while busking. It is funny though, how many people will come up and start talking to me while I am in the middle of playing a song! I've had people try to sell me on Jesus (no thanks). I've had people ask me for money, which is sort of funny if you think about it. And usually someone will ask if they can use my guitar to play a song. My beloved Martin? Yeah, right. Well, I did let one guy play a song for his girlfriend. He's an employee of a store right across the street from my usual spot, so I recognized him, and it was a romantic gesture, so I let him. But usually I say sorry, but I don't lend out my instruments. I love the way kids react to my music. From the time they hear/see me, all the way until they are past me and out of sight, they tend to have their attention glued to me. And of course, children are a GREAT source for tips. Adults who might otherwise walk on by can't resist when their kids beg them to let them put some money in my hat!

So, what am I playing? The only song I don't play off of Division Street is the titular song, though I am working on an adaptation. The only song I'm currently doing from The Theory of Evolution is The Secret Life of Mr. Punch. From the Baaba Seth repertoire, I play:

Crazy

Wonderful

Poor Man

Heart of the Lion

Troubled World

Living With You

Ballad of the Rise and Fall

Getting Ready For War

Big Belly

Love is Better

Umfazi Omdala

Here For the Music

Human Tree

Delhi

I may be forgetting a few, but that's a pretty complete list. When I get to the end, I just start over again. By the time the next Baaba Seth gig rolls around, I think I won't need to rely on my lyric book nearly as much. The bigger problem will be adjusting to the band arrangements, after playing the songs acoustically so often.

Evolution of a Song

2011-06-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

When you go to see a band play live, what are you looking for? Do you want to hear the 'hits' reproduced note for note, but with a flashy stage show? Or do you prefer hearing musicians whose repertoire undergoes a distinct evolution from the recording? I've always been in the latter camp - and most of the musicians I know are the same way. If I want to listen to the album, I'll do it in the comfort of my own home. Why on earth would I want to risk my eardrums, have beer spilled on me, get jostled by young people too busy screaming for the hit to listen to the music, and have to stand up for hours on end, if all I'm getting out of it is something that would be far more satisfying delivered to my ears in the much more relaxing setting of my home?

For most of my career, I've written songs in a manner that is tailored to the evolutionary approach - songs that would find their completion only in a live setting. With Baaba Seth, I would often bring a song to the band that was entirely bare-bones. A chorus and some chord changes, usually some idea of a melody. The interactions of the players, particularly in the context of being on stage performing, was the catalyst for the song, taking it from an outline to a fleshed-out composition. Sometimes the process would take years. I didn't write down actual lyrics for most of the Baaba Seth songs until the eve of our first recording session.

When we were going to record the song Delhi, I sat in my room and listened to live recordings of the song, writing down words I had composed on the fly during concerts. I remember bringing Tracy to the tape player to help. "It sounds like I'm saying 'come down from your tower' there at the beginning, doesn't it?" In fact, I'm not sure that's what I had actually sang, but it sounded close enough - and it was enough of a start to allow me to string the rest of the lyrics together. I thrived on being extemporaneous on stage. I even ended up developing the skill of being able to sing actual gibberish that sounded like words, to get me from one more concrete line to the next!

But that's not really the kind of evolution I intended to talk about today.

The album is the musical equivalent of a painting or a novel. It's there, and it doesn't change. When writing a song for a recording project, I want to tailor the song for the medium. My focus is on the impact of the lyrics, the sonic qualities, the way the instruments combine to form a piece that will be interesting to listen to on repeated plays. But making a song sound just right on a record is quite different from how I want it to sound on a stage. I say want, but really it's more unconscious than not. Not everything that works well on a recording translates to the stage. With good musicians who communicate well with each other, songs will naturally evolve as they are played live.

As I've begun busking, I'm discovering a third sort of metamorphosis. Busking with an acoustic guitar, my songs have to project. I can't get away with delicate picking or soft vocals. I've had to tailor my songs for the street - meaning strumming, and singing in a register that allows me to project my voice. The way I play my songs on the street is different both from the recording, and from the way I would play it on a stage, with amplification.

Dirk's Rules of Busking

2011-05-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe I haven't busked much yet. Maybe it's a bit premature to make a list of "rules." But I've also been performing my music for 30 years, and a lot of the guidelines are the same no matter what venue you are playing. I returned downtown on Saturday, this time from 1:30 til 3:45 in the afternoon. I wasn't nearly as successful as Friday evening in terms of tips, but still made a little cash. Next week I'll do it in the early evening and see if that works out better.

So, here's my tentative and surely far from complete list of busking rules:

1. Songs, songs, songs

Many buskers thrive by playing a lot of recognizable tunes. It's probably a good idea. I've got a fairly strong repertoire of original songs written over the last twenty-odd years, and I'm busking to hone my craft rather than as a career, so I only play my own songs. I probably won't make as much in tips as the guy playing "Hit Me Baby One More Time," but I'm OK with that. I think it helps that my original songs are mostly upbeat and positive. People probably don't want to hear your sad songs about losing your girlfriend, though they may give you some money out of pity.

2. Confidence

If you watch successful buskers you will notice one thing they all have in common, regardless of whether they are playing a guitar, juggling, break-dancing, or miming, and that is confidence. Smile and make eye contact (well I suppose not if you are a mime or a statue). Don't hunch over your guitar with your eyes squeezed shut being a "tortured artist." People are incredibly susceptible to others who display confidence about their art. But remember, there's a fine line between confidence and cockiness. People are probably more turned off by the smug, cocky bastard who acts like they are God's gift to every pedestrian passing by, than they are by the meek, introverted guy playing his tunes while ignoring everyone.

3. Be Grateful

It's not that difficult. Thank people when they drop some money in your hat or guitar case. Sneak it in between the lines of your song, or if you really can't interrupt yourself (though you should), at least nod and smile at them. Show passersby that you appreciate them taking a moment or two to listen to your music.

4. Hydration

Have a bottle of water with you. You're going to be singing for hours, you will need to wet your throat from time to time. Don't drink too much, though - depending on how much gear you have, going to the bathroom can be a real ordeal.

5. Seeding

If you have a few bucks on you, "seed" your collection hat before you start busking. This might seem a little underhanded to non-buskers, but it is only good business sense. And seed it with the types of money you'd like to receive. Put a five and some ones in the hat. People are more likely to emulate the kind of tips they see already in there. Putting a bunch of pennies in your guitar case is probably not a great plan.

6. Hygiene

If you can swing it (in other words, if you're not homeless), be clean and presentable. Again, this is just common business sense. Successful buskers will look and act like professional performers, not hobos. Nothing against hobos, understand. If you are living on the streets and busking for your change, more power to you. It's better than simply panhandling. When you see magicians or jugglers busking, they tend to be well-dressed and professional looking. Yet many musicians seem to think the more ragged they look, the more "cred" they'll have. I don't think so.

7. It's a performance

Don't forget this. If you want to be a successful busker, you need to distinguish yourself from your surroundings. You're not a bum begging for change, you are a performance artist, putting on a show. This goes hand in hand with the hygiene rule. Dress nicely, and think about some way of distinguishing yourself from people on the street - maybe an interesting hat, or a colorful vest or jacket. Don't be afraid to play the fool - after all, playing the fool is a part of any performing art - outside of classical music or the like, anyway.

8. Be polite

It sort of goes without saying that one should be polite to one's audience. A successful busker will also be polite to store owners and authorities. In the long run, busking in your city will benefit from street performers having a congenial relationship with local law enforcement and the business community. If you know that the city you are busking in specifically allows street performers to ply their wares, consider printing up a little pamphlet with the applicable rules which you can share with any local cops who decide you are being a nuisance. Remember, you can't make any money while sitting in a jail cell! If asked to move elsewhere, you're best strategy is probably to thank them, and just move.

9. Look like you are enjoying yourself

This goes hand in hand with confidence. If you don't look like you are having fun, people probably won't be having much fun watching you. Smiling and engaging with people is infectious, and they will likely reciprocate.

10. Be vigilant

Keep an eye on your collection hat, and always be on the look out for shady characters. It's not that unusual for someone to make off with your hat. I use my guitar case, which is a lot harder to run off with. Watch for people who start panhandling next to you, and if they do, ask them politely to move down the way. If they get belligerent you may be better off moving yourself. From what I've read and seen so far, this isn't often a problem, definitely the exception rather than the rule.

Have fun and be safe. So far, I'm enjoying my busking, and I encourage any musician or other performer to give it a try. At the very least, it will hone your skills in a way that playing in your room simply can't. If you can manage to engage people on the street with your music or act, imagine how easy it will be to play on a stage! Personally, I find playing on a stage is much easier than busking. Of course, that may not be an objective observation, since I've been playing on stages since I was 14 or so (much earlier if you count orchestra concerts), while I've only just begun busking.

Busking in Spokane

2011-05-22T10:10:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, I spent a few hours busking downtown here in Spokane. I've been writing and playing for 30 years, and yet tonight was the first time I have ever actually busked. I decided to do it because I thought it would be a great way to get in a lot of practice and hone my performing skills.

I was a little nervous about the process; I started by doing some online research. Both Busker Central and Buskers Advocates had some good tips. I also wanted to make sure I complied with any relevant laws. Apparently Spokane has gone through some busking battles in the last couple of years. Rick Bocook (known as Harpman Hatter) led the fight, and it seemed to be fairly successful. There's also a lot of Supreme Court precedent supporting busking as protected speech.

Since it was my first time busking, I decided not to set up in a "prime" spot. I picked a slightly quieter street corner and set up my little area. I opened my case, and propped a CD in the lid, then started playing. I ran through everything from Division Street, and quite a lot of my Baaba Seth songs, took a ten minute break, and started through them all again. It was great practice for both my playing and my singing.

As one might expect, if you hang around any relatively urban downtown sidewalk long enough, you'll meet some interesting characters. One young couple stopped and while the woman filmed with her cell phone camera, the man stood beside me and repeated each lyric line - just speaking it, not singing or anything - when I was done with it. I was playing "Poor Man Dies." At first he was just standing beside me while she filmed. Then, I sing "In 1947, freedom came to India," and I hear the guy say the line in a loud speaking voice as soon as I'm done. Weird! But they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and they enjoyed the music.

Happily, I wasn't hassled at all, either by any authorities, or any of the various nutty folks that seem to be a part of every city on earth. I even ended up selling a CD to a passing couple. I'm definitely going to be making a habit of busking. I like meeting people, playing music for people, and I certainly enjoy random and sometimes strange conversations. And as I said before, it's great practice.

There's a few things I'll do differently next time:

1. Take a water bottle. I had a cup of coffee, which I was able to nurse over the course of the evening, but it would be good to have some water. On the other hand, while busking, taking bathroom breaks is sort of an ordeal if you are by yourself, so I wouldn't want to be too hydrated, either!

2. Find a better spot. I had a fair amount of traffic, but now I feel more confident; next time I'll snag a more central location.

3. Bring my ukulele, and maybe my banjo as well, though that will make getting to my spot more of an ordeal. I have to be able to do it in one trip, since obviously I don't want to leave anything unattended on the sidewalk!

I think one key to busking is flexibility. If I am getting towards the end of a song while there's a lull in the traffic, and I see a group of people approaching, instead of ending the song, I'll just kick it back to the first verse and go through it again. Another thing I realized even before I started was that I would have to adjust my quieter songs. Finger-picking without any amplification just doesn't carry very well on a sidewalk. And a lot of the songs on Division Street are sung in a register where my voice doesn't project quite as well. I found it helped on some songs to lower the key a few steps and then sing it an octave higher than I did on the album.

Overall, I'm quite excited about doing this regularly - maybe four days a week. If Spokane were a larger city, I could see busking every day, but here the downtown is only really hopping on the weekends. I'm tentatively thinking I'll play Thursdays through Sundays.

Making "Division Street," Part Eight: Don't Let Your Troubles Be Your Guide

2011-05-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

The song.

A couple of years ago, my lovely wife Tracy started learning to play the fiddle. Since then we've been playing a lot of Old Time and Celtic music together. It prompted me to start learning the banjo and mandolin, both of which ended up playing a big role on Division Street. Of all the songs on the album, Don't Let Your Troubles Be Your Guide was the most influenced by the music we've been playing. The chord changes and the melody are both more in line with Old Time music than any song I've written before. It was a lot of fun to write and record, and I'll probably do more music in this vein in the future.

The theme of the song is fairly obvious from the title. While in every life there will be suffering, it is important for us to avoid having our troubles be what defines us. There's an upbeat, positive feel to the music that matches the lyrical tone. Of all the songs on the album, this one required the most extensive and difficult banjo and mandolin lines, so it was an interesting challenge. I can recall one night in the recording process where I was recording the banjo part for about eight hours. The lines were pushing my novice playing ability to the max, and I just kept messing up! It was important to me to do takes of the whole song, rather than bit by bit - I wanted to have an organic, live feel to the song.

Overall, this is probably my favorite track on the album, at least from the perspective of listening to it. It's one of those songs that just makes you feel positive, and that's always been an important part of my songwriting. There's enough people out there writing sad and miserable songs!

I hope this series has given anyone interested a bit of insight into the songs on the album. Not sure where this will go from here. I'll probably review music, both new and old, share some more of my favorite African music with you, and generally keep you up to date with what's happening with me musically.

Remmy Ongala: We Lose the Greats Too Soon

2011-04-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

Late last year the music world lost one of its great lights. On December 13th, Remmy Ongala passed away in his home in Dar Es Salaam. The Tanzanian guitarist and singer gave Congolese Soukous a distinctly Tanzanian flavor and was beloved by his countrymen. He was known for the intricate and soaring guitar lines that infused his songs.

Ongala made international fans when he recorded Songs for the Poor Man at Peter Gabriel's beautiful Realworld studio in England. I certainly wore out my copy. Here's Narudi Nyumbani from that album:

It's a great disc, certainly worthy of a place in any music lover's collection, as is the follow-up, Mambo. His African recordings, not done for Realworld, are harder to come by, but no less satisfying.

I believe he died of complications from his diabetes. His funeral can be viewed on Youtube. It's a moving tribute, with lots of amazing singing and performing:

I've paid tribute to Remmy Ongala on several Baaba Seth songs in the past, though most fans of the band wouldn't know it. Notably, my picked guitar line in Love is Better is from Nasikitika. Listen for it in the instrumental section:

And here's Love is Better: (video from Fridays After Five, audio from live album)

Remmy, you will be missed!

Toumani Diabate and his Symmetric Orchestra

2011-04-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

I've never been to Bamako, but this would be such a great place to see the master and his band!

If you missed it back when it came out, I highly recommend the album Boulevard de L'Independence. Toumani is amazing on the kora, and his band lives up to his high musical standards. Very satisfying release. I missed the chance to see them live in Seattle a few years ago, I've regretted it ever since.

A Quick Side Note

2011-04-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

In addition to my music and drawing, I love talking about politics and related issues. And since 2002, I've been doing just that at a great forum called America's Debate, where I am a moderator. The site is run by Mike and Jaime, a couple from Savannah, Georgia, and I think the site is unique among the many political debate sites out there. It's different because it is tightly moderated. Not in a way that stifles opinion, though. The moderation is geared at keeping debates on topic, and for keeping debates from devolving into flame wars. The discussions get heated, but because of our rules about sourcing our opinions, being civil, and keeping on topic, it's just a great place to find mostly intelligent debates about current issues.

If you like to discuss politics, and value intelligent and thoughtful debate, come check us out!

Femi Kuti: Africa For Africa

2011-04-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

I don't remember exactly when I first discovered the music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti; but there was a powerful mojo about his music that pulled me in right away. I had come to African music through the same door as so many other Americans - Paul Simon's Graceland - but unlike many of them, I took up residence. I couldn't hear enough. Still, it took me a while to get to Kuti. I went through Mbaqanga, Soukous, Shona, Mbalax, Makossa/Makassi... but eventually I got to Nigerian Juju music, and through that, found Fela.

Fela was, in my opinion, one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. He combined the electric charisma of Bob Marley, the endless funk and soul of James Brown, and the political urgency of a revolutionary. He was certainly a musical genius. His band was often huge, often 15 to 20 musicians or more. And at its base was an interconnected groove that belied the ego stroking approach of much American music. Listen to a 20 minute Fela song, and you might notice a subtle guitar line that repeats for the entire time. A percussionist might hit the cowbell every measure for the whole song. Sounds repetitive when I write it here, but it wasn't. It was beautiful. The musicians contributed piece by piece to a massive, unstoppable groove. It wasn't unusual for a song to play for 10 or 12 minutes before the vocals even came in.

After Fela's untimely passing in 1997, his son Seun Kuti took over the band and continued his father's tradition. His son Femi, also a saxophonist, took a slightly different path. In the late sixties, Fela had come to America and discovered James Brown, who's funk machine influenced him greatly in his forming the Afrobeat sound. Instead of continuing the same sound, Femi brought his Afrobeat structure back to American music for another re-invention. The band was smaller, the songs shorter and more tightly arranged, and he drew some cues from more modern American soul and hip hop.

In many ways, though, he retained the fire of his father's music. Like Fela, Femi has a very commanding presence and an electric charisma. And his songs, like his father's, are powerfully political.

On Africa For Africa, Femi sheds a lot of the more Westernized trappings of much of his previous music. Recorded in his father's studio, and in the context of Femi's involvement in carrying on the legacy of The Shrine, Fela's club in Lagos, this album channels more of his father's energy and spirit than anything he has released to date. But it's not a Fela tribute album by any means. It retains Femi's own stamp - the songs are tighter and shorter than much of Fela's music, and it's definitely more accessible to the American ear. But recording in this place gives the album a much more African Fela vibe, from the production to the arrangements.

What better way to experience the power of this album than this video from La Blogothèque, filmed on a Paris rooftop:

I've managed to see Femi and his band, the Positive Force, on most of their tours here over the past decade. His concerts are one of the few live shows I attend where I actually make the effort to get right up front and center. If you ever get the chance to see him live, I beg you not to pass it up. You will not be disappointed.

Oh, and get a copy of the new album!

On an unrelated note: I apologize for not updating recently. I'm working on making a video for The Winter Line. I'm animating a lot of it, and so I've been furiously drawing for an ungodly number of hours each day.

Making "Division Street," Part Seven: Division Street

2011-04-19T01:07:00.000-07:00

Listen to the song HERE

In Which We Transplant and Explore

We moved to Spokane in the middle of June last summer. I came across Division Street the first time I drove around to get my bearings. It's hard to miss, really. It's the big North-South line running down the middle of the city. On the East side of Division is Gonzaga University. On the West side, our little neighborhood is nick-named "Felony Flats." We found this out the day we were moving in. But it really isn't bad. It's just got character! There's all sorts of entertainment. Once, we saw a whole mess of police cars scream up to the apartments opposite our house. Police were spreading out, running around, obviously trying to find someone. [I haven't lived here long enough yet see much for myself, but I've heard reports of problems with police brutality here] Another time we woke early one weekend morning to find an inebriated man in our back yard. He was standing, leaning in a corner beneath a tree, apparently dozing. I went out back to send him on his way. He was quite confused and wandered off. Needless to say we installed a lock on the gate posthaste! But we've never been bothered or felt threatened. Our neighbors are nice.

In Which We Leap Recklessly From Solid Ground

But back to Division Street. The first time I saw it, I thought it would make a good song title. I filed it away, and some months later it finally saw the light. I decided, as a songwriting exercise, to write a complete song in one evening. Right away I knew this was the time to use "Division Street." But first things first. I am much more comfortable writing the music first. I'll get a chord progression that sounds good to me, then start humming various melodies. Eventually, one will stick, and I'll start refining it to determine the cadence I want. Only then do I turn to the notebook to write. Not every time, but often. Frankly, the lyrics for Division Street practically wrote themselves. The name evoked so many images.

In the verses, the theme is dislocation, loneliness, but presented with a serene countenance. The chorus is the reminder of interdependence and connection. It's an important thing to be reminded of. We can get so caught up in our petty, selfish goals, that we forget we are all part of a vast web of interdependent systems. The ability of our minds to differentiate between things both course and subtle seems like a generally positive trait. But just because it is easier to perceive differences than similarities does not mean that differences define us. Indeed, I'd say it was the interdependent systems that define us first and foremost. That delicate balance of everything from subatomic particles to compound ecosystems, to the movements of the stars.

Well. That's a tangent I could blah blah blah about for a while, but I'll leave it there for now.

In Which We Return

I usually record vocals last, but the case of this song, I added the acoustic guitar during the mixing process. I had thought I was done with the tracking, but sometimes a part just jumps up and grabs you by the throat and yells "put me in the damn song ya bastard!!" Congenial guy that I am, how can I say no to that?

I realized fairly soon after writing this song that Division Street would also be a great title for the whole album. Along with being a great title just on its own, it also tied the process of making this album to my new home. I ended up using some more references to Spokane in some of the other songs on the disc. So you could say this was the track that brought the whole project together. I'm rather fond of it for that.

Interlude: Brett Dennen's "Loverboy" (Review)

2011-04-14T02:01:00.000-07:00

Today I downloaded Brett Dennen's new album, Loverboy. It's probably one of the first times I've ever bought an album so soon after it came out. I'll admit, I don't tend to keep very current with music news. There's a number of artists, Dennen included, who I keep an eye out for, but it's often a month or more before I'll see a new release is out. But this time around, Brett did something that got me engaged in the process leading up to the release. I follow his page on Facebook, and a while back, he posted a link to a video clip, which I clicked on out of curiosity. It was a short snippet from the recording sessions for Loverboy. Ever since I started putting my home studio together, I've been especially fascinated by film clips from studio sessions. Then he posted another one. As easy as that, I was hooked into the process. So here we go. This will be my third listening of the album, so these will be fairly fresh impressions of the songs, not studied critiques!

From the very first notes of Surprise, Surprise, you can tell this going to be his most upbeat and band-oriented album yet. Right along-side the strummed acoustic there's a synth sound, and soon more organs join in. It's a very soulful groove, the band is crisp and tight. And then, there's Dennen's voice. There's a real lack of self-consciousness about his singing, it's very uninhibited and soulful. The melody really sits nicely in the gestalt of this song.

Dark clouds gather in the afternoon
Come together just to cry
Seagulls struggling against the wind
Falling out of the sky

This definitely the most rocking Brett Dennen album to date. There's groove-soul feel to a lot of it; makes me think of sort of a modern version of a Van Morrison album. There's some lovely orchestration in Frozen In Slow Motion, a very smooth track. Which leads into Sydney (I'll Come Running), which was one of the first singles to be previewed before the album release. I can see why. It's hopping. And once again, great lyrics.

Only Rain evokes an almost old-school R&B feel. Can't Stop Thinking has more than a little Reggae going on, while still being uniquely Brett Dennen. On Must Be Losing My Mind, I am ever more sure that Dennen must listen to African music. I have felt strongly that this is the case for quite awhile. I first noticed it in the guitar line for Blessed, so I went back and listened more closely to his other songs. It's not always so obvious, but it's definitely there in a lot of his guitar playing.

The Production also sounds great to me. In the album credits, Michael Brauer is credited as the mixing engineer. He's mixed everyone from Coldplay to Aretha Franklin.

It's just my opinion, but Brett Dennen is one of the best lyricists out there. Among those I admire, I'd put him up there with Anais Mitchell, Gary Jules, and Sufjan Stevens. They are all very unique writers, but they share a way of being personal, universal, and poetic all at once. By now, you might be thinking this is a Brett Dennen love-fest. The fact is, I am drawn to songwriters and singers whose music has a positive message and a happy vibe. It's what I was trying to do all those years in Baaba Seth. It's what I'm still doing. I firmly believe you can tell people what's wrong in the world, but in a way that encourages positivity and hopefulness. There's enough people out there telling us how fucked up everything is and how screwed everyone is; I much prefer to see the world through a lens of hopefulness and celebration.

Overall, a really great release. I would recommend it to anyone. This album will surely earn him many new fans, and I hope they all take the time to delve into his earlier albums as well.

Making "Division Street," Part Six: Alibi

2011-04-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

First, here's the song: Alibi

I've always admired writers like Steve Earle and Randy Newman. They are both masters at "story" songs, something I've never been good at. I tend to write what I call "concept" songs, where the meat of the song is an idea or a "feel." My lyrics are often abstract; my natural voice just doesn't lend itself easily to story lines and characters.

For Division Street, I did a few different songwriting experiments. With The Winter Line, I explored internal rhymes and unconventional structure (not playing the chorus until the very end of the song). On Division Street, it was an exercise to write an entire song in one session. For Alibi, I wanted to explore a more story-like structure. I wanted to have a character other than me singing the song. There's still some abstractions - I can't seem to shake them! - but I did end up succeeding in creating a character for the song.

The mystery in the song is that the character has done something, but we never know what it is. We just know he is seeking an alibi.

The song starts off with picked guitar and ukulele. Electric guitar joins in the first chorus, and then... my son's debut playing piano for me! Seth is 20 and taught himself to play the piano by learning tracks from the Amelie soundtrack by Yann Tiersen. Which, if you know the composer, is a pretty ambitious way to start! But he's got loads of talent. He's using my studio to make a CD of his own at the moment, in fact. So he played the piano for this track. The instrumental section highlights the piano and cello.

I played the cello in elementary school, and then again my senior year of high school orchestra (in between I played double bass), and last year I bought this cheap pink cello. It's crap for anything real, but sounds well enough for recording in my little project studio.

My favorite lines in this song:

There will be no rescue, no last minute get away
There will be no bread broken with the Devil's man today

And once again, theological references. I sure seem to use a lot for a die-hard atheist! It's just such a rich trove of myths and shared allegorical context in our culture, I can't stay away!

Making "Division Street," Part Five: Stone

2011-04-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

It All Started...

About two years ago, I sat down in my studio, plugged in my guitar, and started noodling. In my recording software, I have a practically unlimited number of sounds I can get with my guitar. And sometimes, one of those sounds will be the impetus for a new song. On this particular day, I was feeling mellow, so I started dialing through some sounds that would fit my mood. I liked the sound of the heavy tremolo, so I started messing around with it. Pretty soon, I had the verse and chorus that would become Stone. Once I had the chord changes working to my satisfaction, I added in piano. It sounded nice, now I just needed some lyrics.

The Words

It actually didn't take too long to get the first verse and chorus out. Something about the vibe of the song made it pretty easy. So I had a really cool sounding intro, a first verse, and a chorus. I couldn't think of any more verses, so I shelved it. For two years. As I was working on the songs for Division Street, I needed some more material, so I started digging through my (many) incomplete songs. When I found Stone, I knew right away that it was perfect for the new album.
It needed at least another verse, though, so out came the trusty pen. Here's what I had to work with:

The way the city sleeps now
Turns the night into bone
The way you roll your hair from your eyes
Turns my tongue into stone
Save me
I'm spinning around
I'm spinning down

Heart and hand I'm bound
To this light I've found I'm
Stone

What seemed difficult two years ago ended up being pretty easy, after all. Maybe it was the constant recording sessions that had my creative juices flowing, but the next verse popped out very quickly:

The way the innocent heart
Runs away with the sun
The way you fold me in your arms
Turns my blood into wine
Save me
I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake

For both verses, I wanted to follow the same trajectory: an abstract couplet followed by a concrete line that leads into another abstract line. And I wanted to keep the "save me" part, as a motif to lead into the chorus.

At this point, I decided not to add a bridge, or any more verses. My songs have a tendency to run a bit long, and I wanted this one to stay simple.

The Music

I thought the tremolo guitar and piano I had done two years earlier sounded great, so I didn't want to mess with that. I re-recorded it to get a better performance, but didn't change it at all. Once I had the structure of the song worked out, it was time to start playing around with the rest of the instrumentation. I chose to use a soft, sort of trip hop drum loop for this song, which is not something I normally do, particularly on a soft song, but it seemed to fit the vibe really well. Next, I recorded a synth motif that would swell through the second verse, bringing some dynamic movement running into the second chorus. It sounded pretty good now, but it still needed a few more elements.

A few days earlier I was in a local music store and found a melodica. It was pretty cheap, so I picked it up. And here was the perfect song for it! I decided on using the melodica for the outro, and recorded some soulful licks to take the song out in a way that fit the feel of the song, while being a unique sound on the album.

Then I had a fun idea for an electric guitar part. I would record the lick I wanted backwards, then reverse the recording so I could get a reversed guitar sound, but have it play the melody I wanted. This is a bit tricky, because you have to think of the line in reverse while playing it. But the end result was really cool sounding. Add a light delay, and it was good to go.

Lastly, I decided to record the main vocal line twice, and run both takes together, panned to opposite sides of the stereo field. I just felt it added to the whole vibe of the tune.

What does it all mean?

As with all my "love" songs, I write to Tracy, my wife of twenty years. In this song, I use the word "stone" in several different ways. In the first verse, I wrote "the way you roll your hair from your eyes, turns my tongue into stone." Here, it's obviously "stone" in the sense that even her smallest, most mundane movements leave me feeling something that cannot be put into words. However, in the chorus, the word takes on a different meaning - "To this light I've found, I'm stone" - here, "stone" denotes solidity and strength.

Unlike some of my other songs, Stone is pretty straight-forward. I didn't want to get too abstract with this song. Yes, there are some deliberately abstract lines, but they aren't meant to be vague, they are simply removed from the literal.

So this song was written in two stages, about two years apart. Yet it's one of my favorite tracks on the album. It just goes to show, there's no "right" way to compose a song. In my years writing, I've used so many different methods. I've written lyrics first (rarely), I've written all the music, then lyrics last (usually), I've sat down and forced myself to write an entire song in one session (also rare), and in this case, the song was written in two halves, separated by a long period of incubation. Go figure.

Why do we write songs?

2011-04-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

I often wonder why I write songs. After all, I don't make much money from it, and I have a fairly small audience. I'm often less than satisfied with the results; there's so many amazing songwriters out there whose output leaves me feeling inadequate. So why do I persist? I wish I knew. But it's an incredibly strong drive - strong enough that I classify my need to make music right up there with the need to eat, drink, or breathe.

Writing songs isn't about coming up with new ideas. In fact the songs that work best speak to the feelings and concepts which all of us share and can identify with. What makes a song great is that it speaks to these universal feelings in a novel or poetic way. It might provide some imagery that makes us say "that's exactly how I feel, but I haven't been able to put it into words so well."

Sometimes I think that our drive to create - whether it's art or music, or whatever - is about tapping into the interdependent ecosystem of humanity. When you and I sit down and have a conversation, we could share all sorts of thoughts and ideas; we have memorable conversations, or we discuss the mundane. But our language, while connecting us, is still unable to connect us the way music does. You and I might be different on almost every level. We may have different politics, different philosophies, we may live in different moral universes. Yet we can both hear the same song and get the same feeling from it. For those three or four minutes, we are sharing a connection that is more primal than any of those surface differences. When Joni Mitchell sings "I wish I had a river I could skate away on," we can all identify with that feeling.

Music may be the idiom through which I express my creative urge, but the arts aren't the only way we express this drive. We might love carpentry, writing, painting, knitting, scrap-booking, anything really. Pretty much anything we do can be a way of expressing our creative drive, if we approach it with attention and mindfulness.

Finding this within ourselves can be difficult. In our culture, we are divorced from this idea from a young age. We categorize and separate everything. People are taught to think of themselves using classifications. "I'm not a creative person," people will say. I think that's simply untrue. All of us share the basic drive for creative expression.

Think about your life; what's the way (or ways) you express this drive? Maybe you collect stamps, or make needlepoint designs, or cook. Maybe you like to decorate your walls or furniture in a particular way. Perhaps you love to go out dancing, or ice skating. Ideally, perhaps we can approach everything we do from this creative perspective. Even the tasks we don't really enjoy, like washing dishes, can be done with mindfulness and attention and become part of this creative expression.