Where I’m at
So.. I was planning on recording a new album this year. Of course, well.. you know. Not happening. But I am lucky enough that I still have those songs and will have the means to record them at all someday. That’s amazing, and perspective is a small, partial triumph in any difficult situation (my situation is not difficult). Many millions don’t even have the luxury of that. Imagine making less than 5.50 a day to feed the little ones you love, and that income disappears. Sophocles said that worse than death is the wish to die and not be able to. People live in this place.
Regarding song-writing, I actually took a year off from writing any songs. I still wrote melodies and sang them, but I kept no record of them and didn’t write any words down. They’re all gone. I needed to get the idea out of my head that creation was purely intended for a well polished product, however painfully gained. I wanted less of a struggle. Or more of a balance. A finished product is great, and god knows I love polishing as much as any other writer, but the obsessiveness of it can be strange or unproductive. Or just too much of something can take over your life. Anyway, I wanted to relax and live. So I stopped. Simple as that. Got some perspective. I think I’ve written my most human songs since then.
I also took a year off from listening to music in my headphones. Sounds pretentious or something (should it?). But I’m one of those people who really knows how to escape, or can’t help being profoundly affected by whatever art they are indulging in, and I didn’t want to anymore. I wanted to focus more on my surroundings and the things and the people I was seeing and hearing and feeling. Headphones are a wonderful invention. I once wrote in my journal that words are the most important human invention, but headphones are a close second. A ridiculous hyperbole, but.. I can really.. just.. disappear, or feel like I need to disappear, and headphones are so easy. So I stopped. Took a look around. Listened for a different kind of music. I mean that more profoundly, but it is amazing how much I have loved hearing a wonderful melody coming from anywhere – a car, the bus, the mall, a busker, etc – while in the middle of my day. It feels more like the birds are singing for you when you are being you.
Anyway, like I mentioned, I was hoping to record a new album this year.. eventually, I will. And when the door for that stage opens again, this is the set list:
(Influences on this record are many:
David Adams Richards
Dostoevsky
The Grateful Dead
Paul Simon
Tom Waits
Lewis Caroll
Townes Van Zandt)
Song titles:
By the Willows
Cordia
Alice
Lucy
Holly
Like Beauty
The First One Hundred Pages of Raskolnikov’s Journey
Alice (2)
Lay Me Down (2)
Holy
I already play songs from this album in my live sets more than any other song previously recorded. Excited about this record! !!
Post. Script. Soon (I’m bad at this, which is bad for business), I’ll write about what I’ve been up to strictly as a writer of words without the music.